Ulangan 26:14

26:14 I have not eaten anything when I was in mourning, or removed any of it while ceremonially unclean, or offered any of it to the dead; ¹  I have obeyed you ²  and have done everything you have commanded me.

Hagai 2:14-15

2:14 Then Haggai responded, “‘The people of this nation are unclean in my sight,’ ³  says the Lord. ‘And so is all their effort; everything they offer is also unclean. ⁴  2:15 Now therefore reflect carefully on the recent past, ⁵  before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple. ⁶ 

¹ sn These practices suggest overtones of pagan ritual, all of which the confessor denies having undertaken. In Canaan they were connected with fertility practices associated with harvest time. See E. H. Merrill, Deuteronomy (NAC), 335-36.

² tn Heb “the Lord my God.” See note on “he” in 26:2.

³ tn Heb “so this people, and so this nation before me.” In this context “people” and “nation” refer to the same set of individuals; the repetition is emphatic. Cf. CEV “this entire nation.”

⁴ sn The point here is that the Jews cannot be made holy by unholy fellowship with their pagan neighbors; instead, they and their worship will become corrupted by such associations.

⁵ tn Heb “and now set your heart from this day and upward.” The juxtaposition of מָעְלָה (ma’lah, “upward”) with the following מִטֶּרֶם (mitterem, “before”) demands a look to the past. Cf. ASV “consider from this day and backward.”

⁶ sn Before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple is best taken as referring to the laying of the present temple’s foundation, sixteen years earlier (536 b.c.; see Ezra 3:8). Cf. NCV “before you started laying stones”; TEV “before you started to rebuild”; NLT “before you began to lay (started laying CEV) the foundation.”