Haggai 2:16

16 when ye went to an heap of twenty bushels, and there were made ten; ye entered to the presser, that ye should press out fifty gallons, and there were made twenty. (when ye went to a heap of grain expecting twenty bushels, and there were made but only ten; and ye went to the winepress, so that ye could press out fifty gallons, and there were made but only 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 And Haggai answered, and said, So is this people, and so is this folk before my face, saith the Lord, and so is all the work of their hands; and all things which they offer there shall be defouled. (And Haggai answered, and said, And so is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the Lord, and so be all the works of their hands; and all the things which they offer there shall be defiled.)
15 And now put ye (this on) your hearts, from this day and above, before that a stone on a stone was put in the temple of the Lord, (And now think ye about this, from this day and back, before that a stone was put upon a stone in the Temple of the Lord,)
16 when ye went to an heap of twenty bushels, and there were made ten; ye entered to the presser, that ye should press out fifty gallons, and there were made twenty. (when ye went to a heap of grain expecting twenty bushels, and there were made but only ten; and ye went to the winepress, so that ye could press out fifty gallons, and there were made but only twenty.)
17 I smote you with burning wind, and with mildew, and hail, (in) all the works of your hands; and there was none in you that turned again to me, saith the Lord. (I struck you with burning wind, and with mildew, and with hail, on all the works of your hands; and still there was no one among you who returned to me, saith the Lord.)
18 Put ye (this on) your hearts from this day, and into coming, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, from the day in which foundaments of the temple of the Lord be casted, put ye (this) on your heart. (Think ye upon this, from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day on which the foundations of the Temple of the Lord be laid, think ye upon this.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.