Hag 1:1
1:1 In the second year of {a} Darius the king, in the sixth
    month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the
    LORD by Haggai the prophet unto {b} Zerubbabel the son of
    Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of
    Josedech, the high priest, saying,

  The Argument - When the time of the seventy years captivity
    prophesied by Jeremiah was expired, God raised up Haggai,
    Zechariah, and Malachi, to comfort the Jews, and to exhort
    them to the building of the temple, which was a figure of
    the spiritual Temple and Church of God, whose perfection and
    excellency depended on Christ.  And because all were given
    to their own pleasures and benefits, he declares that that
    plague of famine, which God then sent among them, was a just
    reward for their ingratitude, in that they condemned God's
    honour, who had delivered them.  Yet he comforts them, if
    they will return to the Lord, with the promise of great
    felicity, since the Lord will finish the work that he has
    begun, and send Christ whom he had promised, and by whom
    they would attain to perfect joy and glory.
    (a) Who was the son of Histaspis and the third king of the
        Persians, as some think.
    (b) Because the building of the temple began to cease, by
        reason that the people were discouraged by their
        enemies: and if these two notable men had need to be
        stirred up and admonished of their duties, what will we
        think of other governors, whose doings are either
        against God, or very cold in his cause?

Hag 1:2
1:2 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say,
    The time is not come, the time {c} that the LORD'S house
    should be built.

    (c) Not that they condemned the building of it, but they
        preferred policy and personal profit to religion, being
        content with small beginnings.

Hag 1:4
1:4 [Is it] time for you, O ye, to dwell in your {d} cieled
    houses, and this house [lie] waste?

    (d) Showing that they sought not only their necessities, but
        their very pleasures before God's honour.

Hag 1:6
1:6 {e} Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye
    have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink;
    ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth
    wages earneth wages [to put it] into a bag with holes.

    (e) Consider the plagues of God upon you for preferring your
        policies to his religion, and because you do not seek
        him above all else.

Hag 1:8
1:8 Go {f} up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the
    house; and {g} I will take pleasure in it, and I will {h} be
    glorified, saith the LORD.

    (f) Meaning, that they should leave their own benefits, and
        go forward in the building of God's temple, and in the
        setting forth of his religion.
    (g) That is, I will hear your prayers according to my
        promise; 1Ki 8:22,29.
    (h) That is, my glory will be set forth by you.

Hag 1:9
1:9 Ye looked for much, and, lo, [it came] to little; and when
    ye brought [it] home, I did blow {i} upon it. Why? saith the
    LORD of hosts.  Because of mine house that [is] waste, and
    ye run every man unto his own house.

    (i) And so bring it to nothing.

Hag 1:12
1:12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of
     Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the
     people, obeyed the {k} voice of the LORD their God, and the
     words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent
     him, and the people did fear before the LORD.

     (k) This declares that God was the author of the doctrine,
         and that Haggai was but the minister, as in Ex 14:31,
         Jud 7:20, Ac 15:28.

Hag 1:14
1:14 And the LORD stirred up {l} the spirit of Zerubbabel the
     son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of
     Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit
     of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did
     work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,

     (l) Which declares that men are unable and dull to serve
         the Lord, neither can they obey his word or his
         messengers, before God reforms their hearts, and gives
         them new spirits; Joh 6:44.