Commentary on the Twelve Prophets 1 part 14/19

And these things, as I said, He then bestowed also upon those who returned from Babylon, and afterward has graciously granted to all men;

for we who of old served the devil, being delivered from that bitter captivity, and having forgotten the error of polytheism, were made near to God, becoming, according to the prophecy, renowned among Greeks and barbarians;

and we who of old were far off, have become near, according to the divine Apostle.

It therefore becomes us to be persuaded by the apostolic exhortation which cries out plainly:

now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

Cyrus, the first to reign over the Persians, immediately upon taking up the kingdom, proclaimed liberty to the captives of the Jews, and gave leave to those who wished to return to their native land, and to rebuild the divine temple.

And accordingly, all who had been nurtured in the prophetic words, and knew the foretold recall, having been persuaded, returned eagerly, and having settled in Jerusalem, they attempted to build the divine temple;

but being hindered both by the neighboring foreigners, and by Cambyses the son of Cyrus—who, being won over by their words, commanded the opposite of what his father had ordained—they were compelled to keep quiet.

And he commands that the divine temple be built, just as Cyrus had.

And they began the building in the second year of that one's reign, and in his sixth year they completed it.

For this reason the Pharisees also said to the Lord:

'This temple was built in forty-six years, and will You raise it up in three days?' For having begun to build under Cyrus, they were hindered;

In this one's reign the divinely-inspired Haggai was deemed worthy of the prophetic grace;

and the God of all, using his tongue, both blames the Jews as employing sloth concerning the building, and exhorts Zerubbabel, who happened to be the popular leader at that time, and Joshua the high priest, to lay hold of the building at once;

and He promises to gather together a very great multitude of nations with much abundance of wealth, and there to deliver all up to death, and to supply their wealth for the expenses of the building itself.

This, then, is the subject of this prophecy;

but we shall know its meaning more exactly from the interpretation of the several parts.

And after the return, since the Jews remained without a king, the blessed Haggai sets down the time by the reign of the king of the Persians;

not only of the year, but also of the month and the day.

wishing to show not only the swiftness of the building, but also the boundless liberality of the blessing bestowed by the God of all upon those who build.

For a little further on He commands them to compare the state of things before the building with that which came afterward, and to learn by experience in how great a scarcity of necessities they were while they kept deferring the care of the temple;

and of how many good things they enjoyed once they had taken up this diligence.

As for the phrase, 'By the hand of the prophet,' let us understand it to mean 'through Haggai.'

'Speak to Zerubbabel, the son of Salathiel, of the tribe of Judah, and to Jesus, the son of Josedek, the high priest, saying:'

(vv. 4-5.) 'Thus says the Lord Almighty:'

'The time has not come to build the house of the Lord.'

'And the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet.'

'Is it a time for you to dwell in your panelled houses, while this house lies waste?' It is the custom of divine Scripture to call the high priest 'the great priest.'

Since, then, Jesus was high priest and Zerubbabel was leader of the people, God, using them as a kind of judges, brings through the Prophet His accusation against the people.

'For see,' He says, 'with how great and what kind of care they deem their own dwellings worthy;'

for they not only build them, but also adorn them;

yet the divine house, through which all enjoy the common salvation, they are unwilling to build, insisting that the time is unsuitable for building.

'And now thus says the Lord Almighty:'

'Set your hearts upon your ways.' Employ upright reasoning, and become just judges of your own pursuits, and learn how great is the difference between diligence and negligence in the things of God.

Then He says that though they cast in much seed, they reaped very little fruit, so that they were always hungry and thirsty, and never enjoyed satiety, but passed their days in poverty and misery, so as to lack even the very use of clothing.

'For you clothed yourselves,' He says, 'and were not warmed thereby; and he that earned wages gathered them into a bag with holes.' For besides those who were property owners, even the day-labourers, who were wont to work for hire and to gather up their wages, gained nothing from their many toils, since what they gathered was scattered away.

Then again He exhorts them to employ prudent reasoning, and to prefer above all things the care of the divine temple, and to go up to the wooded heights and cut timber suitable for the building;

promising that He would work together with them, and would make them held in high regard.

And He reminds them also of their former want, that they may learn what sort of wages negligence earns.

'For you looked for much, and it came to little;'

'and it was brought into the house, and I blew it away. When you expected to pluck much fruit, you were cheated of your hope; and though you gathered but little, not even of this did you have enjoyment;'

'for even out of the very storehouses I scattered them.'

