Now this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Consider carefully your ways.
Here the Prophet deals with the refractory people according to what their character required; for as to those who are teachable and obedient, a word is enough for them; but they who are perversely addicted to their sins must be more sharply urged, as the Prophet does here; for he brings before the Jews the punishments by which they had been already visited.
It was the complaint of the Jews in Babylon that they saw not their signs, and there was no more prophet (Psa 74:9), which was a just judgment upon them for mocking and misusing the prophets. We read of no prophets they had in their return, as they had in their coming out of Egypt, Hos 12:13.
Commenting on Haggai 1:1-11
Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts,.... The Lord God omniscient and omnipotent, that saw all their actions, and could punish for them; since they were so careful of their own houses, and adorning them, and so careless of his house; he would have them now sit down, and seriously think of these things, and of what he should further observe unto them: Consider...