Chagai 1 2
1:1 BISHNAT SHETAYIM LE DAR-YAVESH HA MELECH BA CHODESH HA SHISHI BE YOM ECHAD LA CHODESH HAYAH DEVAR YHVH BE YAD CHAGAI HA NAVI EL ZERU-BAVEL BEN SHE'ALTIY-EL PACHAT YEHUDAH VE EL YEHOSHU'A BEN YEHO-TSADAK HA KOHEN HA GADOL LE'MOR
בִּשְׁנַת שְׁתַּיִם לְדָרְיָוֶשׁ הַמֶּלֶךְ בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשִּׁשִּׁי בְּיוֹם אֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ הָיָה דְבַר יְהוָה בְּיַד חַגַּי הַנָּבִיא אֶל זְרֻבָּבֶל בֶּן שְׁאַלְתִּיאֵל פַּחַת יְהוּדָה וְאֶל יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בֶּן יְהוֹצָדָק הַכֹּהֵן הַגָּדוֹל לֵאמֹר
KJ (King James translation): In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,
BN (BibleNet translation): In the second year of King Dar-Yavesh, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of YHVH came to Zeru-Bavel ben She'altiy-El, the governor of Yehudah, and to Yehoshu'a ben Yeho-Tsadak the high priest, in the hand of Chagai the Prophet, saying:
BISHNAT SHETAYIM: The 2nd year of King Darius, which would have been 520 BCE. The Achaemenid Dynasty came to power with the defeat of Bavel (Babylon) in 559 BCE, and its first ruler, Koresh (Cyrus), was the one who appointed Zeru-Bavel to lead the Yehudim home and begin the rebuilding of Yeru-Shala'im. The list of Achaemenid rulers, with their dates, is:
559-530 - Cyrus the Great (Koresh)
529-522 - Cambyses
522-521 - Smerdis (Bardiya)
521-486 - Darius I, the Great (Dar-Yavesh)
485-465 - Xerxes I
464-424 - Artaxerxes I, Longimanus (Artachshast)
424 - Xerxes II (son)
424 - Sogdianus (brother)
It was under Artaxerxes I that Ezra and Nechem-Yah (Nehemiah) would return, and undertake the rebuilding of Yeru-Shala'im, the establishment of Yehudan independence, and the writing of the Tanach.
BE YAD: Usually prophecies are given BE PEH, which is to say "through the mouth of"; the inference is that this was written.
PACHAT: Several words are used, in the various books that tell of this period, which find themselves translated as "governor". Nechem-Yah is the Tirshat'a.
559-530 - Cyrus the Great (Koresh)
529-522 - Cambyses
522-521 - Smerdis (Bardiya)
521-486 - Darius I, the Great (Dar-Yavesh)
485-465 - Xerxes I
464-424 - Artaxerxes I, Longimanus (Artachshast)
424 - Xerxes II (son)
424 - Sogdianus (brother)
It was under Artaxerxes I that Ezra and Nechem-Yah (Nehemiah) would return, and undertake the rebuilding of Yeru-Shala'im, the establishment of Yehudan independence, and the writing of the Tanach.
BE YAD: Usually prophecies are given BE PEH, which is to say "through the mouth of"; the inference is that this was written.
PACHAT: Several words are used, in the various books that tell of this period, which find themselves translated as "governor". Nechem-Yah is the Tirshat'a.
1:2 KOH AMAR YHVH TSEVAOT LE'MOR HA AM HA ZEH AMRU LO ET BO ET BEIT YHVH LEHIBANOT
כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת לֵאמֹר הָעָם הַזֶּה אָמְרוּ לֹא עֶת בֹּא עֶת בֵּית יְהוָה לְהִבָּנוֹת
KJ: Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built.
BN: Thus has YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, spoken, saying, This is what the people say, that the time has not yet come for the rebuilding of the House of YHVH.
