538 Elie Assis the people shows that this is the basic problem Haggai confronts. This is a problem with which Zechariah also contended. He argues that God will choose Jerusalem (1,17), that He will again dwell within the people (2,14-15), and in Jerusalem (8,3), that the people will accept God and God will be the God of Israel (8,8) (24). The people did not build the Temple because they maintained that “the time has not yet come to rebuild the LORD’s house” (1,2). This contention is generally considered to derive from the severe economic distress, and the difficulty in earmarking resources for the construction, when the people were weighed down with problems of daily existence (25). Several scholars explain the delay along theological lines. According to Wellhausen, the people were awaiting the messianic period (26). Clearly, the circumstances of the period, principally the severe economic situation, appear in the first oracle. However, the oracle reveals a deeper theological basis for the people’s belief that the time had not yet come to build the Temple: they felt that God has not returned to His people after the destruction or after the return from exile, and that the rift between Israel and God still continued (27). I think that the concept behind the people’s attitude towards the Samaritans derives also from the loosened relations of Israel with God (Hag 2,10-14). The people, according to this oracle, thought that it is possible and even advisable to intermingle with the Samaritan population. Perhaps, like the Samaritans themselves, the people believed that they were a part of Israel (Ezra 4,1-2). From Haggai’s questions to the priests and his conclusion, the people’s belief can be formulated in a different way. The prophet declares that if something unclean touches something clean it makes the clean unclean (2,13), whereas the clean does not purify the unclean (2,12). Assuming that this is an allegory for intermingling of Jews and non-Jews, the people’s argument for marrying non-Israelite women is, contrary to Haggai’s argument, that the “clean” purifies the “unclean”. Namely, there is no problem in marrying gentiles, and on the contrary, in marriages of Jews with gentiles the Jew purifies the gentile. The wish to integrate foreign elements in Israel appears also in Malachi, and there too a similar ideology of the people in relation to the question of intermarriage appears. The people hold a universalistic belief that all people are equal. In their opinion there is a general human covenant, which lowers (24) See e.g. MITCHELL, Haggai, 128. (25) See e.g.: J. BRIGHT, A History of Israel2 (London 1972) 366. Some explain that the delay in building the Temple lasted until the seventy-year period came to an end (Jer. 25,11- 12; 27,6-7; 29,10). See: MEYERS – MEYERS, Haggai, Zechariah 1–8, 20; BEDFORD, “Discerning the Time”, 71-94; H. TADMOR, “‘The Appointed Time Has Not Yet Arrived’: The Historical Background of Haggai 1:2”, Ki Baruch Hu. Ancient Near Eastern, Biblical, and Judaic Studies in Honor of Baruch A. Levine (eds. R. CHAZAN – W.W. HALLO – L.H. SCHIFFMAN) (Winona Lake 1999) 401-408. (26) J. WELLHAUSEN, Die kleinen Propheten übersetz und erklärt (Berlin 1898) 173. See also STECK, “Zu Haggai 1:2-11”, 373-378. According to Steck’s analysis, verses 2, 4- 8 are addressed to Judeans who had remained in Judah, and were reluctant to build the Temple for theological reasons, and vv. 9-11 were aimed at the new arrivals from Babylon who preferred to build their own houses instead of the Temple. See also: R.G. HAMERTON- KELLY, “The Temple and the Origins of Jewish Apocalyptic”, VT 20 (1970) 1-15, esp. 14. (27) See also: BEDFORD, “Discerning the Time”, 71-94.