Question 1

What repeated pattern does Haggai 1:6 describe across work, food, drink, clothing, and income?

Accepted Answer

The verse stacks several everyday areas to show one theme: input is high but outcomes are low or unstable. They “sow much” but harvest little, which highlights effort without proportionate return. They eat and drink but do not reach normal satisfaction. They put on clothing but do not become warm, suggesting comfort and security are missing. Even when they do earn income, the wages do not “stick,” pictured as money disappearing from a torn bag. Together, these examples describe ongoing frustration rather than a single bad day.

Question 2

How does the passage distinguish between lack of effort and lack of results?

Accepted Answer

Haggai’s wording emphasizes that the problem is not laziness. The people have been active: sowing “much,” eating and drinking (so there is at least something), wearing clothes, and earning wages. The tension is that these real actions do not yield the expected benefits—harvest is small, consumption does not satisfy, clothing does not warm, and earnings evaporate. The catalogue works like evidence: it pushes the audience to notice the mismatch between genuine labor and the disappointing outcomes that follow it.

Question 3

What is the rhetorical effect of listing multiple shortages instead of only mentioning poor harvests?

Accepted Answer

By spreading the problem across several basic needs, the text portrays a comprehensive breakdown of normal life rather than an isolated agricultural issue. Harvest, appetite, thirst, warmth, and financial stability cover the main pillars of household well-being. The piling up of examples also makes it harder to dismiss the situation as coincidence. It creates the sense of a persistent pattern touching the whole community. That broad, repeated frustration sets up the call in v.7 to reflect on “ways” rather than to treat the crisis as one technical problem.

Question 4

What does the metaphor “a bag with holes” contribute to the meaning of wages in v.6?

Accepted Answer

The image communicates loss that is both real and hard to control. The wages exist—people do get paid—but the money does not remain available for its intended purpose. Like coins falling through a torn bag, the income disappears through expenses, setbacks, or instability. The metaphor also suggests futility: even careful saving fails because the container itself is compromised. Within the passage’s logic, this becomes one more sign that something deeper is wrong than simply low income; even gains do not bring security.

Question 5

In v.7, who speaks, and how does that shape how the shortages in v.6 should be read?

Accepted Answer

Verse 7 introduces direct speech from “Yahweh of Hosts.” That framing signals that the preceding observations (v.6) are not offered merely as the prophet’s social commentary; they are tied to Yahweh’s interpretation of the community’s condition. The repeated instruction “Consider your ways” shows the shortages are meant to prompt evaluation of the community’s direction. The passage does not yet spell out every cause in these two verses alone, but it clearly treats the hardships as meaningful evidence, not random misfortune.

Question 6

What does the repeated phrase “consider your ways” imply about the relationship between experience and interpretation in this unit?

Accepted Answer

The repetition implies that the community’s daily experience needs deliberate attention rather than quick explanations. Their ongoing frustrations could be normalized (“that’s just how life is now”), but the command treats them as data that should lead to reflection. It also implies that “ways” are visible patterns—how the community has been living, choosing, and organizing priorities. In the larger flow of the message, the repeated call creates a bridge between observable realities (v.6) and a deeper diagnosis that the prophet is pressing them to face.

A catalogue of frustrated effort

A catalogue of frustrated effort

A catalogue of frustrated effort

Scripture

What this passage is saying

A catalogue of frustrated effort

Scripture

What this passage is saying