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Chapter 2 - I Am with You

The Book of Haggai

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2020

Robert L. Foster
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
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Summary

The Book of Haggai unfolds across four narrative episodes (1:1–1:15a; 1:15b–2:9; 2:10–19; 2:20–23), marked in the text by the date when the prophet Haggai came forward to make each of the four proclamations during the reign of Darius I (1:1; 1:15b; 2:10; 2:20). While this series of narratives tell of Haggai’s interaction with the remnant of Israel and their leaders, several key imperatives indicate the persuasive aim of the book: “Go up to the hills and bring down trees and build this house” (1:8) and “Be strong, Zerubbabel … be strong Joshua … be strong all people of the land … and act!” (2:4). Several more imperatives punctuate this collection of stories (1:5, 7; 2:15, 18), but these serve to exhort the audience to introspection as a means to motivate them to fulfill these two, primary imperatives. In which case we can fairly summarize the purpose of the Book of Haggai as to encourage the book’s audience to fulfill Haggai’s commands, to be strong and to finish the work of building the Temple to YHWH. The explicit theological claims and implicit theological assumptions of the book intend to motivate its original audience to achieve this aim, perhaps not too long after Haggai’s prophetic ministry.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • I Am with You
  • Robert L. Foster, University of Georgia
  • Book: The Theology of the Books of Haggai and Zechariah
  • Online publication: 19 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108688321.004
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  • I Am with You
  • Robert L. Foster, University of Georgia
  • Book: The Theology of the Books of Haggai and Zechariah
  • Online publication: 19 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108688321.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • I Am with You
  • Robert L. Foster, University of Georgia
  • Book: The Theology of the Books of Haggai and Zechariah
  • Online publication: 19 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108688321.004
Available formats
×