Cleansing, Holiness, and the Lord's Blessing
Haggai 2:10-19
Hag.2.10 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- בעשרים: PREP+NUM,card,pl
- וארבעה: CONJ+NUM,card,m,sg
- לתשיעי: PREP+ORD,m,sg,abs
- בשנת: PREP+NOUN,f,sg,cons
- שתים: NUM,f,pl,abs
- לדריוש: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- היה: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- דבר: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- אל: NEG
- חגי: NOUN,prop,m,sg
- הנביא: NOUN,m,sg,def
- לאמר: INF,qal,infc
Parallels
- Haggai 1:1 (structural): An earlier opening oracle to Haggai with a precise dating formula and the phrase 'the word of the LORD came to Haggai'—parallels the same prophetic/dating formula in 2:10.
- Haggai 2:1 (structural): Another dated message to Haggai (the 21st day of the 7th month) that uses the same introductory pattern—shows the book's recurrent time-stamped prophetic communications.
- Zechariah 1:1 (verbal): Begins 'In the ... month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah'—shares the same regnal-year dating (second year of Darius) and prophetic commissioning formula as Haggai 2:10.
- Joel 1:1 (verbal): Opens with 'The word of the LORD that came unto Joel'—illustrates the standard prophetic introductory formula ('the word of the LORD came') that Haggai 2:10 also employs.
- Jeremiah 1:2 (verbal): Contains the phrase 'the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah' (with attendant dating by a king's reign)—another example of the common prophetic introduction and dating convention found in Haggai 2:10.
Alternative generated candidates
- On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Haggai the prophet, saying,
- On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Haggai the prophet, saying,
Hag.2.11 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- כה: ADV
- אמר: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- צבאות: NOUN,m,pl,abs
- שאל: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- נא: PART
- את: PRT,acc
- הכהנים: NOUN,m,pl,def
- תורה: NOUN,f,sg,abs
- לאמר: INF,qal,infc
Parallels
- Leviticus 10:10-11 (verbal): Commands priests to distinguish between holy and common and between clean and unclean and to teach Israel—closely parallels Haggai's instruction to 'ask the priests for the law.'
- Deuteronomy 17:8-9 (structural): Prescribes taking difficult legal or cultic questions to the Levitical priests/judges at the place God chooses—echoes Haggai's procedural appeal to consult the priests about the law.
- Ezekiel 44:23 (verbal): Speaks of priests teaching the people the difference between the holy and the common and between the unclean and the clean—language and function very similar to Haggai's summons to ask the priests for the law.
- Malachi 2:7 (thematic): Affirms that the priest's lips should preserve knowledge and people should seek instruction from them—thematises the priestly role as teachers/jurists that Haggai invokes by directing questions to the priests.
Alternative generated candidates
- Thus says the LORD of hosts: Ask the priests concerning the law, saying,
- Thus says the LORD of hosts: Ask the priests for the law, saying,
Hag.2.12 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- הן: PART
- ישא: VERB,qal,impf,3,m,sg
- איש: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- בשר: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- קדש: NOUN,f,sg,abs
- בכנף: PREP+NOUN,f,sg,abs
- בגדו: NOUN,m,sg,abs+3ms
- ונגע: CONJ+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- בכנפו: PREP+NOUN,f,sg,abs+PRON,3,m,sg
- אל: NEG
- הלחם: NOUN,m,sg,def
- ואל: CONJ+PREP
- הנזיד: NOUN,m,sg,def
- ואל: CONJ+PREP
- היין: NOUN,m,sg,def
- ואל: CONJ+PREP
- שמן: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- ואל: CONJ+PREP
- כל: DET
- מאכל: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- היקדש: VERB,niphal,impf,3,m,sg
- ויענו: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,pl
- הכהנים: NOUN,m,pl,def
- ויאמרו: VERB,qal,wayyiqtol,3,pl
- לא: PART_NEG
Parallels
- Numbers 19:11-13 (verbal): Law about corpse‑impurity: touching a dead body makes a person unclean and transmits uncleanness to what he touches until cleansing—direct legal background to the question whether holiness/uncleanness transmits by touch.
- Leviticus 15:11 (verbal): Provision that anyone who touches an unclean person becomes unclean until evening—parallel legal formulation about transmission of uncleanness by touch, echoing the priests’ concern in Haggai.
- Leviticus 22:4-7 (structural): Rules forbidding the eating of holy things by anyone unclean and prescribing cleansing before partaking—addresses the status of 'holy' food and the effect of cleanliness on access to sacred provisions, the same issue raised in Haggai.
