What Does Haggai 2:14 Mean?
Then Haggai answered and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before my face, says the LORD, and so is every work of their hands, and their drawing near there is unclean.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.THE KEY
What they bring near does not escape the uncleanness named in the people and the work of their hands.
THE MEANING
The people, their work, and what they bring near all stand before the LORD as unclean. The verse speaks now wherever an outward offering is treated as separate from the life and work that bring it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a sacred act or gift can make the life behind it clean dissolves here: the offering itself is named unclean alongside the people and their work.
THE ROOT
יַקְרִיבוּ
yaqrîvû
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
Approach, come near, draw near.
“drawing near” in this verse is yaqrîvû. The word rendered “offer” carries the sense of bringing something near. Here, nearness does not make the gift clean: it stands under the same verdict as the people and their work.
ALSO GROWS
qārab: Approach, draw near.
קָרַב
The verb names the movement behind bringing an offering near.
qorbān: Offering, something brought near.
קָרְבָּן
The offering is named through its approach: what comes near still bears the condition described in this verse.
qārōb: Near, close.
קָרוֹב
This branch preserves the root’s sense of closeness, making the offering’s nearness part of the verse’s meaning.
טָמֵא
ṭāmēʾ
GROWS FROM
טמא
ṭ-m-ʾ
Be unclean or defiled; make unclean.
“unclean” in this verse is ṭāmēʾ. The same verdict reaches the people, the nation, their work, and what they bring near. The root holds both the condition of uncleanness and the act of defiling within one word family.
ALSO GROWS
ṭumʾāh: Uncleanness, defilement.
טֻמְאָה
This noun names the condition applied to the offering in the verse.
ṭimmēʾ: Defile, make unclean.
טִמֵּא
This verb shows that the root can describe not only a state but also the act that produces it.
THE PATTERN
What is brought near and done outwardly bears the condition of the life it comes from.
When you spread your palms, I will shut my eyes to you. Even when you multiply your prayers, I will not hear and respond. Your hands are filled with blood.The sacrifice of the wicked is a recoiling thing to the LORD, but the prayer of the straight ones is his delight.And he said, That which comes out of a man, that makes the man common.THE THREAD
And when a living soul brings near a gift to the LORD, his drawing near is of fine flour; he pours oil upon it and sets frankincense upon it.Leviticus uses the same qarab root when it speaks of bringing an offering near. The shared word reveals the movement inside “offer,” while Haggai shows that drawing near does not, by itself, alter the condition of what is brought.
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