Old Testament · Prophecy · book 37 of 66 · 1 min read
The book of Haggai
Two chapters, four dated messages, one subject: you are living in panelled houses and the temple is still a ruin.
“Now therefore this is what Yahweh of Armies says: 'Consider your ways.”
At a glance
- Chapters
- 2
- Author
- Haggai
- Written
- 520 BC, dated precisely within the book
- Written for
- Returned exiles who had stopped building
- Themes
- priorities, rebuilding, dated messages, glory
What it is about
Haggai is the most precisely dated book in the Old Testament — each message carries a day, month and regnal year, all within about four months of 520 BC.
The situation is that the returned exiles began rebuilding the temple, met opposition, and stopped for roughly sixteen years while getting on with their own houses. Haggai's charge is exactly that, and the phrase he returns to is an instruction to consider your ways.
It works. The building restarts within weeks, which makes Haggai one of the very few prophets in the Bible whose audience does what he says.
Where to start
Chapter 1, which is the whole argument in fifteen verses.
The chapters worth knowing
- Haggai 1 — Consider your ways — panelled houses while the temple lies in ruins.
- Haggai 2 — The promise that the latter glory will exceed the former, said to people looking at a smaller building.
What people get wrong about it
That it is about church buildings. The charge is about priorities revealed by where effort actually goes, which the panelled-house comparison makes concrete rather than abstract.
Questions
What is the book of Haggai about?
Getting the temple rebuilt. The returned exiles had stopped for sixteen years and built their own houses; Haggai's four short messages restart the work within weeks.
How long is Haggai?
Two chapters and thirty-eight verses. It is one of the shortest books in the Old Testament and one of the few whose audience acted on it.