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Haggai, Book ofAid to Bible Understanding
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Zechariah was prophesying for the same purpose during Haggai’s prophetic activity.—Ezra 5:1, 2; 6:14.
MESSAGES OF LASTING BENEFIT
Among other things, the book of Haggai engenders faith in Jehovah, essential to God’s servants. It shows that God is with his people (Hag. 1:13; 2:4, 5), and also urges them to put his interests first in life. (Hag. 1:2-8; Matt. 6:33) The book makes clear the fact that mere formalistic worship does not please Jehovah (Hag. 2:10-17; compare Isaiah 29:13, 14; Matthew 15:7-9), but that faithful actions harmonizing with the divine will result in blessing. (Hag. 2:18, 19; compare Proverbs 10:22.) The writer of the Bible book of Hebrews applies Haggai 2:6 as having a greater fulfillment in connection with God’s kingdom in the hands of Jesus Christ.—Heb. 12:26-29.
OUTLINE OF CONTENTS
I. First message, in second year of Darius Hystaspis, on first day of sixth month (1:1-15)
A. Reproof for failure to rebuild temple (1:1-12)
1. People more interested in own homes, eating and drinking, while God’s house lay waste (1:3-8)
2. God’s blessing on their crops and toil removed (1:9-11)
B. Zerubbabel and Joshua lead; people stirred up to resume rebuilding work on twenty-fourth day of sixth month (1:12-15)
II. Second message, on twenty-first day of seventh month (2:1-9)
A. Those who had seen temple built by Solomon look at rebuilding as insignificant; apparently discourage others (Compare Zechariah 4:10.) (2:1-3)
B. Jehovah reassures them that he is with them, recalling his covenant with Israel; he will fill this house with glory (2:4-9)
1. He will rock heavens, earth, sea and dry ground (2:4-6)
2. Desirable things of all nations will come in, so that glory of this house will be greater than former one (2:7-9)
III. Third message, on twenty-fourth day of ninth month (2:10-19)
A. People unclean in all their work and what they present (2:10-14)
B. Even when struck with scarcity, drought and hail, have not turned to Jehovah (2:15-17)
C. From this day Jehovah will bestow blessing (2:18, 19)
IV. Fourth message, on twenty-fourth day of second month (2:20-23)
A. Jehovah will rock heaven and earth, overthrow kingdoms of the nations (2:20-22)
B. Will set Zerubbabel (a descendant of David and ancestor of the Messiah) as a seal ring, as His chosen one (See 1 Chronicles 3:1-19; Matthew 1:6-16, Luke 3:23-31.) (2:23)
See the book “All Scripture Is Inspired of God and Beneficial,” pp. 166-168.
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HaggiAid to Bible Understanding
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HAGGI
(Hagʹgi) [festive].
Second-named son of Gad; grandson of Jacob and ancestral head of the Haggites.—Gen. 46:8, 16; Num. 26:4, 15.
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HaggiahAid to Bible Understanding
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HAGGIAH
(Hag·giʹah) [a festival of Jehovah].
Son of Shimea; a Levite of the family of Merari.—1 Chron. 6:16, 29, 30.
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HaggitesAid to Bible Understanding
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HAGGITES
See HAGGI.
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HaggithAid to Bible Understanding
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HAGGITH
(Hagʹgith) [festive].
A wife of David and the mother of Adonijah, who schemed to get the kingship over Israel.—2 Sam. 3:2, 4; 1 Ki. 1:5, 11; 1 Chron. 3:1, 2.
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HagriAid to Bible Understanding
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HAGRI
(Hagʹri).
Father of Mibhar, one of David’s mighty men.—1 Chron. 11:26, 38.
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HagriteAid to Bible Understanding
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HAGRITE
(Hagʹrite).
Many scholars believe that the Hagrites are probably the same as the A·graiʹoi mentioned by the ancient geographers Strabo, Ptolemy and Pliny. Whether they were descendants of Hagar, as some suppose, cannot be definitely established. The Hagrites apparently were a pastoral people residing in tents E of Gilead. In the days of King Saul the Israelites living E of the Jordan defeated the Hagrites, taking 100,000 captives, as well as thousands of camels, asses and sheep. (1 Chron. 5:10, 18-22) The psalmist listed the Hagrites among other enemies of Israel, such as the Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites and Amalekites. (Ps. 83:2-7) However, during David’s rule, Jaziz the Hagrite was in charge of the royal flocks.—1 Chron. 27:31.
