Charles Ellicott Commentary Haggai 1:4

"Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your ceiled houses, while this house lieth waste?" — Haggai 1:4 (ASV)

Is it time for you ...—Literally, Is it time for you to dwell in your houses, and those paneled?—that is, probably with cedar and other costly woods. A crushing retort. If the adverse decree of Artaxerxes, which disallowed the building of Jerusalem (Ezra 4:21), had not hindered them from building magnificent residences for themselves, how could it reasonably excuse an utter neglect of God’s House?