Haggai

Haggai, a prophet during the post-exilic period, urged the people to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.

Haggai was a prophet who lived in Jerusalem during the post-exilic period, after the Jews had returned from Babylonian captivity. He is mentioned in the book bearing his name and in Ezr 5:1 and Ezr 6:14. Haggai, along with the prophet Zechariah, played a crucial role in encouraging the people to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians. In the second year of King Darius of Persia, Haggai delivered a series of messages to the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel, and the high priest, Joshua, urging them to resume the work on the temple (Hag.1.1, 3, 12). He confronted the people about their misplaced priorities, as they had focused on building their own houses while neglecting the house of God (Hag.1.4, 9). Haggai's prophecies also included messages of hope, assuring the people that God would bless them and that the glory of the new temple would surpass that of the former (Hag 2:9). As a result of Haggai's exhortations, the people obeyed, and the work on the temple resumed (Hag 1:12-15). The temple was eventually completed in the sixth year of King Darius (Ezr 6:14-15).

Festive, one of the twelve so-called minor prophets. He was the first of the three (Zechariah, his contemporary, and Malachi, who was about one hundred years later, being the other two) whose ministry belonged to the period of Jewish history which began after the return from captivity in Babylon. Scarcely anything is known of his personal history. He may have been one of the captives taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. He began his ministry about sixteen years after the Return. The work of rebuilding the temple had been put a stop to through the intrigues of the Samaritans. After having been suspended for fifteen years, the work was resumed through the efforts of Haggai and Zechariah (Ezra 6:14), who by their exhortations roused the people from their lethargy, and induced them to take advantage of the favourable opportunity that had arisen in a change in the policy of the Persian government. (See DARIUS [2].) Haggai’s prophecies have thus been characterized:, “There is a ponderous and simple dignity in the emphatic reiteration addressed alike to every class of the community, prince, priest, and people, ‘Be strong, be strong, be strong’ (2:4). ‘Cleave, stick fast, to the work you have to do;’ or again, ‘Consider your ways, consider, consider, consider’ (1:5, 7;2:15, 18). It is the Hebrew phrase for the endeavour, characteristic of the gifted seers of all times, to compel their hearers to turn the inside of their hearts outwards to their own view, to take the mask from off their consciences, to ‘see life steadily, and to see it wholly.’”, Stanley’s Jewish Church.