In the seventh [month],.... The month Tisri, which answers to part of September and part of October:
in the one and twentieth [day] of the month; being a month, wanting three days, from the time the Jews came and worked in the house of the Lord, Haggai 1:14 it was toward the close of the feast of tabernacles: see Leviticus 23:34:
came the word of the Lord by the Prophet Haggai; the word of prophecy, as the Targum: this was from the Lord, not from the prophet himself; he was only the messenger sent with it to deliver it:
saying; to him the prophet, giving him orders as follow: