Haggai 1:4 (DBY)

Passage

Is it time for you that ye should dwell in your wainscoted houses, while this house lieth waste?

Nearby Context

Haggai 1:2 Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that Jehovah's house should be built.

Haggai 1:3 And the word of Jehovah came by Haggai the prophet, saying,

Haggai 1:4 Is it time for you that ye should dwell in your wainscoted houses, while this house lieth waste?

Haggai 1:5 And now thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Consider your ways.

Haggai 1:6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but are not satisfied; ye drink, but are not filled with drink; ye clothe yourselves, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages for a bag with holes.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "time", "should", "dwell", "wainscoted", "houses", "lieth", and "waste". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "time" and "should", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 3's "And the word of Jehovah came by..." into verse 5's "And now thus saith Jehovah of hosts...", so "time" and "should" 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 "time" and "should" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.