15 "'Think back. Before you set out to lay the first foundation stones for the rebuilding of my Temple, 16 how did it go with you? Isn't it true that your foot-dragging, halfhearted efforts at rebuilding the Temple of God were reflected in a sluggish, halfway return on your crops - half the grain you were used to getting, half the wine? 17 I hit you with drought and blight and hail. Everything you were doing got hit. But it didn't seem to faze you. You continued to ignore me.' God's Decree. 18 "'Now think ahead from this same date - this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Think ahead from when the Temple rebuilding was launched. 19 Has anything in your fields - vine, fig tree, pomegranate, olive tree - failed to flourish? From now on you can count on a blessing.'"
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Haggai 2:15-19
Commentary on Haggai 2:10-19
(Read Haggai 2:10-19)
Many spoiled this good work, by going about it with unholy hearts and hands, and were likely to gain no advantage by it. The sum of these two rules of the law is, that sin is more easily learned from others than holiness. The impurity of their hearts and lives shall make the work of their hands, and all their offerings, unclean before God. The case is the same with us. When employed in any good work, we should watch over ourselves, lest we render it unclean by our corruptions. When we begin to make conscience of duty to God, we may expect his blessing; and whoso is wise will understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. God will curse the blessings of the wicked, and make bitter the prosperity of the careless; but he will sweeten the cup of affliction to those who diligently serve him.