Haggai 2:16

16 When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty.

Haggai 2:16 in Other Translations

King James Version (KJV)
16 Since those days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty.
English Standard Version (ESV)
16 how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty.
New Living Translation (NLT)
16 When you hoped for a twenty-bushel crop, you harvested only ten. When you expected to draw fifty gallons from the winepress, you found only twenty.
The Message Bible (MSG)
16 how did it go with you? Isn't it true that your foot-dragging, halfhearted efforts at rebuilding the Temple of God were reflected in a sluggish, halfway return on your crops - half the grain you were used to getting, half the wine?
American Standard Version (ASV)
16 Through all that time, when one came to a heap of twenty [measures], there were but ten; when one came to the winevat to draw out fifty [vessels], there were but twenty.
GOD'S WORD Translation (GW)
16 When anyone came to a pile of grain [to get] 20 measures, there would be only 10. And when anyone came to a wine vat to draw out 50 measures, there would be only 20 in it.
Holman Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
16 what state were you in? When someone came to a [grain] heap of 20 measures, it [only] amounted to 10; when one came to the winepress to dip 50 measures from the vat, it [only] amounted to 20.
New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
16 People went to get 20 measures of grain. But they could find only 10. They went to where the wine was stored to get 50 measures. But only 20 were there.

Haggai 2:16 Meaning and Commentary

Haggai 2:16

Since those [days] were
From the time the foundation of the temple was laid, unto the time they began to work again, which was a space of about fifteen or sixteen years: when [one] came to an heap of twenty [measures], there were [but]
ten;
when the husbandman having gathered in his corn, and who was generally a good judge of what it would yield, came to a heap of it on his corn floor, either of sheaves not threshed, or grain not winnowed, and expected it would have produced at least twenty measures, seahs, or bushels; afterward it was threshed and winnowed, to his great disappointment he had but ten out of it; there were so much straw and chaff, and so little grain; or when he came to a heap of grain, wheat, or barley, in his granary, where he thought he should have twenty bushels of it; but when he had measured it, proved but ten; being either stolen by thieves, or eaten by vermin; rather the latter: when [one] came to the wine vat for to draw out fifty [vessels] out
of the press, there were [but] twenty;
by the quantity of grapes which he put into the press to tread and squeeze, he expected to have had fifty measures, or baths, or hogsheads of wine; but, instead of that, had but twenty; the bunches were so thin, or the berries so bad: there was a greater decrease and deficiency in the wine than in the grain.

Haggai 2:16 In-Context

14 Then Haggai said, “ ‘So it is with this people and this nation in my sight,’ declares the LORD. ‘Whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled.
15 “ ‘Now give careful thought to this from this day on —consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the LORD’s temple.
16 When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty.
17 I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not return to me,’ declares the LORD.
18 ‘From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid. Give careful thought:

Cross References 3

  • 1. S Ruth 3:7
  • 2. S Job 24:11; S Isaiah 5:2
  • 3. S Deuteronomy 28:38; S Isaiah 5:10; S Haggai 1:6
Scripture quoted by permission.  Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.  NIV®.  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica.  All rights reserved worldwide.