The Popular Commentary by Paul E. Kretzmann - Haggai 1:1-15
The Indifference of the People Rebuked. When the exiles, under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua, had returned to Jerusalem, they had begun the work of rebuilding the Temple with great eagerness. But when the Samaritans and others had placed various obstacles in their way, they had discontinued their efforts, making no determined effort to remove the difficulties. A few years after, when a certain measure of prosperity was found in Judea, they grew indifferent to the project, and so the... read more
F. B. Hole's Old and New Testament Commentary - Haggai 1:1-99
Hag 1 THE PEOPLE ADOPTED a fatalistic attitude, saying, 'the time is not come . . . that the Lord's house should be built'; and started to build up their own affairs. Some sixty years ago we heard Christians saying, in spite of the Lord's words in Act_1:8 , that the time for the evangelization of the distant heathen was not come, and they settled down to build up their own spiritual affairs, as they considered them to be. It was not wrong for these Jews to build themselves some houses, but it... read more