Commentary on Haggai

(Verse 1.) In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet. Because the people, who seemed to themselves to have returned from captivity, had not yet built the temple, nor raised up the walls of the city, nor had the glory of the former Jerusalem, but dwelt in hollow houses, and, as it is more significantly said in Greek, κοιλοστάθμοις, that is, houses set low down and sunk in a valley: therefore the word of God is not made to them under king Hezekiah, or Amon, or Josiah; who, so long as Jerusalem stood, had ruled over the people of God; but under king Darius, prince of the Persians, of whom Daniel also mystically relates in his volume.

Now Darius, in our tongue, means "generations made," or "things that have been"; which in Greek is said γενεαὶ γεγόμεναι: nor did the people, without a temple and dwelling in the depths, deserve to have another king, save one who served generations, and loved the flesh, and kept the first sentence of man still unlearned, and cast out of paradise: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth. Therefore, because Darius was a lover of coupling, and a companion of the dragon, whose whole strength is in his loins: for this reason the vision is beheld by the people in the second year, in an unclean number, and after the union of virginity and the nakedness of paradise, signifying the coats of skins. Finally, in Genesis, though it is said on the first day, and on the third, and on the fourth, and on the fifth, and on the sixth, after the completion of each work: And God saw that it was good: on the second day, according to the Hebrew, and Aquila, and Symmachus, and Theodotion, this is not found.

For the second day, which makes a number that divides from unity, could not be approved as good by the judgment of God. The sixth month too is set down, which does not have the solemnities of God, as does the seventh month; but it is neighbor to the six days in which the world was made. In which one labors, and in the sweat of the face bread is eaten: and the earth brings forth for us thorns and thistles, and when it has received seed of wheat, is more fruitful in darnel and wild oats.

But because the altar had already been built, and they had wished, against the resisting enemies, to build the temple, and had not built it: on the first day of the sixth month the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, so that the people, leaving behind the second year of king Darius, which divides from unity, and the sixth month which had passed, and which number is reckoned to labor, might return to the unity of God, and follow only the odd number: which even a pagan poet knew to be complete, saying (Virg. Ecl. VIII):

[lacuna] God rejoices in an odd number.

Now the word of the Lord comes, seeking to whom it should come and whom it should teach, into the hand of Haggai the prophet, who had good works, and in whose deeds the word of God could rest. But where hands are full of blood, and Jesus is put to death, and the people dare to say: His blood be upon us and upon our children, there the word of God does not come. Even to this day the fleshly Israel, having unclean hands, stretches them out to the Lord; but because they are full of blood, the Lord speaks to them through the prophet: If you stretch out your hands, I will turn my eyes away from you: for your hands are full of blood. The word of the Lord does not come into their hands, because they are unclean; the word of God does not come to them, because they slay the word of God in themselves.

Nor should it be thought that the word of the Lord came only into the hand of Haggai the prophet: but since Haggai is interpreted "festive," everyone who can celebrate the festivals, not in the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, can receive the word of God. Let us also have clean hands, and let us be called ἑορτάζοντες, that is, those celebrating festivals, and the word of God will come to us. Let us set before our eyes—since the law is spiritual—spiritual solemnities, of which it is written: Three times a year you shall celebrate festivals to me. You shall keep the solemnity of unleavened bread: seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you in the time of the month of new grain: for in it you came out of Egypt.

You shall not appear before me empty; and the solemnity of the harvest of firstfruits from your works, whatever you shall have sown in the field: and the solemnity of completion at the close of the year, in the gathering of your works from the field. If we wish the word of God to come to be in us, let us be Haggais, that is, those who celebrate festivals, and let us not appear empty before the sight of God: and sowing in the spirit, let us reap eternal life from the spirit, so that we may celebrate the solemnity of completion at the close of the year, that is, the gathering of our works from the field, the solemnity of firstfruits from our works, whatever we shall have sown in the field which the Lord has blessed. Let us also be Haggais, and throughout our whole life until the completion of the year, that is, until our departure from this age, let us celebrate festivals in our works, which have sprung up for us in our field.

There are many things, and not for this occasion, that could be said about the solemnity, to which the diligent reader can fit a spiritual understanding drawn from all Scripture. To Zorobabel, son of Salathiel, leader of Judah: and to Jesus son of Josedec, the high priest, saying. We read in Paralipomenon that Jechonias, who was led into Babylon, was the son of Salathiel, of whom Zorobabel was born. This indeed Matthew also states, in enumerating the generation of the Savior, saying: And after the deportation to Babylon, Jechonias begot Salathiel: and Salathiel begot Zorobabel: and Zorobabel begot Abiud. This Zorobabel, descending from the tribe of Judah, that is, from the stock of David, is a type of the Savior: who truly rebuilt the destroyed temple, that is, the Church; and led the people back from captivity.

And he built the Church both from the stones of the old temple, and from new ones, which had previously been unhewn—that is, both from the remnants of the Jewish people, and from the multitude of the Gentiles—he erected a tabernacle for God the Father. Now according to the manifold accents of the Hebrew tongue, it is interpreted either as ῥεῦσις παρακειμένη, that is, a stream lying near, set forth, or "born in Babylon," or "prince from Babylon." To the first interpretation is contrary that flux which is signified in the name Jezebel, that is, a vain flux, or the flux of a menstruous woman, which clearly signifies uncleanness. But Zabulon too expresses "flux of night." Leaving behind, then, this vain and sordid and dark flux of the world, let us follow the flux of Jesus, which is set forth for us to drink, and which offers itself as a most abundant fountain, according to what is said in the Gospel: Jesus stood in the temple, and cried out, saying: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

And we shall be able to drink this very thing when we have asked of God the Father, according to what we read: Ask, and it shall be given to you. For Salathiel is interpreted "petition of God." And no one comes to Jesus unless the Father draws him. There will be born to us, then, a flux, set forth through the entreaty of God, and it will be of the tribe of Judah—that is, royal, and confessing or praising God, since Judah signifies both. Furthermore, "born in Babylon," according to the historical sense indeed, is truly said of Zorobabel, because he was born there. But according to a deeper understanding it signifies our Lord Jesus: because he too was born amid the confusion of this age, and was near the very heavy river Chobar, and saw that great vision which Ezekiel, under his type, beholds at the beginning of his book.

But as for what I said, that Zorobabel is interpreted "prince from Babylon," I did not say this as though it were truly interpreted "prince"; for among the Hebrews his name is said to be composed of three whole parts: ZO is said to mean "this"; ROB, "master" or "greater"; BABEL properly signifies Babylonian, and the name Zorobabel (זורבבל) is formed, "this master from Babylon." But for the sake of a summary understanding, in place of the above minute details, I chose to interpret it as "prince from Babylon," or "in Babylon." So that just as Jesus the son of Nave, who was himself also a type of the Savior, led the people out of the wilderness into the land of promise: so this one too was born in Babylon for this reason, that he might lead back into the land of promise, from which they had been led away captive, those who were in Babylon, and might say to those who were in chains: Come out. And to those who sat in darkness: Be enlightened.

Now the word of the Lord, which came into the hand of Haggai, is directed not only to Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, of whom we have already spoken; but also to Jesus the son of Josedec, the high priest. As far as the historical sense is concerned, one is Zorobabel of the royal tribe, and the other is Jesus of the priestly tribe. But as far as the spiritual understanding is concerned, one and the same is our Lord and Savior, king and great priest, whose type, insofar as he was king, was borne by Zorobabel; and insofar as he was Pontiff, was borne by his namesake Jesus, which is interpreted "Yao salvation," that is, "the Lord's salvation" (יהוה), and he is the son of Josedec, which itself is translated into our language as "Yao just," that is, "the Lord's just one" (יהוצדק). For God the Father is just and holy, and God the Son, and there is no iniquity in him.

