Through all that time, when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty, there were only twenty.
Parallel Translations
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Through all that time, when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty, there were only twenty.
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Since those days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty.
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through all that time, when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten; when one came to the winevat to draw out fifty press-measures, there were but twenty;
Cross-references (5)
Passages linked to Haggai 2:16 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Haggai 1:6 You have sown much, and bring in little. You eat, but you don’t have enough. You drink, but you aren’t filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm, and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes in it.”
- Proverbs 3:9-10 Honor Yahweh with your substance, with the first fruits of all your increase: so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.
- Haggai 1:9-11 “You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says Yahweh of Armies, “Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground produces, on men, on livestock, and on all the labor of the hands.”
- Zechariah 8:10-12 For before those days there was no wages for man, nor any wages for an animal; neither was there any peace to him who went out or came in, because of the adversary. For I set all men everyone against his neighbor. But now I will not be to the remnant of this people as in the former days,” says Yahweh of Armies. “For the seed of peace and the vine will yield its fruit, and the ground will give its increase, and the heavens will give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things.
- Malachi 2:2 If you will not listen, and if you will not take it to heart, to give glory to my name,” says Yahweh of Armies, “then I will send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to heart.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Consider how God did plague you with famine afore…
Consider how God did plague you with famine afore you began to build the Temple.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Hag 2:16 Since those [days] were, when [one] came…
Hag 2:16 Since those [days] were, when [one] came to an heap of twenty [measures], there were [but] ten: when [one] came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty [vessels] out of the press, there were [but] twenty.
Ver. 16. Since those days were] Or, as some read it, Antequam essent in eo opere, Before they were about that work, minding God’s house more than their own.
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When one came to an heap of twenty measures] That is, where you expected twenty measures (and experienced good husbands can partly guess at harvest how their grain will yield when threshed out) there were but ten. God’s hand was upon your increase, not in the field only, but also in the floor; so that you were defeated and your hopes frustrated; and not in the barn only, but at the winepress too, God hath cut you short. This was that which was long before threatened, but little regarded, Deu 28:20. Carnal men read the threats of God’s law as they do the old stories of foreign wars, or as they behold the wounds and blood in a picture, or piece of coat of arms, which never makes them smart or fear. This hasteneth their judgment, and shows them ripe for wrath, even then when they think themselves far enough out of the reach of God’s rod.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Since those days; all that while the temple lay…
Since those days; all that while the temple lay neglected, and you were contented with maimed and half worship, men were disappointed half in half.
When one came to a heap, which he expected would prove twenty measures, ephahs, or bushels, or what other measure you please,
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there were but ten; it proved but half your hopes; thus your corn failed: but your oil much more failed, and you found but two where you expected five: this barrenness you cannot be ignorant of.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain I smote you with blasting,.... That is, their fields…
I smote you with blasting,.... That is, their fields and vineyards, with burning winds, which consumed them; with blights by east winds: this shows the reason of their disappointment, and that it was from the Lord, and for their sins, by way of chastisement and correction:
and with mildew; a kind of clammy dew, which corrupts and destroys the fruits of the earth; and is a kind of jaundice to them, as the word signifies; see Amo 4:9,
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and with hail; which battered down the corn and the vines, and broke them to pieces; see Exo 9:25,
in all the labours of your hands; in the corn they sowed, and in the vines they planted:
yet ye turned not to me, saith the Lord; did not consider their evil ways as the cause of all this; nor repent of them, and turn from them to the Lord; to his worship, as the Targum; or to the building of his house, the thing chiefly complained of. Afflictions, unless sanctified, have no effect upon men to turn them from their sins to the Lord.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Since - All the while the temple lay neglected.…
Since - All the while the temple lay neglected. When one came - Men are disappointed half in half. But ten - Which he expected would prove twenty measures, ephahs or bushels. It proved but half your hope, thus your corn failed, and your oil much more.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 16. Since those days were] I have shown…
Verse 16. Since those days were] I have shown my displeasure against you, by sending blasting and mildew; and so poor have been your crops that a heap of corn which should have produced twenty measures produced only ten; and that quantity of grapes which in other years would have produced fifty measures, through their poverty, smallness, c., produced only twenty. And this has been the case ever since the first stone was laid in this temple for your hearts were not right with me, and therefore I blasted you in all the labours of your hands; and yet ye have not turned to me, Hag 2:17.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Day, the 24th of the ninth month, when you…
Day, the 24th of the ninth month, when you began to build, ver. 19. Henceforward your crops shall be abundant. (Menochius) --- I judge not from natural appearances, as the corn is still in the granary, ver. 20. (Calmet) --- Upon a stone. The foundations had been laid the year after the Jews returned, and an altar set up, 1 Esdras iii. Nothing more of consequence was done till the second year of Darius. The temple was finished and dedicated in the sixth, 1 Esdras vi. 15. Hence Aggeus speaks of the stones to be used hereafter. Those in the foundation were to be laid afresh, (ver. 19) or were not seen or noticed. In the same sense our Saviour predicts, that a stone shall not be left upon a stone in the temple, which the Romans should destroy before that generation had passed away, Matthew xxiv. 2, 34. This was verified within forty years. Yet A. Rutter observes it was more fully accomplished when the Jews dug up the foundations, by order of Julian, who wished to falsify the prediction. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Since those days were--from the time that those days…
Since those days were--from the time that those days of your neglect of the temple work have been.
when one came to an heap of twenty measures--that is to a heap which he had expected would be one of twenty measures, there were but ten.