YHVH TSEVA'OT: "The Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens". Not the plain YHVH of Ezra, nor the Elohim of Nechem-Yah, this is Yesha-Yahu's (Isaiah's) deity, the head of the polytheon, the middle stage in the evolution of the Jewish deity that began with pure polytheism and would end, in Hasmonean times, with YHVH as Omnideity. The "hosts of the heavens" were the seven planets, the moon and Earth, and the twelve major constellations. YHVH sat at the head of this Cabinet, prima inter pares, but still the Prime Minister, not yet the President.
LO BO: The people would say that, wouldn't they? The common folk are conservative, status-quo keepers, keep your heads down and don't stir up controversy. Prophets exist to challenge that frightened complacency, and make things happen.
LO BO: The people would say that, wouldn't they? The common folk are conservative, status-quo keepers, keep your heads down and don't stir up controversy. Prophets exist to challenge that frightened complacency, and make things happen.
pey break
1:3 VA YEHI DEVAR YHVH BE YAD CHAGAI HA NAVI LE'MOR
וַיְהִי דְּבַר יְהוָה בְּיַד חַגַּי הַנָּבִיא לֵאמֹר
KJ: Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,
BN: Then the word of YHVH came in the hand of Chagai the Prophet, saying:
BN: Then the word of YHVH came in the hand of Chagai the Prophet, saying:
CHAGAI: A CHAG is a feast or a festival, an occasion for joy. Prophets take names because of their symbolic value, or because they have been elected to the Mastery of an already existing Guild. The Guilds came to an end with the exile of 586 BCE, so a new Prophet is free to choose his own name.
There are three other occasions of the name, or something like the name, in the Tanach. Genesis 46:16 and Numbers 26:15 both have a Chagi as one of the sons of Gad, while 1 Chronicles 6:15 has a Chagi-Yah in a complex genealogy of the tribe of Levi.
There are three other occasions of the name, or something like the name, in the Tanach. Genesis 46:16 and Numbers 26:15 both have a Chagi as one of the sons of Gad, while 1 Chronicles 6:15 has a Chagi-Yah in a complex genealogy of the tribe of Levi.
1:4 HA ET LACHEM ATEM LASHEVET BE VATEYCHEM SEPHUNIM VEHA BAYIT HA ZEH CHAREV
הַעֵת לָכֶם אַתֶּם לָשֶׁבֶת בְּבָתֵּיכֶם סְפוּנִים וְהַבַּיִת הַזֶּה חָרֵב
KJ: Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?
BN: Is this the time for you - you, your selfish selves - to dwell in your ceilinged houses, while this house lies in ruins?
CHAREV: Wasn't it some sort of CHAREV that marked the loss of Eden as well! As with all the Prophets, as with all great poets, we enter the realm of word-games as soon as we open their scroll. That was a CHEREV, but from the same root - the "flaming sword" of Genesis 3:24 - but Chagai's contemporaries would have recognised the word in a rather different way, coming back as they just had from Persia. The original flaming sword was a fire-wheel, known among the Arryans of India and Persia as a swastika, and it was to the Persian Medes what the Cross would be to Christians later on, the Star of David to the Jews: the key symbol of their faith. So the Temple lying in ruins is contrasted with the glorious triumph of the still-new Medean empire, and the sword which ravaged Yeru-Shala'im is now, once again, "the flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the Tree of Life".
BN: Is this the time for you - you, your selfish selves - to dwell in your ceilinged houses, while this house lies in ruins?
CHAREV: Wasn't it some sort of CHAREV that marked the loss of Eden as well! As with all the Prophets, as with all great poets, we enter the realm of word-games as soon as we open their scroll. That was a CHEREV, but from the same root - the "flaming sword" of Genesis 3:24 - but Chagai's contemporaries would have recognised the word in a rather different way, coming back as they just had from Persia. The original flaming sword was a fire-wheel, known among the Arryans of India and Persia as a swastika, and it was to the Persian Medes what the Cross would be to Christians later on, the Star of David to the Jews: the key symbol of their faith. So the Temple lying in ruins is contrasted with the glorious triumph of the still-new Medean empire, and the sword which ravaged Yeru-Shala'im is now, once again, "the flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the Tree of Life".