This is against Marcion and the other heretics, who assert that the Lord Savior is the son of some other good god, I know not which, and not of the Creator, whom they call just. And truly Jesus is the great Priest, compared to whom all the priests of God are small and nothing. For if he is called the great Priest, this is certainly said in distinction from those who are lesser. But all are lesser who are outside him and after him, so that just as he is the firstborn of all creation, and the firstborn from the dead, so he may be prince and great among all priests. Verse 2. Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying: This people says, the time has not yet come for the house of the Lord to be built.

Note carefully that it is not Zorobabel or Jesus who say: the time has not yet come for the house of the Lord to be built; but the people, who were still under king Darius, had not yet shaken off the yoke of servitude. And always those who are held in captivity, and have gone out of Jerusalem, put off and delay building the temple of God, and say: the time has not yet come for the house of the Lord to be built. And you, when you see someone who has come out of the Church, who had been handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved, thinking and planning to build the temple through chastity, which he had before destroyed through lust, and yet dragging out day after day, say to him: Truly you too are of the people of the captives, and you too say: the time has not yet come for the house of the Lord to be built.

For him who has once decided to restore the temple of God, every time is fitting for building: nor can the king devil hinder it, nor enemies round about, nor the feigned piety of parents, relatives, children: as soon as, being converted, you call upon the name of the Lord, he will say: Here I am. Verse 3. And the word of the Lord came into the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying: Is it a time for you to dwell in paneled houses, while this house is deserted? Or as the LXX translated, κοιλοστάθμοις, that is, hollowed out. On the same day as above, this vision again appears.

And as the works of the prophet advance, the gifts of prophecy also increase, and after a brief silence, in response to what the people had said—the time has not yet come for the house of the Lord to be built—the Lord's answer, as it were pondered, is brought forth, and it is said to them: Is it then time for you to dwell in houses situated below, and set in a valley, while my house, which is on the mountain, shall be deserted? Or, as it is in the Hebrew: that you dwell in paneled houses (that is, adorned and elaborate, and which serve not so much for use as for luxury), while my dwelling, in which were the holy of holies, and the cherubim, and the table of showbread, shall be soaked by rains, shall lie waste in solitude, shall be scorched by the sun? Furthermore, according to the anagogical sense: every time in which the dwelling of the valley is chosen, or we serve pleasures, is unfitting.

Whence the Stoics too, who take care to define each word, said that time is either of correction or of efficacy: which is more significantly expressed in Greek as χρόνον εἶναι κατορθώσεως. For all time in which we serve not virtues but vices perishes, and is reckoned as though it had not been, as nothing. If, then, any of us either dwells in the valley, or builds his house upon worldly pleasure and luxury, he does not build a temple for God, nor does the Lord have in him a place to lay his head: and while he builds a house with the foxes, he allows the former dwelling place of God to be deserted.

Verse 4. And now thus says the Lord of hosts: set your hearts upon your ways. Let there not be one time for speaking and another for doing: turn my commands at once into action: for it is the Lord Almighty who commands, and surely the command of God Almighty is not a light thing. Up to now you have had hearts serving vices, without order, without a teacher, going wherever desires drew you. But now the Lord commands you to order charity within yourselves, and to set your hearts upon your ways, so that you do nothing without judgment and consideration; but let the lamp of the law always go before your feet, and say: Your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths.

Or else thus: Since you say, it is not the time to build the house of the Lord, and you yourselves dwell in dwellings that are sunk down low, while my house is deserted: consider, at the Lord's bidding, and call to mind what you have done, and what you have suffered. (Verses 5, 6.) You have sown much, and brought in little: you have eaten, and are not satisfied: you have drunk, and are not filled with drink: you have clothed yourselves, and are not warmed. And he who gathered wages, put them into a bag with holes. All your labor by which you built your houses and neglected the house of God did not have a good outcome. For you sowed more, and gathered together much less than had been sown: nor can you say that famine followed because the farmer had ceased tilling the land. You also ate (lest perhaps someone among you should say the fasting was voluntary), and were not satisfied, because you had gathered small fruits into your barns.

You drank wine from the vineyards, but not so much that your heart might rejoice, and it might be said of you: And wine gladdens the heart of man. You had a cloak, but one that did not repel the cold, nor keep warmth. Whoever also among you gathered wages, whether by trade or by hired labor, the labor was expended in vain without the reward of the labor. For all the money flowed away as if someone were putting it into a bag with holes.

But also according to the spiritual understanding, those who returned from Babylon, and had not yet built the temple of God, but daily postponing its building, said: The time has not yet come to build the house of the Lord: they are neither captives, nor yet granted full liberty: but as if placed in some middle state, they sowed much and brought in little: they ate and were not satisfied: they drank, and were not filled with drink: they clothed themselves, and were not warmed: they gathered wages, and as if they put them into a bag with holes, they perished. If you ever see someone among many works of sinners doing some things that are just, God is not so unjust that, on account of many evils, he forgets the few good deeds; but he will make him reap only those things which he sowed in good soil, and gather them into his own barns. But he who is utterly an apostate, he will not eat at all, but will perish by famine.

Moreover, he who sows much and brings in little, eats a little, and not to the point of satiety, according to that which the Lord threatens in the curses of Leviticus: And you shall eat and not be satisfied. But he who is holy will eat to the point of satiety, and will be filled with that which is written: The righteous eating fills his soul. Similarly, he who does not drink at all will perish of thirst: as also in Judith (if anyone, however, wishes to accept the book concerning the woman): And the little ones perished of thirst (Judith 8). But he who drinks a little, indeed drinks, but not to drunkenness. Moreover, he who can say to the Lord: Your inebriating cup, how excellent it is! And is made drunk with Noah: and although stationed in Egypt, yet at Joseph's banquet with the patriarchs and brothers is soaked with wine: this one, because of the greatness of his joy and daily gladness, being with the apostles turned into ecstasy, will be called full of new wine.

But how this is not contrary to that exposition—that the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab did not drink wine, and are praised by the Lord, in Jeremiah—will be discussed more fittingly there. After these things it is said to those who were neglecting to build the temple of the Lord: You have clothed yourselves, and are not warmed. Which we understand from the hundred and third psalm, in which it is said of God: The deep is his covering as a garment. For although according to the Hebrew truth it is referred to the lands, which are surrounded by the Ocean, yet according to the Seventy translators who said: τὸ περιβόλαιον αὐτοῦ, in the masculine gender, and not αὐτῆς, feminine, we are compelled to understand it as said of God, because his wisdom is unsearchable, and the Lord makes darkness his hiding place, and his mysteries are not disclosed to any unworthy persons. Whence also the righteous man rejoices, and says: In my heart I have hidden your sayings, that I might not sin against you.

This cloak, woven from the manifold senses and words of wisdom, does not allow those fervent in spirit to be chilled, nor the warmth of love, when the North wind blows, to grow cold. But he who is in the middle, and indeed has a cloak, but is not entirely covered by it: just as he brought little into the barns, and ate, and not to satiety, and drank, and not to drunkenness: so he will indeed be covered with the cloak of his senses and works, but will not be warmed. But he who, on account of excessive poverty of soul, has no cloak: he has none for this reason, because, iniquity being multiplied, charity grew cold in him. Whence also concerning such a man, whose cloak is possessed by another, it is commanded in the law: You shall return to him his garment before the sun sets: because he is poor, and in it he has his hope.

But this also befell those who dwelt in the valleys, or in ceiled houses, and said: The time has not yet come to build the house of the Lord, so that they gathered wages into a bag with holes. If anyone of us does good works, and worthy of reward (which the Lord is going to render to us, of whom it is said: Behold the Lord, and his reward is in his hands, to render to each according to his works. And another saying of the Apostle: If anyone's work remains, which he has built upon it, he will receive a reward, this one gathers rewards to be preserved and to remain, and always joining virtues to virtues, he heaps up money into a bag without holes. But he who after good works sins not once and twice, but frequently, and darkens and defiles his past charity with the vices that follow, this one gathers money into a bag with holes.

