14<\/strong>. This verse contains the application to the present case of the Jews of the principles brought out by the foregoing questions. The second principle, as to the transmission of uncleanness, is first applied in the former clauses of the verse, while the first principle, as to the non-transmission of holiness, is referred to in the last clause. “So,” resembling the case just described, “is this people and this nation, before Me, saith the Lord.” It is polluted in itself, like the man who is “unclean by a dead body,” through its disobedience, and neglect of my Temple. “And so,” defiled through this act of disobedience, just as whatever he touches is defiled by the touch of him who has had contact with the dead, “is every work of their hands.” The blight that rests on all their industry and labour, that mars and withers every work in which their hands are engaged, is the punishment and the proof of the moral uncleanness, which residing in themselves extends to all that they put their hand to. “And that which they offer there,” (on the altar which they have built to My Name in Jerusalem,) so far from sanctifying their works, as they vainly think, is itself through the pervading influence of their sin “unclean.” The sanctifying influence of the altar on which they pride themselves would at best but have reached a little way. The prevailing power of their disobedience vitiates all such sanctifying influence, and renders the very offerings on the altar itself unclean.<\/p>\n this people and so is this nation<\/em> ] See ch. Hag 1:2<\/span>. The addition of the word “nation,” the word commonly used for the heathen nations of the world, as distinguished from the Jews who were the “people” of God, has been thought to be a further sign of contempt and rejection. But the two words are used together of Israel in Zep 2:9<\/span>, where no such meaning can be intended.<\/p>\n there<\/em> ] On the altar built on their return from Babylon. Ezr 3:3<\/span>.<\/p>\n Hag 2:14<\/span><\/p>\n So is every work of their hands, and that which they offer there is unclean.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Works and pure hearts<\/strong><\/p>\n They who have imbibed the true fear of God, do rightly serve Him though they may bring only a crumb of incense, and that others only profane the worship of God, though they bring many oxen; as a heathen poet says, An impious right hand does not rightly worship the celestials. The <\/strong>philosophers ever hold this principle–that no sacrifice is rightly offered to God except the mind be right and pure. But yet the philosophers, as well as the poets, adopted this false notion, by which Satan beguiled all men, that God is pacified by ceremonies: hence have proceeded so many expiations, in which foolish men trusted, and by which they thought that God would be propitious to them, though they obstinately continued daily to procure for themselves new punishments, and, as it were, avowedly to carry on war with God Himself. The prophet says that men not only lose all their labour, but also contract new pollution, when they seek to pacify God by their sacrifices, unaccompanied by inward purity. Works, however splendid they may appear before our eyes, are of no value or importance before God, except they flow from a pure heart. The fountain of works I consider to be integrity of heart, and the design and end is, when the <\/strong>object of men is to obey God, and to consecrate their life to Him. (John Calvin.<\/em>)<\/p>\n Verse 14<\/span>. Then answered Haggai <\/B><\/I>– So is <\/B>this people<\/B><\/I>] As an unclean<\/I> man communicates his uncleanness to every thing he touches, so are ye unclean; and whatever ye have hitherto done is polluted in the sight of God. For your neglect of my temple has made you unclean, as if you had contracted legal pollution by touching a dead body.<\/P> <\/p>\n Now is the case applied. As common things touched by holy things are not sanctified, and as polluted persons touching what is clean pollute it; as holy things did not by touch and bodily application make him legally holy who was common, but a polluted person made all he touched and handled unclean; so unsanctified and polluted Jews polluted Gods ordinances, while the outward performing of legal and ceremonial duties, such as bringing, offering, eating, dragging about their legal sacrifices, left them as unholy in themselves and as unacceptable to God as they were before. Somewhat more then is to be done. The soul is first to be purified, that they and we may offer up a pure offering. <\/P> So is the people; <\/B>the body of the Jews, or the most part of them. <\/P> So is this nation:<\/B> this ingeminateth the same thing, to intimate to us how God resenteth it, and how we should be affected with it. <\/P> Before me; <\/B>in Gods account, or in his sight, who seeth indeed what men are, and what their actions are. <\/P> So is every work of their hands; <\/B>whatever they do in sacred or civil matters, they make a shift to pollute all by polluted hands, by leprous touches. <\/P> That which they offer there, <\/B>what they do bring to the altar with impure hearts and hands, is more polluted by them than sanctified by the altar. <\/P> Is unclean; <\/B>really impure; though it seem externally clean and holy, it is unsuitable to the purity of a holy God. In sanctified actions all is spoiled by unsanctified hearts. Thence it is that uncleanness is derived on their best works, and consecrated rites do not, cannot sanctify profane spirits. <\/P> <\/p>\n 14. Then answered Haggai<\/B>rather,”Then Haggai