Haggai 2:6
What does Haggai 2:6 mean?
A plain-English look at Haggai 2:6 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Haggai 2:6 means
Jehovah of hosts promises a world-shaking intervention: in a little while He will shake heaven, earth, sea, and dry land. The language is cosmic, signaling that God’s plan for this house is linked to His government of all creation. Shaking implies both judgment and reordering. For a small and vulnerable community, this word means their future does not depend on imperial favor but on God’s sovereign action. The New Testament later applies this “shaking” to the arrival and unshakable nature of Christ’s kingdom, assuring believers that what God builds endures. Here it assures the builders that God’s purposes will outlast the instability of their times.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;
KJV
King James Version · 1611For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949For this is what the Lord of armies has said: In a short time I will make a shaking of the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land;
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862For thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Yet once more--it <FI>is<Fi> a little, And I am shaking the heavens and the earth, And the sea, and the dry land,
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752The word that I covenanted with you when you came out of the land of Egypt: and my spirit shall be in the midst of you: fear not.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry [land];
Context
After anchoring courage in God’s presence and covenant, the prophecy widens to global scale. Verse 6 introduces the motif of divine shaking that will continue into verse 7, where nations themselves are shaken and their treasures come. This shift from local discouragement to cosmic sovereignty reframes the temple project as part of God’s universal plan. The flow will move from shaking to filling, from upheaval to glory. The sequence prepares the reader to receive the startling claim in verse 9 that the latter glory of this house will exceed the former.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Jeremiah 4:23
I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
- Ezekiel 38:20
so that the fishes of the sea, and the birds of the heavens, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
- Jeremiah 51:33
For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her.
- Matthew 24:29
But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
- Hebrews 12:26
whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven.
- Isaiah 29:17
Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
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