Paraphrase of the Hard Texts of Scripture, Scripture 33
HAGGAI.
CAP. I.
THe people make excuses for their neglect,2 This people say, the time is not come, the time that the Lords house should be built. and say, the time is not yet comne for the building up of the Temple; faine would we be reedifying it, but we see opposition made by our envious neighbours, so as it is not yet seasonable to goe about it.
Is it time for you, O yee Jewes,4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your seeled houses, and this house lie waste? to build for your selves, faire houses, and to take your pleasure in injoying of them, whiles ye suffer Gods house to lie waste?
Consider well the courses that ye take,5 Consider your waies. & the successe of your affaires.
God hath justly crossed you in all your hopes,6 Ye have sowen much, and bring in little, ye eate, but ye have not enough, ye drinke, but ye are not filled with drinke, ye cloath you, but there is none warme, & he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes and endeavours; Ye have sowne much, expecting a goodly crop, but ye finde little to reape, &c. and he that earneth wages, is never the better, never the richer; his gaines doe not prosper in his hands.
Goe yee up to mount Libanus, cut downe cedars,8 Goe up to the mountaine, and bring wood, and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. and bring them up to Sion, and build this Temple of mine, and though it be not done with that state, and magnificence, wherewith it was formerly, yet I will take pleasure in it, and account my selfe glorified in, and by it, saith the Lord.
9 I did blow upon it, &c.I crossed your hopes and designes in it, &c.
CAP. II.
3 Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory, and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?IF there be any yet alive amongst you, that saw this Temple in her first glory, as it was built by Salomon, ere it was rained by Nebuchadnezzar, and sees it now in the present homely estate, wherein it is; will he not thinke meanely of it, as a thing not worthy to be regarded?
4 Yet now bee strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord, and be strong O Iosuah, sonne of Iosedech the high priest, and bee strong all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and worke, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts.Yet now be of good courage, O Zerubbabel, &c. and be strong, and goe forward cheerefully with the worke, O ye people of the land; for I doe both graciously accept, and will mercifully blesse your indeavours herein.
According to the word of my covenant with you, when ye came out of Aegypt,5 According to the word that I covenanted with you when yee came out of Aegypt, so my spirit remaineth amōg you, feare ye not. that ye should be my people, and I would be your God; so will I performe my protection, and the presence of my spirit with you; feare ye not.
For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Once I did in great terrour deliver my law;6 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, Yet once it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth and the sea, and the drie land. and now ere any long time, I will once more worke a great change in my Church, by the bringing in of my Gospell; before, and in the exhibiting whereof, as I did formerly, in the delivery of the law, I will doe wondrous things, both in heaven and earth, to the astonishing of the inhabitants thereof.
7 And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.And besides the prodigies in heaven, and earth, wherwith men shall be moved to amazement, I will cause great commotions of warres, amongst all nations, who shall be grievously embroyled; and then immediately, peace being restored to the world, the promised and desired Messias, the Saviour of the world shall come; and I will fill this house with the glory of his presence in it; for he shall come under the roofe thereof.
8, 9. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts, the glory of this later house shall be greater then of the former, saith the Lord of hosts, and in this place wil I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.Thinke not that I stand upon matter of cost, or price of metalls; all the silver and gold which is hid in the bowells of the earth, is mine, and how easie were it for me, thus to adorne my house; but I would have you to know that the glory of this house of mine doth not consist in these outward things; no, the glory of this later house (though meaner in structure) shall be greater, then of the former, saith the Lord; in that my sonne the Saviour of the world, being cloathed in flesh, shall come personally, and visibly under the roofe of it; and that from thence shall the Gospell goe forth to all the world even that Gospell of peace, which shall worke a true and blessed tranquillity to every beleever.12, 13, 14. If one beare holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt doe touch bread or pottage, or wine, or oile, or any meate, shall it bee holy? and the priests answered and said, no: then said Haggai if one that is uncleane by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be uncleane? and the priests answered and said, it shall be uncleane; then answered Haggai and said, so is this people, & so is this nation before me, saith the Lord, and so is every worke of their hands, and that which they offer there, is unclean.
As a man that toucheth, or carrieth about him a sanctified thing, is not thereby made cleane and holy; neither doth thereby sanctifie or make holy those other things, which he toucheth; So yee Jewes, though yee have an holy altar, and there bee holy sacrifices offered thereon, yet this holinesse of your altar cannot sanctifie you; But, as contrarily, if a man that is uncleane, through any occasion of legall impurity, touch bread, or flesh, or any such thing, that very thing, which he toucheth, is by that touch made uncleane; so ye Jewes being morally polluted, and uncleane, doe by your sinfull impurity pollute my altars, and offerings, and all the services that ye goe about.
And now I pray you, consider,15 And now I pray you consider from this day, and upward, from before the stone was laid upon a stone, in the Temple of the Lord. and look backe from this day, unto the time that the first stone was laid in the foundation (which is above one hundred yeares) since when there hath not beene a stone laid upon it.
In all that time of your slacknesse, and neglect,16 Since those daies were, when one came to a heape of twentie measures there were but ten. I did so sensibly crosse you, that you might well finde it, in your corne, and oile, and wine, in all which your hopes failed you notably;18 Consider now from this day, and upward from the foure and twentieth day of the ninth monethmonth, even from the day that the foundation of the Lords Temple was laid, consider it: where one made account to have gathered twenty measures, he found but ten, &c.
And now, that ye may see Gods blessing upon you, for setting your hands, to the building of his Temple, consider his dealings with you ever since the foure and twentieth day of November (when yee beganne to renew the worke of this building) consider.
As yet the seed is so farre from yeelding an harvest-increase to the barne, that it is scarce sprouted up;19 Is the seed yet in the barne? yea, as yet, the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate & the olive tree hath not brought forth: from this day, will I blesse you. as yet there is no proofe of your other fruits, the vines, pomegranates, olives; but marke how plentifully from this very day, God will blesse you in all these.
I will make a sensible and wonderfull alteration in the world.21 I will shake the heavens and the earth.
For I will overthrow the t…ones of divers Kingdomes,22 And I will overthrow the throne of kingdomes, and I will destroy the strength of the Kingdomes of the heathen, and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them, and the horses and their riders shall come downe every one by the sword of his brother. and will cause the opposite Kingdomes of the heathen, to subdue one another; and besides the broiles of forraine warres, I will cause the power of great kingdomes to be impaired, and overturned by civill divisions.
23 In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the sonne of Shealtiel, saith the Lord, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts.But as for thee, O Zerubbabel, my faithfull servant, which hast beene zealous to advance my service, and to build my Temple; I will take thee and thy posterity into my dearest respects, and speciall care; for I have made choise of thee, as the man, from whose loines, in the fulnesse of time, I will take that flesh, wherewith I shall be cloathed, saith the Lord of hosts.