But all these things happened to those who said: The time has not yet come to build the house of the Lord, and while they themselves dwelt in the valleys, they allowed the house of the Lord to remain deserted. (Verses 17, 18.) Thus says the Lord of hosts: Set your hearts upon your ways, go up into the mountain, bring wood, and build the house: and it shall be acceptable to me, and I shall be glorified, says the Lord. LXX: Thus says the Lord Almighty: Set your hearts upon your ways, go up upon the mountain, and cut down wood (the rest similarly).

Again I, the Lord, command you, who had also commanded before, that you set your hearts upon your ways, and consider all that you do, and, leaving behind zeal for your own humble houses, go up into the mountain, where there is no wood to be burned, but wood which may be useful for the works of my house: and that you may do this more attentively, know that what you do will be pleasing to me. The Hebrews say that only wood for roofing was necessary, the walls of the temple standing after the fire. This is what they say.

But we are commanded, not to set our hearts outside our ways; but to set again in our ways those which we had previously set, and after we have done this, to go up from the hollow houses into the mountain, so that when we have arrived at the height of the mountain, on which is the wood necessary for the building of the temple of God, from all holy Scripture, the mountain on which various trees of virtues and of paradise are planted, let us cut them down, and build the temple of the Lord with good works and with the doctrines of truth: which, when it has been built, may it please the Lord, and may he be glorified in it.

Therefore, because these things are commanded to us, that we set our hearts in our ways, let us go up into the rational mountain, and, seeking for each problem suitable wood from the testimonies of the Scriptures, let us cut it down, and build the house of wisdom in ourselves: for after this has been built, the end of its building will be that the Lord may be glorified in us. (Verse 9.) You looked for more, and behold it became less: and you brought it into the house, and I blew it away: LXX: You looked to many things, and few came to be: and you brought them into the house, and I blew them away.

So that, delay being cast aside, and all ambiguity laid down, you may build my house more zealously, I say also another thing which happened to you, who put off building my house—not as above: You sowed much, and because the earth did not return the seed, you brought in little; but when the crops were already whitening, and the time of harvest was at hand, and you thought you were holding grain in your hands, you reaped empty stalks, and gathered vain straw without the fruit of the ears. The threshing floors were full: hope in the eyes, mourning in the hands. But even this itself, which had scarcely been chosen out of much crop and countless heaps, you brought into the house, and it was scattered by my power. For I blew it away, and reduced it to nothing; because the dead grain and empty husks, which are useful for eating, had no flour and fine meal.

Now that which he said, you brought it into the house, and I blew it away, can also be understood of the offerings which they were offering on the altar, and God spurned them. But because he said, you brought it into the house—if we understand the things brought in as offerings, we certainly mean them offered in the temple. And this does not fit us, because at that time the house of God had not yet been built: which indeed happens to this day to very many, who dwell in humble buildings, and, as far as it lies in them, despise the desolate house of God, and though they are able to build, they scorn to do so: and as if already seeing ripe crops, they promise themselves the fruits of their own works, and, hope deceiving them, instead of great things they scarcely find small ones.

But even these small things, which they had laid up in the house and granary of the mind, are blown away by the word of God, as unworthy of his safekeeping and protection. How often have I seen, both in doctrine and in conduct, very much hoped of certain persons: and after the time came for them to have the harvest, that is, the time of teaching, and of offering their life as an example to the peoples, cast down from the height, and less found in them than the opinion of everyone had promised for them. Whence it happened that little by little, negligence creeping in, they lost even that little which they seemed to have. But they suffered this for this reason, because they were secure in their former houses, and did not go up the mountain of the Scriptures, cutting from it the wood of the Lord's building, nor built daily in themselves the house of the Lord; but despising its desolation, they lost even that which they believed they had.

For the aforementioned evil is given this cause. (Verse 10.) Therefore, says the Lord of hosts, because my house is deserted, and you hasten each one to his own house, on this account the heavens above you have been forbidden to give dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. Not only, he says, did the heavens not give rain, by which the ground being irrigated produces crops; but not even the morning and nightly dew, so that the parched fields might at least be tempered by a little moisture. The earth also devoured, and did not return the seed to the farmers, and what it is accustomed to bring forth of itself, it held back with a grudging bosom.

I think this is the dew of which it is said in the blessing to Jacob: May God give you of the dew of heaven, and the dew of Hermon which descends upon Mount Sion, and descends, not from the air in which the manifold multitude of eagles and hawks and vultures flies; but from heaven, so that if anyone's soul burns with disturbances, and has been wounded by the dart of the devil, it may be refreshed by this dew, and temper its heats. Which being withheld, the earth also does not bring forth its produce. For no soul can bring forth grain without the dew of Christ. (Verse 11.) And I called for drought upon the earth, and upon the mountains, and upon the wheat, and upon the wine, and upon the oil, and upon whatsoever the ground brings forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands.

For drought the Septuagint translated μάχαιραν, that is, sword; but I have also found it written in the Hebrew with three letters (חרב), HETH, RES, BETH, which, if we read HAREB, sounds "sword"; if OREB, καύσωμα (or καῦμα), which we have translated "drought," although it could better be translated "scorching wind." And indeed, since the discourse is about the earth and the barrenness of the fields, it seems to me that a scorching wind ought rather to be understood in the present passage than a sword: although every plague which is brought upon men on account of sins can also be taken for the sword. Now drought, or the sword, is called for upon the earth and upon the mountains, so that they may not bring forth wheat and wine and oil, and whatsoever the ground of itself brings forth. Famine having preceded, death consequently comes upon men and upon cattle. And the same sword, or scorching wind, consumes all that the hands of men have labored over.

Thus the living word of God is called or brought in, and effective and sharper than every two-edged sword, so that the negligent soul (which is interpreted as parched earth, and desires rather to dwell in hollow places than to build the house of God) may be struck by its point, and whatever fruit it thinks it has may be destroyed. A sword is also brought upon the mountains that raise themselves against the knowledge of God, and upon the wheat, and wine, and oil, by which, as if by food and drink and refreshment, the assemblies of heretics flatter the deceived peoples: One might fittingly say that their bread is the bread of mourning, and that the fury of dragons is their wine, and the incurable fury of asps; and that oil too is the promise of heavenly things, with which they, as it were, anoint their disciples, and promise rewards of labors—which the prophet detests, saying: But let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head.

But the sword of God also strikes other things which men, without authority and testimonies of the Scriptures, discover and fabricate of their own accord as if by apostolic tradition; and by men and cattle let us understand λογισμούς and αἰσθήσεις, that is, their thoughts and senses. Or certainly the rational and irrational elements in them, that is, the learned and unlearned alike, and all the labor of hands, and their fasts, and various observances, and χαμευνίαι, that is, sleepings on the ground. Those who fast three forty-day periods a year, and humble their soul with ξηροφαγίαι, and grow especially from the root of Tatian, hear concerning such labors: You have suffered so many things without cause.

But all these things which I have said can be understood of the rulers of the Church, who, building a carnal house and providing for their own children and possessions, take no care either to build the temple of God within themselves, or to restore the Lord's Church, which lies uncovered and in ruins: whose life and incongruous speech often scandalize very many, and drive them out of the Church, and reduce the house of God to solitude.

Nor do we say these things in order to accuse everyone generally, but because in every office and rank there are some who build and others who destroy the temple of God, and on account of their vice neither does heaven give dew nor does the earth give sprouting growth; the ground dries up, the mountains grow parched, the wheat and oil and all that the earth produces, men themselves too and cattle and all the labor of hands perish, the sword cutting, or the drought, or the scorching wind. (Verse 12.) And Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, and Jesus the son of Josedec the high priest, and all the remnant of the people heard the voice of their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him to them, and the people feared before the face of the Lord.

