Haggai 2:17 (ASV)

Passage

I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the work of your hands; yet ye [turned] not to me, saith Jehovah.

Nearby Context

Haggai 2:15 And now, I pray you, consider from this day and backward, before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of Jehovah.

Haggai 2:16 Through all that time, when one came to a heap of twenty [measures], there were but ten; when one came to the winevat to draw out fifty [vessels], there were but twenty.

Haggai 2:17 I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the work of your hands; yet ye [turned] not to me, saith Jehovah.

Haggai 2:18 Consider, I pray you, from this day and backward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth [month], since the day that the foundation of Jehovah`s temple was laid, consider it.

Haggai 2:19 Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, the vine, and the fig-tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive-tree have not brought forth; from this day will I bless [you].

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "smote", "blasting", "mildew", "hail", "hands", "turned", "saith", and "jehovah". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "smote" and "blasting", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 16's "Through all that time when one came..." into verse 18's "Consider I pray you from this day...", so "smote" and "blasting" belong inside that flow. In Haggai context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "smote" and "blasting" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.