'Because my house is desolate, while you each run to his own house.'

'And I will bring a sword upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the oil, and upon all that the land brings forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labours of their hands.' For just as you neglect my worship, while you take much care for your own houses;

so too I will bind up the birth-pangs of the clouds, and will command the earth to become barren;

and the punishing power, like a kind of sword, I will bring not only against the fruits of the earth, but also against the men who work it;

and the cattle that are employed in their service shall share with them in the punishment.

These things the God of all threatens to do because of their negligence concerning the divine house—not as though He had need of it;

for the Maker of all has no need even of heaven, but created all things solely on account of His love for mankind;

and in providing for their salvation, He commands the temple to be built, so that fulfilling the law in it they might reap the benefit thence, and willing that the legal service should be carried out until the coming of the Heir, according to the divine Apostle.

But let us return to the sequence of this prophecy.

When Zerubbabel and Jesus the high priest, and the people shepherded by them, heard the threat, they were filled with fear, and yielded to the things proclaimed by the prophet.

'I am with you, says the Lord.' 'Take courage,' He says, 'for you have me as a fellow-worker and helper.'

'And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Salathiel, of the tribe of Judah, and the spirit of Jesus the son of Josedek, the great priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came in, and did the work in the house of the Lord Almighty their God.'

'On the four and twentieth day of the sixth month.' From this we have clearly learned that as soon as we choose the good things, we obtain the divine help;

for indeed these men, when they inclined toward the better, enjoyed the divine inspiration, and the divine grace made them more eager;

so that they made the beginning of the building on the four and twentieth day of the month, while on the new moon they received the prophecy.

'Who is there among you that saw this house in its former glory? And how do you now behold it, as though it had no existence before you? How do you endure, while remembering its former splendour and brightness, to see it held in such desolation?'—if indeed there are any among you who have survived from that time even to this present day.

'Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel, says the Lord; and be strong, Jesus, son of Josedek, the great priest; and let all the people of the land be strong, says the Lord, and work; for I am with you, says the Lord Almighty.'

'And my word which I covenanted with you when you came out of the land of Egypt, and my Spirit stands in the midst of you.' Shaking off all sloth and cowardice, receive the strength that is supplied to you from me, believing both that I am present with you through the giving of the law, and that the grace of the all-holy Spirit provides for you.

And since there were many hindrances—both poverty, and the scarcity of necessities, and the assaults of neighbouring peoples—He fittingly adds:

'Yet once more I will shake the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land.'

'And I will shake all the nations, and the choice things of all the nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord Almighty.' He foretells concerning Gog and Magog, to whom, when they purposed to make war against Jerusalem with a great multitude of nations, He gave leave; and arming them against one another, He caused them to be destroyed by one another, and gave their wealth to those who were building.

And healing the hearing of those who listen, (v. 9)

'The silver is mine,' He says, 'and the gold is mine, says the Lord Almighty.' I do not appropriate what belongs to another, but I take back again what is my own;

I gave them wealth, using liberality; and since they did not acknowledge the Giver, they were justly stripped of the gifts.

He says that the house shall be more glorious, not by the beauty of the building, but by the manner of the destruction of the nations;

for when the report ran everywhere, the might of the God of all was displayed.

and in addition to these things, the might of the invisible powers also, which circle about the ether and heaven itself.

'And in this place I will give peace, says the Lord Almighty;'

'and peace of soul for a possession to everyone that builds, to raise up this temple.' For I will not only put an end to human wars, but will also grant them the divine peace, which procures salvation for their souls;

and these things shall be the reward for those who build.

Again, in the ninth month, the prophet is commanded by the God of all to ask the priests whether a garment sanctified by a holy sacrifice suffices to sanctify the things that touch it;

such as bread, or wine, or oil, or any other such thing.

Then, when the priests had answered in the negative, he is again commanded to inquire whether the garment is defiled by touching something unclean;

and when the priests agreed to this, the prophet is commanded to say these things.

'So is this people, and so is this nation before me, says the Lord;'

'and so are all the works of their hands;'

'and whoever draws near there shall be defiled.' Just as, He says, the sanctified garment cannot sanctify any other of the things that approach it, but is defiled by the things that come near it which are unclean according to the law;

so this people, on account of their depravity, reaps no benefit from the holy things, but rather does violence to them, endeavouring to approach them impiously.

