The people’s reticence expressed in Hag. 1.2 has been understood by some
interpreters as reflecting the belief that Yahweh had not yet authorized the
temple’s reconstruction, rather than as a rationalization for the
community’s misplaced priorities. However, exegetical, text-, form-,
literary- and ideological-critical considerations cast doubt upon this reading.
Rather, the text’s redactor presents Haggai as a successful prophet whose
words of reproach pierce the people’s recalcitrant hearts. In the light of
broader ancient Near Eastern parallels, it is, nevertheless, plausible that
objections to the temple’s reconstruction on ideological grounds did exist
in Early Persian Yehud. Haggai 1.2 may demonstrate the selectivity with which a
historical context may be portrayed, and provides an example of the difficulties of
using prophetic texts in historical reconstructions.
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