_If a man be carrying flesh that is holy in the skirt of his robe, and with his skirt touch bread or pottage or wine or oil or any food, shall _the latter_ become holy? And the priests gave answer and said, No! And Haggai said, If one unclean by a corpse[696] touch any of these, shall _the latter_ become unclean? And the priests gave answer and said, It shall._ That is to say, holiness which passed from the source to an object immediately in touch with the latter did not spread further; but pollution infected not only the person who came into contact with it, but whatever he touched.[697] “The flesh of the sacrifice hallowed whatever it should touch, but not further;[698] but the human being who was defiled by touching a dead body, defiled all he might touch.”[699] _And Haggai answered and said: So is this people, and so is this nation before Me—oracle of Jehovah—and so is all the work of their hands, and what they offer there_—at the altar erected on its old site—_is unclean_.[700] That is to say, while the Jews had expected their restored ritual to make them holy to the Lord, this had not been effective, while, on the contrary, their contact with sources of pollution had thoroughly polluted both themselves and their labour and their sacrifices. What these sources of pollution are is not explicitly stated, but Haggai, from his other messages, can only mean, either the people’s want of energy in building the Temple, or the unbuilt Temple itself. Andrée goes so far as to compare the latter with the corpse, whose touch, according to the priests, spreads infection through more than one degree. In any case Haggai means to illustrate and enforce the building of the Temple without delay; and meantime he takes one instance of the effect he has already spoken of, _the work of their hands_, and shows how it has been spoilt by their neglect and delay. _And now, I pray, set your hearts backward from to-day,[701] before stone was laid upon stone in the Temple of Jehovah: ...[702] when one came to a heap of grain of twenty measures, and it had become ten, or went to the winevat to draw fifty measures,[703] and it had become twenty. I smote you with blasting and with withering,[704] and with hail all the work of your hands, and ...[705]—oracle of Jehovah. Lay now your hearts _on the time_ before to-day[706] (the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month[707]), before the day of the foundation of the Temple of Jehovah[708]—lay your hearts_ to that time! _Is there yet_ any _seed in the barn[709]? And as yet[710] the vine, the fig-tree, the pomegranate and the olive have not borne_ fruit. _From this day I will bless thee._