Then He also teaches them the reasons for their condition.

'Because of their early-morning gains, they shall suffer pain from the presence of their wickednesses;'

'and you hated those who reproved in the gates.' At the break of dawn, He says, you took thought for nothing good, but busied yourselves with wicked gains;

and you were hostile toward those who reproved your wickedness, who, taking their stand at the gates, offered the divine words both to those coming in and to those going out.

But now at least consider with all exactness what sort of people you were while neglecting the building, and in how great a scarcity of necessities you were held fast;

laying up twenty measures of barley, yet scarcely finding the half; and expecting to draw fifty measures of wine from the presses, yet finding only twenty.

While I brought upon you various chastisements—barrenness, and blight, and hail;

yet nevertheless, on account of your great insensibility, you did not even perceive the chastisement.

Therefore, remembering those things, take note of how great a prosperity you shall enjoy after the beginning of the building.

For I will supply you with such an abundance of the necessities of life that you will no longer even know the measure of the threshing-floor.

And I will grant you your fruits of the vine together with a blessing, and I will supply the yield of the orchard-trees.

And in addition to these things, O Zerubbabel, I will also make firm those words which I foretold concerning Gog and Magog.

'And I will overthrow the throne of kings, and I will utterly destroy the power of the kings of the nations, and I will overthrow chariots and their riders, and horses and their riders shall come down, each one by the sword against his brother.' 'Without toil,' He says, 'I will grant you the victory.'

For striking them with derangement and madness of mind, I will arm them against one another, so that all of them together with their horses are utterly destroyed.

As for the phrase, 'Yet once more I shake the heaven and the earth and the sea and the dry land,' He has not spoken it simply, but He is calling to mind the benefaction wrought in the days of Sennacherib.

For upon those men too, having brought sudden destruction, He filled all land and sea with the fearful narrative.

'In that day,' says the Lord Almighty, 'I will take you, Zerubbabel, the son of Salathiel, my servant,' says the Lord, 'and I will make you as a signet.'

'... Almighty.' Here he did not mention Jesus, but only Zerubbabel, since he was speaking about wars and generalship, and this man alone had charge of the military command.

He says therefore that in that day, when those nations have been destroyed, I will make you, Zerubbabel, whom I have chosen for my own servitude and service, illustrious and conspicuous, and through you I will provide the people with all security, using you as it were for a signet.

For the signet, when set upon doors and upon coffers, furnishes complete security for the things deposited within.

The interpretation of the prophecy has now reached its conclusion.

But I marvel at the madness of Apollinaris, who has undertaken to bring a contrary interpretation to bear on things so clearly declared by God, asserting that the campaign of Gog and Magog has not yet taken place, but will occur about the consummation of this present age.

And the most learned man did not attend to the sequence of the prophecy;

namely, that after the foretelling of their slaughter the prophet immediately added:

'In that day,' says the Lord Almighty, 'I will take you, Zerubbabel, my servant,' says the Lord, and what follows.

If then he invents in his own tales some other Zerubbabel who is to exist at that time, he will be fabricating for us a complete myth;

but if this is the only Zerubbabel, the one who presided over the people after their return, then it was in his time that the army of those nations was consumed, and after their destruction Zerubbabel became distinguished and conspicuous.

He ought also to have perceived this: that even to those who, on account of poverty, were considering postponing the building, the Lord of all promised that He would gather these nations together, and would supply their wealth for the expenses of the building.

so that, serving Him in all things and enjoying His assistance, we may escape the plots of the invisible enemies, and living according to His divine laws, may obtain the good things promised, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.

Long ago, exercising great forethought for the Jews, the God of all set over them not one prophet, but two and three, and often even more, both instructing them in what was fitting and foretelling the things that were to come.

Thus, while the divinely-inspired Isaiah was prophesying, at the same time the blessed Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Micah were foretelling the things to come.

And it is easy for those who wish to learn the dates from the prophecies themselves.

And He also displays to him images and figures of certain events, in order to render the words more credible to contemplation.

a remedy that wards off evil, and the calamities that befell the Jews as a result of that frenzy.

And that I may not, by prolonging the subject too greatly, weary some of those who will read these commentaries, I will now proceed to the elucidation of the very words.

but the former in the sixth month, and the latter in the eighth;

so that it is clear that the former was, according to the prophecy, two months senior to the latter.

