Haggai 1:6 - Exposition

Their labours for years past had lacked the Divine blessing. Though they had fine houses to dwell in, they had been visited with scanty harvests and weak bodily health. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; but to bring in little (Hebrew). And this infinitive absolute is continued in the following clauses, giving remarkable force to the words, and expressing an habitual result. We see from Haggai 2:15-17 that these unfruitful seasons had visited them during all the continuance of their negligence ( Deuteronomy 28:38 ). But ye have not enough. The food which they ate did not satisfy them; their bodies were sickly and derived no strength from the food which they took (Le 26:26; Hosea 4:10 ) or from the wine which they drank (see note on Micah 6:14 ). But there is none warm. Perhaps the winters were unusually rigorous, or their infirm health made their usual clothing insufficient to maintain their bodily heat. To put it into a bag with holes. A proverbial saying. The money gained by the hired labourer vanished as if he had never had it, and left no trace of benefit. Comp. Plaut.,'Pseudol.' 1, 3, 150—

" In pertusum ingerimus dicta dolium; operam ludimus ."