16. Through all that time [the harvests have not fulfilled expectations, for] when one has gone expecting to find a heap [of sheaves] of twenty measures, there were but ten; when he has gone to the wine vat to draw out fifty bucketfuls from the press, there were only twenty.
17. I smote you with blight and with mildew and with hail in all [the products of] the labors of your hands; yet you returned not nor were converted to Me, says the Lord.
18. Consider, I pray you, from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was [re]laid, consider this:
19. Is the harvested grain any longer in the barn? As to the grapevine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree–they have not yet borne. From this day on I will bless you.
20. And again the word of the Lord came to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying,
21. Speak to Zerubbabel [the representative of the Davidic monarchy and covenant and in direct line of the ancestry of Jesus Christ] governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth; [Hag. 2:6; Matt. 1:12, 13.]