What Does Haggai 2:17 Mean in the King James?

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.

Haggai 2:17 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The blow reaches both you and the work your hands produce, yet it cannot make you turn toward God.

THE MEANING

The verse holds you and what you make inside the same impact. Even when your work is struck by loss, suffering does not guarantee that you turn toward God.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Hardship automatically makes a person turn toward God.

THE ROOT

מַעֲשֵׂה

maʿăśeh

GROWS FROM

עשׂה

ʿ-ś-h

Do, make.

“labours” in this verse is maʿăśeh. Maʿăśeh means work or deed, from ʿāśâ, to do or make. The Hebrew names both “you” and “all the work of your hands” as objects of the blow, reaching the maker and what the maker produces.

ALSO GROWS

ʿāśâ: Do, make.

עָשָׂה

This verb is the doing that gives rise to the work named in the verse.

maʿăśîm: Deeds, works.

מַעֲשִׂים

This plural form shows how the same root can name the many things a person does or makes.

הִכֵּיתִי

hikkēti

GROWS FROM

נכה

n-k-h

Strike, hit.

“smote” in this verse is hikkēti. The verb names a strike, and the verse gathers blight, mildew, and hail as the means of that striking. The blow reaches the work, but the final clause shows that a strike does not itself produce a turn.

ALSO GROWS

makkāh: Blow, wound, plague.

מַכָּה

This noun carries the same strike into the language of a blow or plague, linking the listed afflictions to the act of striking.

mukkēh: One who is stricken.

מֻכֶּה

This form names the condition of the one who receives the blow.

THE PATTERN

Striking a person or the work of their hands does not by itself produce a turn toward God.

For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.

Isaiah 9:13 · KJVThe people are struck, yet neither turn toward the one striking them nor seek the LORD.

I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

Amos 4:9 · KJVBlight, mildew, and loss among the crops still do not bring a return.

And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:

Revelation 9:20 · KJVEven after plagues, the survivors do not turn from the works of their hands.

THE THREAD

For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.

Isaiah 9:13 · KJV

Isaiah uses the same Hebrew root ⁨נכה⁩ (n-k-h, strike) for the one who smites. Like Haggai, it sets the blow beside the absence of turning.

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