Haggai / Question
Haggai asks whether holiness transfers from consecrated meat to other foods through contact, and the priests answer no Haggai 2:12. He then asks whether contact with a dead body makes things unclean, and the priests answer yes Haggai 2:13.
On a specific date in Darius’s second year, Yahweh speaks through Haggai and tells him to consult the priests about what “the law” implies. Haggai poses two case questions. First, if someone carries consecrated meat and the cloth touches other foods, do those foods become holy? The priests answer no. This unit sits inside Haggai’s dated sequence of prophetic messages, where each oracle is anchored to a day and month and then applied to the community’s situation.
This scene treats the priests as official guides for how “the law” applies to concrete cases. Haggai is not asking for their private opinion. He is told to consult them, and their answers are presented as correct rulings for the scenarios given. Two principles are established by the paired questions.
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Haggai 2:12, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
12`If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with his fold touches bread, stew, wine, oil, or any food, will it become holy?`" The priests answered, "No."