15. Four and twentieth day. The preceding message of Haggai had been given on the “first day of the month” ( 1). Considering the time necessary for planning and gathering materials, the response of the people of Jerusalem and Judah was prompt indeed.
Sixth month. See on 1. The second year of Darius was 520/519 , by either fall or spring reckoning (see III, 99). But if Haggai reckoned it by the Jewish civil calendar year, beginning with the 7th month, in the autumn (see II, 109, 110, 116), “the sixth month” would come in 519; whereas in a spring-beginning calendar year the 6th month would be in 520. If Haggai’s statement that reconstruction began in the “second” year of Darius is equated with Ezra’s statement that work on the Temple was halted until the “second” year of Darius ( 4:24), and if Ezra was employing a fall-to-fall reckoning for the year (see II, 109-121; III, 101-107; see also S. H. Horn and L. H. Wood, The Chronology of Ezra 7, rev. , 1970), then it must be concluded that Haggai employed a fall reckoning.
However, the use of a fall-beginning year would mean that the text presents the messages of Haggai out of chronological order, an arrangement which, although not at all impossible, and not unknown elsewhere in the Bible ( Additional Note on Ezra 4), is believed by most commentators to be contrary to the force of the contents of the prophet’s messages. For this reason it is almost universally held that Haggai employed a spring reckoning; and in that case the 24th day of the 6th month in the 2d year of Darius would be approximately Sept. 21, 520 (see III, 99).