328.Haggai 2:6-9Expand
Hebrew (MT/WLC)
כִּ֣י כֹ֤ה אָמַר֙ יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֔וֹת ע֥וֹד אַחַ֖ת מְעַ֣ט הִ֑יא וַאֲנִ֗י מַרְעִישׁ֙ אֶת הַשָּׁמַ֣יִם וְאֶת הָאָ֔רֶץ וְאֶת הַיָּ֖ם וְאֶת הֶחָרָבָֽה׃ וְהִרְעַשְׁתִּי֙ אֶת כָּל הַגּוֹיִ֔ם וּבָ֖אוּ חֶמְדַּ֣ת כָּל הַגּוֹיִ֑ם וּמִלֵּאתִ֞י אֶת הַבַּ֤יִת הַזֶּה֙ כָּב֔וֹד אָמַ֖ר יְהוָ֥ה צְבָאֽוֹת׃ לִ֥י הַכֶּ֖סֶף וְלִ֣י הַזָּהָ֑ב נְאֻ֖ם יְהוָ֥ה צְבָאֽוֹת׃ גָּד֣וֹל יִֽהְיֶ֡ה כְּבוֹד֩ הַבַּ֨יִת הַזֶּ֤ה הָאַֽחֲרוֹן֙ מִן הָ֣רִאשׁ֔וֹן אָמַ֖ר יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֑וֹת וּבַמָּק֤וֹם הַזֶּה֙ אֶתֵּ֣ן שָׁל֔וֹם נְאֻ֖ם יְהוָ֥ה צְבָאֽוֹת׃ פ
KJV
For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it [is] a little while, and 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: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. The silver [is] mine, and the gold [is] mine, saith the LORD of hosts. 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.
Jewish Translation — RJPS 2023
For thus said GOD of Hosts: In just a little while longer I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land; I will shake all the nations. And the precious things of all the nations shall come [here], and I will fill this House with glory, said GOD of Hosts. Silver is Mine and gold is Mine—says GOD of Hosts. The glory of this latter House shall be greater than that of the former one, said GOD of Hosts; and in this place I will grant prosperity—declares GOD of Hosts.
The Christian Claim
Haggai 2:6-9 prophetically supports Luke 2:27-32 regarding the claim that he would visit the second Temple.
The Jewish Response
Haggai is encouraging the community rebuilding the Second Temple. The promise of greater glory belongs to a passage that also speaks of divine upheaval among the nations and of peace. [1]
Troki’s discussion is valuable because he restores that larger setting. If the Christian argument reduces the prophecy to the fact that Jesus once entered the Second Temple, the rest of Haggai’s promised transformation is left without explanation. [3]
The prophecy is public and historical, not merely symbolic. One visit by one person cannot simply be substituted for the larger sequence Haggai describes unless the interpreter first shows why the remaining conditions should be detached from the claim of fulfillment. [1]
Later Jewish counter-missionary writers make this point explicitly. Troki, Tovia Singer, and Gerald Sigal discuss this verse or the same underlying missionary argument and use the biblical context to show why the Christian inference does not follow from the Tanakh text itself. When an exact chapter or page is known, it is given below. When only the work can presently be identified, the citation is still included and labeled at that level rather than omitted. [3, 5, 6]
The modern scholarly sources cited here—The Jewish Study Bible—help establish the Hebrew, literary, or historical reading on which the response rests. They are not being presented as counter-missionary writers; their value is that their scholarship independently supports the contextual reading before the Christian claim is tested against it. [4]
For a reader who does not begin with Luke 2:27-32, Haggai 2:6-9 already has a clear subject and purpose in its own biblical setting. The Christian connection arises only when the later New Testament text is read first and then used as a lens for the Tanakh. That explains how the Christian interpretation developed: the later Christian text is being read back onto the earlier biblical passage. It does not make the Christian interpretation a historically plausible meaning of the verse. [1–2]
Sources and Notes
[1] Haggai 2:1–9.
[2] Luke 2:27-32.
[3] Isaac Troki, Hizzuk Emunah / Faith Strengthened, trans. Moses Mocatta (London, 1851), direct discussion of Haggai 2 and its unrealized universal/Temple/peace setting; exact chapter/page was not established in the audit. https://archive.org/details/faithstrengthene00trok.
[4] The Jewish Study Bible, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press, 2014) — relevant Jewish scholarly commentary/context for this passage; exact page is not presently noted.
[5] Tovia Singer, Let’s Get Biblical! — modern counter-missionary treatment relevant to the argument used in discussing this verse; exact volume/page is not presently identified.
[6] Gerald Sigal, The Jew and the Christian Missionary (KTAV, 1981) — modern counter-missionary treatment relevant to the argument used in discussing this verse; exact chapter/page is not presently identified.
[7] Don Isaac Abarbanel, Mashmia Yeshuah, Haggai section — broader Jewish messianic treatment of Haggai; exact verse-level locus for this subclaim is not presently noted.