I struck you--all the work of your hands--with blight, mildew, and hail, but you did not turn to Me, declares the LORD. I struck youThis phrase indicates divine intervention and discipline. The Hebrew root word for "struck" is "נָכָה" (nakah), which often implies a form of punishment or correction. In the context of Haggai, God is actively involved in the lives of the Israelites, using circumstances to draw them back to Himself. This reflects the biblical principle that God disciplines those He loves ( Hebrews 12:6), aiming to correct and guide His people towards righteousness. all the work of your hands
This phrase emphasizes the totality of the impact on the Israelites' labor and efforts. The "work of your hands" refers to their agricultural and economic activities, which were central to their survival and prosperity. Historically, the Israelites were an agrarian society, and their dependence on the land made them acutely aware of any divine intervention affecting their crops. This phrase serves as a reminder that human efforts are ultimately subject to God's sovereign will. with blight, mildew, and hail
These three calamities are specific agricultural afflictions. "Blight" (שִׁדָּפוֹן, shiddaphon) and "mildew" (יֵרָקוֹן, yerakon) refer to plant diseases that would devastate crops, while "hail" (בָּרָד, barad) represents a destructive weather phenomenon. In the ancient Near East, such disasters were often seen as signs of divine displeasure. Theologically, these afflictions serve as tangible manifestations of the covenant curses outlined in Deuteronomy 28, where disobedience to God results in agricultural failure. but you did not turn to Me
This phrase highlights the intended purpose of the divine discipline: repentance and restoration of relationship. The Hebrew word for "turn" is "שׁוּב" (shuv), which means to return or repent. Despite the hardships, the Israelites failed to recognize the call to repentance. This reflects a recurring biblical theme where God desires His people to return to Him with a contrite heart (Joel 2:12-13). It underscores the importance of spiritual responsiveness to God's corrective measures. declares the LORD
This phrase affirms the authority and certainty of the message. The use of "declares" (נְאֻם, neum) signifies a prophetic utterance, emphasizing that these are not merely the words of Haggai, but the authoritative voice of Yahweh. The covenant name "LORD" (יהוה, YHWH) reminds the Israelites of their unique relationship with God, who is both just and merciful. It serves as a call to heed the divine message and realign their lives according to His will. Persons / Places / Events 1. HaggaiA prophet who delivered God's messages to the people of Judah after their return from Babylonian exile. His primary focus was on encouraging the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. 2. The LORD (Yahweh)The covenant God of Israel, who speaks through Haggai to communicate His displeasure with the people's priorities and their lack of response to His discipline. 3. The People of JudahThe audience of Haggai's prophecy, who had returned from exile and were struggling with economic hardship and spiritual apathy. 4. JerusalemThe city where the Temple was located, which was central to the religious life of the Jewish people. 5. Blight, Mildew, and HailThese are the forms of divine discipline mentioned in the verse, used by God to get the attention of His people and call them to repentance. Teaching Points Divine Discipline as a Call to RepentanceGod uses hardships to draw His people back to Him. When facing difficulties, we should examine our lives and seek God's guidance and forgiveness. The Importance of Prioritizing GodThe people of Judah were focused on their own homes rather than God's house. We must ensure that our priorities align with God's will, putting Him first in all aspects of our lives. Recognizing God's SovereigntyThe events described in Haggai 2:17 remind us that God is in control of all circumstances. Trusting in His sovereignty helps us to respond appropriately to life's challenges. The Consequences of DisobedienceIgnoring God's commands leads to negative consequences. We should strive to live in obedience to God's Word to experience His blessings. The Need for a Heart ResponseExternal actions are not enough; God desires a heart that is turned towards Him. True repentance involves a change of heart and behavior. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the context of Haggai 2:17 help us understand the nature of God's discipline in our lives today? 2. In what ways can we ensure that our priorities align with God's will, similar to the call for the people of Judah to rebuild the Temple? 3. Reflect on a time when you faced a difficult situation. How might recognizing God's sovereignty have changed your response? 4. How can we cultivate a heart of repentance and ensure that our actions reflect a genuine turning back to God? 5. What lessons can we learn from the consequences of disobedience as outlined in Haggai 2:17 and related scriptures, and how can we apply these lessons to our daily walk with God? Connections to Other Scriptures Deuteronomy 28This chapter outlines the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, including agricultural curses like blight and mildew, which are similar to those mentioned in Haggai 2:17. Amos 4Amos speaks of similar judgments (blight, mildew, and locusts) as a call to repentance, showing a pattern of God using natural disasters to draw His people back to Him. 2 Chronicles 7:13-14God promises to heal the land if His people humble themselves, pray, and turn from their wicked ways, highlighting the importance of repentance in response to divine discipline. People Darius, Haggai, Jehozadak, Josedech, Joshua, Shealtiel, ZerubbabelPlaces Egypt, JerusalemTopics Affirmation, Blasting, Blight, Burning, Declares, Didn't, Hail, Hands, Ice-drops, Labors, Labours, Mildew, None, Products, Rain, Return, Says, Smitten, Smote, Struck, Toil, Turn, Wasting, Wind, Works, YetDictionary of Bible Themes Haggai 2:17 4802 blight