Attend carefully, on account of the two understandings of the Savior in Zorobabel the leader and Jesus the priest (for he himself is both king and priest), that it did not say, "Zorobabel and Jesus feared," but that, while Zorobabel and Jesus and the people were hearing the words of Haggai the prophet, which are the words of the Lord, the people alone feared before the face of the Lord—that is, only the multitude, which had not yet come into one perfect man, nor, being joined to the spirit, had deserved to be what the spirit is. Now the people feared before the face of the Lord, knowing that the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, that he may destroy their memory from the earth. (Verse 13.) And Haggai, messenger of the Lord, of the messengers of the Lord, said to the people: I am with you, says the Lord.

Some think that both John the Baptist, and Malachias—who is interpreted "Angel of the Lord"—and this Haggai whom we now have in hand, were angels, and that on account of God's dispensation and command they assumed human bodies, and dwelt among men. Nor is it strange that this be believed of angels, since for our salvation even the Son of God assumed a human body: and for this cause they also offer testimony from the apocrypha, where it is said that Jacob, who was afterward called Israel, was an angel, and that on this account he supplanted his brother in his mother's womb. Also that John, at the voice of Mary the mother of the Lord, leapt for joy in the womb of Elizabeth; and that there is one nature of all rational beings, and that for this cause men who have pleased God become equal to the angels. Let them think this.

But let us receive the messenger of the Lord—that is, the angel, who in Hebrew is called MALACH (מלאך)—simply as the term for a prophet, from the fact that he announced the will of the Lord to the people; or else, since in many places our Lord and Savior is called the Angel of God, as there: Angel of great counsel, we say that a type of the Savior has run ahead in Haggai. Moreover, what he says, "messenger of the Lord, of the messengers of the Lord," is as if he had said, "prophet, of the prophets." What he says, "messenger of the Lord said to the people: I am with you, says the Lord," is not spoken to Zorobabel and Jesus, with whom and in whom the Lord always was (for we have already said once that they are taken according to different understandings in the person of the Savior), but to the people who had feared before the face of the Lord.

Because it was the people, it had not yet come to the love of God, which casts out fear. The people therefore receive, in return for their fear of God, the reward that the Lord be with them, and the sense is: I will be your helper; build my house, which has been destroyed among you: with me established in your midst, no one will be able to hinder your building. (Verse 14.) And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, leader of Juda, and the spirit of Jesus the son of Josedec the high priest, and the spirit of the rest of all the people: and they went in, and did the work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God: on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. Instead of "leader of Juda," the Seventy translated "of the tribe of Juda," and instead of "work," "works"; the rest similarly.

Wherever we put "Lord of hosts," they variously interpret either "Lord almighty," or "Lord Sabaoth," or "Lord of powers." The spirit of Zorobabel and the spirit of Jesus, then, is stirred up—meanwhile according to the letter—so that kingship and priesthood may build the temple of God. The spirit of the people also is stirred up, which had before been asleep in them—not the body, not the soul, but, as we have said, the spirit, which knows better how to build the temple of God. And they went in—for they had been outside—and did works which were worthy of the inner chambers of the house of the Lord: in the same year of Darius the king as above, in the same month set down at the beginning; but not on the same day.

For there one day of the month is set down; here, however, the twenty-fourth, so that between the first day, on which the Lord speaks through Haggai, and the twenty-fourth, on which they went in and did the work in the house of the Lord, there were twenty-two intervening days—as many as there are letters among the Hebrews. For they needed to be taught what the elements were of the beginning of the words of God, which would forbid them to say, "The time has not yet come for the house of the Lord to be built," and to dwell in hollow houses, and, as I said above, to sink into the depths. They were to be provoked to set their hearts upon their ways, and to remember how much they had suffered on account of negligence. And that they might go up into the mountain, and cut wood, and build the house of the Lord, and not suffer the things they had suffered before.

Accordingly, in these twenty-two days, the people feared before the face of the Lord, and they went in on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king, and did the work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God. Now we are commanded, in order that a spiritual house may be built into a holy priesthood, for offering spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God, to present ourselves such that the Holy Spirit may be stirred up in us, and that we may enter into the house of the Lord, and do the works of the Lord. For already Zorobabel of the lineage of David, and Jesus the priest forever, has been raised up by the Father in power, according to the spirit of sanctification, from the resurrection of the dead, that he may preside over the work; but let us do it, with him helping and directing.

Yet we cannot do these works of God beforehand unless we fear before the face of the Lord, and believe, and enter the temple of God, and carry out the things that are worthy of the house of God. But since we are still in this world, and the time of our building is passing under king Darius, in whom generation, marriages, and flesh are served: therefore in the number six, in which the world was made, and in the second year, which divides the union (for the matter in which the reparation of the world and of offspring consists loves a double number), we enter the house of the Lord, and with both peoples gathered together, we build the temple of God. For from the two numbers twelve, the sum of the number twenty-four consists: because as much from circumcision as from the Gentiles, the Church of Christ, which had been overthrown, is being first built.

But we can also say this: because the number eight, which is holy, and is taken as a type of true circumcision, tripled makes the number twenty-four, we are figuratively taught to build the house of the Lord in the cutting away of the flesh, and the circumcision of vices, and to believe that true purity is in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, another has computed the number as six times four, and refers the four to the elements of the world, from which we subsist; but the six to the condition of the world, in which the elements themselves move. And he says: because we are still in matter, and are surrounded by a heavy body, and serve generations, we do indeed build the temple, and enter into the house of God, and our spirit is roused as it were from heavy sleep; but still it is on the twenty-fourth day that we do this very thing.

(Verses 1 and following.) In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying: Speak to Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, leader of Juda, and to Jesus the son of Josedec, the high priest, and to the rest of the people, saying: Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not, as it were, nothing in your eyes? And now be strong, Zorobabel, saith the Lord, and be strong, Jesus, son of Josedec, high priest, and be strong, all people of the land, saith the Lord of hosts, and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of the land of Egypt, so shall my spirit be in the midst of you; fear not.

For thus saith the Lord of hosts: Yet one little while, and I will move the heaven and the earth, and the sea and the dry land. And I will move all nations; and the desired of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. Great shall be the glory of this latter house more than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, saith the Lord of hosts. In the same year, but in the seventh month, in which are the first and the twenty-first day of the month, the solemnities of God—that is, when three weeks were completed, and rest was perfected in the mystery of the Trinity—the word of the Lord came a third time by the hand of Haggai the prophet, who labored with continual toil, that the word of God might always have access to him.

For forgetting the things that were behind, and reaching forth unto those things which were before, he thus labored daily, as if he had none of the preceding works to his credit. It is said to him therefore: Speak to Zorobabel, and to Jesus, and to the rest of the people, who saw the ancient house of God, and are now present at its restoration: is not this house which is now seen, in comparison with the former, such that it seems, in a certain manner, not to be at all? But do not despair, nor let your hands grow slack; but you, Zorobabel, and you, Jesus, and all the people, be strong, and do the work in my house: for I am with you, and the word which I covenanted with you when you came out of the land of Egypt. And my spirit shall not depart from you: fear not, I am he who commands, the Lord Almighty, whose saying is doing.

When I first gave the covenant, and appeared on Mount Sina, I moved heaven and earth, and the Red Sea, and the desert, that I might make a covenant with you; but now I promise you that once more I will move heaven and earth, and the sea and the dry land, so that, these being moved, all nations may be moved, and there may come—according to the Septuagint—the things which are chosen of the Lord out of all nations; but according to the Hebrew, the desired of all nations, our Lord and Savior, shall come. Then I will fill this house with a glory greater than the former, and I will always add to you, saith the Lord Almighty. And lest perhaps you think the surety weak: the gold is mine, and the silver is mine, and all riches are mine. I will give gold and silver for the adornment of the temple, that the glory of this house may become greater than that of the former.

