Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/258

 spoken of as " the prophets" who were God's mouthpieces to the people since a beginning was made by them in rebuild ing the Temple, and are thus contrasted with the "former prophets" to whom Zechariah so often refers.

The word nfoan^, fhibanoth ("that it might be built"), is added as a more precise definition of the time to which the prophet refers in the expression, " in the day that the foundation of the house of Jehovah of hosts was laid "; for there had, in fact, been two beginnings, or foundationlayings, of the Temple. Already, in the seventh month of the very year of the return of the first colony of exiles, under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest, the altar of Jehovah was rebuilt, and the sacrificial service restored in Jerusalem; and in the second month of the second year the foundation was laid amid solemn and joyous scenes described in the 3rd chapter of Ezra. But very soon difficulties and hindrances came in the way. There were the Samaritans and their intrigues and accusa tions at the Persian Court; and there were the still more insidious and dangerous enemies in their own midst, and in their own hearts namely, the selfish love of ease and comfort, and their unwillingness to devote their time and means to the building of the house of God, because they wanted to build " ceiled houses " for themselves (Hag. i. 3-5). And so they neglected the work, excusing them selves that " the time is not come, the time that Jehovah's house should be built "; with the result that for about thirteen years the work which they began was suspended and " lay waste." But in the second year of Darius the king the word of Jehovah came to Haggai and Zechariah, whose rebukes, exhortations, and appeals, " in the Name of the God of Israel" (Ezra v. I, 2), roused the people to make a new beginning, and then it was that they took up the task " with set purpose of heart" Fhibanoth " that it might be built" (Hag. i. 1215).

And with " the day " in which they set their hearts to obey the voice of Jehovah their God in this matter, there began a new epoch in the history of the remnant of the