3. Who among you remains who saw this house in its former glory? There could be a few in Haggai’s audience who had actually seen the First Temple, but they would be very old because sixty-seven years had passed since its destruction.

Is it not as nothing in your eyes? The foundation for the Temple, according to the Book of Ezra, had been laid during the reign of Cyrus, but the work did not go forward, so what met the eye was a half-finished foundation and no structure above it.

5. Remember. In the received text, this verse begins with the particle ʾet, which ordinarily is placed before the direct object of a verb, but there is no verb. It is assumed in this translation that a verb such as “remember” was dropped from the text.

7. I will shake the nations. Through the authorization of Cyrus, exiles had returned from Babylonia, but their material existence was meager and their Davidic ruler was merely a functionary of the Persian empire. Against this background, Haggai envisages a grand triumphal moment when all the nations will be shaken and their riches flow to Zion.

the precious things of all the nations shall come. When the Temple was destroyed, its precious vessels were carried off by the conquerors.

9. peace. Others construe this as “well-being” or “prosperity.”

11. Inquire, pray, teaching of the priests. From what follows, it becomes clear that the “teaching,” torah, that the priests are to provide involves issues of religious law, what the rabbis later would call halakhah. In this case, however, the teaching becomes an analogy for the condition of the people in its relation to God.

14. So is this people . . . before Me. At first, it may seem puzzling that Haggai should proclaim the uncleanness of the people before God when he has just urged them to devote themselves to the rebuilding of the Temple and has reported that God had roused a spirit within them. The answer to the ostensible contradiction may be in the phrase “what they sacrifice there.” Although “there” is left vague, if the people have been sacrificing—and worship without sacrifice would be difficult for ancient Israelites to imagine—this would have to take place on improvised altars, for there was as yet no temple. Such unauthorized sacrifices would then be the source of impurity.

16. when they were coming to a heap of twenty measures and it was ten. This harks back to 1:6: “You have sown much and brought in little.” The Hebrew shows only numbers in this verse but “measure,” or perhaps a specific unit of measure, is implied.

18. from this day forward. As the work of rebuilding the Temple moves ahead, a new era is launched. Now there will again be people for the LORD, and the sundry blights that had stricken the community will come to an end.

the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid. Rashi’s explanation in light of the earlier foundation work is apt: “They were now beginning again to add to the first foundation that had been built in the time of Cyrus.”

19. not yet. This translation reads ʿod, “yet,” for the Masoretic ʿad, “until.”

21. I am about to shake the heavens and the earth. The passage that begins here is a kind of concluding recapitulation of 2:6–9. In this instance, explicit battle imagery is introduced—the overturning of chariots and horses and riders.

22. each by the sword of his fellow. What is suggested is a general panic in the armies of the nations in which confusion and mutual slaughter take place.

23. I will set you as a seal. The expression is elliptical. The ellipsis is elucidated in Song of Songs 8:6: “Set me as a seal on your heart, / as a seal on your arm.”

for you have I chosen. While neither “king” nor “anointed” appears in the text—might Haggai have feared these could be politically dangerous terms?—the strong implication is that Zerubbabel, as a descendant of the line of David now presiding over the rebuilding of the Temple, is the chosen heir to David’s throne.