I sent blight and mildew and hail to destroy everything you worked so hard to produce. Even so, you refused to return to me, says the Lord.
Parallel translations
- WEB I struck you with blight, mildew, and hail in all the work of your hands; yet you didn’t turn to me,’ says Yahweh.
- KJV I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD.
- BSB I struck you—all the work of your hands—with blight, mildew, and hail, but you did not turn to Me, declares the LORD.
- NKJV I struck you with blight and mildew and hail in all the labors of your hands; yet you did not turn to Me,’ says the Lord.
- NASB I struck you and every work of your hands with scorching wind, mildew, and hail; yet you did not come back to Me,’ declares the Lord.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God reminds them that He sent blight, mildew, and hail, yet they did not turn to Him. His disciplines were meant to bring repentance.
Overview
These agricultural plagues echo the covenant curses of Deuteronomy 28 and Amos 4:9, sent to summon the people back. Their failure to return reveals how stubborn the human heart can be even under chastening. God's patient discipline aims always at restoring His people to Himself.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 28
- Deut 28:22Yahweh will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with fiery heat, with the sword, with blight, and with mildew. They will pursue you until you perish.
- Hag 1:11I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground produces, on men, on livestock, and on all the labor of the hands.”
- Hag 1:9“You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says Yahweh of Armies, “Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house.
- Amos 4:8–11So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water, and were not satisfied: yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.
- 1 Kgs 8:37“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight, mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is;
- Jer 5:3O Yahweh, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.
- Exod 9:18–29Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as has not been in Egypt since the day it was founded even until now.
- Isa 62:8Yahweh has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, “Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies; and foreigners will not drink your new wine, for which you have labored;
- Rev 2:21I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.
- Jer 8:4–7“Moreover you shall tell them, ‘Yahweh says: “‘Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return?
- Amos 4:6“I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in every town; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.
- Isa 9:13Yet the people have not turned to him who struck them, neither have they sought Yahweh of Armies.
- Isa 37:27Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like a field before its crop has grown.
- Rev 9:20–21The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn’t repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn’t worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can’t see, hear, or walk.
- Jer 6:16–17Yahweh says, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
- Job 36:13“But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don’t cry for help when he binds them.
- Gen 42:6Joseph was the governor over the land. It was he who sold to all the people of the land. Joseph’s brothers came, and bowed themselves down to him with their faces to the earth.
- Gen 42:27As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food in the lodging place, he saw his money. Behold, it was in the mouth of his sack.
- Ps 78:46He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.
- 2 Chr 6:28“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is;
- Hos 7:9–10Strangers have devoured his strength, and he doesn’t realize it. Indeed, gray hairs are here and there on him, and he doesn’t realize it.
- Zech 1:2–4“Yahweh was very displeased with your fathers.
- Zech 7:9–13“Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother.
- Jer 3:24But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
- 2 Chr 28:22In the time of his distress, he trespassed yet more against Yahweh, this same king Ahaz.
- Gen 42:23They didn’t know that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them.
- Isa 42:25Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle; and it set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know; and it burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”
- Isa 28:2Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one. Like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, he will cast them down to the earth with his hand.
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Christ at the center
The promise that the latter glory of the temple will exceed the former, and that God will shake the nations and bring 'the desire of all nations,' is fulfilled when Christ enters his temple.
How Haggai 2:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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