S. Eusebius Hieronymus, the Priest of Stridon, one book of Commentaries on the Prophet Haggai to Paula and Eustochium
Latin Text from public domain Migne Editors, Patrologiae Cursus Completus.
Translated into English using ChatGPT.
Table of Contents
Prologue
In the second year of Darius, the son of Hystaspes, king of the Persians, the seventieth year of the desolation of the temple was completed (which Jeremiah prophesied in chapter 25). The prophet Zechariah also bears witness, who, when he had placed the title of his Vision in the second year of the same king, on the eleventh month of the Sabbath, on the twenty-fourth day, added, saying: O Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which you are angry? This is the seventieth year (Zechariah 1:7,12). But even Ezra, after the altar had been built and the foundation of the temple had been laid, refers to the prohibited work in the letter of King Artaxerxes: Then the work of the house of God in Jerusalem was interrupted, and it was not carried out until the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia (Ezra 4:24). And immediately he added: The prophets Haggai and Zechariah, son of Addo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judea and Jerusalem, in the name of the Lord God of Israel. Then Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, son of Jozadak, arose and began to build the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God were helping them (Ezra 5:1,2). At the time when Tarquinius Superbus was ruling as the seventh king of Rome after Romulus, in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, he was expelled by Brutus. And then for four hundred and sixty-four years, consuls governed the republic until Julius Caesar. We have mentioned this, O Paula and Eustochium, so that you may immediately recognize the time during which the prophet Haggai spoke, even from the very title itself. It should be noted in the meantime, that both the great spirit and the prophets Haggai and Zechariah were present in literal terms: they were commanding the building of the temple in opposition to the edict of King Artaxerxes, which was hindering the construction of the temple by the Samaritans and all the surrounding nations. They were urging Zerubbabel and Joshua, the son of Josedech, and the people who were with them, to listen more to the prophets' command to build, rather than the prohibition of the king's command.
(Chap. I. Vers. 1.)
(Chapter 1, Verse 1) In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to the people. For the people, who seemed to have returned from captivity, had not yet built the temple or fortified the walls of the city, nor did they have the glory of the former Jerusalem. Instead, they dwelled in hollow houses, or, as it is more significantly said in Greek, 'κοιλοστάθμοις', meaning, houses built downwards and sunk in a valley. Therefore, the word of God did not come to them under the reign of Hezekiah, or Amon, or Josiah, who ruled over the people of God as long as Jerusalem stood, but under King Darius, the prince of Persia, as Daniel mystically relates in his book. But Darius in our language means 'generations made' or 'that have been made,' which in Greek is called γενεαὶ γενόμεναι. And the people who lived below and worshipped the flesh and kept the first sentence of the uneducated man who had been expelled from paradise did not deserve to have another king except the one who served the generations and loved the flesh. And because Darius was a lover of coitus and a companion of the dragon, whose entire power is in his loins, in the second year a vision is seen by the people in an impure number, and after the union of virginity and the nudity of paradise, pellicle tunics are meant. Finally, in Genesis, when it is said on the first day, and on the third, and on the fourth, and on the fifth, and on the sixth, after the completion of each work: And God saw that it was good: on the second day, according to the Hebrew, and the Aquila, and the Symmachus, and the Theodotion, it is not included. For the second day, which represents the number that divides from the unity, could not be, in God's opinion, confirmed as good. The sixth month is also attributed, which does not have the solemnities of God, like the seventh month; but it is close to the six days, in which the world was made (Ibid.). In which one labors, and in the sweat of the face bread is eaten: and the earth brings forth thorns and thistles for us, and when it receives the seed of wheat, it is more fruitful with weeds and oats. But because the altar had already been built, and the enemies who were opposing had wanted to build a temple against it, but had not built it: on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came in the hand of the prophet Haggai, that the people, having abandoned it for the second year of King Darius, who divides from unity; and returning to unity, leaving behind the sixth month that had passed and which is assigned to labor, they should follow only unity and an odd number: which also a pagan poet knows to be the world, saying (Virgil, Eclogue VIII):
God delights in odd numbers. But the word of the Lord comes, seeking whom it may visit and instruct, into the hand of the prophet Haggai, who had good works and in whose deeds the word of God could find rest. However, where hands are full of blood and Jesus is killed, and the people dare to say: His blood be upon us, and upon our children (Matt. XXVII), there the word of God does not happen. Even today, having impure hands, the fleshly Israel stretches out its hands to the Lord; but because they are full of blood, the Lord speaks to them through the prophet: If you stretch out your hands, I will turn my eyes away from you: for your hands are full of blood (Isai. I, XV). The word of the Lord does not fit in their hands, because they are unclean; the word of God does not come to them, because they kill the word of God within themselves. And it should not be thought that the word of the Lord was made only in the hands of the prophet Haggai, but because Haggai is interpreted as 'festive', anyone who can celebrate the feasts can receive the word of God, not in the leaven of old malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor. 5:8). Let us also have clean hands, and let us be called ἑορτάζοντες, that is, celebrating feasts, and the word of God will come