Haggai 2:13
in Haggai 2So Haggai asked, “If one who is defiled by contact with a corpse touches any of these, does it become defiled?” “Yes, it becomes defiled,” the priests answered.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by reason of a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.
KJV
Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.
⋯
This verse in Haggai 2
Commentary
9 notes on this verseA commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2495: “Defiled and Defiling” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
THE Prophet Haggai very wisely drew out from the priests a definite answer to certain questions which he put to them. Then, upon their authority, he could say to the people, "This is what your own priests say and this is what you, yourselves, believe." This was taking them by a kind of sacred guile and it was a powerful means of forcing home the Truth of God to their heart and conscience.
This site's exposition
On the twenty-fourth day
on Haggai 2:10-14
Holy meat carried “in the fold of his garment” passes no holiness to the food, while one “defiled by contact with a corpse” defiles it. Haggai applies the ruling to the nation, “whatever they offer there is defiled”, so resumed labor cannot cleanse by contact what needs its own repentance.
This site's exposition
defiled by contact with a corpse
Contact with a corpse made a person unclean for seven days, and whatever that person touched became unclean, as Numbers 19:11 and 22 rule. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown draw the contrast that impurity passes more readily than holiness. The priests answer yes.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 11 and following). On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius ((Vulg. adds King)), the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts; ask the priests concerning the law, saying: If a man carries holy flesh in the fold of his garment, and touches bread, or stew, or wine, or oil, or any kind of food, shall it become holy?
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
These - Bread or pottage, wine or oil, or meat. Unclean - Shall that which the unclean doth touch, become unclean? Though a mediate touch of what is holy will not make holy, yet will not a mediate touch of what is polluted defile?
Then said Haggai,....
In the third he assures Zerubbabel that, as a reward of his pious zeal and activity herein, he should be a favourite of Heaven, and one of the ancestors of Messiah the Prince, whose kingdom should be set up on the ruins of all opposing powers,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
On the other hand, a legally "unclean" person imparts his uncleanness to any thing, whereas a legally holy thing cannot confer its sanctity on an "unclean" person (Nu 19:11, 13, 22). Legal sanctity is not so readily communicated as legal impurity. So the paths to sin are manifold: the paths to holiness one, and that one of difficult access [GROTIUS].
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2495: “Defiled and Defiling” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
THE Prophet Haggai very wisely drew out from the priests a definite answer to certain questions which he put to them. Then, upon their authority, he could say to the people, "This is what your own priests say and this is what you, yourselves, believe." This was taking them by a kind of sacred guile and it was a powerful means of forcing home the Truth of God to their heart and conscience. According to the 12th verse, Haggai first put to the priests this question, "If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread, or stew, or wine, or oil, or any food, will it become holy? And the priests answered, and said, No." Here is a man who is holy—I mean, ceremonially holy—and he is carrying in the fold of his garments, part of a holy sacrifice. Now, if he touches anything, will he make it holy by that touch? The priests said, "No." They could not say otherwise. So, if a man is, himself, holy, however holy he may be, can he make another man holy simply by touching him? If he speaks of good things, or does good actions, will it be certain that he will, thereby, affect others by his good words and good works? Oh, no! There does not seem to be that spreading power in holy things that there is in unholy things! At any rate, not in those that are merely ceremonially holy. Here, then, is a man who is, in a legal sense, clean before God and he is carrying a holy thing in the fold of his garment, but he does not, therefore, make that which he touches to be clean or holy. Then the Spirit of God, having by the mouth of the Prophet put the Truth of God in that way, suggested to him to ask the priests another question.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
contaminated flesh flesh of contamination of a carcass as a creeping thing.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
So is this people Just as you err in this, so do you err in many halachot.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
13 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיֹּ֣אמֶר | vaiyomer | and he said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| חַגַּ֔י | chagai | Haggai | H2292 → | 11 times |
| אִם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | |
| יִגַּ֧ע | yiga' | he will touch | H5060 → | |
| טְמֵא־ | teme'- | a [person] unclean of | H2931 → | |
| נֶ֛פֶשׁ | nefesh | a corpse | H5315 → | |
| בְּכָל־ | bekhol | <in> all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| אֵ֖לֶּה | ʾeleh | these [things] | H428 → | |
| הֲיִטְמָ֑א | hayitma' | ¿ will it become unclean | H2930 → | |
| וַיַּעֲנ֧וּ | vaiyaanu | and they answered | H6030 → | 331 times |
| הַכֹּהֲנִ֛ים | hakohanim | the priests | H3548 → | 750 times |
| וַיֹּאמְר֖וּ | vaiyomeru | and they said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| יִטְמָֽא׃ | yitma' | it will become unclean | H2930 → |
וַיֹּ֣אמֶרand he said
vaiyomerH559 →5305 times
חַגַּ֔יHaggai
chagaiH2292 →11 times
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →
יִגַּ֧עhe will touch
yiga'H5060 →
טְמֵא־a [person] unclean of
teme'-H2931 →
נֶ֛פֶשׁa corpse
nefeshH5315 →
בְּכָל־<in> all
bekholH3605 →5413 times
אֵ֖לֶּהthese [things]
ʾelehH428 →
הֲיִטְמָ֑א¿ will it become unclean
hayitma'H2930 →
וַיַּעֲנ֧וּand they answered
vaiyaanuH6030 →331 times
הַכֹּהֲנִ֛יםthe priests
hakohanimH3548 →750 times
וַיֹּאמְר֖וּand they said
vaiyomeruH559 →5305 times
יִטְמָֽא׃it will become unclean
yitma'H2930 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Haggai
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2495: “Defiled and Defiling” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); 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); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.