Haggai 1:8-10

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Haggai 1:8 tn Heb “and build the house” (so NIV, NRSV), with “house” referring specifically to the temple here.
2. Haggai 1:8 sn The temple was built primarily of stone, so the timber here refers to interior paneling (see v. 4) and perhaps to scaffolding (see Ezra 5:8; 6:4).
3. Haggai 1:8 tn The Hebrew verb אֶכָּבְדָ (ʾekkavda) appears to be a defectively written cohortative (“that I may be glorified”). The cohortatives (note that the preceding אֶרְצֶה, ʾertseh, “I will be pleased,” may also be taken as cohortative) indicate purpose or result (cf. NIV, NRSV “so that”; CEV “so”) following the imperatives of v. 8a (“go up,” “bring back,” “build”).
4. Haggai 1:9 tn Heb “Turning for much—look! It is [become] little!” The term פָּנֹה (panoh) means “turning [the head],” and here it is in order to look around. The term הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) is an interjection drawing attention to the point being made.
5. Haggai 1:9 tn Heb “I would blow at/against it.” The imagery here suggests that human achievements are so fragile and temporal that a mere breath from God can destroy them.
6. Haggai 1:9 tn Heb “and each of you runs to his own house”; NIV “is busy with”; TEV “is busy working on”; NCV “work hard for.”
7. Haggai 1:10 tn The Hebrew text has “over you” (so KJV), but this is redundant in contemporary English and has been left untranslated.
8. Haggai 1:10 sn This linkage of human sin to natural disaster is reminiscent of the curse brought upon the earth by Adam’s disobedience (Gen 3:17-19; see Rom 8:20-22).