Haggai 2:17

17 I struck you—everything you do with your hands— with blight and mildew and hail; but you didn't return to me.^[a]

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 So now, take it to heart from this day forward. Before stone was placed on stone in the LORD's temple,

16 when one came to the granary for twenty measures, there were only ten; and when one came to the wine vat for fifty measures, there were only twenty.

17 I struck you—everything you do with your hands— with blight and mildew and hail; but you didn't return to me.

18 So take it to heart from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Take it to heart from the day when the foundation for the LORD's temple was laid.

19 Is the seed yet in the granary— or the vine, the fig tree, or the pomegranate— or has the olive tree not borne fruit? From this day forward, I will bless you.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or but you weren’t with me.