Haggai was one of the twelve minor prophets and the author of the Book of Haggai. His name means “my feast”. He was the first of three prophets with Zechariah his contemporary, and Malachi who lived about one hundred years later).His ministry belonged to the period of Jewish history which began after the return from captivity in Babylon. He began his ministry about sixteen years after the return of the Jews to Judah 520 BCE. The work of rebuilding the Temple having been suspended for eighteen years, the work was resumed through the efforts of Haggai and Zechariah. They exhorted the people, which roused them from their lethargy, and induced them to take advantage of a change in the policy of the Persian government under Darius the Great, son of Queen Esther.

Malachi, “My Messenger”, was the last of the minor prophets of David and the writer of the Book of Malachi and is the last book of the Neviim (prophets) section in the Jewish Tanakh. No allusion is made to him by Ezra, however, and he does not directly mention the restoration of the temple. The editors of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia inferred that he prophesied after Haggai and Zechariah [Malachi 1:10; 3:1; 3:10] and speculated that he delivered his prophecies about 420 BCE, after the second return of Nehemiah from Persia [Book of Nehemiah 13:6] or possibly before his return, comparing Malachi 2:8 with Nehemiah 13:15 and Malachi 2:10-16 with Nehemaih 13:23.

The tombs of the three aformentioned prophets are located on the Mount of Olives.