Haggai 2:16

16 -- before those [days] were, when one came to a heap of twenty [measures], there were but ten; when one came to the vat to draw out fifty press-measures, there were but twenty.

Haggai 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.

Haggai 2:16 In-Context

14 Then answered Haggai and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith Jehovah, and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.
15 And now, I pray you, consider from this day and onward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of Jehovah,
16 -- before those [days] were, when one came to a heap of twenty [measures], there were but ten; when one came to the vat to draw out fifty press-measures, there were but twenty.
17 I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the work of your hands; and ye [turned] not to me, saith Jehovah.
18 Consider, I pray you, from this day and onward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth [month], from the day that the foundation of Jehovah's temple was laid, consider [it].
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.