What Does Haggai 2:15 Mean in the King James?
And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the LORD:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The same Hebrew verb tells you to set your heart and describes the stone being set on stone: inward attention and outward building begin with the same act.
THE MEANING
Your heart is directed to this day by looking back to the time before a single stone was set upon another in the temple of the LORD. The present comes into view against the threshold before the building began.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The present can be understood without looking at what came before it.
THE ROOT
שִׂימוּ
símu
GROWS FROM
שׂים
sim
to set, put, or place
“consider / was laid” in this verse is símu. The KJV’s “consider” translates שִׂימוּ (símu, “set”), and “was laid” translates שׂוּם (sum, “to set”): both come from the same root. The verse makes inward attention echo the stones’ outward placement, so the moment before building is something to hold deliberately in view.
ALSO GROWS
símu levavkhem: set your heart; fix your attention
שִׂימוּ לְבַבְכֶם
This is the command rendered “consider,” showing that the verse speaks of placing the heart, not merely thinking about the past.
sum: to set or place; here, to lay one stone upon another
שׂוּם
The same verb moves from the heart’s attention to the temple’s construction, joining inward and outward placing.
vayyasem: and he placed; the verb used when God put the human in the garden (Genesis 2:8)
וַיָּשֶׂם
The root can describe establishing a person in a place as well as setting a stone, carrying the idea of placement across very different scenes.
THE PATTERN
A present moment becomes clearer when it is set beside what came before.
Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;THE THREAD
Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.The Hebrew command behind “Consider” is שִׂימוּ (símu, “set”), the same verb behind “was laid” here. In Haggai 1:5 it directs the heart toward one’s ways; here that same act of setting attention stands beside the placing of the temple stones.
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