Haggai 2:3
2:3 ‘Who among you survivors saw the former splendor of this temple? 1 How does it look to you now? Isn’t it nothing by comparison?
Haggai 2:17
2:17 I struck all the products of your labor 2 with blight, disease, and hail, and yet you brought nothing to me,’ 3 says the Lord.
1 tn Heb “this house in its earlier splendor”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “in its former glory.”
sn Solomon’s temple was demolished in 586 b.c., 66 years prior to Haggai’s time. There surely would have been some older people who remembered the former splendor of that magnificent structure and who lamented the contrast to the small, unimpressive temple they were building (see Ezra 3:8-13).
2 tn Heb “you, all the work of your hands”; NRSV “you and all the products of your toil”; NIV “all the work of your hands.”
3 tn Heb “and there was not with you.” The context favors the idea that the harvests were so poor that the people took care of only themselves, leaving no offering for the Lord. Cf. KJV and many English versions “yet ye turned not to me,” understanding the phrase to refer to the people’s repentance rather than their failure to bring offerings.