John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Haggai 1:9
Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little ,.... They looked for a large harvest, and very promising it was for a while; but in the end it came to little; it was a very small crop, very little was reaped and gathered in: or, "in looking", ye looked "to increase" F24 אל הרבה "ad rem augendam", Grotius. ; your substance; had raised expectations of making themselves and families by their agriculture, and by their plantations of vines and olives, and by their trade and... read more
Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Haggai 1:1-11
It was the complaint of the Jews in Babylon that they saw not their signs, and there was no more prophet (Ps. 74:9), which was a just judgment upon them for mocking and misusing the prophets. We read of no prophets they had in their return, as they had in their coming out of Egypt, Hos. 12:13. God stirred them up immediately by his Spirit to exert themselves in that escape (Ezra 1:5); for, though God makes use of prophets, he needs them not, he can do his work without them. But the lamp of... read more