Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity! Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the peoples labour for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity? For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink.
What profiteth the graven image, that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and the teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? Woe unto him that saith to the wood, "Awake;" to the dumb stone, "Arise!" Shall this teach? Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
|
II A PRAYER OF THE PROPHET |
O Lord, I have heard the report of thee, and am afraid: O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, [{394}] In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy. God came from Teman, And the Holy One from mount Paran His glory covered the heavens, And the earth was full of his praise. And his brightness was as the light; He had rays coming forth from his hand: And there was the hiding of his power. Before him went the pestilence, And fiery bolts went forth at his feet. He stood, and measured the earth; He beheld, and drove asunder the nations: And the eternal mountains were scattered, The everlasting hills did bow; His goings were as of old. I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. Was the Lord displeased against the rivers? Was thine anger against the rivers, Or thy wrath against the sea, That thou didst ride upon thine horses, Upon thy chariots of salvation? Thy bow was made quite bare; The oaths to the tribes were a sure word. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. The mountains saw thee, and were afraid; The tempest of waters passed by: [{395}] The deep uttered his voice, And lifted up his hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation; At the light of thine arrows as they went, At the shining of thy glittering spear. Thou didst march through the land in indignation, Thou didst thresh the nations in anger. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, For the salvation of thine anointed; Thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, Laying bare the foundation even unto the neck. Thou didst pierce with his own staves the head of his warriors: They came as a whirlwind to scatter me: Their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly. Thou didst tread the sea with thine horses, The heap of mighty waters. I heard, and my belly trembled, My lips quivered at the voice; Rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in my place: That I should rest in the day of trouble, When it cometh up against the people which invadeth him in troops. For though the fig tree shall not blossom, Neither shall fruit be in the vines; The labour of the olive shall fail, And the fields shall yield no meat; [{396}] The flock shall be cut off from the fold, And there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Jehovah, the Lord, is my strength, And he maketh my feet like hinds' feet, And will make me to walk upon mine high places. |
HAGGAI
(In 538 B.C., while Israel was still captive in Babylon, the mighty Babylonian empire was overthrown by Cyrus the Great. What a rejoicing there was among the Israelites and all the other enforced colonists of Babylonia! Cyrus was a statesman. He saw how Babylon was made weak by the large number of discontented inhabitants who had been imported as captives of war. He wisely decided to allow all who wished, to go home again. Many Israelites, who now were often called Jews, accepted his offer and returned to Palestine, with high hopes of a brilliant future for the nation. But they found Jerusalem in ruins and their brother Jews discouraged. Then followed a long series of famine years. Most of the people who came back had been reared on the rich plains of Babylonia, and were not able easily to make a living on the barren, rocky ridges of Judea. They became poor and discouraged. Their plan had been to build the temple, and they had set up an altar soon after they came, but fifteen years had passed, and the temple was not yet built. Part of the time the government had interfered with the building. The enemies of the Jews had persuaded the imperial officers that a temple would be only a fortress in disguise, and that the record of the Jews for insurrection and revolt was such that fortresses were not safe in their hands. But now a new king had come to the throne, and Haggai, who seems to have been a priest, came forward on a feast day with a proposal to build the temple. His little book has no grace of style, no great prophetic thought, no poetry or oratory, but is a plain proposition to get the temple built, with a promise that if they do, God will give them his blessing. It is good to know that the people responded to his appeal and the temple was built. This prophet with his plain style was more successful than almost any other prophet.)
I
THE PROPHET URGES THE PEOPLE TO BUILD THE TEMPLE
In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the high priest, saying, "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, 'This people say, It is not the time for us to come, the time for the Lord's house to be built.'" Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai, the prophet, saying, "Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your ceiled houses, while this house lieth waste? Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: 'Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.'"