- Mark 7:15-23 (thematic): Jesus’ teaching that defilement is a matter of what comes from the heart rather than external contact contrasts and engages the OT concern with ritual transmission of purity/holiness that underlies Haggai’s question.
Alternative generated candidates
- Behold, if one carries consecrated meat in the corner of his garment and the corner of his garment touches bread, or stew, or wine, or oil, or any food, does it become consecrated? The priests answered, "No."
- If one carries consecrated meat in the fold of his garment and touches the edge of his garment, and then touches bread or stew or wine or oil or any food—will it be holy? The priests answered and said, 'No.'
Hag.2.13 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- ויאמר: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- חגי: NOUN,prop,m,sg
- אם: CONJ
- יגע: VERB,qal,impf,3,m,sg
- טמא: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- נפש: NOUN,f,sg,abs
- בכל: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- אלה: DEM,pl,abs
- היטמא: VERB,hitp,perf,3,m,sg
- ויענו: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,pl
- הכהנים: NOUN,m,pl,def
- ויאמרו: VERB,qal,wayyiqtol,3,pl
- יטמא: VERB,qal,impf,3,m,sg
Parallels
- Numbers 19:11-13 (verbal): Law stating that anyone who touches a dead body is unclean until evening and requires the water of purification—direct legal parallel to Haggai’s question about becoming unclean by contact with the dead.
- Leviticus 11:24 (verbal): Says that touching a carcass makes a person unclean until evening—close verbal parallel in the wording and the consequence of contact with a corpse.
- Leviticus 21:1 (thematic): Priestly regulation forbidding priests to defile themselves by contact with the dead—contextually relevant to Haggai’s consultation of the priests about ritual impurity.
- Mark 7:2-5 (thematic): A later Jewish debate about ritual purity (hand-washing and ‘defilement’ of contact) in which religious authorities are questioned—thematic parallel regarding who determines purity rules and the role of priests/teachers.
Alternative generated candidates
- And Haggai said, "If a person unclean touches any of these, does it become unclean?" The priests answered, "It becomes unclean."
- And Haggai said, 'If one who is ceremonially unclean touches any of these, will it become unclean?' The priests answered, 'It will become unclean.'
Hag.2.14 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- ויען: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- חגי: NOUN,prop,m,sg
- ויאמר: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- כן: ADV
- העם: NOUN,m,sg,def
- הזה: DEM,m,sg
- וכן: ADV
- הגוי: NOUN,m,sg,def
- הזה: DEM,m,sg
- לפני: PREP
- נאם: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- וכן: ADV
- כל: DET
- מעשה: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- ידיהם: NOUN,f,pl,abs+3,m,pl
- ואשר: CONJ+PRON,rel
- יקריבו: VERB,hiph,impf,3,pl
- שם: ADV
- טמא: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- הוא: PRON,3,m,sg
Parallels
- Isaiah 1:13-15 (thematic): Isaiah condemns sacrifices and festivals as unacceptable because of the people's sin—like Haggai, God rejects their offerings due to impurity of the people.
- Amos 5:21-23 (thematic): Amos declares that the Lord hates and will not accept the people's songs and offerings, paralleling Haggai's statement that their works and offerings are unclean.
- Malachi 1:7-8 (verbal): Malachi charges that priests and people present polluted offerings and treat holy things contemptuously, echoing Haggai's charge that what they offer is defiled.
- Isaiah 64:6 (thematic): Isaiah portrays human righteous deeds as 'filthy' or 'unclean' garments before God, resonating with Haggai's claim that their works are unclean.
- Zechariah 7:11-14 (structural): Zechariah links the people's disobedience to the ineffectiveness and rejection of their fasts and offerings—parallel to Haggai's causal connection between the people's condition and the uncleanness of their worship.
Alternative generated candidates
- Haggai answered, "So is this people, and so is this nation before me, declares the LORD; and so are all the works of their hands—what they offer there is unclean."
- Then Haggai answered and said, 'So is this people and this nation before me, declares the LORD; and so is every work of their hands, and what they offer there is unclean.'
Hag.2.15 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- ועתה: CONJ
- שימו: VERB,qal,impv,2,pl
- נא: PART
- לבבכם: NOUN,m,sg,poss
- מן: PREP
- היום: NOUN,m,sg,def
- הזה: DEM,m,sg
- ומעלה: VERB,qal,impf,3,f,sg
- מטרם: PREP+ADV
- שום: DET,m,sg
- אבן: NOUN,f,sg,abs
- אל: NEG
- אבן: NOUN,f,sg,abs
- בהיכל: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,def
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
Parallels
- Hag.1.5 (verbal): Both verses use an imperative to ‘consider’/‘set your heart’ — Haggai 1:5 calls the people to ‘consider your ways,’ a repeated prophetic exhortation that frames the appeal in 2:15.
