Haggai
Haggai's message was simple and to the point, and it helped get the Second Temple rebuilt.
Read this if you…
- want one of the shortest prophetic books — two chapters, four dated oracles, no fluff
- like a practical-minded prophet whose argument is essentially 'your economy is bad because you haven't rebuilt the Temple'
- care about post-exilic literature: the unglamorous work of putting a defeated nation back together
Skip this if you…
- don't want to read explicitly religious/Christian texts
Why It Matters
Haggai's message was simple and to the point, and it helped get the Second Temple rebuilt. That Temple was the center of Jewish life for the next 600 years. His line about God shaking 'all nations' fed into later messianic hopes.
Depicted in Art
Bust-length portrait of Haggai in dark robes and turban, white beard, gazing intently — part of Tissot's Old Testament watercolor series.
James Tissot, 1900
Cupola fresco of Haggai among the Old Testament prophets, painted in Guercino's airy late-Baroque manner with theatrical sky and drapery.
Guercino, 1627
Half-length figure of the prophet in the lunette of a lateral chapel, gripping a scroll, rendered in Ribera's stark Caravaggesque chiaroscuro.
Jusepe de Ribera, 1640
Carved marble figure of the prophet, originally part of the sculpted facade program of Siena Cathedral, now a fragment in a museum collection.
Giovanni Pisano, 1290
The prophet stands on clouds in flowing robes, scroll in hand, in a Mannerist composition framed for an altarpiece setting.
Moretto da Brescia
Woodcut portrait of the prophet in profile, scroll in hand, set in a panel on the Old Testament page of the Nuremberg Chronicle.
Michael Wolgemut, 1493
Historiated initial opening the Book of Haggai in a 13th-century Cistercian Bible, with the prophet figured inside the letter.
1220
Byzantine miniature of the prophet Haggai standing in robes against a gold ground, captioned in Greek, on a page of the imperial menologion.
985
Recommended Editions
King James Version
Cambridge University Press · 1611
The most influential and commonly quoted translation in English. The prose rhythm everyone else is responding to, even modern translations.
Please support us by purchasing through these links, at no extra cost to you!
Deep Dive
What It's About
This summary gives away plot details.
Notable Quotes
“The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.”
“I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come.”