Hagai 2:10

The Promised Blessing

2:10 On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month of Darius’ second year, ¹  the Lord spoke again to the prophet Haggai: ² 

Hagai 2:15

2:15 Now therefore reflect carefully on the recent past, ³  before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple. ⁴ 

[2:10]  ¹ sn The twenty-fourth day of the ninth month of Darius’ second year was Kislev 24 or December 18, 520 b.c.

[2:10]  ² tn Heb “the word of the Lord came to Haggai the prophet, saying.” This Hebrew expression is slightly different from the one in 1:1, 3; 2:1.

[2:15]  ³ tn Heb “and now set your heart from this day and upward.” The juxtaposition of מָעְלָה (ma’lah, “upward”) with the following מִטֶּרֶם (mitterem, “before”) demands a look to the past. Cf. ASV “consider from this day and backward.”

[2:15]  ⁴ sn Before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple is best taken as referring to the laying of the present temple’s foundation, sixteen years earlier (536 b.c.; see Ezra 3:8). Cf. NCV “before you started laying stones”; TEV “before you started to rebuild”; NLT “before you began to lay (started laying CEV) the foundation.”