And because what I promise seems difficult, and human unbelief always hesitates at greater promises, therefore I say again, I who promise am the Lord Almighty. Moreover, because I know that nothing so contributes to the building up of the renowned house, one that shall surpass the former house, as peace, therefore I promise this also. For I will give peace in this place, saith the Lord of hosts: that the peace which surpasses all understanding may guard my house, and that my place may be in peace. These lines of exposition I have drawn παραφραστικῶς (paraphrastically) for the present, so that from them, even without our comment, the prudent reader may rise to a more sublime understanding.

The word of God, then, comes to those who had begun to work in the house of the Lord Almighty, now in rest, that is, in the seventh month, and in the fullest sacrament of the Trinity, on the twenty-first day of the month, and to Haggai, celebrating God’s festivals, who had again prepared his hand for the word of the Lord; and he says to him: Speak to Zorobabel of the tribe of Juda, and to Jesus the high priest, who for us deigned to become both man and priest, and to the remnant of the people: for in comparison with the whole world, the believers were but a small part at the beginning. Let us hear, then, what he says. There was once in Israel the house of God, which is now so deserted that it is scarcely believed to have existed; from which she who had been beloved became not beloved, and she who was not the people of God began to be the people of God.

And that house, once glorious, now in the sight of Zorobabel and Jesus and the remnant of the people is as if it were not. But this we ought not to understand only of the buildings of the temple which we see fallen; but of all the things which the Jews once had that were illustrious. Yet because the former house is made as if it did not subsist, Zorobabel the leader and Jesus the priest are provoked, that the kingdom of Christ and the priesthood may be strengthened, and that his people, who were once the people of the land, may do the works in the house of the Lord, and know that God is present with them: and may also do the word which the Lord covenanted with them when they were coming out of the land of Egypt. And would that we too might come out of Egypt, that we might fulfill the word of the covenant which we have received.

The Lord God also promises to those who do the works in his house, and fulfill the word they have received, his own spirit, saying: And my spirit shall be in the midst of you. Behold the mystery of the Trinity: I am with you, and my spirit, and the Word, in which I established the covenant when you came out of Egypt. But when he says "in the midst of you," it should be understood according to that which we read written in the Gospel: For there stands one in the midst of you, whom you know not, who shall come after me. This, then, the Lord of hosts says to you who see the former house as though it were not. I moved the heaven, when my voice was heard from heaven. I moved the earth, when I gave the Testament to the former people; and at my coming, mist, whirlwind, and darkness were seen. I moved the Red Sea, when I gave a way for the people to pass through.

I moved the dry land—either Egypt, emptied of the worship of God by the plagues, or the wilderness through which I led the people about for forty years. These I will move once more. This we see fulfilled at the coming of the Lord the Savior. For indeed at the time of his passion, the sun fleeing, the heaven was moved and darkness came over the whole earth from the sixth hour to the ninth. The earth was moved, and rocks were split, and tombs opened; the sea was moved, the dragon that was in it being slain; the dry land also was moved, once the fruitless wilderness of the nations. In this shaking of the universe, moreover, all the nations also were moved; because into all the earth went forth the sound of the Lord's apostles, and their words reached even to the ends of the world. And for this reason all the nations were moved, that from their movement there might come the chosen multitude of the nations, and whatever was illustrious anywhere.

For example, the chosen from Corinth, because there was a great people of God in it. The chosen from Macedonia, because so great a Church of God was gathered in Thessalonica that it had no need to be taught concerning charity. The chosen from Ephesus, that they might know the hidden things of God and the mysteries revealed to none before. What more? All the nations were moved, to whom the Savior had sent the apostles, saying: Going, teach all nations, and out of many called, a few were chosen, who built up the Church of the firstborn. Whence also the apostle Peter says: She that is in Babylon, elect together with you, salutes you, and so does Mark my son; and John says: The elder, unto the elect lady; and afterward he mentions the children of the elect.

The nations, therefore, being moved—which we can also understand as the hostile powers, unable to endure the splendor of the Lord—there came the elect of all nations, and the glory of the house of the Lord was filled, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth. This according to the Septuagint. But in the Hebrew it is better and more significantly rendered, as we have set forth above: And I will move all nations, and the desired of all nations shall come. For truly, after he came, the glory of the house of the Lord was fulfilled. And by as much as the Lord differs from a servant, by so much is the house of the Lord—over which the Lord presides—better than the former house, over which a servant presided.

But as to what is said: The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts, I do not think anyone should suppose that this speaks of the silver and gold possessed by the rich and by kings. For in this way, not only silver and gold belong to God as Creator, but also the other metals, bronze, tin, lead, and iron which subdues all things.

But I think that the silver with which the house of God is adorned signifies the utterances of the Scriptures, of which it is said: The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried by the fire, purged from the earth, refined seven times; and the gold is that which resides in the hidden sense of the saints, and in the secret of the heart, and shines with the true light of God—which it is clear the Apostle also had in mind concerning the saints, who build upon the foundation of Christ, gold, silver, precious stones; so that in gold is hidden meaning, in silver fitting speech, in the precious stone, works pleasing to God. By these metals the Church of the Savior is made more illustrious than the synagogue once was; with these living stones the house of Christ is built, and eternal peace is granted to it.

Further, as to what follows in the Septuagint: And peace of soul as a possession to every one that is created, that he may raise up this temple—this, as being superfluous and scarcely coherent, since it is found neither among the Hebrews nor in any other interpreter, we have omitted. (Verses 11 and following). In 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 saith the Lord of hosts; ask the priests concerning the law, saying: If a man carry sanctified flesh in the skirt of his garment, and touch with the skirt thereof bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any food, shall it be sanctified? And the priests answered and said: No. And Haggai said: If one that is unclean by reason of a soul touch any of all these things, shall it be defiled? And the priests answered and said: It shall be defiled.

And Haggai answered, and said: So is this people, and so is this nation before my face, saith the Lord; and so is all the work of their hands; and all that they have offered there shall be defiled. The Septuagint: On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year under Darius, the word of the Lord came to Haggai the prophet, saying: Thus saith the Lord Almighty; ask the priests concerning the law, saying: If a man take holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and the skirt of his garment touch bread, or that which is cooked, or wine, or oil, or any food, shall it be sanctified? And Haggai said: If one unclean by reason of a soul touch any of all these things, shall it be defiled? And Haggai answered, and said: So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the Lord, and so are all the works of their hands.

And whosoever shall come near there shall be defiled, because of their morning gifts they shall grieve because of their wickednesses, and smelling in the gates, rebuking. We have set down also the edition of the Seventy interpreters for this reason, because in certain words they seemed to disagree. And that which is said: Because of their morning gifts they shall grieve because of their wickednesses, and smelling in the gates, rebuking, is found neither in the Hebrew nor among the other interpreters. It is to be noted that in this place: On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year, it is not said, as above on the third occasion: The word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet; but: to Haggai the prophet.

For there (because he still had progress to make, and only works that were clean, but his heart had not yet received full wisdom; or because he still dwelt among those who said: The time is not yet come for building the house of the Lord) the word of the Lord was made only concerning his works. But here, since the foundations of the temple have now been laid, and the people has entered with the princes into the house of God, and is doing work fitting for the temple of God, and has heard the mystery: I will move all nations, and the desired of all nations shall come, and is full of prophecy; therefore the whole word of the Lord is made unto Haggai. Concerning the twenty-fourth day and the second year we have already spoken. The number of the ninth month, which is added here, is never read of in a good sense.

The people slays the Passover, and celebrates other festivities; every solemnity of it is finished on the eighth day, and does not reach the ninth. Those who prepare the Paschal lamb begin their preparation after the ninth day has passed. The day of propitiation and expiation of the seventh month is also celebrated after the ninth day. And in Jeremiah (chapters 39 and 52), as can be evident to readers, Jerusalem is besieged by the Babylonians in the ninth year. Since, therefore, the prophecy was to be concerning the future uncleanness of the people, therefore in the second year of Darius the ninth month is joined to it. Again, because room is given for repentance after the rebuke of uncleanness, on the twenty-fourth day the word of God comes to Haggai the prophet, that, as it were in the person of the Lord, he might ask a question of the priests arising from the law, and it is said to him: Ask the priests concerning the law, saying.