There are other word-games in this verse, less significant, but worth noting:
HA ET LACHEM ATEM: Chagai is playing, as in the previous verse, with the strange grammatical form that indicates an accusative or an object noun, which happens to sound the same as the word for an "appointed time", a "holy season", and happens to be the first part of the 2nd person pronoun. So we find three versions, OT, ET and ATEM, serving to provide strong emphasis as well as challenging the "people's words" from two verses before. Highly sophisticated writing (shame he wasn't addressing a women-only audience though; then he could have had OT, ET and AT - even better!).
LACHEM ATEM: enhances the emphasis still further: LACHEM means "to you", ATEM simply "you". The repetition and change of conjugation infer a large exclamation mark, but rather more explicit in its criticism!
HA ET LACHEM ATEM: Chagai is playing, as in the previous verse, with the strange grammatical form that indicates an accusative or an object noun, which happens to sound the same as the word for an "appointed time", a "holy season", and happens to be the first part of the 2nd person pronoun. So we find three versions, OT, ET and ATEM, serving to provide strong emphasis as well as challenging the "people's words" from two verses before. Highly sophisticated writing (shame he wasn't addressing a women-only audience though; then he could have had OT, ET and AT - even better!).
LACHEM ATEM: enhances the emphasis still further: LACHEM means "to you", ATEM simply "you". The repetition and change of conjugation infer a large exclamation mark, but rather more explicit in its criticism!
1:5 VE ATAH KOH AMAR YHVH TSEVA'OT SIYMU LEVAVECHEM AL DARCHEYCHEM
וְעַתָּה כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת שִׂימוּ לְבַבְכֶם עַל דַּרְכֵיכֶם
KJ: Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
BN: And now, therefore, thus says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens: Consider your ways.
LEVAVECHEM AL DARCHEYCHEM: Even if his fellow Yehudim have forgotten most of their liturgy, their history, even their language, the one thing that can be virtually certain to have stayed with them is the opening paragraph of the Shema, the central credo of the faith for many centuries. "And you shall love YHVH your god BE CHOL LEVAVECHA... with all your heart... and you shall teach your children at all times..." including "BE LECHTECHA BA DERECH... as you walk along the road." And a good Prophet, like a good educator, doesn't tell them what to think, but guides them to figuring it out for themselves, with the answer cryptically included, for those who are paying full attention.
1:6 ZERA'TEM HARBEH VE HAV'E ME'AT ACHOL VE EYN LE SAV'AH SHATU VE EYN LE SHACHRAH LAVOSH VE EYN LECHOM LO VE HA MISTAKER MISTAKER EL TSEROR NAKUV
BN: And now, therefore, thus says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens: Consider your ways.
LEVAVECHEM AL DARCHEYCHEM: Even if his fellow Yehudim have forgotten most of their liturgy, their history, even their language, the one thing that can be virtually certain to have stayed with them is the opening paragraph of the Shema, the central credo of the faith for many centuries. "And you shall love YHVH your god BE CHOL LEVAVECHA... with all your heart... and you shall teach your children at all times..." including "BE LECHTECHA BA DERECH... as you walk along the road." And a good Prophet, like a good educator, doesn't tell them what to think, but guides them to figuring it out for themselves, with the answer cryptically included, for those who are paying full attention.
1:6 ZERA'TEM HARBEH VE HAV'E ME'AT ACHOL VE EYN LE SAV'AH SHATU VE EYN LE SHACHRAH LAVOSH VE EYN LECHOM LO VE HA MISTAKER MISTAKER EL TSEROR NAKUV
זְרַעְתֶּם הַרְבֵּה וְהָבֵא מְעָט אָכוֹל וְאֵין לְשָׂבְעָה שָׁתוֹ וְאֵין לְשָׁכְרָה לָבוֹשׁ וְאֵין לְחֹם לוֹ וְהַמִּשְׂתַּכֵּר מִשְׂתַּכֵּר אֶל צְרוֹר נָקוּב
KJ: Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.
BN: You sow much, but you harvest very little. You eat, but you never appease your appetite. You drink, but your thirst is never satisfied. You clothe yourselves, but you are never warm. And he who earns wages puts those wages in a bag made out of holes.
