Haggai 2:3

The Lord asked if the older members of the restoration community who had seen Solomon’s temple, which perished 66 years earlier, did not think the present temple was nothing in comparison (cf. Zechariah 4:10). The Lord’s three questions forced the people to admit that the present temple was not as grand as the former one had been. The older returnees had made a similar negative comparison when the foundation of the temple was laid 16 years earlier in 536 B.C (cf. Ezra 3:8-13). The dedication of Solomon’s temple took place 440 years earlier at the feast of Tabernacles (1 Kings 8:2; 2 Chronicles 7:8-10), so that was perhaps the reason the Lord gave this message to Haggai on this day.