Haggai 2:16

16 since these things were: when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten; when one came to the pressfat to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, 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 Haggai answered, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, said the LORD; and so is every work of their hands, and all that they offer here is unclean.
15 And now, I pray you, consider in your heart from this day forth, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the LORD:
16 since these things were: when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten; when one came to the pressfat to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty.
17 I smote you with the east wind and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands, yet ye did not turn to me, said the LORD.
18 Consider now in your heart from this day forth, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid, put your heart into it.
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010