Haggai 1:2

“Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, etc.] Of armies above and below; whom all ought to reverence, honour, and obey; who was able to support his people in building his house, and protect them from their enemies, which should have been an encouragement to them; and to punish them for their neglect of it, which might have deterred them from it. This preface is made, to show that what follow were not the words of the prophet, but of the Lord; and therefore to be the more regarded, and the truth of them not to be doubted of: saying, This people say; repeating the words of the people of the Jews to Zerubbabel and Joshua, that they might observe them, and the wickedness and ingratitude in them. “This…”

“the Lord of hosts--Jehovah, Lord of the powers of heaven and earth, and therefore requiring implicit obedience. This people--"This" sluggish and selfish "people." He does not say, My people, since they had neglected the service of God. The time--the proper time for building the temple. Two out of the seventy predicted years of captivity (dating from the destruction of the temple, 558 B.C., Kg2 25:9) were yet unexpired; this they make their plea for delay [HENDERSON]. The seventy years of captivity were completed long ago in the first year of Cyrus, 536 B.C. (Jer 29:10); dating from 606 B.C., Jehoiakim's captivity (Ch2 36:6). The seventy years to the completion of the temple (Jer 25:12) were…”

“Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say - Not Zerubbabel or Joshua, but “this people.” He says not, “My people,” but reproachfully “this people,” as, in acts, disowning Him, and so deserving to be disowned by Him. “The time is not come,” literally “It is not time to come, time for the house of the Lord to be built” . They might yet sit still; the time for them “to come” was not yet, for not yet was the “time for the house of the Lord to be built.” Why it was not time, they did not say. The government did not help them; the original grant by Cyrus Ezra 3:7 was exhausted; the Samaritans hindered them, because they would not own them, (amid their mishmash of worship,…”

“1:2 Lord of Heaven’s Armies: Haggai’s and Zechariah’s favorite expression for God emphasizes the invincible power behind God’s word. The Lord can call on infinite numbers of heavenly troops to carry out his will at a moment’s notice (2 Kgs 6:17; Matt 26:53). This thought was intended to encourage the Judeans, who felt helpless and insignificant. • The time has not yet come: Poor crop yields from drought and pestilence had so weakened Judah’s economy (Hag 1:6, 9-11) that the people thought they could not afford to rebuild the Temple. Haggai convinced them they could not afford to leave the Temple in ruins, for God would not bless and prosper them if they did not rebuild the Lord’s house (1:4,…”

“This: Num 13:31; Ezr 4:23, Ezr 4:24, Ezr 5:1, Ezr 5:2; Neh 4:10; Pro 22:13, Pro 26:13-16, Pro 29:25; Ecc 9:10, Ecc 11:4; Sol 5:2, Sol 5:3 Haggai 1:3”

“The prophet begins by charging the people with their unconcern about building the house of God. Hag 1:2. "Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: This people saith, It is not time to come, the time for the house of Jehovah to be built." העם הזּה, iste populus, not my people, or Jehovah's people, but hazzeh (this) in a contemptuous sense. Of the two clauses, (a) "It is not time to come," and (b) "The time of the house of Jehovah," the latter gives the more precise definition of the former, the בּא (to come) being explained as meaning the time to build the house of Jehovah. The meaning is simply this: the time has not yet arrived to come and build the house of Jehovah; for לא in this connection signifies…”