Discovery BoxHaggai 2:15-19 
Context2:15 Now therefore reflect carefully on the recent past, 1 before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple. 2 2:16 From that time 3 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 4 with blight, disease, and hail, and yet you brought nothing to me,’ 5 says the Lord. 2:18 ‘Think carefully about the past: 6 from today, the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, 7 to the day work on the temple of the Lord was resumed, 8 think about it. 9 2:19 The seed is still in the storehouse, isn’t it? And the vine, fig tree, pomegranate, and olive tree have not produced. Nevertheless, from today on I will bless you.’”
1 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.”
2 sn Before one stone was laid on another in the
3 tn Heb “from their being,” idiomatic for “from the time they were then,” or “since the time.” Cf. KJV “Since those days were.”
4 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.”
5 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
6 tn Heb “set your heart.” A similar expression occurs in v. 15.
7 sn The twenty-fourth day of the ninth month was Kislev 24 or December 18, 520. See v. 10. Here the reference is to “today,” the day the oracle is being delivered.
8 sn The day work…was resumed. This does not refer to the initial founding of the Jerusalem temple in 536
9 tn Heb “set your heart.” A similar expression occurs in v. 15 and at the beginning of this verse.
