Haggai 1:9 (DRB)

Passage

You have looked for more, and behold it became less, and you brought it home, and I blowed it away: why, saith the Lord of hosts? because my house is desolate, and you make haste every man to his own house.

Nearby Context

Haggai 1:7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Set your hearts upon your ways:

Haggai 1:8 Go up to the mountain, bring timber, and build the house: and it shall be acceptable to me, and I shall be glorified, saith the Lord.

Haggai 1:9 You have looked for more, and behold it became less, and you brought it home, and I blowed it away: why, saith the Lord of hosts? because my house is desolate, and you make haste every man to his own house.

Haggai 1:10 Therefore the heavens over you were stayed from giving dew, and the earth was hindered from yielding her fruits:

Haggai 1:11 And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the wine, and upon the oil, and upon all that the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon beasts, and upon all the labour of the hands.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "looked", "behold", "became", "less", "brought", "home", "blowed", and "away". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "looked" and "behold", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 8's "Go up to the mountain bring timber..." into verse 10's "Therefore the heavens over you were stayed...", so "looked" and "behold" 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 "looked" and "behold" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.