Some commentators assume that there was a famine (verse 10 supports this), but there is no reason to assume this. What Chagai is saying applies just as much in a time of glut and surfeit; it's about human attitude and behaviour, not the state of Nature, about activity rather than passivity, about filtimes rather than pastimes.
pey break
1:7 KOH AMAR YHVH TSEVA'OT SIYMU LEVAVCHEM AL DARCHEYCHEM
BN: You sow much, but you harvest very little. You eat, but you never appease your appetite. You drink, but your thirst is never satisfied. You clothe yourselves, but you are never warm. And he who earns wages puts those wages in a bag made out of holes.
Some commentators assume that there was a famine (verse 10 supports this), but there is no reason to assume this. What Chagai is saying applies just as much in a time of glut and surfeit; it's about human attitude and behaviour, not the state of Nature, about activity rather than passivity, about filtimes rather than pastimes.
pey break
1:7 KOH AMAR YHVH TSEVA'OT SIYMU LEVAVCHEM AL DARCHEYCHEM
כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת שִׂימוּ לְבַבְכֶם עַל דַּרְכֵיכֶם
KJ: Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
BN: Thus says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, Consider your ways.
BN: Thus says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, Consider your ways.
Repeating verse 5, save only the first two words. And without needing the cryptic answer second time around.
1:8 ALU HA HAR VA HAV'ETEM ETS U VENU HA BAYIT VE ERTSEH BO VE EKAVED AMAR YHVH
עֲלוּ הָהָר וַהֲבֵאתֶם עֵץ וּבְנוּ הַבָּיִת וְאֶרְצֶה בּוֹ וְאֶכָּבֵד אָמַר יְהוָה
KJ: Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD.
BN: Go up to the mountain, and collect wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, says YHVH.
BN: Go up to the mountain, and collect wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, says YHVH.
Definitely Yesha-Yahu's deity - me, me me, I am so important, I am wonderful. Surely Chagai should be telling them to rebuild the Temple for themselves, to reinstate the capital of their recovered homeland, to rebuild their lives... but no, this is all about servile glorification of YHVH, the same servitude as under the Babylonians really.
1:9 PANOH EL HARBEH VE HINEH LIM'AT VE HAVE'TEM HA BAYIT VE NAPHACHTI VO YA'AN MEH NE'UM YHVH TSEVA'OT YA'AN BEITI ASHER HU CHAREV VE ATEM RATSIM ISH LE VEITO
פָּנֹה אֶל הַרְבֵּה וְהִנֵּה לִמְעָט וַהֲבֵאתֶם הַבַּיִת וְנָפַחְתִּי בוֹ יַעַן מֶה נְאֻם יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת יַעַן בֵּיתִי אֲשֶׁר הוּא חָרֵב וְאַתֶּם רָצִים אִישׁ לְבֵיתוֹ
KJ: Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.
BN: You wanted so much, but alas it came to so little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away with a puff. Why? says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens. Because my house lies in ruins, while you run every man to his own house.
CHAREV: see my previous note, but in addition there is an equally important second link, to CHOREV (Mount Horeb in English), the Mosaic mountain. Verse 11 certainly plays with that in its word-game.
ISH LE VEITO: There is a famous triplet of Rabbi Hillel, cited in Pirkei Avot, five hundred years after Chagai, but very much a parallel of Chagai's message: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"
1:10 AL KEN ALEYCHEM KAL'U SHAMAYIM MI TAL VE HA ARETS KAL'AH YEVULAH
1:10 AL KEN ALEYCHEM KAL'U SHAMAYIM MI TAL VE HA ARETS KAL'AH YEVULAH
עַל כֵּן עֲלֵיכֶם כָּלְאוּ שָׁמַיִם מִטָּל וְהָאָרֶץ כָּלְאָה יְבוּלָהּ
KJ: Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.
BN: As a consequence of this, entirely your own fault, the heavens have withheld their dew, and the Earth withholds its fruit.