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HailAid to Bible Understanding
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HAIL
A form of precipitation consisting of pellets of ice or frozen rain. The Bible’s references to the destructive nature of hail are confirmed by what has happened in different parts of the earth in more recent years. For example, in the spring of 1888, at Moradabad, India, and vicinity, a hailstorm killed 260 persons. About ten years later hundreds of small animals were killed in a hailstorm in the state of Missouri, U.S.A., the hail even penetrated the roofs of houses. Hail is particularly damaging to crops, with single hailstorms sometimes causing losses amounting to millions of dollars.
USED BY JEHOVAH
Hail is one of the forces Jehovah has used at times to accomplish his word and to demonstrate his great power. (Ps. 148:1, 8; Isa. 30:30) The first recorded instance of this was the seventh plague upon ancient Egypt, a destructive hailstorm that ruined vegetation, shattered trees and killed both men and beasts out in the field, but did not affect the Israelites in Goshen. (Ex. 9:18-26; Ps. 78:47, 48; 105:32, 33) Later, in the Promised Land, when the Israelites, under Joshua, came to the aid of the Gibeonites, who were threatened by an alliance of five kings of the Amorites, Jehovah used great hailstones against the attacking Amorites. On this occasion more died from the hailstones than in battle with Israel.—Josh. 10:3-7, 11.
Symbolic
Jehovah, however, did not spare unfaithful Israel from devastating hail. (Hag. 2:17) Furthermore, through his prophet Isaiah, he foretold the overthrow of the ten-tribe kingdom by the Assyrians, comparing the conquering Assyrian forces to a “thunderous storm of hail.” (Isa. 28:1, 2) Similarly the Babylonians, like hail, were to sweep away Judah’s “refuge of a lie,” that is, Judah’s alliance with Egypt for military help.—Isa. 28:14, 17; 31:1-3.
‘For the day of war’
In speaking to Job out of the windstorm, Jehovah indicated that he had reserved storehouses of hail for “the day of fight and war.” (Job 38:1, 22, 23) Appropriately, therefore, hail is mentioned among the elements to be used against the attacking forces of “Gog.” (Ezek. 38:22) Additionally, in the book of Revelation, reference is made to hail in conjunction with the first of the seven angels with trumpets blowing his trumpet, and in connection with the opening of the heavenly temple sanctuary of God. (Rev. 8:2, 7; 11:19) Then, at the pouring out of the seventh bowl of God’s anger, symbolic hailstones weighing about a talent (c. 75 lbs., avdp.; c. 34 kg.) descend upon wicked men.—Rev. 16:1, 17, 21.
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HairAid to Bible Understanding
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HAIR
Historically, men and women in general have regarded their hair as ornamental, enhancing their attractiveness, and as a sign, in many cases, of strength and youth. Therefore, great care has been given to the hair.
EGYPTIANS
The Egyptians had, probably, the most peculiar customs with regard to their hair. The men, especially priests and soldiers, shaved their heads and beards. Herodotus says that the Nile dwellers shaved the heads of the boys, leaving only a few locks on the sides and perhaps on the front and back. When the child reached maturity these were removed as being marks of childhood. For the men, it was a sign of mourning or slovenliness to let the hair and beard grow. It is said that even slaves from other countries were required by their Egyptian masters to shave. This may explain why Joseph, in a slave’s position in Egypt, shaved when called from prison into the presence of Pharaoh. (Gen. 41:14) Egyptian men, however, sometimes wore wigs, and beards that they tied on. Some Egyptian monumental representations show men of high rank with long, well-cared-for hair, whether their own or wigs is not discernible.
Conversely, Egyptian women wore their natural hair long and plaited. Well-preserved, plaited hair has been found on a considerable number of Egyptian female mummies.
ASYRIANS, BABYLONIANS, ROMANS
The Assyrian and Babylonian men, and Asiatics in general, wore their hair long. Assyrian reliefs show the men with close-combed hair, the ends falling on the shoulders in curls. Their beards were also long, sometimes divided into two or three tiers of curls, with the moustache trimmed and also curled. Some believe that the very long hair depicted on the monuments was partly false, an addition to the person’s natural hair.
In ancient times the Romans evidently wore beards but, about the third century B.C.E., adopted the custom of shaving.
HEBREWS
The practice among Hebrew men from the first was to let the beard grow, but it was kept well groomed; and they trimmed the hair to a moderate length. Absalom was an example, although his hair grew so abundantly that when he cut it once a year, it weighed two hundred shekels—about five pounds, or two kilograms (no doubt made heavier by the use of oil or ointments). (2 Sam. 14:25, 26) God’s law commanded Israelite men that they should not ‘cut their side locks short around,’ nor destroy the “extremity” of their beards. This was not an injunction against trimming the hair or beard, but was evidently to prevent imitation of pagan practices. (Lev. 19:27; Jer. 9:25, 26; 25:23; 49:32) To neglect the hair or beard, likely leaving them untrimmed and untended, was a sign of mourning. (2 Sam. 19:24) In instructions to priests given through the prophet Ezekiel, God commanded that they clip, but not shave, the hair of their heads, and that they should not wear their hair loose when serving in the temple.—Ezek. 44:15, 20.
