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Haggai 1

KJV · Chapter 1/2

1In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,

2Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.

3Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,

4Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?

5Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.

6Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.

7Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.

8Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.

9Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.

10Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.

11And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.

12Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord.

13Then spake Haggai the Lord’s messenger in the Lord’s message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord.

14And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God,

15In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Haggai rebukes the people who returned from Babylonian exile for prioritizing their own comfortable homes while leaving the Lord's temple in ruins; upon hearing the call, the people and their leaders resume construction.

Explanation

After returning from exile in Babylon, the Jews had begun rebuilding the temple, but grew discouraged in the face of opposition and distractions, leaving the work stalled for about 16 years while they took care of their own 'paneled houses' (well-built and comfortable). Haggai confronts this reversal of priorities head-on: the people work hard, yet 'sow much and bring in little,' for material blessing had been withheld precisely because of this spiritual neglect. The response is immediate and remarkable — Zerubbabel (the governor), Joshua (the high priest), and all the people resume the work with fear and obedience just 23 days after the message. The application for today: indefinitely postponing spiritual commitments in the name of personal comfort tends to bring a dissatisfaction that no material achievement can truly resolve.

Fun facts

  • Haggai is one of the only prophets whose messages are all precisely dated (day, month, and year of the reign of Darius, the Persian king), allowing historians to pinpoint his prophetic activity between August and December of 520 B.C. with great precision.
  • The expression 'earns wages to put into a bag with holes' (v.6) was a vivid, everyday image of economic futility, easily understood by any worker of the time who had ever lost coins through a hole in his purse.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Haggai 1:1Haggai prophesies in 520 BC, during the reign of the Persian king Darius — after the Jews had already returned from exile in Babylon, but the rebuilding of the temple had stalled for more than ten years. He speaks directly to Zerubbabel, the governor, and to Joshua, the high priest, demanding that they resume the work.
  2. Haggai 1:2The people had a ready excuse: “the time is not come” to rebuild the temple — Haggai confronts this procrastination disguised as religious caution.
  3. Haggai 1:3The word of the Lord comes again through the prophet, reinforcing that the message is not Haggai’s personal opinion, but a demand coming directly from the Lord.
  4. Haggai 1:4Asking whether it is “time for you... to dwell in your cieled houses” while the temple lies in ruins is the book’s central accusation: the people had energy and resources to take care of their own houses, but not to finish the house of God.
  5. Haggai 1:5“Consider your ways” is the refrain of the chapter: an invitation to stop and examine why life is not going well for them.
  6. Haggai 1:6“Wages to put it into a bag with holes” describes the feeling of working hard and never having anything left over — a kind of economic curse that Haggai links directly to the fact that the temple had been abandoned.
  7. Haggai 1:7The same appeal is repeated almost word for word from verse 5, reinforcing the idea before giving the practical instruction that follows.
  8. Haggai 1:8The order is direct and practical: go up the mountain, gather wood, and rebuild — God promises to take pleasure in it and be glorified when the people act, not just when they talk.
  9. Haggai 1:9The people worked hard but watched the result vanish from their hands (“I did blow upon it”) — God explains that this economic frustration had a direct cause: neglecting the temple.
  10. Haggai 1:10The drought hitting the land was no accident: God shut up the heavens on purpose, withholding the dew and the produce the people expected to harvest.
  11. Haggai 1:11The list of scarcity is complete — land, mountains, corn, wine, oil, men, cattle, all manual labor — showing that neglecting the temple affected the community’s entire life.
  12. Haggai 1:12Unlike other prophets who were rejected, here the leadership (Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest) and the people listen and respond with fear before Haggai’s word.
  13. Haggai 1:13After the response of fear, a quick word of comfort follows: “I am with you” — God did not just want to rebuke, he wanted to accompany the work that was about to resume.
  14. Haggai 1:14Unlike other prophetic books, here the people obey quickly: God “stirred up the spirit” of the leaders and the people, and the work resumes within weeks — an unusually positive response to a prophetic call.
  15. Haggai 1:15The date marks the exact day the temple work resumed — just under a month after Haggai’s first message, a sign of the people’s quick response.

Chapters

12

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