MI TAL: A minor error of science here, in the original! Dew comes up from the ground, mist goes down from the heavens. And it isn't just Chagai's lack of scientific knowledge, because there are two other occasions when the same occurs. And it is odd that it does, because mist in Yehudit is ARAPHEL (ערפל), and the root, ARAPH, means "to drop". But it is definitely TAL, which is "dew", here, and likewise in Deuteronomy 32:2 - the source of Portia's court-speech in Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice", Act 4, Scene 1 - and Deuteronomy 33:28).
1:11 VA EKR'A CHOREV AL HA ARETS VE AL HE HARIM VE AL HA DAGAN VE AL HA TIYROSH VE AL HA YITS'HAR VE AL ASHER TOTSI'Y HA ADAMAH VE AL HA ADAM VE AL HA BEHEMAH VE AL KOL YEGIY'A KAPAYIM
BN: As a consequence of this, entirely your own fault, the heavens have withheld their dew, and the Earth withholds its fruit.
MI TAL: A minor error of science here, in the original! Dew comes up from the ground, mist goes down from the heavens. And it isn't just Chagai's lack of scientific knowledge, because there are two other occasions when the same occurs. And it is odd that it does, because mist in Yehudit is ARAPHEL (ערפל), and the root, ARAPH, means "to drop". But it is definitely TAL, which is "dew", here, and likewise in Deuteronomy 32:2 - the source of Portia's court-speech in Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice", Act 4, Scene 1 - and Deuteronomy 33:28).
1:11 VA EKR'A CHOREV AL HA ARETS VE AL HE HARIM VE AL HA DAGAN VE AL HA TIYROSH VE AL HA YITS'HAR VE AL ASHER TOTSI'Y HA ADAMAH VE AL HA ADAM VE AL HA BEHEMAH VE AL KOL YEGIY'A KAPAYIM
וָאֶקְרָא חֹרֶב עַל הָאָרֶץ וְעַל הֶהָרִים וְעַל הַדָּגָן וְעַל הַתִּירוֹשׁ וְעַל הַיִּצְהָר וְעַל אֲשֶׁר תּוֹצִיא הָאֲדָמָה וְעַל הָאָדָם וְעַל הַבְּהֵמָה וְעַל כָּל יְגִיעַ כַּפָּיִם
KJ: And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.
BN: And I called for the destruction of the land, of the mountains, and of the grain, and of the new wine, and of the oil, and of everything that the ground brings forth, and of Humankind, and of the animals, and of every outcome of manual labour.
CHOREV: The third occasion in this chapter that he has used the word, each time with a slightly different meaning, but always the same allusions. Translating it as "drought" works fine for some of the named elements, but not all; and as we have seen, the point about using CHOREV is the CHEREV of Eden and the CHOREV of the giving of the Law: the intention throughout is "you could have had Paradise, you could have had YHVH making your lives wonderful from his palace on Mount Tsi'on, but you blew it". CHOREV literally means "destruction".
Are these last few verses YHVH speaking through Chagai, or Chagai himself? Who is calling for this drought? The next verse suggests it was the former. And if so, what happened to the No'achic covenant, the promise in the rainbow never to repeat the Flood?
samech break
1:12 VA YISHM'A ZERU-BAVEL BEN SHALTIY-EL VIYHOSHU'A BEN YEHO-TSADAK HA KOHEN HA GADOL VE CHOL SHE'ERIT HA AM BE KOL YHVH ELOHEYHEM VE AL DIVREY CHAGAI HA NAVI KA ASHER SHELACHO YHVH ELOHEYHEM VA YIYR'U HA AM MIPNEY YHVH
BN: And I called for the destruction of the land, of the mountains, and of the grain, and of the new wine, and of the oil, and of everything that the ground brings forth, and of Humankind, and of the animals, and of every outcome of manual labour.
CHOREV: The third occasion in this chapter that he has used the word, each time with a slightly different meaning, but always the same allusions. Translating it as "drought" works fine for some of the named elements, but not all; and as we have seen, the point about using CHOREV is the CHEREV of Eden and the CHOREV of the giving of the Law: the intention throughout is "you could have had Paradise, you could have had YHVH making your lives wonderful from his palace on Mount Tsi'on, but you blew it". CHOREV literally means "destruction".
