[8:2] 1 sn The festival. This was the Feast of Tabernacles, see Lev 23:34.
[8:2] 2 sn The month Ethanim. This would be September-October in modern reckoning.
[2:1] 3 tn Heb “In the seventh [month], on the twenty-first day of the month.”
[2:1] sn The seventh month was the month Tishri, according to the modern (Julian) calendar October 17, 520 b.c. The twenty-first day of Tishri marked the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Num 29:32-34). It also coincided with the date 440 years earlier (960 b.c.) when Solomon finished building his temple (1 Kgs 6:38; 8:2).
[2:1] 4 tc Heb “the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying.” The MT has בְּיַד (bÿyad, “by the hand of” = “through” [so NAB, NIV, NLT] as in 1:1, 3); the Murabba’at Dead Sea text reads אֶל (’el, “to”), perhaps because the following command is given to the prophet.