4828 hail
4839 mildew
6194 impenitence, warnings Haggai 2:15-19 5224 barn
8479 self-examination, examples Haggai 2:16-17 5973 unreliability Library Brave Encouragements
'In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying, 2. Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying, 3. Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? 4. Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureThe Shaking of the Heavens and the Earth
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Yet this once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land: and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. G od shook the earth when He proclaimed His law to Israel from Sinai. The description, though very simple, presents to our thoughts a scene unspeakably majestic, grand and awful. The mountain was in flames at the top, and …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1 The Abiding of the Spirit the Glory of the Church
By the mouth of His servant Haggai stern rebukes were uttered, and the whole people were aroused. We read in verse twelve of the first chapter, "Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord." All hands were put to the work; course after course of stone began to rise; and …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 32: 1886 The Desire of all Nations
"And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts."--Haggai 2:7. THE second temple was never intended to be as magnificent as the first. The first was to be the embodiment of the full glory of the dispensation of symbols and types, and was soon to pass away. This comparative feebleness had been proved by the idolatry and apostasy of the people Israel, and when they returned to Jerusalem they were to have a structure …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 61: 1915 The Overturning which is visible on Every Hand.
"I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is" (Ezek. 21:27). In close accord with this prophecy through Ezekiel is the word recorded in Haggai 2:6, 7--"For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come." Note carefully the coupling of these two things together--the coming of the Desire …
Arthur W. Pink—The Redeemer's Return The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
"The Holy Spirit was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified."--John vii. 39. We have come to the most difficult part in the discussion of the work of the Holy Spirit, viz., the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the tenth day after the ascension. In the treatment of this subject it is not our aim to create a new interest in the celebration of Pentecost. We consider this almost impossible. Man's nature is too unspiritual for this. But we shall reverently endeavor to give a clearer insight …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit His Throat is Most Sweet, Yea, He is Altogether Lovely. This is My Beloved, and this is My Friend, O Daughters of Jerusalem.
The good qualities of ordinary things may be sufficiently well expressed by ordinary phrases of commendation, but there are some subjects so above expression that they can only be worthily admired by declaring them above all praise. Such is the Divine Bridegroom, who, by the excess of His perfections, renders His Bride dumb when she endeavors most worthily to praise Him, that all hearts and minds may be attracted to Him. Her passion causes her to burst out into the praise of some of the excellencies …
Madame Guyon—Song of Songs of Solomon "Wash You, Make You Clean; Put Away the Evil of Your Doings from Before Mine Eyes; Cease to do Evil,"
Isaiah i. 16.--"Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil," &c. There are two evils in sin,--one is the nature of it, another the fruit and sad effect of it. In itself it is filthiness, and contrary to God's holiness; an abasing of the immortal soul; a spot in the face of the Lord of the creatures, that hath far debased him under them all. Though it be so unnatural to us, yet it is now in our fallen estate become, as it were, natural, so that …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning The Christian Business World
Scripture references: Proverbs 22:29; Romans 12:11; Psalms 24:1; 50:10-12; Haggai 2:8; Psalm 49:6,10,16,17; 62:10; Matthew 13:22; Mark 10:23,24; Job 31:24-26; Proverbs 3:9; Matthew 25:14-30; 24:45-51; 6:19-21; Luke 12:16-21. THE IDEAL IN THE BUSINESS WORLD There is often a wide difference between the methods actually employed in doing business and when they should be. Good men who are in the thick of the battle of competition and rivalry with other firms in the same line of trade, are the quickest …
Henry T. Sell—Studies in the Life of the Christian Fifthly, as this Revelation, to the Judgment of Right and Sober Reason,
appears of itself highly credible and probable, and abundantly recommends itself in its native simplicity, merely by its own intrinsic goodness and excellency, to the practice of the most rational and considering men, who are desirous in all their actions to have satisfaction and comfort and good hope within themselves, from the conscience of what they do: So it is moreover positively and directly proved to be actually and immediately sent to us from God, by the many infallible signs and miracles …
Samuel Clarke—A Discourse Concerning the Being and Attributes of God The Cities of the Levites.