Are these last few verses YHVH speaking through Chagai, or Chagai himself? Who is calling for this drought? The next verse suggests it was the former. And if so, what happened to the No'achic covenant, the promise in the rainbow never to repeat the Flood?
samech break
1:12 VA YISHM'A ZERU-BAVEL BEN SHALTIY-EL VIYHOSHU'A BEN YEHO-TSADAK HA KOHEN HA GADOL VE CHOL SHE'ERIT HA AM BE KOL YHVH ELOHEYHEM VE AL DIVREY CHAGAI HA NAVI KA ASHER SHELACHO YHVH ELOHEYHEM VA YIYR'U HA AM MIPNEY YHVH
וַיִּשְׁמַע זְרֻבָּבֶל בֶּן שַׁלְתִּיאֵל וִיהוֹשֻׁעַ בֶּן יְהוֹצָדָק הַכֹּהֵן הַגָּדוֹל וְכֹל שְׁאֵרִית הָעָם בְּקוֹל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיהֶם וְעַל דִּבְרֵי חַגַּי הַנָּבִיא כַּאֲשֶׁר שְׁלָחוֹ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיהֶם וַיִּירְאוּ הָעָם מִפְּנֵי יְהוָה
KJ: Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the LORD.
BN: And Zeru-Bavel ben Shaltiy-El, and Yehoshu'a ben Yeho-Tsadak, the High Priest, with all the remnant of the people, heard the voice of YHVH their god, and the words of Chagai the Prophet who YHVH their god had sent; and the people were in awe of YHVH.
BN: And Zeru-Bavel ben Shaltiy-El, and Yehoshu'a ben Yeho-Tsadak, the High Priest, with all the remnant of the people, heard the voice of YHVH their god, and the words of Chagai the Prophet who YHVH their god had sent; and the people were in awe of YHVH.
SHALTIY-EL: Why is he SHALTIY-EL here, but SHE'ALTIY-EL previously? An error by the scribe, presumably. But which way? Verse 14 also has Shaltiy-El, as does Chagai 2:2, but 2:23 reverts to She'altiy-El; so probability theory on a basis of three-to-two allows us to presume (quite probably incorrectly!) that the one most used is the correct one, and the error is in verse 1 (and 2:23).
The difference between the two spellings is a second-letter Aleph (א), which may be a difference between the Yehudit and the Aramaic, though that Aleph-variation is usually final letter, and instead of the Yehudit Hey (ה). It may also be worth pointing out ("may" is another take on probability theory!) that, commencing 2:11, Chagai will use as a rhetorical method the Talmudic question-and-responsum, and that begins with YHVH telling him to "ask" the Kohanim a specific question; the verb in that sentence is SHE'AL (שאל), which just happens to be the first part of SHE'ALTIY-EL ("the one who enquires of El"?), snd could therefore be read as another complex word-game (but it's probably just coincidence, because his name has an El ending, not one associated with YHVH).
Chagai is thus claiming the credit (humbly, YHVH told him what to say) for getting Zeru-Bavel and the leadership to start the process that would resume the rebuilding of the Temple.
1:13 VA YOMER CHAGAI MAL'ACH YHVH BE MAL'ACHUT YHVH LA AM LE'MOR ANI IT'CHEM NE'UM YHVH
1:13 VA YOMER CHAGAI MAL'ACH YHVH BE MAL'ACHUT YHVH LA AM LE'MOR ANI IT'CHEM NE'UM YHVH
וַיֹּאמֶר חַגַּי מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה בְּמַלְאֲכוּת יְהוָה לָעָם לֵאמֹר אֲנִי אִתְּכֶם נְאֻם יְהוָה
KJ: Then spake Haggai the LORD'S messenger in the LORD'S message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the LORD.
BN: Then Chagai, YHVH's messenger, the bringer of YHVH's message, spoke to the people, saying, I am with you, says YHVH.
MAL'ACH: So many times in the Tanach we have come upon this word, and it is always translated as "angel", and each time I explain that it is not an "angel", but a "messenger", sometimes the light from the stars interpreted horoscopally, more often, as now, a human being.