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fifty vessels out of the press--As the Septuagint translates "measure," and Vulgate "a flagon," and as we should rather expect vat than press. MAURER translates (omitting vessels, which is not in the original), "purahs," or "wine-measures."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 16. Since those days were] Lit. from their being.…
16. Since those days were] Lit. from their being. We may supply either “days” as in A.V. or “things,” since those things were, i.e. that reprehensible conduct of yours. The R. V. renders happily, through all that time.
when one came] Lit. to come, i.e. there was coming, or one came.
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twenty measures] The word “measures” is not in the Hebrew. The LXX. supply seahs, (σάτα), the Vulg. bushels (modiorum). But the word is perhaps purposely omitted, because the prophet wishes to lay stress on the proportion. The heap, which when it was laid in the barn contained twenty measures (what measures they were it matters not for his present purpose), was found by the owner when he came to use it to have dwindled down to ten. The words as they stand are very forcible, “To come to a heap of twenty and there were ten.”
there were] The introduction of the verb “were” is perhaps intended to be emphatic: q. d. “the heap was expected to be twenty, it was (in real existence) ten.” And so again lower down in the same verse.
pressfat] i.e. the lower vat or reservoir into which the must squeezed out from the grapes in the press or upper vat flowed. “From the scanty notices contained in the Bible, we gather that the wine-presses of the Jews consisted of two receptacles or vats placed at different elevations, in the upper one of which the grapes were trodden, while the lower one received the ex-pressed juice. The two vats are mentioned together only in Joe_3:13 :—‘The press (gath) is full: the fats (yekebim) overflow’—the upper vat being full of fruit, the lower one overflowing with the must.… The two vats were usually dug or hewn out of the solid rock (Isa_5:2, margin; Mat_21:33). Ancient wine-presses, so constructed, are still to be seen in Palestine, one of which is thus described by Robinson:—‘Advantage had been taken of a ledge of rock; on the upper side a shallow vat had been dug out, eight feet square and fifteen inches deep. Two feet lower down another smaller vat was excavated, four feet square by three feet deep. The grapes were trodden in the shallow upper vat, and the juice drawn off by a hole at the bottom (still remaining) into the lower vat.’ B. R. iii. 137, 603).” Dict. of Bible, Art Wine-press.
fifty vessels out of the press] Lit. fifty purah. The A.V. supplies the word “vessels” after “fifty,” just as it does “measures” after “twenty,” in the former part of the verse, and then taking the word “purah” to mean the press (as it does in Isa_63:3, the only other place in which it occurs), again supplies “out of” before it. This preserves the parallelism between the two parts of the verse. Perhaps, however, “purah” may here mean a liquid measure (LXX. μετρητής); possibly, as Keil suggests, “the measure which was generally obtained from one filling of the wine-press with grapes;” lit. “fifty wine-presses.” The earlier copies of R. V. print vessels in italics, and leave purah untranslated. The mistake however has now been corrected.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (16) Since those days were.—Better, from the time when…
(16) Since those days were.—Better, from the time when things were so, or, since such things were—i.e., throughout that whole period of neglect up to the date when they resumed the work of restoration. Throughout that period the harvests had grievously disappointed expectation. A heap of sheaves which ought to have contained “twenty “—the measure is not specified—yielded only “ten;” and a quantity of grapes which should have yielded fifty poorahs, only produced twenty. The word poorah elsewhere means a “wine press;” here, apparently, it is the bucket or vessel which was used to draw up the wine. The last clause of the verse must therefore be rendered “When one came to the pressfat to draw out fifty poorahs, there were but twenty.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Since those days were. The word "days" is supplied.…
Since those days were. The word "days" is supplied. Revised Version, "through all that time," viz. the fourteen years spoken of in ver. 15. Septuagint, tinev hte, "what ye were;" the Vulgate omits the words. When one came to a heap of twenty measures. The word "measures" is not in the Hebrew: it is supplied by the LXX, sata (equivalent to scabs), and by Jerome, modiorum. But the particular measure is of no importance; it is the proportion only on which stress is laid. The prophet particuiarizes the general statements of Hag_1:6, Hag_1:9. The "heap" is the collection of sheaves. (Rth_3:7) This when threshed yielded only half that they had expected. There were (in fact) but ten; kaineto kriqhv deka sata, "and there were ten measures of barley." The press fat; the wine fat, the vat into which flowed the juice forced from the grapes when trodden out by the feet in the press. A full account of this will be found in the "Dict. of the Bible," arts. "Wine press" and "Wine." Fifty vessels out of the press. The Hebrew is "fifty purah." The word purah is used in Isa_63:3 to signify the press itself, hence the AuthorizedVersion so translates it here, inserting "out of," and supplying "vessels," as "measures" above; but it probably here denotes a liquid measure in which the wine was drown. LXX, metrhta (equivalent to Hebrew baths). Jerome, lagenas; and in his commentary, amphoras. They came and examined the grapes and expected fifty purahs, "press measures," but they did not get even half that they had hoped. There were but twenty. Knabenbauer suggests that the meaning may be looking at the crop of grapes, they expected to draw out, i.e. empty (chasaph), the press fifty times, but were egregiously deceived.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.