Haggai 1:1

Like Ezekiel, Jonah, and Zechariah, the Book of Haggai contains no formal title. Yahweh sent a message to Zerubbabel ("born in Babylon" or "seed of Babylon," an allusion to his birthplace) and Joshua ("Yahweh saves") through the prophet Haggai, though it went to all the Israelites too (Haggai 1:2; Haggai 1:4). Zerubbabel was the political governor (overseer) of the Persian province of Judah who had led the returnees back to the land (Ezra 2:2; et al.). He was the son of Shealtiel ("I have asked of God," Ezra 3:2; Ezra 3:8; Ezra 5:2; Nehemiah 12:1; et al) and the grandson of King Jehoiachin (Jeconiah), one of the descendants of King David (cf. 1 Chronicles 3:17-19; Matthew 1:12).

Zerubbabel apparently had two fathers (1 Chronicles 3:17-19). Perhaps his other father, Pedaiah, was his uncle. If this was a levirate marriage (cf. Deuteronomy 25:5-10), Pedaiah would have married a woman and then died. Shealtiel, Pedaiah’s brother, would then have married the widow who gave birth to Zerubbabel in place of Shealtiel, Zerubbabel’s physical father. Another possibility is that Shealtiel adopted Zerubbabel after Pedaiah died. A third option is that one of these men was really a more distant ancestor of Zerubbabel, perhaps his grandfather.

Joshua was the high priest of the restoration community and a descendant of Aaron. He was the son of Jehozadak, who had gone into Babylonian captivity in 586 B.C. (1 Chronicles 6:15; cf. Ezra 3:2; Ezra 3:8; Nehemiah 12:1; Nehemiah 12:8).

The Lord gave Haggai this message on the first day of the sixth month in the second year that Darius I (Hystaspes) ruled as king over Persia. This was Elul 1 (August 29), 520 B.C. [Note: R. A. Parker and W. H. Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C.-A.D. 75, p. 30, established the equivalent modern (Julian) dates.] When the Israelites returned from exile in Babylon, they continued to follow the Babylonian calendar and began their years in the spring rather than in the fall (cf. Exodus 23:16; Exodus 34:22). Each new month began with a new moon, and the Israelites commonly celebrated the occasion with a new moon festival (cf. Numbers 28:11-15; Isaiah 1:14; Hosea 2:11). This first prophetic revelation that God gave in the Promised Land following the return from exile came on a day when most of the Israelites would have been in Jerusalem. The meaning of Haggai’s name (festal, or festal one) was appropriate in view of when the Lord gave this first prophecy through him. The fact that the writer spoke of Haggai in the third person does not exclude Haggai himself from being the writer since this was a common literary device in antiquity. [Note: Taylor, p. 52.]

In the historical books of the Old Testament, the writers usually dated the events in reference to a king of Judah or Israel, but the Jews had no king now. They were under the control of a Gentile ruler, in "the times of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24; cf. Daniel 2; Zechariah 1:1). "The times of the Gentiles" are the times during which Israel lives under Gentile control. These times began when Judah lost her sovereignty to Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C., and they will continue until Messiah’s second coming when He will restore sovereignty to Israel.