Haggai 1:4
in Haggai 1“Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your ceiled houses, while this house lieth waste?
KJV
Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?
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This verse in Haggai 1
Commentary
8 notes on this verseIs it time for you - If the time be not come to rebuild the temple, it cannot be come for you to build yourselves comfortable houses: but ye are rebuilding your houses; why then do ye not rebuild the house of the Lord? The foundation of the temple had been laid fourteen years before, and some considerable progress made in the building; and it had been lying waste in that unfinished state to the present time.
This site's exposition
Is it time for you
The Lord answers the people's excuse with their own contradiction: is it time for you to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? Cieled means paneled, finished with costly woodwork, the mark of comfortable private building while the temple site stood bare stone and rubble. Gill and Clarke both note the sting is not that the people lack time or resources, since they have plainly found both for their own homes, but that they have ranked the Lord's house last on a list where it belongs first.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 4.) And now thus says the Lord of hosts: Set your hearts upon your ways. Let there not be a time for speaking one thing and doing another: turn my commandments immediately into action. For the Lord is all-powerful who commands, and truly the authority of the all-powerful God is not light. Until now, your hearts have been enslaved to vices, without order, without a teacher, pursuing your desires wherever they led.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
"It is high time," says one, "that my house were wainscoted." "It is high time," says another, "that mine were painted." And God's house, all this time, lies waste, and nothing is done at it.
Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your panelled houses,....
The good success of this sermon, appearing in the people's return and close application to that work, wherein the prophet, in God's name, animated and encouraged them, assuring them that God was with them,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Is it time--It is not time (Hag 1:2), ye say, to build Jehovah's house; yet how is it that ye make it a fit time not only to build, but to "dwell" at ease in your own houses? you, O ye--rather, for "you, you"; the repetition marking the shameful contrast between their concern for themselves, and their unconcern for God [MAURER].
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Is it time for you - You, being what you are, the creatures of God, “to dwell in your ceiled houses,” more emphatically, in your houses, and those “ceiled,” probably with costly woods, such as cedar . But where then was the excuse of want of means? They imitated, in their alleged poverty, what is spoken of as magnificent in their old kings, Solomon and Shallum, but not having, as Solomon first did (1Ki 6:9, ויספן), “covered the house of God with beams and rows of cedar” . “Will ye dwell in houses artificially adorned, not so much for use as for delight, and shall My dwelling-place, wherein was the Holy of holies, and the cherubim, and the table of showbread, be bestreamed with rains, desolated in solitude, scorched by the sun?” “With these words carnal Christians are reproved, who have no glow of zeal for God, but are full of self-love, and so make no effort to repair, build, or strengthen the material temples of Christ, and houses assigned to His worship, when aged, ruinous, decaying or destroyed, but build for themselves curious, voluptuous, superfluous dwellings. In these the love of Christ gloweth not; these Isaiah threateneth, Isa 5:8, Isa 5:12. “Woe to you who join house to house and field to field, and regard not the work of the Lord!” To David and Solomon the building of God’s temple was their heart’s desire; to early Christian Emperors, to the ages of faith, the building of Churches; now mostly, owners of lands build houses for this world’s profit, and leave it to the few to build in view of eternity, and for the glory of God.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הַעֵ֤ת | haet | ¿ [does] a time | H6256 → | 296 times |
| לָכֶם֙ | lakhem | [belong] to you | ||
| אַתֶּ֔ם | ʾatem | you | H859 → | 1094 times |
| לָשֶׁ֖בֶת | lashevet | to dwell | H3427 → | |
| בְּבָתֵּיכֶ֣ם | bevateikhem | in houses your | H1004 → | 2046 times |
| סְפוּנִ֑ים | sefunim | covered | H5603 → | |
| וְהַבַּ֥יִת | vehabayit | and the house | H1004 → | 2046 times |
| הַזֶּ֖ה | hazeh | <the> this | H2088 → | 1180 times |
| חָרֵֽב׃ | charev | [is] desolate | H2720 → |
הַעֵ֤ת¿ [does] a time
haetH6256 →296 times
לָכֶם֙[belong] to you
lakhem
אַתֶּ֔םyou
ʾatemH859 →1094 times
לָשֶׁ֖בֶתto dwell
lashevetH3427 →
בְּבָתֵּיכֶ֣םin houses your
bevateikhemH1004 →2046 times
סְפוּנִ֑יםcovered
sefunimH5603 →
וְהַבַּ֥יִתand the house
vehabayitH1004 →2046 times
הַזֶּ֖ה<the> this
hazehH2088 →1180 times
חָרֵֽב׃[is] desolate
charevH2720 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Matthew 6:33But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.
it leads to
- Luke 12:31
But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added unto you.
- Matthew 5:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
- John 6:27
Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of…
- Psalms 34:9–10
Fear the LORD, you His saints, for those who fear Him lack nothing.
- Psalms 84:11–12
For the LORD God is a sun and a shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.
- Luke 12:31
Through
Philippians 2:21For all the others look after their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 10:24
No one should seek his own good, but the good of others.
- 1 Corinthians 10:33
as I also try to please everyone in all I do. For I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many, that they may be saved.
- Philippians 2:4
Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
- 1 Corinthians 10:24
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies3
On this verse
On this chapter
About Haggai
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Haggai; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.