If one carries holy flesh: The meaning of the expression holy flesh is given in fuller form in Good News Translation as “a piece of consecrated meat from a sacrifice.” Holy (Good News Translation “consecrated”) means “offered to the LORD.” Some translators may need to expand this a little further and say, “If a person takes [or, carries] a piece of meat from an animal sacrificed to the LORD.” In certain languages it will be necessary to make it clear that priests first sacrificed an animal, cut it up and offered the meat to the LORD. In such cases translators may say, “If a person takes a piece of meat from an animal that priests have sacrificed and offered to the LORD.”
In the skirt of his garment: Good News Translation has “in a fold of his robe.” The people of that time and place wore long and flowing garments, so it was quite possible for a man to make a kind of bag from “a fold of his robe,” and carry things in it. Presumably a fold made in this way would be somehow hitched around a belt to prevent the loss of the items carried. In the case of meat, presumably it would have been wrapped up to stop the robe becoming stained. Any robe used in this way to carry consecrated meat itself became holy (Lev 6.24-28). Garment or “robe” will be translated in many languages as “long outer garment.”
And touches with his skirt bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any kind of food: The basic foods, bread, wine, and olive oil had been referred to in 1.11, though the Hebrew words used were different there. Here the list is extended by the mention of pottage or “cooked food” (Good News Translation), and finally any kind of food. Pottage is a fairly general term referring mainly to “stew” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation) or “broth” (Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible/Revised English Bible), probably made mostly from vegetables (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). So in some languages translators may render pottage as “cooked vegetables” or even “vegetable stew.”
Does it become holy?: The main point of the question was whether the robe could then pass on holiness to any other items of food it touched. This is expressed very clearly in Good News Translation: “If he then lets his robe touch any bread, cooked food, wine, olive oil, or any kind of food at all, will it make that food consecrated also?” Translators could also say, “Is it also consecrated to the LORD,” or even “Would those foods that were touched then become acceptable for sacrifice?” (Contemporary English Version). In some languages different words may be required to express become holy in relation to the different kinds of food mentioned.
The priests answered, “No”: The Hebrew text never states that Haggai obeyed the command in verse 11 to ask the question. However, this is assumed, and in many languages it will be helpful to state it. One way of doing this is found in the opening words of Good News Translation, “When the question was asked….” Another way is found in Bible en français courant and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, which say in effect, “ ‘No,’ replied the priests to Haggai’s question.” Such renderings avoid giving the impression that the priests answered directly to the LORD. This kind of logical gap in a narrative is called an ellipsis. In languages with no passive, translators may say, “When Haggai asked the question…” (compare Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).
Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Haggai. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2002. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .