Haggai 2:17

17 I sent blight and mildew and hail to destroy everything you worked so hard to produce. Even so, you refused to return to me, says the LORD .

Haggai 2:17 Meaning and Commentary

Haggai 2:17

I smote you with blasting
That is, their fields and vineyards, with burning winds, which consumed them; with blights by east winds: this shows the reason of their disappointment, and that it was from the Lord, and for their sins, by way of chastisement and correction: and with mildew;
a kind of clammy dew, which corrupts and destroys the fruits of the earth; and is a kind of jaundice to them, as the word signifies; see ( Amos 4:9 ) : and with hail;
which battered down the corn and the vines, and broke them to pieces; see ( Exodus 9:25 ) : in all the labours of your hands;
in the corn they sowed, and in the vines they planted: yet ye [turned] not to me, saith the Lord;
did not consider their evil ways as the cause of all this; nor repent of them, and turn from them to the Lord; to his worship, as the Targum; or to the building of his house, the thing chiefly complained of. Afflictions, unless sanctified, have no effect upon men to turn them from their sins to the Lord.

Haggai 2:17 In-Context

15 Look at what was happening to you before you began to lay the foundation of the LORD ’s Temple.

16 When you hoped for a twenty-bushel crop, you harvested only ten. When you expected to draw fifty gallons from the winepress, you found only twenty.

17 I sent blight and mildew and hail to destroy everything you worked so hard to produce. Even so, you refused to return to me, says the LORD .

18 “Think about this eighteenth day of December, the day when the foundation of the LORD ’s Temple was laid. Think carefully.

19 I am giving you a promise now while the seed is still in the barn. You have not yet harvested your grain, and your grapevines, fig trees, pomegranates, and olive trees have not yet produced their crops. But from this day onward I will bless you.”