Hagai 2:20-22

Zerubbabel the Chosen One

2:20 Then the Lord spoke again to Haggai ¹  on the twenty-fourth day of the month: ²  2:21 Tell Zerubbabel governor of Judah: ‘I am ready ³  to shake the sky ⁴  and the earth. 2:22 I will overthrow royal thrones and shatter the might of earthly kingdoms. ⁵  I will overthrow chariots and those who ride them, and horses and their riders will fall as people kill one another. ⁶ 

[2:20]  ¹ tn Heb “and the word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai.” This Hebrew expression is like the one in 2:10 and is slightly different from the one in 1:1, 3; 2:1.

[2:20]  ² sn Again, the twenty-fourth day of the month was Kislev 24 or December 18, 520 b.c. See v. 10.

[2:21]  ³ tn The participle here suggests an imminent undertaking of action (cf. NRSV, TEV, NLT “I am about to”). The overall language of the passage is eschatological, but eschatology finds its roots in the present.

[2:21]  ⁴ tn See the note on the word “sky” in 2:6. Most English translations render the Hebrew term as “heavens” here.

[2:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “the kingdoms of the nations.” Cf. KJV “the kingdoms of the heathen”; NIV, NLT “foreign kingdoms.”

[2:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “and horses and their riders will go down, a man with a sword his brother”; KJV “every one by the sword of his brother.”