strong as a teenager. (Ge 16:12) Hence he may have given out first, necessitating his mother’s supporting him. This would not be inconceivable, for women in those days, especially slave women, were accustomed to carrying heavy burdens in everyday life. It seems that in time Hagar also gave out, making it necessary for her to withdraw her support from him, depositing him, perhaps somewhat abruptly, under the nearest sheltering bush. Hagar herself sat down “about the distance of a bowshot” (a common Hebrew expression denoting the usual distance at which archers placed their targets) away from her son.​—Ge 21:14-16.

God’s angel then called to Hagar, telling her not to be afraid and that Ishmael would be constituted a great nation. Furthermore, God opened her eyes so that she saw a well of water, from which she filled the skin bottle and gave her son a drink. “God continued to be with the boy,” and in time he became an archer and “took up dwelling in the wilderness of Paran.” Hagar procured a wife for him from the land of Egypt.​—Ge 21:17-21.

According to the apostle Paul, Hagar figured in a symbolic drama in which she represented the nation of fleshly Israel, bound to Jehovah by the Law covenant inaugurated at Mount Sinai, which covenant brought forth “children for slavery.” Because of the sinful condition of the people, the nation was unable to keep the terms of that covenant. Under it the Israelites did not become a free people but were condemned as sinners worthy of death; hence, they were slaves. (Joh 8:34; Ro 8:1-3) Jerusalem of Paul’s day corresponded to Hagar, for Jerusalem the capital, representing the organization of natural Israel, found herself in slavery with her children. Spirit-begotten Christians, though, are children of the “Jerusalem above,” God’s symbolic woman. This Jerusalem, like Sarah the freewoman, has never been in slavery. But just as Isaac was persecuted by Ishmael, so also the children of the “Jerusalem above,” who have been set free by the Son, experienced persecution at the hands of the children of enslaved Jerusalem. However, Hagar and her son were driven out, representing Jehovah’s casting off natural Israel as a nation.​—Ga 4:21-31; see also Joh 8:31-40.

(Hagʹgai) [[Born on a] Festival].

A Hebrew prophet in Judah and Jerusalem during Zerubbabel’s governorship in the reign of Persian King Darius Hystaspis.​—Hag 1:1; 2:1, 10, 20; Ezr 5:1, 2.

Jewish tradition holds that Haggai was a member of the Great Synagogue. From Haggai 2:10-19 it has been suggested that he may have been a priest. His name appears along with that of the prophet Zechariah in the superscriptions of Psalm 111 (112) in the Latin Vulgate; Psalms 125 and 126 in the Syriac Peshitta; 145 in the Greek Septuagint, the Peshitta, and the Vulgate; and 146, 147, and 148 in the Septuagint and the Peshitta. It is probable that Haggai was born in Babylon and that he returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel and the Jewish remnant in 537 B.C.E. But little is actually known about Haggai, for the Scriptures do not reveal the prophet’s parentage, tribe, and so forth.

Haggai became the first postexilic prophet and was joined about two months later by Zechariah. (Hag 1:1; Zec 1:1) A halt to temple construction had been precipitated by enemy opposition but extended for some years by Jewish apathy and selfish pursuit of personal interests. Haggai kindled the zeal of the repatriated Jewish exiles for the resumption of temple construction. (Ezr 3:10-13; 4:1-24; Hag 1:4) Four God-given messages delivered by Haggai during about a four-month period in the second year of Darius Hystaspis (520 B.C.E.) and recorded by the prophet in the Bible book of Haggai were especially effective in initially moving the Jews to resume temple-building work. (Hag 1:1; 2:1, 10, 20; see HAGGAI, BOOK OF.) Haggai and Zechariah continued to urge them on in the work until the temple was completed toward the end of Darius’ sixth year, in 515 B.C.E.​—Ezr 5:1, 2; 6:14, 15.

An inspired book of the Hebrew Scriptures listed among the so-called minor prophets. It consists of four messages from Jehovah to Jews that had returned from Babylonian exile, urging them to finish rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. Also being prophetic, the book foretold such things as the filling of Jehovah’s house with glory and the overthrow of human kingdoms.​—Hag 2:6, 7, 21, 22.

Writership and Canonicity. The writer was Haggai the prophet, who personally delivered each message found in the book. (Hag 1:1; 2:1, 10, 20; see HAGGAI.) While most of the ancient Scripture catalogs do not list the book of Haggai by name, it is evidently included in their references to the ‘twelve Minor Prophets,’ the number 12 thus being complete. The Jews have never questioned its right to a place among the Hebrew Scriptures, and the canonicity of the book is definitely