1:14 VA YA'AR YHVH ET RU'ACH ZERU-BAVEL BEN SHALTIY-EL PACHAT YEHUDAH VE ET RU'ACH YEHOSHU'A BEN YEHO-TSADAK HA KOHEN HA GADOL VE ET RU'ACH KOL SHE'ERIT HA AM VA YAVO'U VA YA'ASU MELA'CHAH BE VEIT YHVH TSEVA'OT ELOHEYHEM
BN: Then Chagai, YHVH's messenger, the bringer of YHVH's message, spoke to the people, saying, I am with you, says YHVH.
MAL'ACH: So many times in the Tanach we have come upon this word, and it is always translated as "angel", and each time I explain that it is not an "angel", but a "messenger", sometimes the light from the stars interpreted horoscopally, more often, as now, a human being.
1:14 VA YA'AR YHVH ET RU'ACH ZERU-BAVEL BEN SHALTIY-EL PACHAT YEHUDAH VE ET RU'ACH YEHOSHU'A BEN YEHO-TSADAK HA KOHEN HA GADOL VE ET RU'ACH KOL SHE'ERIT HA AM VA YAVO'U VA YA'ASU MELA'CHAH BE VEIT YHVH TSEVA'OT ELOHEYHEM
וַיָּעַר יְהוָה אֶת רוּחַ זְרֻבָּבֶל בֶּן שַׁלְתִּיאֵל פַּחַת יְהוּדָה וְאֶת רוּחַ יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בֶּן יְהוֹצָדָק הַכֹּהֵן הַגָּדוֹל וְאֶת רוּחַ כֹּל שְׁאֵרִית הָעָם וַיָּבֹאוּ וַיַּעֲשׂוּ מְלָאכָה בְּבֵית יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת אֱלֹהֵיהֶם
KJ: And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,
BN: And YHVH stirred up the spirit of Zeru-Bavel ben Shaltiy-El, governor of Yehudah, and the spirit of Yehoshu'a ben Yeho-Tsadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came, and worked on the house of YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, their god.
VA YA'AR: still more word-games. YA'AR in Arabic means "to boil"; there is no occasion of its usage with this meaning in the Tanach, yet King James and most other translators have assumed it must be this, and they are probably correct. But Chagai plays word-games, and 1 Samuel 14:27, as well as the Song of Songs 5:1, both use YA'AR for a surfeit of precisely that honey that the people would have got, if they had chosen the path towards Chorev and Cherev, in a land that would also be glutted with milk (and wine, in the Canticles link). And then there is the more common meaning of YA'AR, a word that occurs far too many times in the Tanach to be worth listing. A YA'AR is... the place you go if you are responding to Chagai's instruction in verse 8: "Go up to the mountain and collect wood". YA'AR is woodland.
YA'ASU MELACHAH: This is not the normal way of saying that "they worked"; either PA'ALU, or more usually AVDU. But PA'ALU is the work of a paid employee, banal and profane; AVDU is the work of a slave or servant, undignified and inhuman; while YA'ASU MELACHAH renders the activity holy, because it is precisely the 39 Melachot from which one rests, on the Shabbat, while praying and reading the Law in the rebuilt House of YHVH.
pey break
1:15 BE YOM ESRIM VE ARBA'AH LA CHODESH BA SHISHI BISHNAT SHETAYIM LE DAR-YAVESH HA MELECH
בְּיוֹם עֶשְׂרִים וְאַרְבָּעָה לַחֹדֶשׁ בַּשִּׁשִּׁי בִּשְׁנַת שְׁתַּיִם לְדָרְיָוֶשׁ הַמֶּלֶךְ
KJ: In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.
BN: On the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of King Daryavesh.
BA SHISHI: Should that not be HA SHISHI? Or perhaps reverse the wording, and it could be BA SHISHI LA CHODESH.
24th: verse 1 was on the first of the same month; so it took just three weeks, including time to get word back to Persia, the search for the Koreshic edict to be undertaken, and instruction to be sent back to Yehudah. Quite impressive really!
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