Haggai 1:6

Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. YE HAVE SOWN MUCH, AND BRING IN LITTLE. Nothing has prospered with you while neglecting your duty to God. The punishment corresponds to the sin. They thought to escape poverty by not building, but keeping their money to themselves: God brought it on them for not building (Proverbs 13:7; Proverbs 11:24). If men would seek God's kingdom as their first aim, they would secure additionally the secondary things of this life (Matthew 6:33). Instead...

He says that they had _sown much_, and that _small was the produce_. They who render the clause in the future tense, wrest the meaning of the Prophet: for why did he say, apply your heart to your ways, if he only denounced a future punishment? But, as I have already stated, he intimates, that they very thoughtlessly champed the bridle, for they perceived not that all their evils were inflicted by God’s hand, nor did they regard his judgement as righteous. Hence he says, that they had sowed much, and that the harvest had been small; and then, that they _ate _and _were not satisfied_; that they _drank _and had not their _thirst quenched_; that they _clothed themselves _and were _not warmed_. How much soever they applied those things which seemed necessary for the support of life, they yet availed them nothing. And God, we know, does punish men in these two ways either by withdrawing his bl...

1-11 Observe the sin of the Jews, after their return from captivity in Babylon. Those employed for God may be driven from their work by a storm, yet they must go back to it. They did not say that they would not build a temple, but, Not yet. Thus men do not say they will never repent and reform, and be religious, but, Not yet. And so the great business we were sent into the world to do, is not done. There is a proneness in us to think wrongly of discouragements in our duty, as if they were a discharge from our duty, when they are only for the trial of our courage and faith. They neglected the building of God's house, that they might have more time and money for worldly affairs. That the punishment might answer to the sin, the poverty they thought to prevent by not building the temple, God brought upon them for not building it. Many good works have been intended, but not done, because men...

Verse 6. _YE HAVE SOWN MUCH_] God will not bless you in any labour of your hands, unless you rebuild his temple and restore his worship. This verse contains a series of _proverbs_; no less than _five_ in the compass of a few lines....

YE HAVE SOWN MUCH - The prophet expresses the habitualness of these visitations by a vivid present. He marks no time and so expresses the more vividly that it was at all times. It is one continually present evil. “Ye have sown much and there is a bringing in little; there is eating and not to satisfy; there is drinking and not to exhilarate; there is clothing and not to be warm It is not for the one or the other years, as, since the first year of Darius Hystaspis; it is one continued visitation, coordinate with one continued negligence. As long as the sin lasted, so long the punishment. The visitation itself was twofold; impoverished harvests, so as to supply less sustenance; and various indisposition of the frame, so that what would, by God’s appointment in nature, satisfy, gladden, warm, failed of its effect. “And he that laboreth for hire, gaineth himself hire into a bag full of holes...

EXPOSITION HAGGAI 1:1 Part I. THE FIRST ADDRESS: EXHORTATION TO BUILD THE TEMPLE AND ITS RESULT. HAGGAI 1:1 § 1. _The people are reproved for their indifference with regard to the erection of the temple, and admonished that their present distress is a chastisement for this neglect._ HAGGAI 1:1 IN THE SECOND YEAR OF DARIUS THE KING. This is Darius Hystaspes, who reigned over Persia from B.C. 521 to B.C. 486. He is called in the inscr

YE HAVE SOWN MUCH, AND BRING IN LITTLE,.... Contrary to what is usually done; the seed that is sown is but little, in, comparison of what springs up, is reaped, and gathered into the barn; which commonly affords seed again to the sower, and bread to the eater; but here much land was tilled, and a great deal of seed was sown in it; but a thin crop was produced, little was gathered into the barn; a blessing being withheld from the earth, and from their labours, because of their sins, which they would do well to think of, and the cause of it: YE EAT, BUT YE HAVE NOT ENOUGH; what the earth did yield, and which they gathered in, they made food of, and ate of it; yet it was not sufficient to satisfy their hunger; or it was not blessed for their nourishment; or they had a canine appetite in judgment given them, so that they were never satisfied: or, it was "not for fulness" q; they were not fi...

The subject is the building of the second temple. The people had been busily employed in building their own houses some of them had gone to great expense and much labour upon these houses, but they had not built the temple of God. The prophet Haggai was sent to incite them to holy labour. Haggai 1:1. _In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Thus people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built._ A bad excuse is thought to be better than none. These people would not object to the building of the Lord's house, but they were willing to postpone so expensive a matter. There are always some per

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS CHAPTER 1:1-11 Haggai's First Address _ 1. The introduction (Habakkuk 1:1) _ 2. The reproof (Habakkuk 1:2) 3. Consider your ways (Habakkuk 1:7) Habakkuk 1:1. Darius Hystaspes had been king one year and had entered upon the second year, 520 B.C., when, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, the word of the Lord was given by Haggai. It was addressed to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of josedech, the high-priest. Zerubbabel and Joshua were the prominent civic and religious leaders of that day. Zerubbabel was the son of Shealt

HAGGAI 1:2. Read _mg._ Haggai 1:3. is a superfluous editorial addition. HAGGAI 1:4. A cieled house was one lined with timber, ordinary houses being left as rough inside as outside. This house means the whole Temple area, as is evident from Haggai 1:14; Haggai 2:3. Haggai 1:5. Consider your ways: means take notice of your experiences. In Haggai 1:5 Haggai exhorts the people to