Chaggai 2:16

16 Since those yamim were, when one came to a heap of grain of twenty measures, there were but ten; when one came to the wine vat for to draw out fifty vessels, there were but twenty.

Chaggai 2:16 Meaning and Commentary

Haggai 2:16

Since those [days] were
From the time the foundation of the temple was laid, unto the time they began to work again, which was a space of about fifteen or sixteen years: when [one] came to an heap of twenty [measures], there were [but]
ten;
when the husbandman having gathered in his corn, and who was generally a good judge of what it would yield, came to a heap of it on his corn floor, either of sheaves not threshed, or grain not winnowed, and expected it would have produced at least twenty measures, seahs, or bushels; afterward it was threshed and winnowed, to his great disappointment he had but ten out of it; there were so much straw and chaff, and so little grain; or when he came to a heap of grain, wheat, or barley, in his granary, where he thought he should have twenty bushels of it; but when he had measured it, proved but ten; being either stolen by thieves, or eaten by vermin; rather the latter: when [one] came to the wine vat for to draw out fifty [vessels] out
of the press, there were [but] twenty;
by the quantity of grapes which he put into the press to tread and squeeze, he expected to have had fifty measures, or baths, or hogsheads of wine; but, instead of that, had but twenty; the bunches were so thin, or the berries so bad: there was a greater decrease and deficiency in the wine than in the grain.

Chaggai 2:16 In-Context

14 Then answered Chaggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before Me, saith Hashem; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is tamei (unclean).
15 And now, I pray you, consider from this yom and onward, from before an even (stone) was laid upon an even (stone) in the Heikhal Hashem;
16 Since those yamim were, when one came to a heap of grain of twenty measures, there were but ten; when one came to the wine vat for to draw out fifty vessels, there were but twenty.
17 I struck you with blight and with mildew and with hail in all the labors of your hands; yet ye made not teshuvah to Me, saith Hashem.
18 Consider now from this yom and onward, from the four and twentieth yom of the ninth month, even from the yom that the Yesod (Foundation) of the Heikhal Hashem was laid, consider it.
The Orthodox Jewish Bible fourth edition, OJB. Copyright 2002,2003,2008,2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International. All rights reserved.