Haggai 2:7

All nations. Since the prophet is here concerned with the first advent of our Lord, this is probably a reference to the fall of nations and empires that took place after Haggai’s time (see vs. 21, 22).

Desire. Heb. chemdah, from chamad, “to desire.” The “desire of all nations” came to the Second Temple — built by Zerubbabel and later rebuilt by Herod the Great — when Christ taught and healed in its precincts.

Shall come. This verb is plural in the Hebrew, whereas its subject, chemdah (see above), is in the singular. Some translators have changed chemdah, “desire,” into chamudoth, “desirable things,” or “treasures,” in order that the subject might agree with the plural verb. However, this destroys the time-honored Messianic import of this passage. If it is necessary to make a change in the Hebrew in order to secure agreement between subject and predicate, the context would suggest that the verb be made singular to agree with the subject, chemdah.

Fill this house. This was fulfilled when Christ came to the Temple (see Mal. 3:1; John 2:13-16). The Temple to which Christ came has often been called Herod’s Temple (see on Luke 3:1; John 2:20; GC 23, 24). In later times, and even today, the Jews commonly refer to Solomon’s Temple as the First Temple, and to the Temple from its rebuilding under Zerubbabel to its desolation in A.D. 70 as the Second Temple.