to us. Let us propose our eyes, because it is a spiritual law, spiritual solemnities, of which it is written: You shall celebrate feasts with me three times a year. You shall keep the solemnity of unleavened bread: for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you at the time of the new moon: for it is on that day that you came out of Egypt. You shall not appear before me empty-handed; and the feast of the firstfruits of your labors, whatever you sow in the field: and the feast of the ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors from the field (Exod. 23: 14, etc., and Deut. 16). If we want to become the Word of God within us, let us be like Haggai, that is, let us celebrate the feasts and not appear before God empty-handed (2 Cor. 9): sowing in the Spirit, let us reap eternal life from the Spirit; so that we may celebrate the feast of the ingathering at the end of the year, that is, the gathering of our labors from the field, and the feast of the firstfruits of our labors, whatever we sow in the field that the Lord has blessed. Let us also, like the Aggaeans, celebrate feasts in our works throughout our entire life until the end of the year, that is, until the departure from this age, which have arisen for us in our field. There are many things, not of this time, that can be said about the celebration, by which a diligent reader of Scripture can attain spiritual understanding.
To Zerubbabel, son of Salathiel, prince of Judah, and to Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest, saying: We read in the Book of Chronicles that Jeconiah, who was taken into Babylon, was the father of Salathiel, from whom Zerubbabel descended (1 Chronicles 3:17). And indeed, when Matthew recounts the genealogy of the Savior, he says: After the Babylonian exile, Jeconiah became the father of Salathiel, Salathiel became the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel became the father of Abiud (Matthew 1:12-13). Here Zerubbabel of the tribe of Judah, that is, descended from the line of David, is a type of the Savior: who truly rebuilt the temple that had been destroyed, that is, the Church; and brought the people out of captivity. And he built the Church, both from the stones of the old temple and from the new ones, which had previously been unpolished; that is, he built it from the remnants of the Jewish people and from the multitude of the Gentiles, and he erected a tabernacle for God the Father. However, it is interpreted according to the various accents of Hebrew speech, or the adjacent flow, exposed or arising in Babylon, or the prince of Babylon. The first interpretation of that flow is contrary, which is signified by the word Jezebel, that is, a vain flow, or the flow of menstruation, which certainly clearly signifies impurity. But Zebulun also signifies the flow of night. Therefore, leaving behind the vain and filthy and dark flow of this world, let us follow the flow of Jesus, who is presented to us to drink, and offers himself from the abundant fountain, according to what is said in the Gospel: Jesus stood in the temple and cried out, saying: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink (John 7:37). And to this very place, then we will be able to drink, when we have asked of God the Father, according to what we read: Ask, and it shall be given you (Matthew 7:6). For Salathiel, indeed, translates to "petition of God." And no one comes to Jesus, unless the Father brings him (John 6:45). Therefore, a stream will be born for us, brought forth by the prayer of God, and it will be from the tribe of Judah, namely royal, and confessing or praising God, because Judas signifies both. Furthermore, the birth in Babylon, according to history, is truly said to be about Zerubbabel, because he was born there. But according to a deeper understanding, it also signifies our Lord Jesus: because he too was born in the confusion of this world, and was near the great river Chebar, and saw that great vision which Ezekiel (Chapter I) sees at the beginning of his scroll. And when I said that Zerubbabel is interpreted as the prince of Babylon, not that he is truly interpreted as a prince, I said this: for among the Hebrews, his name is said to be composed of two parts: 'zo' meaning 'this'; 'rob' meaning 'master' or 'chief'; and 'babel' properly signifies Babylon; therefore the name Zerubbabel is made, meaning 'this master from Babylon'. But for the sake of brevity of understanding on the above mentioned details, I wanted to interpret about Babylon, whether literally or metaphorically. Just as Joshua son of Nun, who himself was a type of the Savior, led the people from the wilderness into the promised land, so too this person is said to have been born in Babylon in order to lead those who were in Babylon back to the promised land from which they had been taken captive, and to say to those who were in chains: Go out. And those who sat in darkness: Be enlightened (Isaiah 49). But the word of the Lord, which was made in the hand of Haggai, is not only directed to Zerubbabel, the son of Salathiel, of whom we have already spoken; but also to Jesus, the son of Josedec, the high priest. As for the history, Zerubbabel is from the royal tribe, and Jesus is from the priestly tribe. But as for the spiritual understanding, our Lord and Savior is one and the same, a king and a high priest, whose type, according to what he was as a king, was carried by Zerubbabel: and according to what he was as a high priest, it was carried by his namesake Jesus, whose interpretation is Jao salvation, that is, the salvation of the Lord, and he is the son of Josedec, which itself is translated as Jao righteous, that is, the righteousness of the Lord. For the Father is a just and holy God, and so is the Son, and there is no injustice in them. Against Marcion and other heretics who assert that the Lord Savior is the son of some other good and unknown God, not of the Creator, whom they call just. And indeed Jesus is truly the great high priest, to whom all the overseers of God are compared and are small and insignificant. For if he is called the great high priest, it is certainly to distinguish him from those who are lesser. But all who are younger than him and come after him are inferior, just as the firstborn is of all creation, and the firstborn from the dead: so that he may be the chief and the great among all the priests.