And at the same time consider that it is the office of priests to answer one who asks concerning the law. If he is a priest, let him know the law of the Lord: if he is ignorant of the law, he himself proves that he is not a priest of the Lord. For it is the priest's part to know the law, and to answer questions concerning the law. This indeed we read also in Deuteronomy (chapter 17), that if anywhere in the cities of Israel a question should arise between blood and blood, between judgment and judgment, leprosy and leprosy, controversy and controversy, they should go to the priests and the Levites, and to the high priest who shall be appointed in those days, and inquire of him the law of the Lord; and when they answer, let them do what they are commanded. But if they do not do so, let them be cut off from their people.

And lest perhaps these precepts should seem to belong only to the Old Instrument, the Apostle also speaks to Timothy, that a bishop ought to be not only blameless, and the husband of one wife, and wise, and modest, and orderly, and hospitable, but also apt to teach. And lest it should seem that he had said this by chance, the same caution is observed to Titus also concerning the ordaining of presbyters (whom he also wishes to be understood as bishops). For this cause I left thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and shouldest ordain priests in every city, as I had appointed thee: if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly.

For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not self-willed, not soon angry, not violent, not a striker, not given to filthy lucre; but a lover of hospitality, modest, gentle, just, holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word in doctrine; that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped. I have set these things down at some length, that we may know, both from the Old and from the New Testament, that it is the office of priests to know the law of God, and to answer what they shall be asked. Nor does simplicity and abstinence in food suffice in a teacher, unless he can also instruct others in what he himself does.

Surely, since I think those will answer: that this belongs to those who from their youth prepare themselves for teaching, but that often by the judgment of the Lord, and by the suffrage of the people, simple men are chosen into the priesthood: let them at least have this, that after they have been ordained priests, they learn the law of God, that they may be able to teach what they have learned, and increase knowledge rather than wealth, and not be ashamed to learn from laymen those things which pertain to the office of priests: and let them spend nights and days more in the treatment of the Scriptures than in reckonings and computations. But what is this that Haggai asks the priests in the person of the Lord? If a man carry sanctified flesh in the border, or in the skirt of his garment, and touch with the skirt thereof bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any food, shall it be sanctified?

Before we treat of the question, we ought meanwhile to know according to the letter, what sanctified flesh is, and what it is to be unclean by reason of a soul. The victim that was offered on the altar—its flesh was holy, and among these sanctified flesh itself there was much diversity. For in some cases the priests ate in the inner sanctuary of the temple: in others, their kinsfolk at home: in others, those of the priests who appeared to be blemished: in others, Israelites who had no uncleanness. The full account of this diversity is given in Leviticus. But one was called unclean by reason of a soul who had touched the body of a dead man.

In which it is to be noted that, as long as the soul is in the body, the human body is not unclean: but as soon as the spirit that quickens the limbs has departed, that which is earthly becomes unclean, as it is written in the same Leviticus: And the Lord said to Moses, saying: Speak to the priests the sons of Aaron, and thou shalt say to them: They shall not be defiled for any souls among their people; but for their kin who are near them, for their mother, and for their father, and for their sons and daughters, and for their brother, and for their virgin sister who is near to them and has not been given to a husband: for these he shall not be defiled, nor shall he be suddenly polluted among his people to his own defilement. Consider that here it is commanded to the priests not to go in to any dead person, except to those kinsfolk and relatives of whom mention has been made above.

But the high priest, that is, the pontiff, had something more than the other priests: and neither piety nor affection could bend him so as to become unclean for the aforementioned persons. For Scripture says: And for any soul that is dead he shall not go in: neither for his father, nor for his mother, shall he be defiled. Knowing, then, what sanctified flesh is, and what it is to be unclean by reason of a soul, let us see what the prophet asks.

If any man—this is not said here of the Pontiff, or of the priest, or of the Levite; but of any man whatsoever: where the person is not specified, it is permitted to all indiscriminately to touch flesh. If he shall have taken, it says, sanctified flesh, and bound it in the skirt of his garment, and that very skirt of the garment has touched bread, or any other cooked food, or wine, or oil, or anything else besides these on which a man can feed, can bread, or wine, or oil, or any food, by the touch of the garment in which the holy flesh was bound, be sanctified? And the priests answering said: It cannot, that is, none of the things about which you ask will be sanctified; but each thing will remain as it was. Again another question is put to the priests: because indeed they had answered well to the former question, and as it were a similar problem is fitted to it, in which the unskilled could easily have erred.

For suppose someone did not know the law, and just as he answered concerning the sanctified flesh that bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any food is not sanctified, so he would likewise answer in this case too, and say: A thing polluted in soul does not contaminate those things which holy flesh could not sanctify. He asks therefore, and says: If he who is polluted in soul—that is, who has become unclean by contact with the dead—shall have touched any of these, namely bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or the rest of the foods; will these things which he has touched be polluted by contact with them? And the priests answered, whose chief was Jesus the son of Josedec, whence also they knew the law, and they said that by the contact of one who is unclean, all things touched by him are polluted.

And Haggai answered and said, being silent about the earlier matter, that sanctified flesh cannot sanctify other foods; and weaving the occasion of his discourse only from the second question: So is this people, and so is this nation before my face, says the Lord: He who is unclean in soul, and has touched a corpse, everything that he has touched, and what he has offered to me, shall be unclean. But what he says according to the letter is of this kind: O people, who, with only the altar built and my house destroyed, offer sacrifices to me on the altar, and think yourselves sanctified by its victims and flesh: know that you are not so much sanctified by the sacrifices—which, the temple being destroyed, will not be able to profit you—as that all your works, and all that you do, are contaminated, from the fact that you neglect and have striven rather to build your own house than mine.

Holy indeed is that which is offered on the altar; but you are not so much sanctified by the sacrifices, as you are polluted by the fact that you dwell in the valleys, and are involved in dead works. This according to the history: although we have drawn lines of spiritual understanding in it.

But moreover according to the ἀναγωγή (higher sense), the ecclesiastical man who has sacrificed the spotless lamb of a year old, and has put on Christ, if he shall have taken of its flesh, and bound it in the skirt of his garment, and that very skirt has touched the bread of the Scriptures, which strengthens the hearts of believers; or a cooked dish, the apostolic Epistles, which as it were cut up and cook the flesh of the old Law, and offer it seasoned for eating; or wine which gladdens the heart of man; or oil, in which the face of the hearer is made cheerful; or any food: the milk with which the Corinthians are nourished, and the vegetables on which the weak feed, and other things like these: they will not immediately eat these things as though sanctified, to whomsoever they have been given. For it is not from the fact that they are spoken, but from the fact that they are received, that they sanctify the hearers: because many are hearers of the law, and not doers.

But also for this reason, I think, all these things which I have mentioned are by no means carried by the touch of the garment to those who eat, as sanctified, because they are touched only by the edge of the cloak; and the sanctified flesh within does not know moisture, blood, veins, and sinews. Just as therefore the skirt of the Lord's garment, and a light touch, does not sanctify, except him who has eaten the flesh of the lamb, and drunk its blood: so on the contrary the man unclean in soul, and every perverse doctrine, necessarily makes unclean whatever they have touched. For they have in their sacraments bread, and wine, and oil, and every food; but their sacraments are like the bread of mourning: all who touch them will be contaminated. They too read the Scriptures, and as it were sprinkle bread from the testimonies of the Scriptures, and cook it all night in the oven; but when it has been given to eat, it drives those who eat it to madness.