answered (in rejoinder to the priests’ answer) andsaid” [MAURER]. <\/P> so is this people<\/B>heretoforenot in such an obedient state of mind as to deserve to be called My<\/I>people (Tit 1:15<\/span>). Here heapplies the two cases just stated. By the first case, “thispeople” is not made “holy” by their offerings “there”(namely, on the altar built in the open air, under Cyrus, Ezr3:3<\/span>); though the ritual sacrifice can ordinarily sanctifyoutwardly so far as it reaches (Heb9:13<\/span>), as the “holy flesh” sanctified the “skirt,”yet it cannot make the offerers in their persons and all their worksacceptable to God, because lacking the spirit of obedience (1Sa15:22<\/span>) so long as they neglected to build the Lord’s house. Onthe contrary, by the second case, they made “unclean” theirvery offerings<\/I> by being unclean through “dead works”(disobedience), just as the person unclean by contact with a deadbody imparted his uncleanness to all that he touched (compare Heb9:14<\/span>). This all applies to them as they had been, not as they arenow that they have begun to obey; the design is to guard them againstfalling back again. The “there” points to the altar,probably in view of the audience which the prophet addressed.<\/P><\/p>\n Then answered Haggai, and said<\/strong>,…. To the priests, and before the people; and made an application of these things to them, which was the thing in view in putting the questions:<\/p>\n So [is] this people, and so [is] this nation before me, saith the Lord<\/strong>; not only those people that were present and at work at the temple, but those that were absent, even the whole body of the people; who, though they were pure in their own eyes, yet were not so before the Lord; who knew their hearts, and the spring of all their actions; what were their ends and views in all they did: as a garment carrying in it holy flesh could not sanctify other things touched by it that were common and profane, but left them as they were; so their ritual devotions, and externally holy actions, did not and could not sanctify their impure hearts, but left them as unclean as before; nor did they sanctify their common mercies, their bread, pottage, wine, and oil: and, on the other hand, as an impure person made everything impure he touched; so they, being impure in heart, all their actions, even their religious ones, were impure also, as follows:<\/p>\n and so [is] every work of their hands; and that which they offer there [is] unclean<\/strong>; pointing at the altar, which they had built, and offered sacrifice on ever since they came out of Babylon, though the temple was not yet built, Ezr 3:3<\/span> but all their outward religious services, and all the sacrifices they offered up, were in the Lord’s account impure and abominable, as well as themselves; coming from an unsanctified heart, and offered up with unclean hands, and without repentance towards God, and faith in Christ; and living in other respects in disobedience to God, and especially while they neglected the building of the temple; satisfying themselves with offering sacrifices on the altar, when the house of God lay desolate; which is the principal thing respected, as appears by what follows.<\/p>\n (14) That which they offer there<\/strong>i.e.,<\/em> probably, on yon altar, but the expression is singular. In Ezr. 3:3<\/span> we read, And they set the altar upon his bases. . . . and they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening.<\/p>\n Hag 2:14 Then answered Haggai, and said, So [is] this people, and so [is] this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so [is] every work of their hands; and that which they offer there [is] unclean.<\/p>\n Ver. 14. So is this people, and so is this nation before me<\/strong> ] Though pure in their own eyes, Pro 30:12<\/span> , and to the world-ward unrebukeable, as Paul the Pharisees, Phi 2:14-15<\/span> , and those self-justiciaries, Luk 16:14-15<\/span> “Ye are those that justify yourselves” (and have the world’s good word for you), “but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.” Sordet in conspectu iudicis quod fulget in conspectu operantis.<\/em> Filthy in the sight of the judge who glisten in the sight of their works. Wicked men’s services are but glistering sins ( splendida peccata<\/em> ), they rejoice in a thing of nought, as Amos hath it, Amo 6:13<\/span> , like as Leah rejoiced in that whereof she had cause to repent, and said, “God hath given me my hire,” when she had more cause to say, God, I fear, will give me my hire, my payment, “because I have given my maiden to my husband,” Gen 30:18<\/span> . But she was in the common error of measuring and judging of things by the success; as if God were not many times angry with men, though they outwardly prosper; or as if there were not here one event to the clean and to the unclean, Ecc 9:2<\/span> . Until the day that God shall separate the sheep from the goats, whom for the glory of his name and the good of his people he suffers for present to go one among another, to make his own to stick the faster together and to their principles. Shepherds say that it is wholesome for a flock of sheep to have some goats to feed among them; their bad scent being good medicine for the sheep, to keep them from the shakings. a<\/em> Only let God’s sheep take heed that they contract no corruption by conversing with goats; which is soon done, for sin is catching, and ill company is contagious. Nemo errat sibi ipsi; sed dementiam spargit in proxiruos,<\/em> saith Seneca, No man errs out of the right way alone, but draws others