Book of Haggai

W. Sibley Towner suggests that Haggai's name might come "from his single-minded effort to bring about the reconstruction of that destination of ancient Judean pilgrims, the Temple in Jerusalem".

Haggai attributes a recent drought to the people's refusal to rebuild the temple, which he sees as key to Jerusalem’s glory.

The book ends with the prediction of the downfall of kingdoms, with one Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, as the Lord's chosen leader.

The language here is not as finely wrought as in some other books of the minor prophets,[citation needed] yet the intent seems straightforward.

"They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the King."

(Haggai 1:14–15) and the Book of Ezra indicates that it was finished on February 25 516 BC "The Temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius."

(Ezra 6:15) The King James Version of Haggai 2:6–7 is used in the libretto of the English-language oratorio "Messiah" by George Frideric Handel (HWV 56).