1. Haggai 1:1 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Why is the term “governor” used?

Haggai 1:1 (ESV)

1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest:

Zerubbabel is listed as the governor because under the control of the Persian Empire, Judah had no Hebrew king. Zerubbabel’s was a position of actual authority, but over a limited domain.