1:2
(Ver. 2.) Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying: This people says, 'The time has not yet come, the time for the house of the Lord to be built.' Pay careful attention to the fact that it is not Zerubbabel or Joshua who says, 'The time has not yet come, the time for the house of the Lord to be built,' but the people who are still under the rule of King Darius and have not yet thrown off the yoke of servitude. And those who are still in captivity and have come out of Jerusalem delay and hesitate to build the temple of God, saying, 'The time has not yet come, the time for the house of the Lord to be built.' And when you see someone who has been handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that their spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord, make the effort to think and plan in order to build up the temple through purity, which was previously destroyed through lust. And yet, day after day, you say to yourself: Truly, you are a captive of the people, and you say: The time has not yet come for the house of the Lord to be built. But to those who have once decided to rebuild the temple of God, every moment is suitable for building; neither the devil as king, nor the enemies all around, nor the pretended affection of parents, in-laws, or children can hinder. As soon as you turn and call on the name of the Lord, he will say: Here I am.
1:3
(Verse 3) And the word of the Lord came by the hand of the prophet Haggai, saying: Is it time for you to dwell in paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Or as the Septuagint interprets, 'in vaulted buildings,' that is, concave structures. On the same day as before, this vision appears again. As the prophets engage in their work, the gifts of prophecy also increase, and after a brief silence, in response to what the people had said - that it is not yet time to rebuild the house of the Lord - the Lord's answer, as if thought out, is presented to them, and it is said to them: So is it not time for you to dwell in houses while you are down below and situated in the valley, and for my house, which is on the mountain, to remain in ruins? Or, as it is stated in Hebrew: that you may dwell in houses, adorned and arranged not so much for practical use as for pleasure, and my dwelling place where the holy of holies, the cherubim, and the table of showbread were kept, will be soaked by rain, become desolate, and scorched by the sun? Moreover, according to the anagoge: Every time that the habitation of the valley is chosen, or we serve pleasures, is troublesome. Hence, even the Stoics, who are concerned with defining individual words, said that time is the measure of correction or efficacy: which is expressed more significantly in Greek as χρόνον εἶναι κατορθώσεως. For every moment in which we serve not by virtues, but by vices, is lost, and is considered as though it never happened. Therefore, if anyone among us dwells in a valley, or builds their own house in worldly pleasure and luxury, they do not build a temple for God, nor does the Lord have a place to rest his head. And when they build a house with foxes, the dwelling place of God becomes deserted.
1:4
(Verse 4.) And now thus says the Lord of hosts: Set your hearts upon your ways. Let there not be a time for speaking one thing and doing another: turn my commandments immediately into action. For the Lord is all-powerful who commands, and truly the authority of the all-powerful God is not light. Until now, your hearts have been enslaved to vices, without order, without a teacher, pursuing your desires wherever they led. But now the Lord commands you to prioritize charity within yourselves and to set your hearts upon your ways, so that you do nothing without judgment and consideration. Let the lamp of the law always go before your feet, and say: Lamp to my feet is Your law and light to my paths (Ps. 118:105). Indeed, it is thus: Because you say, it is not the time to build the house of the Lord, and you yourselves dwell in houses that are sinking into the depths, while my house is deserted: consider, at the command of the Lord, and bring to mind what you have done, and what you have suffered.
