Background of Haggai

Haggai prophesies to a group of people who had returned to Judah from Babylonian exile. After Cyrus of Persia defeated Babylon, he allowed the exiles to return to Judah in 538 B.C.E. Those who first returned from exile, however, did not have an easy time of it. They met resistance from “the people of the land” who were living in Judah (Ezra 4:1-5). They also experienced economic hardship and agricultural losses (Haggai 1:6; 2:15-17). By 520 B.C.E., when Haggai prophesied, a second wave of exiles had returned to Judah under Joshua, the high priest, and Zerubbabel, the Davidic governor appointed by PersiaPersia was a southwestern Asian country. The Persian empire was a series of empires that occupied what is currently Afghanistan and Iran from 600 B.C.E. forward. Rulers of the Persian empire mentioned in the Bible are Cyrus and Darius. More. The Temple, however, still lay in ruins, destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B.C.E. The Book of Haggai spans less than four months in the latter half of 520 B.C.E., when Haggai urged the leaders and people to rebuild the TempleThe Jerusalem temple, unlike the tabernacle, was a permanent structure, although (like the tabernacle) it was a place of worship and religious activity. On one occasion Jesus felt such activity was unacceptable and, as reported in all four Gospels, drove from the temple those engaged... More. His prophecies seem to have been effective, as over the course of those few months the foundation of the Temple was laid. Within five years, the Temple was finished and rededicated. Haggai is a contemporary of another prophet, Zechariah, whose prophecies also begin in 520 B.C.E. and continue until 518. Zechariah shares Haggai’s concern for a rebuilt Temple.