Haggai 1:12–15, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Haggai 1:12–15
The People Obey, the LORD Promises Presence, and Work Begins
Governor, priest, and remnant answer with the same fear
The narrative leaves accusation and names the hearers again: Zerubbabel, Joshua, and all the remnant of the people. They obey the voice of the LORD their God and the words of Haggai as the LORD had sent him, and the people fear before the LORD. Reverence here is the public counterpart of hearing. The whole remaining community is in view, not a volunteer committee hiding the leaders or a pair of officials hiding the people.
'I am with you' arrives before the house is finished
Haggai speaks as the LORD's messenger in the LORD's message: I am with you, saith the LORD. The title locates his commission; it does not make every later opinion of a leader untestable. Presence is promised while the temple is still waste and before verse 14 reports a single timber set. Then the LORD stirs the spirit of the governor, the high priest, and the whole remnant, and they come and work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month.
Stirring does not replace obedience, planning, or sweat. Obedience does not make the stirring unnecessary. About three weeks stand between the first date and this work date; the book does not say whether the interval was harvest, gathering, hesitation, or all of these. What it does say is the sequence: they hear and fear, he assures and awakens, they come and work.
How this should shape us
Receive a tested word together, then let encouragement become shared labor. Do not treat a title, a surge of feeling, or a busy launch as proof that God commanded the project, and do not wait for a finished sanctuary before you will believe that God can be with a corrected people.
Teach it back
Explain Haggai 1:12–15 in your own words. Include its dated place in Haggai, the unit's movement, one material uncertainty, and one conclusion the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: The identity and social composition of 'the remnant,' the reason for the twenty-three-day interval, and the editorial placement of the date are debated. The narrated claims are firmer: the named leaders and remnant obeyed, feared, heard assurance, were stirred, and began work.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete coverage for this thought unit.
Haggai 1:12–15, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew clauses, verbal forms, divine titles, repeated words, and the base text behind lexical and translation analysis.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2 (commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00), wlc/Hag.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 1:12–15
Supports: Material date, Hebrew, translation, textual, ritual, historical, and interpretive notes for the unit, tested rather than adopted automatically.
NET Bible Haggai PDF, pp. 1784–1785, translation and notes on 1:12–15
Supports: Whole-book structure, Persian-period context, temple significance, section movement, and one modern interpretation of the unit.
Petersen, 'Haggai,' Oxford Bible Commentary, pp. 608–609, commentary on 1:12–15
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Haggai 1:12–15, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Haggai
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew clauses, verbal forms, divine titles, repeated words, and the base text behind lexical and translation analysis.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2 (commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00), wlc/Hag.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 1:12–15
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Haggai with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Material date, Hebrew, translation, textual, ritual, historical, and interpretive notes for the unit, tested rather than adopted automatically.
Exact location: NET Bible Haggai PDF, pp. 1784–1785, translation and notes on 1:12–15
Open source ↗modern critical commentary
Haggai
David L. Petersen
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001
Supports: Whole-book structure, Persian-period context, temple significance, section movement, and one modern interpretation of the unit.
Exact location: Petersen, 'Haggai,' Oxford Bible Commentary, pp. 608–609, commentary on 1:12–15
Open source ↗