along. And multos sollicitat societas nefauda,<\/em> saith Chrysostom, evil company soliciteth many to sin. Virtue is oft overcome by vice, saith Nazianzen, as a little wormwood sooner embittereth a great deal of honey than twice so much honey can sweeten a small deal of wormwood; or as one spoonful of vinegar will soon sour a great deal of sweet milk; but a great deal of milk will not so soon allay one spoonful of vinegar. Remove but one stone, and the whole river will rush downward; but you can hardly stop the stream again with a strong dam. Touch pitch and you shall presently be defiled, but touch soap and you shall not presently be made clean without much rubbing and rinsing. Mezentius the tyrant, Corpora a corporibus iungebat mortua vivis,<\/em> tied living men to dead carcasses; but the dead did not revive the living, the living rather putrefied by reason of the dead. He that bore consecrated flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt touched bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any food, he made it not thereby holy. But if an unclean person touched any of these he made it unclean. The Donatists abused this text, to prove that baptism was defiled and vacated if administrated by an unregenerate minister; but Augustine again, against Fulgentius the Donatist, vindicateth the text from their false glosses, and asserteth from it the contrary truth. May not clean grain be sowed with foul hands, and grow nevertheless? May not a trumpet be well sounded by an impure breath? And is not the water in baptism, that cleanseth the child, cast afterwards into the draught? saith Gregory, Aqua baptismatis baptizatos ad regnum caelestis mittit, et ipsa postea in cloacam descendit.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n So is this people, and so is that nation before me, and so is every work of their hands, and that which they offer, &c.] Note the order of the induction. First, themselves were unclean, both people and nation; there was a general defection and defilement ran through all sorts and sexes, as the woof runs through the warp; so that they were all together but one continued web of wickedness, as it were, spun out and made up by the hands of the devil, and the flesh, an evil spinner, and a worse weaver; both root and fruit were nought, as Isa 5:4<\/span> , both head, heart, and foot were out of order, Isa 1:5-6<\/span> , and they are barely and boldly told of it by the prophets. Secondly, the works of their hands were unclean; for not only the praying, but “the plowing of the wicked, is sin,” Pro 21:4<\/span> , all their natural and civil actions also are abominable. Whether they plough, or play, or eat, or sleep: corruption is like copperas, b<\/em> which will turn wine or milk into ink; or leaven, which turns a very passover into pollution; or as the sanies of a plague sore, which will render the richest robe infectious. Thirdly, that which they offer there, their sacrifices and all their religious performances, were likewise unclean; not in respect of God, who commanded them; nor of the matter, for they offered clean beasts; but of the manner of offering (which makes or mars the action), and of the men, who were unregenerate, and rested in the work done, and drew near to God with their lips, thinking to put God off with an external worship only; Ludenies cum Deo tanquam pueri cum suis puppis,<\/em> as Calvin hath it, that is, playing with God, as children do with their babies. The poets declaimed against this foppery, as Persius; and another, Non bene caelestes impia dextra colit.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n a<\/em> A disease in sheep and swine. Also the ague. D <\/p>\n b<\/em> A name given from early times to the protosulphates of copper, iron, and zinc (distinguished as blue, green,<\/em> and white<\/em> copperas respectively). D<\/p>\n Then, &c. This is the application of verses: Hag 2:11-13. <\/p>\n there. Referring to the altar which was set up before the building of the Temple. See Hag 2:15. Compare Ezr 3:2, Ezr 3:3, with Hag 2:6. <\/p>\n So is this people: Hag 1:4-11, Pro 15:8, Pro 21:4, Pro 21:27, Pro 28:9, Isa 1:11-15, Tit 1:15, Jud 1:23 <\/p>\n and that: Ezr 3:2, Ezr 3:3 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: Num 5:3 – defile not Jos 7:12 – they were Ecc 5:6 – destroy Isa 52:11 – touch Mal 3:9 – General<\/p>\n Hag 2:14, Having reminded them or the provisions concerning cleanness as they pertained to individual items of the service, Haggai makes comparison to the state of the nation, The services that were being attempted might have been legal in themselves, but tbe nation had come tn contact with that which was unclean which rendered the whole procedure unholy. (See note offered at Isa 1:10, volume 3 of this Commentary.)<\/p>\n Haggai then made an application of this principle to the people for the Lord. Their sacrifices were unacceptable to God because they were unclean. They should not think that contact with something holy, such as the temple they were working to complete, made them acceptable to God. They had previously been unclean, so their present sacrifices were unacceptable to God.<\/p>\n Then answered Haggai, and said, So [is] this people, and so [is] this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so [is] every work of their hands; and that which they offer there [is] unclean. 14. This verse contains the application to the present case of the Jews of the principles brought out by the … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Haggai 2:14”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"