HAGGAI, BOOK OF. The prophet Haggai is referred to in the Book of Ezra (v. 1, vi. 14). With a certain Zechariah he came forward in the second year of Darius Hystaspis (520 B.C.) to arouse the zeal of the people and to urge them to undertake without delay the rebuilding of the ruined temple. The Book of Haggai contains four prophecies, each of which is dated from the year of the reign of the Persian monarch. The first, ch. 1. vas. 1-11, was delivered on the 1st day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius. To this is added, vss. 12-15. a section which states that, as a result of the prophet's words, a beginning was made with the work on the 24th day of the same month. The second prophecy, ch. ii. vss. 1-9, was delivered on the 21st day of the seventh month; the third, ch. ii. vss. 10-19, and the fourth. eh. ii. vas. 20-28, on the 24th day of the ninth month. The prophet rebuked the people for dwelling in ceiled houses, while the House of Jehovah lay iu ruins. He declared that a severe famine from which the people and land were suffering was a punishment for this indifference. The concluding prophecy is Messianic. The descendant of
David, Zerubbabel, shall set up the messianic kingdom, and shall be as a signet on the Lord's hand. It is possible that Haggai had seen the Temple of Solomon (cp. ii. 3). In that case he must have been over seventy years old at the time of his prophetic activity. In 53S B.C. Cyrus had given permission to the conquered peoples whom he found in Babylon to return to their own countries and rebuild cities and temples. Not many of the Jews took advantage of this concession. C. F. Kent takes the view that " the conditions of the Judean community reflected in the sermons of Haggai and Zechariah and the memories of Nehemiah indicate conclusively that there had been no general return of the exiles from Babylon. Rather the hope of a general return was still in the future. The audience to which the prophets Haggai and Zechariah spoke was the little community which had grown up about the ruins of the temple." See C. Cornill. intr.: G. H.
Box; 0. C. Whitehouse; C. F. Kent, The Sermons, Epistles and Apocalypses of Israel's Prophets, 1910.