They make mention of the dates, in order both to indicate the season of the return, and clearly to teach us that at that time no Hebrew king was reigning.

In addition to these things they also demonstrate the truth of the prophets who prophesied before the captivity;

for those men had foretold not only the siege of Jerusalem, and its sacking, and the enslavement, but also the duration of the captivity and the return from Babylon.

For in this year the seventieth year of the city's desolation was completed;

and this it is possible to learn from the prophecy itself.

since at that time many false prophets also foretold falsehoods, and it happened, as was likely, that some of the prophets were also of the same name.

Therefore, that the sameness of name might not do injury to the truth—since things falsely spoken were being presented to all indiscriminately as though truly foretold—the prophet made himself known by his lineage.

Then he says what he was commanded to speak.

'The Lord was angry with your fathers with a great anger.' The preamble of the prophecy is full of wisdom, and suited to those who were at that time being instructed in divine things;

And that this is the aim of what has been said, the following words bear witness:

'Thus says the Lord Almighty:'

'Turn to me,' says the Lord of hosts, 'and I will turn to you,' says the Lord of hosts.

'And be not as your fathers, whom the former prophets charged, saying:'

'Thus says the Lord Almighty:'

'Turn now from your evil ways, and from your evil practices:'

'but they did not hearken, nor did they attend to hearken to me,' says the Lord Almighty. 'Knowing,' He says, 'how much I exhorted your fathers through the prophets, and how, when they gainsaid, I handed them over to utter destruction, flee from imitating them, and attend to the things spoken by me, that you may enjoy my forethought.'

For the phrase, 'Turn to me, and I will turn to you,' signifies this.

To this is similar what is said elsewhere:

'They gave me their backs, and not their faces.' For he who does not endure to give diligent heed to the divine oracles resembles exactly one who turns away and gives his back.

He says therefore that, 'If you are willing to give heed to my laws, you will obtain my forethought.'

'Where are your fathers, and the prophets? Will they live for ever? But receive my words and my ordinances, all that I command by my Spirit to my servants the prophets, which overtook your fathers.' 'Behold,' He says, 'the truth of my words, that even though the prophets have departed this life, and your fathers have been handed over to punishment, these words have remained, proclaiming the truth through the events, and yet not having the recorded prophets to plead their case;'

for those men received the appointed limit of death;

they cry out and bear witness that nothing false was spoken by those men.

And they answered and said:

'According as the Lord Almighty had determined to do to us according to our ways, and according to our practices, so has He done to us.' They assented to the things spoken, and confessed the truth together, and received a perception of their transgressions, and declared that the prediction was true, and the indignation just, and the punishment corresponding to the sin.

But the Hebrews know Xanthicus as the first month;

for thus the great Moses legislated for them, crying out expressly:

'This month shall be to you the beginning of months; it shall be the first for you among the months of the year.' Beginning therefore to count from that point, Shebat will be found to be the eleventh;

and it is, according to the Macedonians, Peritius.

The prophet says therefore that in this month, the second year not yet being completed, he again received the working of divine grace;

for whether he says 'a word,' or 'an utterance,' or 'an oracle,' or 'a hand,' he hints at the working of the divine grace.

Illumined by this, and having seen a certain vision, he has left it recorded for us, and says:

'I saw by night, and behold a man mounted upon a red horse, and he stood between the shady mountains, and behind him were red horses, and dappled, and speckled, and white.'

'What are these, my Lord?' And the angel that spoke in me said to me:

'I will show you what these things are.'

And the man who stood between the mountains answered and said to me:

'These are they whom the Lord has sent forth to go about through the earth.'

And they answered the angel of the Lord who stood between the mountains, and said:

'We have gone about through all the earth, and behold, all the earth is inhabited and is at rest.' Those who appeared are clearly invisible powers, sent forth for service, according to the divine Apostle, on account of those who are about to inherit salvation.

