Haggai 2:16

Since those [days] were,.... From the time the foundation of the temple was laid, unto the time they began to work again, which was a space of about fifteen or sixteen years: when [one] came to an

In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, Sacrifices without obedience (in respect to God's command to

Since those days; all that while the temple lay neglected, and you were contented with maimed and half worship, men were disappointed half in half. When one came to a heap, which he expected would prove twenty measures, ephahs, or bushels, or what other measure you please, there were but ten; it proved but half your hopes; thus your corn failed: but your oil much more failed, and you found but two where you expected five: this barrenness you cannot be ignorant of.

Haggai 2:16 Since those [days] were, when [one] came to an heap of twenty [measures], there were [but] ten: when [one] came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty [vessels] out of the press, there were [but] twenty.Ver. 16. Since those days were] Or, as some read it, Antequam essent in eo opere, Before they were about that work, minding God’ s house more than their own. When one came to an heap of twenty measures] That is, where you expected twenty measures (and experienced good husbands can partly guess at harvest how their grain will yield when threshed out) there were but ten. God’ s hand was upon your increase, not in the field only, but also in the floor; so that you were defeated and your hopes frustrated; and not in the barn only, but at the winepress too, God hath cut you short. This was that which was long before threatened, but little regarded, Deuteronomy 28:20. Carnal men read the threats of God’ s law as they do the old stories of foreign wars, or as they behold the wounds and blood in a picture, or piece of coat of arms, which never makes them smart or fear. This hasteneth their judgment, and shows them ripe for wrath, even then when they think themselves far enough out of the reach of God’ s rod.

(16) Since those days were.—Better, from the time when things were so, or, since such things were—i.e., throughout that whole period of neglect up to the date when they resumed the work of restoration. Throughout that period the harvests had grievously disappointed expectation. A heap of sheaves which ought to have contained “twenty “—the measure is not specified—yielded only “ten;” and a quantity of grapes which should have yielded fifty poorahs, only produced twenty. The word poorah elsewhere means a “wine press;” here, apparently, it is the bucket or vessel which was used to draw up the wine. The last clause of the verse must therefore be rendered “When one came to the pressfat to draw out fifty poorahs, there were but twenty.”

Verse 16. Since those days were] I have shown my displeasure against you, by sending blasting and mildew; and so poor have been your crops that a heap of corn which should have produced twenty measures produced only ten; and that quantity of grapes which in other years would have produced fifty measures, through their poverty, smallness, c., produced only twenty. And this has been the case ever since the first stone was laid in this temple for your hearts were not right with me, and therefore I blasted you in all the labours of your hands; and yet ye have not turned to me, Haggai 2:17.

16. Since those days were] Lit. from their being. We may supply either “days” as in A.V. or “things,” since those things were, i.e. that reprehensible conduct of yours. The R. V. renders happily, through all that time. when one came] Lit. to come, i.e. there was coming, or one came. twenty measures] The word “measures” is not in the Hebrew. The LXX. supply seahs, (σάτα), the Vulg. bushels (modiorum). But the word is perhaps purposely omitted, because the prophet wishes to lay stress on the proportion. The heap, which when it was laid in the barn contained twenty measures (what measures they were it matters not for his present purpose), was found by the owner when he came to use it to have dwindled down to ten. The words as they stand are very forcible, “To come to a heap of twenty and there were ten.” there were] The introduction of the verb “were” is perhaps intended to be emphatic: q. d. “the heap was expected to be twenty, it was (in real existence) ten.” And so again lower down in the same verse. pressfat] i.e. the lower vat or reservoir into which the must squeezed out from the grapes in the press or upper vat flowed. “From the scanty notices contained in the Bible, we gather that the wine-presses of the Jews consisted of two receptacles or vats placed at different elevations, in the upper one of which the grapes were trodden, while the lower one received the ex-pressed juice. The two vats are mentioned together only in Joe 3:13 :—‘The press (gath) is full: the fats (yekebim) overflow’—the upper vat being full of fruit, the lower one overflowing with the must.… The two vats were usually dug or hewn out of the solid rock (Isaiah 5:2, margin; Matthew 21:33). Ancient wine-presses, so constructed, are still to be seen in Palestine, one of which is thus described by Robinson:—‘Advantage had been taken of a ledge of rock; on the upper side a shallow vat had been dug out, eight feet square and fifteen inches deep. Two feet lower down another smaller vat was excavated, four feet square by three feet deep. The grapes were trodden in the shallow upper vat, and the juice drawn off by a hole at the bottom (still remaining) into the lower vat.’ B. R. iii. 137, 603).” Dict. of Bible, Art Wine-press. fifty vessels out of the press] Lit. fifty purah. The A.V. supplies the word “vessels” after “fifty,” just as it does “measures” after “twenty,” in the former part of the verse, and then taking the word “purah” to mean the press (as it does in Isaiah 63:3, the only other place in which it occurs), again supplies “out of” before it. This preserves the parallelism between the two parts of the verse. Perhaps, however, “purah” may here mean a liquid measure (LXX. μετρητής); possibly, as Keil suggests, “the measure which was generally obtained from one filling of the wine-press with grapes;” lit. “fifty wine-presses.” The earlier copies of R. V.

12, 13. Two questions are propounded to the priests: (1) Whether or not a garment made holy through contact with holy flesh (compare Leviticus 6:27) transmits this holiness to other articles which might come in contact with it.