Haggai 2:18 (GNV)

Passage

I smote you with blasting, and with mildewe, and with haile, in all the labours of your hands: yet you turned not to me, saith the Lord.

Nearby Context

Haggai 2:16 And nowe, I pray you, consider in your mindes: from this day, and afore, euen afore a stone was layde vpon a stone in the Temple of the Lord:

Haggai 2:17 Before these things were, when one came to an heape of twentie measures, there were but ten: when one came to the wine presse for to drawe out fiftie vessels out of the presse, there were but twentie.

Haggai 2:18 I smote you with blasting, and with mildewe, and with haile, in all the labours of your hands: yet you turned not to me, saith the Lord.

Haggai 2:19 Consider, I pray you, in your mindes, from this day, and afore from the foure and twentieth day of the ninth moneth, euen from the day that the foundation of the Lords Temple was laide: consider it in your mindes.

Haggai 2:20 Is the seede yet in the barne? as yet the vine, and the figtree, and the pomegranate, and the oliue tree hath not brought forth: from this day will I blesse you.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "smote", "blasting", "mildewe", "haile", "labours", "hands", "turned", and "saith". 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 17's "Before these things were when one came..." into verse 19's "Consider I pray you in your mindes...", 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.