Bible Strands
Haggai 1:11
I have summoned a drought on the fields and on the mountains, on the grain, new wine, and oil, and on whatever the ground yields, on man and beast, and on all the labor of your hands.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses the post-exilic remnant, specifically Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the people, immediately following the description of withheld dew and crops in Haggai 1:10. The declaration occurs during the early phase of temple rebuilding when the community faces systemic agricultural failure.
The words — The verse centers on חֹרֶב (Cho.rev), literally drought or devastation, and אֶקְרָא (ek.ra), literally I have summoned or called forth. These terms structurally frame the famine as a targeted divine action directed at the land, its yield, and human labor.
The thread — This judgment pattern reappears in Haggai 2:17, where God strikes the work of their hands with blight, mildew, and hail, and aligns with the covenant curses of Deuteronomy 28:22 regarding scorching heat and drought. It also mirrors the prophetic drought declaration in 1 Kings 17:1 as a recurring mechanism of divine correction.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to identify agricultural collapse and labor loss as direct results of divine summons rather than natural accident. It demands immediate recognition of God’s sovereignty over creation and a corresponding shift from neglect to obedience.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.
Cross-references
- Haggai 2:17 I struck you—all the work of your hands—with blight, mildew, and hail, but you did not turn to Me, declares the LORD.
- Deuteronomy 28:22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish.
- 1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”
- 2 Kings 8:1 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Arise, you and your household; go and live as a foreigner wherever you can. For the LORD has decreed that a seven-year famine will come to the land.”
- Job 34:29 But when He remains silent, who can condemn Him? When He hides His face, who can see Him? Yet He watches over both man and nation,
- Lamentations 1:21 People have heard my groaning, but there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that You have caused it. May You bring the day You have announced, so that they may become like me.
- Amos 5:8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth—the LORD is His name—
- Amos 7:4 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: The Lord GOD was calling for judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land.
- Amos 9:6 He builds His upper rooms in the heavens and founds His vault upon the earth. He summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth. The LORD is His name.