Concerning them, see Numbers, chapter 35, and Joshua chapter 21. "The suburbs of the cities of the Levites were three thousand cubits on every side; viz. from the walls of the city, and outwards; as it is said, 'From the walls of the city and outwards a thousand cubits: and thou shalt measure from without the city two thousand cubits' (Num 35:4,5). The former thousand were the suburbs, and the latter two thousand were for fields and vineyards. They appointed the place of burial to every one of those …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica "All Our Righteousnesses are as Filthy Rags, and we all do Fade as a Leaf, and Our Iniquities, Like the Wind, have Taken us Away. "
Isaiah lxiv. 6, 7.--"All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Not only are the direct breaches of the command uncleanness, and men originally and actually unclean, but even our holy actions, our commanded duties. Take a man's civility, religion, and all his universal inherent righteousness,--all are filthy rags. And here the church confesseth nothing but what God accuseth her of, Isa. lxvi. 8, and chap. i. ver. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning The Beginning of Justification. In what Sense Progressive.
1. Men either idolatrous, profane, hypocritical, or regenerate. 1. Idolaters void of righteousness, full of unrighteousness, and hence in the sight of God altogether wretched and undone. 2. Still a great difference in the characters of men. This difference manifested. 1. In the gifts of God. 2. In the distinction between honorable and base. 3. In the blessings of he present life. 3. All human virtue, how praiseworthy soever it may appear, is corrupted. 1. By impurity of heart. 2. By the absence of …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion "For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus Hath Made Me Free from the Law of Sin and Death. "
Rom. viii. 2.--"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." You know there are two principal things in the preceding verse,--the privilege of a Christian, and the property or character of a Christian. He is one that never enters into condemnation; He that believeth shall not perish, John iii. 15. And then he is one that walks not after the flesh, though he be in the flesh, but in a more elevate way above men, after the guiding and leading …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning The Fourth Commandment
Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it. Exod 20: 8-11. This …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments Mount Zion.
"For ye are not come unto a mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that no word more should be spoken unto them: for they could not endure that which was enjoined, If even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned; and so fearful was the appearance, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake: but ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto …
Thomas Charles Edwards—The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Hebrews Questions.
LESSON I. 1. In what state was the Earth when first created? 2. To what trial was man subjected? 3. What punishment did the Fall bring on man? 4. How alone could his guilt be atoned for? A. By his punishment being borne by one who was innocent. 5. What was the first promise that there should be such an atonement?--Gen. iii. 15. 6. What were the sacrifices to foreshow? 7. Why was Abel's offering the more acceptable? 8. From which son of Adam was the Seed of the woman to spring? 9. How did Seth's …
Charlotte Mary Yonge—The Chosen People Haggai
The post-exilic age sharply distinguished itself from the pre-exilic (Zech. i. 4), and nowhere is the difference more obvious than in prophecy. Post-exilic prophecy has little of the literary or moral power of earlier prophecy, but it would be very easy to do less than justice to Haggai. His prophecy is very short; into two chapters is condensed a summary, probably not even in his own words, of no less than four addresses. Meagre as they may seem to us, they produced a great effect on those who heard …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Haggai 2:17 NIVHaggai 2:17 NLTHaggai 2:17 ESVHaggai 2:17 NASBHaggai 2:17 KJV
Haggai 2:17 Commentaries
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