Haggai 1

9. Ye looked for much--literally "looked" so as to turn your eyes "to much." The Hebrew infinitive here expresses continued looking. Ye hoped to have your store made "much" by neglecting the temple. The greater was your greediness, the more bitter your disappointment in being poorer than ever.
when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it--even the little crop brought into your barns I dissipated. "I did blow upon," that is, I scattered and caused to perish with My mere breath, as scattered and blighted corn.
mine house . . . his own house--in emphatic antithesis.
ye run--expressing the keenness of everyone of them in pursuing their own selfish interests. Compare "run," Psalms 119:32 , Proverbs 1:16 , contrasted with their apathy about God's house.

10. heaven . . . is stayed from dew--literally "stays itself." Thus heaven or the sky is personified; implying that inanimate nature obeys Jehovah's will; and, shocked at His people's disobedience, withholds its goods from them (compare Jeremiah 2:12 Jeremiah 2:13 ).

11. I called--what the "heaven" and "earth," the second causes, were said to do ( Haggai 1:10 ), being the visible instruments, Jehovah, in this verse, the invisible first cause, declares to be His doing. He "calls for" famine, &c., as instruments of His wrath ( 2 Kings 8:1 , Psalms 105:16 ). The contrast is striking between the prompt obedience of these material agencies, and the slothful disobedience of living men, His people.
drought--Hebrew, Choreb, like in sound to Chareeb, "waste" ( Haggai 1:4 Haggai 1:9 ), said of God's house; implying the correspondence between the sin and its punishment. Ye have let My house be waste, and I will send on all that is yours a wasting drought. This would affect not merely the "corn," &c., but also "men" and "cattle," who must perish in the absence of the "corn," &c., lost by the drought.
labour of the hands--all the fruits of lands, gardens, and vineyards, obtained by labor of the hands ( Deuteronomy 28:33 , Psalms 78:46 ).

12. remnant of the people--all those who have returned from the exile ( Zechariah 8:6 ).
as . . . God sent him--according to all that Jehovah had enjoined him to speak. But as it is not till Haggai 1:14 after Haggai's second message ( Haggai 1:13 ) that the people actually obeyed, MAURER translates here, "hearkened to the voice of the Lord," and instead of "as," "because the Lord had sent him." However, English Version rightly represents their purpose of obedience as obedience in God's eyes already, though not carried into effect till Haggai 1:14 .

13. the Lord's messenger--so the priests ( Malachi 2:7 ) are called (compare Galatians 4:14 , 2 Peter 1:21 ).
in the Lord's message--by the Lord's authority and commission: on the Lord's embassage.
I am with you--( Matthew 28:20 ). On the people showing the mere disposition to obey, even before they actually set to work, God passes at once from the reproving tone to that of tenderness. He hastens as it were to forget their former unfaithfulness, and to assure them, when obedient, that He both is and will be with them: Hebrew, "I with you!" God's presence is the best of blessings, for it includes all others. This is the sure guarantee of their success no matter how many their foes might be ( Romans 8:31 ). Nothing more inspirits men and rouses them from torpor, than, when relying on the promises of divine aid, they have a sure hope of a successful issue [CALVIN].

14. Lord stirred up the spirit of, &c.--God gave them alacrity and perseverance in the good work, though slothful in themselves. Every good impulse and revival of religion is the direct work of God by His Spirit.
came and did work--collected the wood and stones and other materials (compare Haggai 1:8 ) for the work. Not actually built or "laid the (secondary) foundations" of the temple, for this was not done till three months after, namely, the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month ( Haggai 2:18 ) [GROTIUS].

15. four and twentieth day--twenty-three days after the first message of Haggai ( Haggai 1:1 ).