Saint Haggai

Haggai or Aggeus was a Hebrew prophet active during the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible, and the author or subject of the Book of Haggai. He is known for his prophecy in 520 BCE, commanding the Jews to rebuild the Temple. He was the first of three post-exilic prophets from the Neo-Babylonian Exile of the House of Judah (with Zechariah, his contemporary, and Malachi, who lived about one hundred years later), who belonged to the period of Jewish history which began after the return from captivity in Babylon. His name means "my holidays". Scarcely anything is known of his personal history, with the book of Haggai offering no biographical details about his ancestry or anything else in his life outside the prophecies of 520 BCE. Haggai is only mentioned in one other book of the Bible, the book of Ezra. He may have been one of the captives taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. Some commenters suggest he may have been an old man, and seen the previous temple before its destruction due to what he says about the former glory of the Temple in Haggai 2:3. He began God's prophecy about sixteen years after the return of the Jews to Judah (ca. c. 520 BCE). The work of rebuilding the temple had been put to a stop through the intrigues of the Samaritans. After having been suspended for eighteen years, the work was resumed through the efforts of Haggai and Zechariah. They exhorted the people, which roused them from their lethargy, and induced them to take advantage of a change in the policy of the Persian government under Darius I. Haggai prophesied in late 520 BCE Jerusalem, about the people needing to complete building the Temple. He has four messages, which begin on August 29 and culminate on December 18. The new Temple was bound to exceed the awesomeness of the previous Temple. He claimed if the Temple was not built there would be poverty, famine and drought affecting the Jewish nation.