Haggai 2:16 (DRB)

Passage

And now consider in your hearts, from this day and upward, before there was a stone laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord.

Nearby Context

Haggai 2:14 And Haggai said: If one that is unclean by occasion of a soul touch any of all these things, shall it be defiled? And the priests answered, and said: It shall be defiled.

Haggai 2:15 And Haggai answered, and said: So is this people, and so is this nation before my face, saith the Lord, and so is all the work of their hands: and all that they have offered there, shall be defiled.

Haggai 2:16 And now consider in your hearts, from this day and upward, before there was a stone laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord.

Haggai 2:17 When you went to a heap of twenty bushels, and they became ten: and you went into the press, to press out fifty vessels, and they became twenty.

Haggai 2:18 I struck you with a blasting wind, and all the works of your hand with the mildew and with hail, yet there was none among you that returned to me, saith the Lord.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "consider", "hearts", "upward", "before", "stone", "laid", and "upon". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "consider" and "hearts", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 15's "And Haggai answered and said So is..." into verse 17's "When you went to a heap of...", so "consider" and "hearts" 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 "consider" and "hearts" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.