Haggai 2:8,9 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Bible Comments

The silver is mine Solomon's temple was more richly adorned with silver and gold than this, and I, that am the Lord of all the world, could easily command the riches of it, and bring them together for beautifying this my house, if I took delight in, or wanted any thing of this sort. A like expression as this is used, Psalms 50:10, with regard to sacrifices. The glory of this latter house, &c. The glory of this second temple shall exceed that of the former, not in riches or costly ornaments, but in this, that there the prince of peace shall make his appearance, and there the gospel of peace shall be preached and published. See Isaiah 9:6; Micah 5:5; Ephesians 2:14. “Notwithstanding the former temple had the Urim and Thummim, the ark containing the two tables of the law, (written with the finger of God,) the pot of manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the cloud that overshadowed the mercy-seat, and was the symbol of the divine presence; yet the glory of this latter house shall be greater by the appearance, doctrines, and miracles of Christ. Some interpret this passage of the richer decorations in the latter temple; but it may well be doubted whether the second temple could exceed that of Solomon in the splendour and costliness of its ornaments. The presumption is, that the former temple was more magnificent and sumptuous in its furniture than the latter, though inferior to it in point of magnitude. Prideaux values the gold, with which the holy of holies alone was overlaid, at four million three hundred and twenty thousand pounds sterling. P.I.B. 3. Ann. 534.” Newcome. What were the magnificence and beauty which adorned the former temple? What was even the Shechinah, the resplendent cloud of glory, which rested upon the mercy-seat, compared with the emanations of the divine perfections from Immanuel: the almighty power and boundless goodness exerted in acts of beneficence which shone forth in Christ, when the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them; and the infinite wisdom displayed in his divine discourses, when he taught daily in the temple, Luke 19:47, and his doctrine dropped as the rain, and his speech distilled as the dew? And never, surely, was such peace given to men by any other as was imparted by and through him; peace between God and man, between Jews and Gentiles, and between man and man, wherever his religion is received in the truth and power of it: peace, spiritual, internal, and heavenly; peace of conscience, tranquillity of mind, serenity of heart; a peace which, as the apostle observes, passeth all understanding, all purely rational conception, or, which no one can comprehend, save he that receives it.

Haggai 2:8-9

8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.

9 The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.