Haggai (Prophet)

Biblical Record

Haggai is the prophet (one who proclaims the word of God) of the Book of Haggai. Neither his father nor his place of origin is recorded. His name is often interpreted as meaning "festal," from the Hebrew word chag (feast).

According to the Book of Ezra, the people who had returned from exile laid the foundation of the temple, but opposition from neighboring peoples halted the work until the second year of King Darius (Ezra 4:24). At that time Haggai and Zechariah, the grandson of Iddo, prophesied, and the governor Zerubbabel and the high priest Joshua (called Jeshua in the Book of Ezra) resumed construction (Ezra 5:1–2). The temple is recorded as having been completed in the sixth year of King Darius (Ezra 6:14–15).

The Book of Haggai contains four dated messages.

• First message (Haggai 1): Haggai rebukes the people for adorning their own houses while the temple lies in ruins ("Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?" Haggai 1:4) and urges them, "Consider your ways." The people obeyed this word and began the work (Haggai 1:12–15). In this passage Haggai is called "the LORD's messenger" (Haggai 1:13).
• Second message (Haggai 2:1–9): To those discouraged because the new temple seemed meager compared with the former one, he offers encouragement ("be strong") and declares, "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former" (Haggai 2:9).
• Third message (Haggai 2:10–19): He asks the priests whether holiness and uncleanness can be transmitted, and he promises blessing from the day the work was resumed.
• Fourth message (Haggai 2:20–23): He declares that God will make Zerubbabel His "signet" (a seal ring).

Significance Within the Bible

Together with Zechariah and Malachi, Haggai is classified as a prophet of the postexilic period. His message centers on the rebuilding of the temple. The New Testament does not mention Haggai by name; however, the words "Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven" in Hebrews 12:26 are a quotation of Haggai 2:6. Zerubbabel also appears in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1.

Interpretation and Issues

• "The treasures of all nations" (Haggai 2:7): One tradition, following older English Bibles such as the King James Version, renders this phrase "the desire of all nations" and reads it as a prophecy of the Messiah. Many modern translations and commentaries, by contrast, understand it as the wealth that the nations will bring to the temple. The Korean Revised Version (New Revised Edition) renders it bobae ("treasure"), and the New Korean Standard Version renders it bohwa ("treasures").
• Zerubbabel's signet (Haggai 2:23): Many interpreters see this as a promise that reverses the word of Jeremiah 22:24, in which Coniah (Jehoiachin) was to be plucked off like a signet. Some read it in terms of the restoration of the Davidic dynasty and messianic hope, while others limit it to the political expectations of Haggai's own time.
• Extrabiblical traditions: On the basis of Haggai 2:3, some hold that Haggai was an old man who had seen the first temple before its destruction, but the text does not state this directly. The attribution of some psalm titles in the Septuagint to Haggai and Zechariah, and the Jewish tradition that counts him among the members of the "Great Assembly" (a postexilic body of scholars of the Law), likewise belong to later tradition.

In the Korean Church

The phrase "cieled houses" in Haggai 1:4 and the "latter glory" of Haggai 2:9 are frequently cited in sermons on church construction, building-fund offerings, and dedication services. At the same time, critics within the church have consistently argued that applications directly equating the Old Testament Jerusalem temple with present-day church buildings disregard the context of the text. The verse "Consider your ways" is also used in sermons on spiritual self-examination and the restoration of priorities.