They have pottage and a cooked dish, trying according to the sense of their perversity to weave together certain mystical things from the Scriptures, and as it were to cook and season the flesh of the lamb, but that cooking is destruction. They also have wine, but not from the vineyard of Sorec, which the Lord planted in Jeremiah, chosen and wholly true; but from the vineyard of the Sodomites. They also have oil which they violently press out from the testimonies of the old and new Scripture, and promise as it were for refreshment to deceived and weary minds; but the saint detests it, and says: But let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head. They also have various foods, namely the manifold ὑποθέσεις of various matters and diverse treatises, which, because those who wrote them are unclean, and they were uttered by an unclean mouth, whoever touches them will become unclean, and will be drawn into their error.

Whence Haggai answered, who knows the differences of the solemnities, and for this reason has received the name of "festal": So is this people and so is this nation, namely of the Jews, and of the Gentiles, and of all heretics, in my sight, says the Lord: Everything that they shall have done, that they shall have offered to me, whether vows for salvation, or peace-offerings, or for sin, or for trespass, or as a holocaust, or alms, or fasts, or continence of life, and chastity of body, shall be contaminated in my sight. For although the things offered by such men seem holy in their outward appearance: yet because they are touched by one who is polluted in soul, all will be polluted. (Verse 17. Ff.) And now set your hearts from this day and onward: before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord. When you went to a heap of twenty measures, and there were ten; and you went into the winepress to press out fifty flagons, and there were twenty.

I struck you with a burning wind, and with mildew, and with hail, in all the works of your hands, and there was not among you one who turned back to me, says the Lord. LXX: And now set upon your hearts from this day and onward, before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord, you who, when you were sending into the cypsele twenty measures of barley, and there came to be ten measures of barley: and you were entering the winepress to draw fifty amphorae, and there came to be twenty. I struck you with barrenness, and with blight of the air, and with hail, all the works of your hands: and you did not turn back to me, says the Lord.

Although all that you offered to me on the altar, because you had not built the temple, were contaminated (for without the building of the temple, every gift is polluted); nevertheless I now exhort you, O people, to turn your mind back to the past, and consider what has been done, that is, both from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, and whatever has been done before, grasp it in your mind, and for the sake of what, and how much you have endured, so that when henceforth prosperous things come to you, you may know for what cause they have come. Therefore before you began to build the temple, and to lay stone upon stone, when you went to the heap, and thought you had twenty measures, could you scarcely gather even half?

Or according to the LXX: When you sent twenty measures of barley into the vessel called the cypseles, and thought that although you were sending barley—food for animals—you were assured of at least those twenty measures, did you not, on returning to the vessel, find scarcely ten measures? When you also went to the winepress, and saw the grapes, and your eyes promised you fifty amphorae: I do not say half, but you could scarcely press out twenty amphorae. And I did this, striking you with a burning wind, and with corruption of the air, and with the dying of the crops, and with empty husks of the ears of grain and of the clusters of the vines, so that by the weight of these evils I might provoke you to know me: and not even so was there one who turned back to me.

The Hebrew has expounded the entire content of this passage, from what is written: And now set your hearts from this day and onward, up to the place where it says: the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate, and the olive tree has not flourished, from this day I will bless—thus: Certainly now the foundations of the temple have been laid; therefore from this day on which you laid the foundations (whereas in the past I punished you with barrenness, and famine, and hail, and drought, and there was no one among you who turned back to me through these plagues), set your hearts on the future and henceforth, and see that all things flow prosperously for you. And this will happen because you have begun to build my temple: and not placing your trust in the altar alone, you do not despise the building of my house.

According to this sense, we can say briefly, that some offer gifts to God in vain, and think that God can be appeased by alms and offerings, when they themselves have not built in themselves a temple for the Holy Spirit. For then alms are profitable, and the gifts that are offered on the altar, when one has first built himself into a temple of God; and after the building of the temple has offered gifts on the altar. Moreover according to the tropology, it is also said to us who now believe in Jesus Christ, if indeed we believe and show the truth by the work of faith, that we should return in mind to that time when we were Gentiles, daily serving vices, and had not built in ourselves a temple to God.

But as a skilled architect and most knowledgeable mason joins stone to stone, and cements the lower to the upper with lime and gypsum: so also the architect (whom the apostle also says he himself is: As a wise architect I have laid the foundation—; and whom the Lord threatens to take away from Jerusalem) knows how to join works to works, and gradually to build up the temple of God. Now the foundation of this temple is laid as Jesus, upon whom each one should see what he builds: one builds gold, silver, precious stones; another, wood, hay, stubble. And to the three good things three evil things are opposed in contrast. These are the stones of which the Lord promises he will build up Jerusalem: Behold, I will prepare your carbuncle stone, and your foundations of sapphire, and I will make your bulwarks of jasper, and your gates of crystal stone, and your wall of choice stones.

For it must not be thought, according to Jewish fables and foolish fictions, that God will build Jerusalem with gold and gems, and not with living stones, which now roll upon the earth, and, according to the natures of stones, are either fiery with faith, like the carbuncle; or wholly heavenly, and brought into the throne of God, like the sapphire; or shining with innocence and the simplicity of good works, like crystal. It is said to us therefore that we should consider what we suffered before we built in ourselves the temple of God. When you went, it says, to the heap of twenty measures, and there were ten: or according to the LXX: When you sent into the cypsele twenty measures of barley, and there were ten measures of barley.

For whatever we seemed to have of virtues and good works before Christ, was not wheat, but barley: and that barley itself, not according to our hope and vows—as we read of Isaac, that it gave hundredfold crops—but we could scarcely find even half of our labor from it, and it was said to us: Have you suffered so many things in vain? But also when we entered the winepress, and reckoned fifty amphorae of wine (which number, seven weeks being completed, the union of divinity encloses), and thought we had wine, which gladdens the heart of man, the holy number thirty was taken away from us (in which the Lord is baptized, and Ezechiel beholds a vision at the beginning of his prophecy, and according to the Hebrew the priests entered upon the ministry of God); and only twenty were left.

Which number Esau loves, whence also Jacob, knowing that he was delighted with this number, sends certain animals as a gift, twenty and twenty. And observe at the same time that Jacob himself, although holy (yet at that time when he was not with his father Isaac, that is, laughter; and his mother Rebecca, that is, patience; but had the Assyrians as neighbors, and dwelt in Mesopotamia, with rivers girding it on either side), served the most cruel and most avaricious Laban for a space of twenty years. Let no one be moved if we say that some, before the faith of Christ and the building of his temple, could receive only half of their labor, since among unbelievers there is no fruit of good works. For he does not lay up twenty and find twenty; but when he has laid up twenty, he finds ten, that is, half of his labor.

The Jews, and the heathen, and the philosophers of this age, and the rest who boast of wisdom, receive the fruit and glory of their manner of life and labor only in the present time, and all their hope and reward of the age to come is taken away. But this happens for the reason that, not utterly despairing, they may not disdain repentance; but that at some time, being converted, they may lay stone upon stone, and build the temple of God. But if they remain in unbelief, they will lose even that half which they seemed to have. For it follows: I struck you with burning wind, and mildew, and hail, in all the works of your hands. Now whatever is struck by mildew and hail and burning wind is reduced to dust and ash, and nothing is found in it pertaining to usefulness and to food. All these things indeed the Lord did, because there was not found among them one who would return to him.

But if they have returned, and have built the temple of the Lord, from the day on which they began to build they shall have what the word of the prophecy adds beneath. (Verses 19, 20.) Set your hearts from this day and henceforward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day on which the foundations of the temple of the Lord were laid, set it upon your heart. Is the seed yet in the bud, and has the fig tree, and the vine, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree not yet flowered? From this day I will bless. The Seventy: Set your hearts from this day and henceforward: from the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, and from the day on which the foundations of the temple of the Lord were laid, set it in your hearts: whether the threshing-floor shall still be known upon the earth, and whether the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate, and the olive trees, still bear no fruit? From this day I will bless.

