Haggai 1:5
in Haggai 1Now this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Consider carefully your ways.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Now therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Consider your ways.
KJV
Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.
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This verse in Haggai 1
Commentary
7 notes on this verse(Verse 5, 6) You have sown much and brought in little: you eat but are not satisfied: you drink but are not filled with drink: you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm: and he that earned wages, earned them to put into a bag with holes. All the labor that you have built up your houses and neglected the house of God, has not had a consequence. For you have sown much and gathered little: you cannot say it is a result of famine, because the farmer has ceased to work the land.
This site's exposition
Consider your ways
on Haggai 1:5-6
Consider your ways, literally set your heart upon your ways, opens the first of the chapter's two calls to the same phrase, and the command is diagnostic before it is corrective: look at the actual shape of your life and ask why it does not add up. The list that follows is a portrait of futility, sown much and brought in little, eaten and never filled, clothed and never warm, wages earned into a bag with holes, each clause naming a good pursued and a good that will not hold. Henry reads the bag with holes as Haggai's own coinage for a curse that drains resources exactly at the point of use, unseen until the purse is counted empty.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts,....
The good success of this sermon, appearing in the people's return and close application to that work, wherein the prophet, in God's name, animated and encouraged them, assuring them that God was with them,
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
And now, thus saith the Lord of hosts; “Consider,” (literally “set your heart upon) your ways,” what they had been doing, what they were doing, and what those doings had led to, and would lead to. This is ever present to the mind of the prophets, as speaking God’s words, that our acts are not only “ways” in which we go, each day of life being a continuance of the day before; but that they are ways which lead, somewhere in God’s Providence and His justice; to some end of the “way,” good or bad.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Consider your ways--literally, "Set your heart" on your ways. The plural implies, Consider both what ye have done (actively, La 3:40) and what ye have suffered (passively) [JEROME]. Ponder earnestly whether ye have gained by seeking self at the sacrifice of God.
Consider your ways - Is it fit that you should be building yourselves elegant houses, and neglect a place for the worship of that God who has restored you from captivity?
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְעַתָּ֕ה | veatah | and therefore | H6258 → | 433 times |
| כֹּ֥ה | koh | thus | H3541 → | 577 times |
| אָמַ֖ר | ʾamar | he says | H559 → | 5305 times |
| יְהוָ֣ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| צְבָא֑וֹת | tzevaot | of hosts | H6635 → | 485 times |
| שִׂ֥ימוּ | simu | set | H7760 → | 584 times |
| לְבַבְכֶ֖ם | levavkhem | heart your | H3824 → | 252 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| דַּרְכֵיכֶֽם׃ | darkheikhem | ways your | H1870 → |
וְעַתָּ֕הand therefore
veatahH6258 →433 times
כֹּ֥הthus
kohH3541 →577 times
אָמַ֖רhe says
ʾamarH559 →5305 times
יְהוָ֣הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
צְבָא֑וֹתof hosts
tzevaotH6635 →485 times
שִׂ֥ימוּset
simuH7760 →584 times
לְבַבְכֶ֖םheart your
levavkhemH3824 →252 times
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
דַּרְכֵיכֶֽם׃ways your
darkheikhemH1870 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
2 Corinthians 13:5Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Can’t you see for yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you—unless you actually fail the test?
it leads to
- Psalms 139:23–24
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Lamentations 3:40
Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the LORD.
- 1 Corinthians 11:28
Each one must examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.
- 1 Corinthians 9:27
No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
- Revelation 2:5
Therefore, keep in mind how far you have fallen. Repent and perform the deeds you did at first. But if you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from…
- Psalms 139:23–24
Through
Lamentations 3:40Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the LORD.
it leads to
- 2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Can’t you see for yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you—unless you actually fail the test?
- Joel 2:12–13
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”
- Isaiah 55:7
Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely…
- 2 Corinthians 13:5
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies3
On this verse
On this chapter
About Haggai
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Haggai; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.