Book of Haggai

The Book of Haggai is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, and has its place as the third-to-last of the Minor Prophets. It is a short book, consisting of only two chapters. The historical setting dates around 520 BCE before the Temple has been rebuilt. 520 BCE falls between the start of the Achaemenid Empire in 539 BCE and 520 BCE, a period that saw major leaders such as Zerubbabel help lead the Jews in their return to the land.

The Book of Haggai is named after its presumed author, the prophet Haggai. There is no biographical information given about the prophet in the Book of Haggai. Haggai's name is derived from the Hebrew verbal root hgg, which means "to make a pilgrimage." W. Sibley Towner suggests that Haggai's name might come "from his single-minded effort to bring about the reconstruction of that destination of ancient Judean pilgrims, the Temple in Jerusalem."

The Book of Haggai was written in 520 BCE some 18 years after Cyrus had conquered Babylon and issued a decree in 538 BCE allowing the captive Jews to return to Judea. Cyrus saw the restoration of the temple as necessary for the restoration of the religious practices and a sense of peoplehood after a long exile.

Haggai's message is filled with an urgency for the people to proceed with the rebuilding of the second Jerusalem temple. Haggai attributes a recent drought to the people's refusal to rebuild the temple, which he sees as key to Jerusalem’s glory. The book ends with the prediction of the downfall of kingdoms, with one Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, as the Lord’s chosen leader. The language here is not as finely wrought as in some other books of the minor prophets, yet the intent seems straightforward.

The first chapter contains the first address (2–11) and its effects (12–15).

The second chapter contains:

These discourses are referred to in Ezra 5:1 and 6:14. (Compare Haggai 2:7, 8 and 22)

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