1:5-6
(Verse 5, 6) You have sown much and brought in little: you eat but are not satisfied: you drink but are not filled with drink: you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm: and he that earned wages, earned them to put into a bag with holes. All the labor that you have built up your houses and neglected the house of God, has not had a consequence. For you have sown much and gathered little: you cannot say it is a result of famine, because the farmer has ceased to work the land. You also ate (lest perhaps someone would say that fasting was voluntary for you), and you were not satisfied, because you had gathered small fruits into barns. You drank wine from vineyards, but not only to make your heart rejoice, and it could be said of you: And wine cheers the heart of man (Ps. 104, 15). You had a cloak, but it did not repel the cold, nor preserve warmth. Whoever among you has gathered wages, either through trade or hired labor, has wasted labor in vain without reward. For just as if someone were to pour money into a bag with holes, it would flow out. Likewise, those who have returned from Babylon and have not yet built the house of God, but who are engaged in its construction every day, say: The time has not yet come to build the Lord's house; neither are they captives nor have they been fully granted freedom; but rather, as if they were placed in a narrow space, they have sown much and brought in little; they have eaten, but have not been satisfied; they have drunk, but have not been intoxicated; they have covered themselves, but have not been warmed; they have earned wages, only to put them into a bag with holes and lose them. If ever you see someone doing some righteous deeds amidst many sinful works, God is not so unjust as to forget the few good deeds because of the many evils; but He will only reap what he has sown on good soil, and gather it into His barns. But the one who is a complete apostate will not eat at all, but will perish from hunger. Moreover, the one who sows much and reaps little, eats little and not to satisfaction, as the Lord threatens in the curses of Leviticus: 'You shall eat, but not be satisfied' (Lev. 26:26). But whoever is holy, will eat until satisfied, and will be filled with what is written: The righteous eats to satisfy their soul (Prov. 13:25). Similarly, whoever does not drink completely will perish from thirst, as stated in Judith (if anyone wants to receive the book of the woman): And the little ones perished from thirst (Judith 8). But whoever drinks too little, does indeed drink, but not to the point of intoxication. Furthermore, who can say to the Lord: How glorious is your intoxicating cup (Psalm 22:6)! And Noah got drunk (Gen. IX): and although he was placed in Egypt, yet he gets intoxicated with wine at the banquet with Joseph and his brothers (Ibid., XLIII): he, because of the greatness of his joy and daily happiness with the apostles, will be called full of new wine (Act. II). However, how this exposition is not contrary to that in which the sons of Jonadab, the sons of Rechab, do not drink wine, and are praised by the Lord, in Jeremiah (Chapter XXXV), could be more competently discussed. After this, it is said to those who neglected to build the temple of the Lord: You have labored, and have not been warmed. This is understood from the one hundred and third psalm, in which it is said about God: The deep as a garment is his robe. Although according to the Hebrew truth it refers to the lands that are surrounded by the ocean, nevertheless, according to the translators of the Septuagint who said: 'τὸ περιβόλαιον αὐτοῦ', in the masculine gender, and not 'αὐτῆς', in the feminine gender, we are compelled to understand that it refers to God, because his wisdom is unfathomable, and the Lord makes darkness his hiding place (Psalms 17), and his sacraments are not revealed to the unworthy. And so the righteous rejoices, and says: In my heart I have hidden your words, so that I may not sin against you (Psalm 128:11). This cloak, woven from the diverse meanings and words of wisdom, does not allow the fervent spirit to cool, nor the heat of love to grow cold when the North wind blows. However, the one in the middle, who indeed has the cloak, but does not fully cover himself with it: just as he brings in little into the barn, and eats and drinks, but not to satisfaction or excess, so he covers himself with the cloak of his senses and works, but does not warm up. But he who, because of extreme poverty of the soul, does not have a cloak: does not have it, because, with multiplied iniquity, charity has grown cold in him (Matthew 24). Hence, concerning such a person, who possesses a cloak from another, it is commanded in the law: You shall give him a garment before the setting of the sun, for he is poor and has hope in him (Deuteronomy 24:15). But this also happens to those who dwelt in the valleys or in covered houses, and they said: The time has not yet come to build the house of the Lord, that they may gather wages into a perforated bag (Isaiah 40:10 and 62:11). If anyone does good works from us, and worthy of reward (which the Lord is about to give back to us, about whom it is said: Behold the Lord, and his reward is in his hands, to render to each person according to his works (Matt. XVI, 27). And another of the Apostles: If anyone's work remains, which he has built upon, he will receive a reward (I Cor. III, 13), here he gathers the rewards to be preserved and endured, always joining virtues with virtues, he heaps up money in an unbroken bag. But those who sin after good works, not once or twice, but frequently, obscure and defile their past charity with subsequent vices, and they gather money into the bottomless purse. All of these things happened to those who said, 'The time has not yet come to build the house of the Lord,' and while they resided in the valleys, they allowed the house of the Lord to remain deserted.