But their natures are not seen;

And this the divine Scripture clearly teaches us, showing that their forms are diverse;

This He did also in the case of the blessed Zechariah;

For he shows him the angel who has charge of the people;

'There is none who holds fast with me concerning these things, save Michael your prince.' This one he sees mounted upon a horse, on account of the swiftness of the things being done;

and the redness of the horse signifies the indignation against the hostile nations;

for the spirited, wrathful temper is blood-suffused and reddish.

of angels appointed for assistance;

'For he who dwells,' he says, 'in the help of the Most High, shall lodge under the shelter of the God of heaven.' And again:

'With his shoulders he shall overshadow you.' And elsewhere:

'Under the shelter of your wings you shall cover me.' And Israel too, in the wilderness, a pillar of cloud sheltered.

For this reason here also, in the midst of the shady mountains, the angel who has charge of the people was seen standing, thereby signifying the divine assistance.

But those of Aquila's and Symmachus's circle have called the mountains 'myrtle-groves';

and the plant is fragrant, and able to cool the fevers of the passions.

This too, then, hints at the consolation that would come to the Jews from the God of all.

And having beheld also the red, dappled-grey, variegated, and white horses that appeared behind, he inquires, desiring to learn what is the cause of the things being shown.

And for the confirmation of what has been said, those mounted upon those horses of every kind said to the angel who was stationed over those mountains, that 'Having gone throughout all the inhabited earth, we found it enjoying peace and calm.'

And this we have demonstrated more precisely in the interpretation of Ezekiel.

And it is fitting to begin this reckoning from the eleventh year of Zedekiah the king, in which the city was captured.

This, then, is what the angel who takes forethought for the people beseeches of the God of all: to look upon the prophecy, and to see the time fulfilled, and no longer to overlook the city consecrated to Him being handed over to utter desolation for so long.

'The angel that spoke in me answered,' says the prophet, 'with good words and comforting speeches.' Now he did not call this a different angel from that one who stood between the mountains, but that very same one, who both conversed with him and interceded on behalf of the people.

And he says that he spoke in him, because he did not employ words and a voice articulated by the movement of the tongue and the resistance of the air, but one sounded from within, and impressed within him.

Taking courage, then, in the graciousness of God, the holy angel exhorts the prophet to cry out and to say:

'Thus says the Lord Almighty:

I have been jealous for Zion and for Jerusalem with a great jealousy.'

(v. 15) 'And with a great wrath I am angry against the nations that join in the assault, in return for which I indeed was angry a little, but they joined in the assault unto evils.' 'No longer,' he says, 'shall I bear to overlook the outrages ventured against Jerusalem, but I shall exact penalties from those who overstepped the measure of the punishment appointed against her, and who dared to bring upon her evils greater than those decreed.'

'For I, exacting punishment from her, inasmuch as she had transgressed my laws, stripped her of my providence;

but they, having taken the license thence, were unwilling to take their fill of the evils against her.'

'I shall deem her worthy of sparing, but from them I shall demand penalties for the things ventured.'

Then he tells also the manner of the mercy, and promises the completion of the building of the divine house, and the renovation of the city, and the raising up of the walls.

'The measuring-line shall yet be stretched out over Jerusalem.' And once more the holy angel enjoined him to cry out, and said:

'Thus says the Lord Almighty:

Cities shall yet overflow with good things, and the Lord shall yet have mercy on Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.' To many cities of Judea He will furnish an abundance of good things;

for this He hinted at when He said:

'Cities shall yet overflow with good things'; yet nevertheless He will still honor Jerusalem above the others, and will grant her the ancient privileges.

But it is fitting to note that He did not promise them everlasting prosperity, but hinted at a certain span of time, by saying 'yet,' thereby teaching beforehand that, once the heir appeared, the law—which held the rank of steward and guardian—would prove idle;

and along with this also the place that had received the worship rendered according to it.

From here he transfers the discourse to the narration of another vision, and says that he beheld four horns, and learned through inquiry from the angel, that these are such things as scattered Judah and Jerusalem.

Then he says again, that there were shown to him by the God of all craftsmen equal in number, and that he again inquired, and heard that: 'These are the horns that scattered Judah and Israel;

and these came forth to sharpen them for their own hands;'

'the four horns are the nations lifting up a horn against the land of the Lord, to scatter it.' He says, then, that the invisible powers were commanded by the God of all to rouse up and provoke these nations against one another, so that through one another they might pay penalties for the wrongs they had committed against Israel.

'To sharpen them for their own hands.' And he says 'four,' not indicating any number of nations, but since the divisions of the inhabited world are four: the eastern, the western, the southern, the northern;

and they came upon them, some from here, some from there;