translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: HAG

label: NET study note

text: My spirit . It is theologically anachronistic to understand “spirit” here in the NT sense as a reference to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity; nevertheless during this postexilic period the conceptual groundwork was being laid for the doctrine of the Holy Spirit later revealed in the NT.


text: The twenty-fourth day of the ninth month of Darius’ second year was Kislev 24 or December 18, 520 b.c .


text: 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 ).


text: 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.


text: 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.”


text: The twenty-fourth day of the ninth month was Kislev 24 or December 18, 520. See v. 10 . Here the reference is to “today,” the day the oracle is being delivered.


text: The day work…was resumed . This does not refer to the initial founding of the Jerusalem temple in 536 b.c. but to the renewal of construction three months earlier (see 1:15 ). This is clear from the situation described in v. 19 which accords with the food scarcities of that time already detailed in Hag 1:10-11 .


text: Again, the twenty-fourth day of the month was Kislev 24 or December 18, 520 b.c . See v. 10 .


text: The expression on that day appears as a technical eschatological term in a number of other OT passages (cf., e.g., Isa 2:11, 17, 20; 3:7, 18 ; Amos 8:3, 9 ; Hos 2:18, 21 ).


text: My servant . The collocation of “servant” and “chosen” bears strong messianic overtones. See the so-called “Servant Songs” and other messianic texts in Isaiah ( Isa 41:8; 42:1; 44:4; 49:7 ).


text: The noun signet ring , used also to describe Jehoiachin ( Jer 22:24-30 ), refers to a ring seal worn by a king or other important person and used as his signature. Zerubbabel was a grandson of King Jehoiachin ( 1 Chr 3:17-19 ; Matt 1:12 ); God once pronounced that none of Jehoiachin’s immediate descendants would rule ( Jer 22:24-30 ), but here he reverses that judgment. Zerubbabel never ascended to such a lofty position of rulership; he is rather a prototype of the Messiah who would sit on David’s throne.