I have set forth to you, he says, what you have endured before you began to build my temple: now I shall set forth what prosperous things are to come to you, because you have begun to build my temple. Therefore from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in which the foundations of the temple were laid, consider how great an abundance of things is to come. The ninth month is what we call November, or December. For among the Hebrews NISAN (ניסן) is the first month, which is called the month of new things: at that time when they celebrate the Passover, that is, at the beginning of spring, which according to the course of the moon often occupies a certain part of the month of March, and sometimes begins in April. Therefore if by Nisan we understand April, the ninth month according to the reckoning of the Hebrews will be December. Therefore it is the tenth month at that time when the seeds lie hidden in the earth, and the future fruitfulness cannot be conjectured.

Is the seed yet, he says, in the bud? Which is better said in Hebrew, "in the husk," so as to signify the covering of the grain. Have the vine and the fig tree, and the pomegranate and the olive tree yet given their flower? So that from the flower the fruit also may be understood. Certainly not; for in the month, as we have said, of December there are no signs of future crops. Do not say, then, that I conjecture this by prudent reasoning, and suspect the future fruitfulness from the flowers of trees and the herbs of the fields: behold, there are no signs; and yet I foretell to you, because you have begun to build my temple, unto my blessing, the fruitfulness of all crops. This we have said according to the Hebrew. But according to the Seventy the sense is far different, which we ought first to expound according to the letter, so that afterward the order of tropology already begun may be treated.

Set your hearts from this day, on which the temple was founded, henceforward, and you shall see that the crops to come shall be so great, and so much grain shall be carried from all the fields, that the threshing-floor will not know its own produce, or so that there will not be separate threshing-floors for individuals, but on account of the multitude threshing-floor shall be joined to threshing-floor, and the separation of threshing-floors shall not be known in the land. The vine also and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, which before, through your fault, bore no fruits, because you had not yet begun to build for me, shall be bent down with such abundance of grapes and fruits, that manifest fruitfulness may indicate manifest blessing. But that the ninth month is not taken in a good sense, both the fourth Book of Kings and the history of Jeremiah relate, in which Jerusalem is said to have been besieged.

Yet since at the end of the ninth month the foundations of the temple are laid, we can understand by this that the temple of the Lord does not begin to be built unless evil works are finished. Whence also on the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the foundation of the temple is laid, in which number there is a double δωδεκάς (dozen) and three ὀγδοάδες (eights), and four ἑξάδες (sixes), concerning which we have already argued more fully above. Whoever therefore has dedicated himself to the worship of God, and has despised the ῥάθυμος, that is, the negligent patron (who in the book of Ezra according to the Seventy interpreters forbids the temple of God to be built), that man does not know the measure of his fruits and of his reward.

Or certainly on account of what is said: whether the threshing-floor shall still be known upon the earth, he who has sown in the spirit, and from the spirit has reaped eternal life, shall by no means store up treasure for himself on earth, but all his works, and the rewards of his works, shall be gathered in the heavens. The vine also, that is, the word of God, whose farmer in each one is the Father; and the fig tree, the sweetest gifts of the Holy Spirit; and the pomegranate, the teachings of the Church and the knowledge of the Scriptures, which is compared to the cheeks of the bride in the Song of Songs; and the trees of the olive shall give refreshment and enlightenment of heart to him who has begun to build the temple of God.

That the vine and the fig tree and the olive (I defer for a little concerning the pomegranate) are referred to the person of the Savior, and of God the Father, and of the Holy Spirit, is read more fully in the book of Judges, where the fruitless trees go to set up a king over themselves, and speak in turn to the vine and the fig tree and the olive, that they might reign over them, and both the vine and the fig tree and the olive refuse such dominion, nor do they deign to reign over fruitless trees. Then those come to the tree of their own sterility as king, that is, to the thorny bramble bush and little shrub woven with thorns and hooks, which holds fast whatever it touches, and wounds what it has held, and delights in the blood of the wounded: moreover it also sends forth fire from itself, and consumes the trees that reigned over it.

Now we refer the bramble to the devil, and according to the nature of the shrub we shall interpret his nature. Moreover the vine and the fig tree and the olive will be there where the pomegranate is, which tree, on account of the exceeding multitude of its seeds, and the geometrical composition of its interwoven membranes, and its various little chambers, yet all comprehended by one rind, is always in the Scriptures set upon the person of the Church. (Verses 21 and following.) And the word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying: Speak to Zorobabel, the leader of Judah, saying: I will move heaven together with the earth, and I will overturn the throne of kingdoms, and I will crush the strength of the kingdom of the nations; and I will overturn the chariot and its riders; and the horses and their riders shall come down, each man by the sword of his brother.

In that day, says the Lord of hosts: I will take you, Zorobabel son of Salathiel, my servant, says the Lord, and I will make you as it were a signet: because I have chosen you, says the Lord of hosts. In the Seventy there are added, "sea and dry land"; and there is lacking, "I will crush the strength of the kingdom of the nations," which is known more fully from their own reading. It is to be noted that on the same day, that is, on the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, the number of the month being left unmentioned, because they were prophesying about the coming of Christ and about his kingdom, the word of our Lord comes a second time to Haggai, not "by his hand" as before, nor "to Haggai the prophet" as in the fourth vision, but only "to Haggai," that is, to one celebrating the feasts of the Lord: because he was to announce and behold, not one who would come, but one who was coming.

And just as Abraham saw the day of Christ, and was glad; and John pointed out the Lamb of God with his finger: so also he himself, seeing the kingdom of the Son of God, would have in himself all the solemnities. In this place there is among most a differing opinion: for some suspect that it is said of his first coming: others of the second, when he shall come in his majesty. We take up both, because both he reigned then when he came, and afterward he is to reign. Yet if we wish to take it of the end of the world, we shall say that which the apostle speaks to the Corinthians: that every principality and every power and virtue is to be destroyed, that God may be all in all.

And because what is said is mystical, and pertains to the end of things; therefore the prophet is commanded to speak to Zorobabel alone, whom we have shown to have proceeded, as a type of Christ, on account of the assumption of a body from the seed of David. To him, then, are told the things that are to come at the end, that the figure of this world may pass away, and a new heaven and a new earth be made, and the Lord shake heaven and earth, and destroy every principality and power and virtue, and scatter the kings of kings, or as it is held in the Hebrew, of kingdoms, and slay every contrary strength, so that even to those who formerly reigned, and had held the nations under their dominion, the destruction of their kingdom may be of profit, and, all zeal for warfare being dissipated, peace may follow; for this is what he says: And I will overturn the chariot, or chariots, and their riders, and the horses shall come down and their riders.

And that you may know that in the overturning of the chariots and the falling horsemen this is what we have said is signified: See how it is said of Christ in Zacharias that the meek king comes, riding upon a yoked animal and the colt of an ass, and that he will destroy the chariots out of Ephraim, and the horse out of Jerusalem, so that there may be one flock and one shepherd, and both hosts, as much of the Gentiles as of the Jews, may be held under the peaceful shepherd. But that these things which are perverse may be destroyed, each one with the sword (which I think to be the most keen word of doctrine, cutting off every contrary thing) will rise up against his brother, amputating everything contrary. But the end of all these things is best.

For after the destruction of thrones, and the strengths of those reigning, and the chariots, and the horses, and the riders, in that day, says the Lord almighty: I will take you, Zorobabel, son of Salathiel, my servant. Now he is called servant on account of the human body, because then the Son himself also will be subjected to him who subjected all things to himself, and in all things subjected he himself also will be seen subjected. But when this shall have been fulfilled, God will set him as it were a signet in his hand: For this one God the Father has sealed: and this is the image of the invisible God, and the form of his substance: so that whoever shall have believed in God may be, as it were, sealed with this ring. I beg you, reader, to pardon one dictating in swift speech, and not to require elegance of eloquence, which I have lost through long devotion to the study of the Hebrew language: although Alecto asserts that I have always been a mute infant.

To whom I would say: The Lord shall give a word to him who preaches the gospel, with much power.