Discovery BoxHaggai 2:14-17 
Context2:14 Then Haggai responded, “‘The people of this nation are unclean in my sight,’ 1 says the Lord. ‘And so is all their effort; everything they offer is also unclean. 2 2:15 Now therefore reflect carefully on the recent past, 3 before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple. 4 2:16 From that time 5 when one came expecting a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty measures from it, there were only twenty. 2:17 I struck all the products of your labor 6 with blight, disease, and hail, and yet you brought nothing to me,’ 7 says the Lord.
1 tn Heb “so this people, and so this nation before me.” In this context “people” and “nation” refer to the same set of individuals; the repetition is emphatic. Cf. CEV “this entire nation.”
2 sn The point here is that the Jews cannot be made holy by unholy fellowship with their pagan neighbors; instead, they and their worship will become corrupted by such associations.
3 tn Heb “and now set your heart from this day and upward.” The juxtaposition of מָעְלָה (ma’lah, “upward”) with the following מִטֶּרֶם (mitterem, “before”) demands a look to the past. Cf. ASV “consider from this day and backward.”
4 sn Before one stone was laid on another in the
5 tn Heb “from their being,” idiomatic for “from the time they were then,” or “since the time.” Cf. KJV “Since those days were.”
6 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.”
7 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