- Hag.2.18 (structural): Direct continuation of the same prophetic unit: 2:15 introduces the temporal marker ‘from this day,’ and 2:18 repeats and applies that marker to contrast the curse/blessing before and after the temple’s foundation.
- Ezra 3:10-13 (structural): Accounts the laying of the new temple’s foundation after the exile; parallels Haggai’s focus on the foundation-day as a decisive moment for the community’s fortunes and responses (joy/tears).
- Zech.4:9-10 (thematic): Encourages those working on the rebuilding (’Who despises the day of small things?’), resonating with Haggai’s call to mark the day the foundation was laid and to trust God's future restoration.
- 1 Kings 8:1-11 (structural): Solomon’s dedication and the glory filling the first temple provides a background contrast: Haggai refers to the former temple’s glory and the laying of a new foundation in light of that earlier construction and dedication.
Alternative generated candidates
- Now consider from this day onward—before a stone was laid upon a stone in the house of the LORD—
- Now give careful thought from this day onward—before one stone was laid upon another in the house of the LORD:
Hag.2.16 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- מהיותם: PREP+NOUN,f,sg,abs+PRON,3,m,pl
- בא: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- אל: NEG
- ערמת: NOUN,f,sg,cons
- עשרים: NUM,card,pl
- והיתה: VERB,qal,perf,3,f,sg
- עשרה: NUM,card,m,pl
- בא: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- אל: NEG
- היקב: NOUN,m,sg,def
- לחשף: PREP+VERB,qal,inf
- חמשים: NUM,card,pl
- פורה: NOUN,f,sg,abs
- והיתה: VERB,qal,perf,3,f,sg
- עשרים: NUM,card,pl
Parallels
- Haggai 1:6-11 (structural): Same prophetic context and theme within Haggai: the people experience diminished yields and God’s withholding of blessing as a consequence of misplaced priorities (plenty sown but little harvested; God withholds rain and scatters).
- Amos 4:7-8 (thematic): God-withholding imagery: God makes the rain few and reduces harvests—an independent prophetic articulation of divine action causing agricultural scarcity comparable to Haggai’s reduced measures.
- Deuteronomy 28:38-40 (allusion): Covenantal curse language about sowing but not eating and insufficient harvests, providing the legal/background framework for prophetic descriptions of poor yield like Haggai 2:16.
- Leviticus 26:19-20 (thematic): Part of the covenantal sanctions: God will make the heavens like iron and the earth like bronze so that crops fail—parallels the motif of withheld dew/rain and reduced produce reflected in Haggai 2:16.
Alternative generated candidates
- when there were twenty in the heap, it became ten; when they went into the winepress to draw out fifty, there were but twenty.
- from the time you came to the heap, there were twenty; and when you came to the winepress to draw fifty, there were twenty.
Hag.2.17 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- הכיתי: VERB,qal,perf,1,NA,sg
- אתכם: PRT+PRON,2,m,pl
- בשדפון: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- ובירקון: CONJ+PREP,NOUN,m,sg,abs
- ובברד: CONJ+PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- את: PRT,acc
- כל: DET
- מעשה: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- ידיכם: NOUN,f,pl,abs
- ואין: CONJ+PART,exist
- אתכם: PRT+PRON,2,m,pl
- אלי: PREP+PRON,1,sg
- נאם: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
Parallels
- Amos 4:6-9 (verbal): Lists a sequence of calamities (famine, blight, mildew, locusts) sent by God as discipline and explicitly notes the people's failure to return — language and sequence closely parallel Haggai's 'I struck you... with blight, mildew and hail; yet you did not return.'
- Joel 1:10-12 (thematic): Describes agricultural devastation (corn withered, fields ruined, vine dried up) as divine judgment on the land and people, echoing Haggai's imagery of ruined labors and loss of crops as signs of God’s discipline.
- Deuteronomy 28:38 (thematic): Part of the covenant curses promising that crops will be consumed (by locusts) and harvests will fail when Israel disobeys — parallels Haggai's depiction of destroyed work and agricultural disaster as punishment.
- 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 (thematic): God warns that He may shut the heavens, send locusts, or bring pestilence as judgment, and links such afflictions to the need for repentance — the same causal connection Haggai makes between divine strikes (blight, hail) and the people's failure to return.