1:17-18
(Verse 17, 18.) Thus says the Lord of hosts: Set your hearts upon your ways, go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house: and it shall be acceptable to me, and I will be glorified, says the Lord. LXX: Thus says the Lord Almighty: Set your hearts upon your ways, go up to the mountain, and cut wood (the rest is the same). Again, I command you, as I had done before, to set your hearts upon your ways, and consider all that you do, and leaving behind the desire for your humble dwellings, go up to the mountain where there are no wood to burn, but wood that will be useful for the work of my house. And know that I will be pleased with what you do, if you do this attentively. The Hebrews say that only the necessary wood for roofing was left standing after the walls of the temple were burned down. This is what they say. But for us, it is commanded that we do not place our hearts outside of our paths; but the things we had placed before, we are to place again on our paths, and after we have done this, we are to ascend from the hollow houses onto the mountain, so that when we reach the height of the mountain, where the necessary wood for building the temple of God is, we may cut it from the whole mountain of the holy Scripture, where various woods of virtues and paradise are planted, and we may build the temple of the Lord with good works and teachings of truth: and when it is built, may it please the Lord, and may he be glorified in it. Therefore, because these commands have been given to us to set our hearts on our ways, let us climb the reasonable mountain and, concerning each problem, seek suitable evidence from the testimonies of the Scriptures, cut it off, and build the house of wisdom within us; for after this has been constructed, the end of its building will be that the Lord may be glorified in us.
1:9
(Verse 9.) You looked for more, and behold, there was less: and you brought it into the house, and I blew it away: You looked for many things, and they became few: and you brought them into the house, and I blew them away. Cast aside delay, and set aside all ambiguity, that you may more diligently build my house, as well as whatever has happened to you who have delayed building my house, not as before: You sowed much, but because the earth did not yield a harvest, you brought little; but when the crops began to ripen and the time of harvest drew near, and you thought you would have the grain in your hands, you harvested empty stalks and gathered empty husks without the fruits of the spikes. The fields were full: hope in the eyes, sorrow in the hands. But even this very thing that had been selected from a plentiful harvest and countless heaps, you brought into the house, and by my power, it was scattered. For I blew it away, and reduced it to nothingness; because the dead grain and empty husks, which are useful for eating, did not have flour and fine meal. However, this can be said: you brought it into the house, and I blew it away, and I will receive the gifts that they offered on the altar, and God will blow them away. But because he said, 'You have brought it into the house,' if we understand those things which have been brought as gifts, we say that they have been offered in the temple. And it does not agree with us, because at that time the house of God had not yet been built: which indeed happens even today to many who live in humble buildings, and as far as they are concerned, they despise the deserted house of God and when they are able to build, they disregard it: and as if already seeing mature crops, they promise themselves the fruit of their works, and deceived by hope, they find hardly anything great in return. But even these small things, which they had stored in the house and in the granary, are blown away by the Word of God, as if unworthy of His custody and protection. How often have I seen so much hope in their teaching as well as in their conduct: and after it came time to reap, that is, the time to teach and to provide an example for the people, they were found wanting, and fell from their lofty positions, and were found to be less than what everyone expected. It happened that gradually, due to sudden negligence, they lost even the little they seemed to have. However, they endured this because they felt secure in their former homes, and did not ascend the mountain of Scriptures, cutting down the wood of the Lord's building, nor did they build a daily house for the Lord within themselves; but despising its desolation, they also lost what they believed they had. The aforementioned evils are explained by this cause.
1:10
(Verse 10) Therefore, says the Lord of hosts, because my house is deserted, and each of you hastens to his own house, for this reason the heavens are withheld from you so that they do not give rain, and the earth withholds its produce. Not only, he says, did the heavens not give rain, by which the watered soil produces crops; but not even the morning and evening dew, so that the dry fields, at least, are tempered with a little moisture. Moreover, it also devours the land, not returning the seed to the farmers, and it holds in its greedy lap what it usually produces spontaneously. I believe this to be the dew, of which it is said in the blessing to Jacob: May God give you the dew of heaven (Gen. 27:28), and the dew of Hermon that descends upon Mount Zion (Psalm 133), and it descends not from the air in which the number of varied eagles, hawks, and vultures fly and soar, but from heaven, so that if someone's soul is burning with disturbances, and wounded by the devil's spear, it may be cooled by this dew and moderate its heat. With the ground held back, the earth does not yield its fruit. For without the dew of Christ, no soul can bring forth wheat.
1:11