Hebrew Bible: Haggai

Haggai is another biblical prophet that you've probably never heard of. His book is short and underwhelming.

Around 586 BCE, Babylonians captured and destroyed Jerusalem, slaughtering or exiling the majority of the population. In 539 BCE, Persians conquered Babylon and subsequently allowed the Jews to return home. Haggai was a prophet in the post-exilic period.

The returned Jews were having a tough time: there never seemed to be enough food, they were poor, etc. Haggai decided that God was messing them around because they hadn't rebuilt his temple, his house. God was, in a sense, homeless:

"Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”

The governor, the high priest, and all the people thought Haggai was talking sense. They started rebuilding the temple. Haggai gave encouragement, saying that the new temple is gonna be well awesome:

"Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.”

Some clever-clogs noticed that since they started building the temple, there had been no actual improvement in their conditions. Haggai explained that, while that is indeed the case, God will help us out from now on, swear down:

"Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord, how did you fare?... I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord. Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid [24th day of the 6th month], consider: Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.”

Haggai then explains that God is about to trash the other nations and make Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, ruler of the world:

"I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.”

The Second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE; it did not contain the treasures of all nations. Zerubbabel did not become ruler of the world. Am I nitpicking too much?