Alternative generated candidates
- I struck you with blight and with mildew and with hail; I have withered all the work of your hands, and you did not turn to me, declares the LORD of hosts.
- I struck all the work of your hands with blight and mildew and hail; yet you did not turn to me, declares the LORD.
Hag.2.18 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- שימו: VERB,qal,impv,2,pl
- נא: PART
- לבבכם: NOUN,m,sg,poss
- מן: PREP
- היום: NOUN,m,sg,def
- הזה: DEM,m,sg
- ומעלה: VERB,qal,impf,3,f,sg
- מיום: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- עשרים: NUM,card,pl
- וארבעה: CONJ+NUM,card,m,sg
- לתשיעי: PREP+NUM,ord,m,sg
- למן: PREP
- היום: NOUN,m,sg,def
- אשר: PRON,rel
- יסד: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- היכל: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- שימו: VERB,qal,impv,2,pl
- לבבכם: NOUN,m,sg,poss
Parallels
- Haggai 1:5 (verbal): Uses the same exhortation שימו־לבבכם/“consider/keep your heart” (give careful thought); both verses call the people to attentive reflection on their situation.
- Haggai 2:15 (verbal): A near‑parallel injunction to “consider from this day onward,” including the dating from the laying of the temple foundation; repeats the same temporal/reflective motif within the chapter.
- Ezra 3:8–11 (thematic): Narrates the laying of the foundation of the second temple and the people’s response—provides the historical event (foundation‑laying) to which Haggai’s dating and call to consider from that day refer.
- Zechariah 7:1 (structural): Like Haggai 2:18 it gives a precise postexilic date (ninth month) to anchor a prophetic message; illustrates the prophetic practice of dating oracles to specific days in the community’s restoration period.
Alternative generated candidates
- Consider from this day and onward—from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day the house of the LORD was founded—
- Consider then from this day onward—from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid—give careful thought.
Hag.2.19 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- העוד: PART,interrog
- הזרע: NOUN,m,sg,def
- במגורה: PREP+NOUN,f,sg,def
- ועד: CONJ+PREP
- הגפן: NOUN,f,sg,def
- והתאנה: CONJ+NOUN,f,sg,def
- והרמון: CONJ+NOUN,m,sg,def
- ועץ: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- הזית: NOUN,m,sg,def
- לא: PART_NEG
- נשא: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- מן: PREP
- היום: NOUN,m,sg,def
- הזה: DEM,m,sg
- אברך: NOUN,m,sg,proper
Parallels
- Zechariah 8:12 (verbal): Uses near-identical agricultural phrasing—'seed... the vine... the fruit'—and promises God's blessing on seed and vines, echoing Haggai's 'from this day I will bless you.'
- Joel 2:19-24 (thematic): God promises restoration of grain, wine, and oil and the return of agricultural productivity after devastation, paralleling Haggai's assurance that what has not yet borne will be blessed.
- Leviticus 26:4-5 (thematic): Covenantal promise that God will send rain, increase the land's yield, and cause trees of the field to bear fruit—an earlier legal-prophetic background to Haggai's blessing of agricultural fruitfulness.
- Amos 9:13-14 (thematic): Prophetic vision of restored abundance—ploughing, reaping, vineyards dripping sweet wine and restoration of Israel—resonates with Haggai's theme of forthcoming fertility and divine blessing.
Alternative generated candidates
- Is the seed yet in the storehouse? Even the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not borne fruit. From this day on I will bless you.
- Is the seed still in the storehouse? Yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive have not borne fruit; from this day on I will bless you.
On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Haggai the prophet, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts: Ask now the priests for a statute, saying,
If a man carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and it touches bread, or stew, or wine, or oil, or any food, will it be holy? The priests answered and said, No.
Then Haggai said, If a ceremonially unclean person touches any of these, will it become unclean? The priests answered and said, It becomes unclean. And Haggai replied, So is this people and so is this nation before me, declares the LORD: all the work of their hands is unclean, and what they offer there is unclean. Now consider from this day and onward—from the day when there was no stone laid upon another in the house of the LORD—
when they came to a heap of grain there were twenty measures and there were only ten; when they went to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty.
I struck you with blight and mildew and hail; I have laid waste the work of your hands, yet you did not return to me, declares the LORD.
Give careful thought from this day on—from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month—since the day the house of the LORD was founded; give heed.
Is the seed still in the barn? And the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive have not yet borne fruit. From this day on I will bless you.