Haggai 1:5

"Now therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes."

The picture that emerges here is one of general want and frustration, which seems to conflict with the paneled homes just mentioned; but such a conflict evaporates when we discern that Haggai may have been using this language to depict the spiritual poverty of the people. The basic spiritual lesson of the whole Bible is "that man shall not live by bread alone"; and that was true when Haggai wrote as well as at the present day. How many are there in our society now who eat, drink, and clothe themselves, live in substantial houses, and yet, in the spiritual sense, are hungry, thirsty, poor, and naked?

Most of the scholars we have consulted reject that possible interpretation of what Haggai wrote, and apply the words as a description of the economic hardship and near-destitution of the returnees. Certainly, this could be the correct view, supported by the sheer impact of the literal words, "ye bring in little ... ye have not enough ... ye are not filled with drink ... there is none warm ... a bag with holes !" Feinberg viewed the poverty here as real:

"There is no contradiction between the description of poverty here, and the description of the expensive, ceiled houses in Haggai 1:4. As in other societies, the wealthy were found along with the poor. That age, as every age in man's history, proved the truth of Matthew 6:33. When God is forgotten, all labor is without profit."[9]

Jamieson summarized the teaching of Haggai 1:6 - "Nothing has prospered with you while you neglected your duty to God."[10]