Hagai 1:12

The Response of the People

1:12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, ¹  along with the whole remnant of the people, ²  obeyed ³  the Lord their God. They responded favorably to the message of the prophet Haggai, who spoke just as the Lord their God had instructed him, ⁴  and the people began to respect the Lord. ⁵ 

Hagai 2:12

2:12 If someone carries holy meat in a fold of his garment and that fold touches bread, a boiled dish, wine, olive oil, or any other food, will that item become holy?’” ⁶  The priests answered, “It will not.”

Hagai 2:14

2:14 Then Haggai responded, “‘The people of this nation are unclean in my sight,’ ⁷  says the Lord. ‘And so is all their effort; everything they offer is also unclean. ⁸ 

[1:12]  ¹ tn Many English versions have “Joshua [the] son of Jehozadak, the high priest,” but this is subject to misunderstanding. See the note on the name “Jehozadak” at the end of v. 1.

[1:12]  ² tn Heb “all the remnant of the people.” The Hebrew phrase שְׁאֵרִית הָעָם (shÿ’erit ha’am) in this postexilic context is used as a technical term to refer to the returned remnant (see Ezra 9:14; Isa 10:20-22; 11:11, 16; Jer 23:3; 31:7; and many other passages). Cf. TEV “all the people who had returned from the exile in Babylonia.”

[1:12]  ³ tn Heb “heard the voice of”; NAB “listened to the voice of.”

[1:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “and according to the words of Haggai the prophet just as the Lord their God sent him.” Some English versions (e.g., NAB, NIV, NCV) take the last clause as causal: “because the Lord their God had sent him.”

[1:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the people feared from before the Lord”; NASB “showed reverence for the Lord.”

[2:12]  ⁶ sn This is probably not an appeal to the Torah (i.e., the Pentateuch) as such but to a priestly ruling (known in postbiblical Judaism as a pÿsaq din). There is, however, a Mosaic law that provides the basis for the priestly ruling (Lev 6:27).

[2:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “so this people, and so this nation before me.” In this context “people” and “nation” refer to the same set of individuals; the repetition is emphatic. Cf. CEV “this entire nation.”

[2:14]  ⁸ sn The point here is that the Jews cannot be made holy by unholy fellowship with their pagan neighbors; instead, they and their worship will become corrupted by such associations.