December: More than two more months have passed; the day of the final prophecies by Haggai that are recorded, the 24th day of the ninth month (December) is exactly three months from the day when people began the work on the temple, on the 24th day of the sixth month (September, Hag. 1:15). The festival of Hanukkah, commemorating the rededication of the temple after its desecration by Antiochus Epiphanes, was subsequently set to begin on the day after this, on the 25th day of the ninth month (December), perhaps implying that the cleansing of the temple and the restoration of Judean independence on that occasion constituted a fulfillment of these promises (cf. Sweeney, The Twelve Prophets, Volume 2, p. 550). Yahweh here raises two issues that are superficially quite different from what has p…