Hagai 2:3

2:3 ‘Who among you survivors saw the former splendor of this temple? ¹  How does it look to you now? Isn’t it nothing by comparison?

Hagai 2:16

2:16 From that time ²  when one came expecting a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty measures from it, there were only twenty.

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 

Hagai 1:12

The Response of the People

1:12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, ⁵  along with the whole remnant of the people, ⁶  obeyed ⁷  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, ⁸  and the people began to respect the Lord. ⁹ 

[2:3]  ¹ tn Heb “this house in its earlier splendor”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “in its former glory.”

[2:3]  sn Solomon’s temple was demolished in 586 b.c., 66 years prior to Haggai’s time. There surely would have been some older people who remembered the former splendor of that magnificent structure and who lamented the contrast to the small, unimpressive temple they were building (see Ezra 3:8-13).

[2:16]  ² tn Heb “from their being,” idiomatic for “from the time they were then,” or “since the time.” Cf. KJV “Since those days were.”

[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.”

[1:12]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “heard the voice of”; NAB “listened to the voice of.”

[1:12]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the people feared from before the Lord”; NASB “showed reverence for the Lord.”