In the diagnosis of leprosy, one factor that the priest had to consider was the color and condition of the hair on the affected part.—Lev. 13:1-46.
Hebrew women took care of their hair as a mark of beauty (Song of Sol. 7:5), letting it grow long. (John 11:2) For a woman to cut off her hair was a sign of mourning or distress. (Isa. 3:24) When an Israelite soldier captured a virgin woman from an enemy city and desired to marry her, she was required first to cut off her hair and attend to her nails and to undergo a one-month period of mourning for her parents, they having been killed in the taking of the city.—Deut. 21:10-13; 20:10-14.
CHRISTIANS
Both the apostles Peter and Paul were impelled to counsel Christian women not to give undue attention to hair styling and ornamentation, as was the custom of the day. Instead, they were admonished to focus their attention on adorning themselves with the incorruptible apparel of a quiet and mild spirit.—1 Pet. 3:3, 4; 1 Tim. 2:9, 10.
The apostle Paul also called attention to the situation and general custom among the people to whom he wrote and showed that it was natural for a man to have shorter hair than a woman. A woman having her hair shorn or shaved off was disgraced. God had given her long hair “instead of a headdress,” but, Paul argued, a woman could not use this natural covering, which was a glory to her, to excuse herself from wearing a head covering, a “sign of authority,” when praying or prophesying in the Christian congregation. By recognizing this fact and wearing a covering in such circumstances, the Christian woman would be acknowledging theocratic headship and showing Christian subjection. She would thus glorify both her husbandly head and Jehovah God, the Head of all.—1 Cor. 11:3-16.
FIGURATIVE USAGE
Job cut the hair off his head as a symbol of the desolate condition he was in, with his children and property taken away.—Job 1:20.
Ezekiel was commanded to cut off the hair of his head and his beard, divide it into thirds and dispose of it in ways that would prophetically describe the distressing things that would happen to the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the execution of God’s judgments against her. (Ezek. 5:1-13) Distress and affliction were also symbolized by pulling out the hair, or cutting it off. (Ezra 9:3; Jer. 7:29; 48:37; Mic. 1:16) Dishonor or contempt or reproach could be expressed by pulling out the hair of another’s head or face.—Neh. 13:25; Isa. 50:6.
The number of hairs on the human head (said to average about 120,000) was used to represent great numbers or innumerability. (Ps. 40:12; 69:4) And the fineness of the hair was used figuratively for minuteness. (Judg. 20:16) ‘Not a hair of your head will perish (or, fall)’ is a statement guaranteeing full and complete protection and safety. (Luke 21:18; 1 Sam. 14:45; 2 Sam. 14:11; 1 Ki. 1:52; Acts 27:34) A similar implication was denoted by Jesus Christ’s words to his disciples as to God’s care for them: “The very hairs of your head are all numbered.”—Matt. 10:30; Luke 12:7.
Gray-headedness merited respect (Prov. 16:31; 20:29), and was used at times synonymously for age and for wisdom. (Job 15:9, 10) Jehovah, in a vision to Daniel, symbolically was represented as having white hair, “like clean wool,” as the “Ancient of Days.” (Dan. 7:9) The apostle John saw Jesus Christ represented in a vision as having hair “white as white wool.”—Rev. 1:1, 14, 17, 18.
ANIMAL HAIR
Goat’s hair was used in making cloth. (Ex. 26:7) John the Baptist wore a garment of camel’s hair. (Matt. 3:4; Mark 1:6) This type of garment was an official one for a prophet. (2 Ki. 1:8; compare Genesis 25:25.) The hair Rebekah placed on the hands and neck of Jacob to simulate Esau’s hair was probably hair of the camel-goat of the East, which was used by the Romans as a substitute for human hair.—Gen. 27:16; see BEARD.
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HakkozAid to Bible Understanding
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HAKKOZ
(Hakʹkoz) [the thorn].
An Aaronic priest and head of the paternal house that in David’s time was constituted the seventh of the twenty-four priestly divisions. (1 Chron. 24:3-7, 10) After returning from Babylon in 537 B.C.E., “sons of Hakkoz” were among those who were disqualified from the priesthood because of being unable to establish their genealogy. They were among those forbidden to eat from “the most holy things until a priest stood up with Urim and Thummim.” (Ezra 2:61-63; Neh. 7:63-65) A descendant of Hakkoz is specifically referred to as
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