11 These are the words of the Lord of armies: Put now a point of law to the priests, saying,
And make a division between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean; Teaching the children of Israel all the laws which the Lord has given them by the hand of Moses.
If you are not able to give a decision as to who is responsible for a death, or who is right in a cause, or who gave the first blow in a fight, and there is a division of opinion about it in your town: then go to the place marked out by the Lord your God; And come before the priests, the Levites, or before him who is judge at the time: and they will go into the question and give you a decision: And you are to be guided by the decision they give in the place named by the Lord, and do whatever they say: Acting in agreement with their teaching and the decision they give: not turning to one side or the other from the word they have given you.
And they are to make clear to my people the division between what is holy and what is common, and to give them the knowledge of what is clean and what is unclean. In any cause, they are to be in the position of judges, judging in harmony with my decisions: they are to keep my laws and my rules in all my fixed feasts; and they are to keep my Sabbaths holy.
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Commentary on Haggai 2 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 2
In this chapter we have three sermons preached by the prophet Haggai for the encouragement of those that are forward to build the temple. In the first he assures the builders that the glory of the house they were now building should, in spiritual respects, though not in outward, exceed that of Solomon's temple, in which he has an eye to the coming of Christ (v. 1-9). In the second he assures them that though their sin, in delaying to build the temple, had retarded the prosperous progress of all their other affairs, yet now that they had set about it in good earnest he would bless them, and give them success (v. 10-19). In the third he assures Zerubbabel that, as a reward of his pious zeal and activity herein, he should be a favourite of Heaven, and one of the ancestors of Messiah the Prince, whose kingdom should be set up on the ruins of all opposing powers (v. 20-23).
Hag 2:1-9
Here is,
Hag 2:10-19
This sermon was preached two months after that in the former part of the chapter. The priests and Levites preached constantly, but the prophets preached occasionally; both were good and needful. We have need to be taught our duty in season and out of season. The people were now going on vigorously with the building of the temple, and in hopes shortly to have it ready for their use and to be employed in the services of it; and now God sends them a message by his prophet, which would be of use to them.
Hag 2:20-23
After Haggai's sermon ad populum-to the people, here follows one, the same day, ad magistratum-to the magistrates, a word directed particularly to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, who was a leading active man in this good work which the people now set about, and therefore he shall have some particular marks put upon him (v. 21): Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, speak to him by himself. He has thoughts in his head far above those of the common people, as wise princes are wont to have, who move in a higher and larger sphere than others. The people of the land are in care about their corn-fields and vineyards; God has assured them that they shall prosper, and we hope that will make them easy; but Zerubbabel is concerned about the community and its interests, about the neighbouring nations, and the revolutions of their governments, and what will become of the few and feeble Jews in those changes and convulsions, and how such a poor prince as he is should be able to keep his ground and serve his country. "Go to him,' says God, "and tell him it shall be well with him and his remnant, and let that make him easy.'