The Hebrew says literally I have called for a drought upon the land and the hills (Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version [New Revised Standard Version]). Good News Translation expresses more clearly the fact that what the LORD called for had actually happened, by saying, “I have brought drought….” Translators may also express this as “I have caused your [plural] fields and hills to dry up,” or even combine the two terms; for example, “I have caused the land everywhere to dry up.” There is a play on words in Hebrew between the word for drought and the word translated “in ruins” in verses 4 and 9. This drought affected the whole land, including the hills, where the rainfall was normally greatest. The concept of drought may be translated “I have forbidden the sky [or, clouds] to drop rain.”

The Hebrew goes on to speak of the drought affecting the crops themselves, the grain, the new wine, the oil. Grain, wine and olive oil were (and still are) three of the main crops in Israel. Grain was used to make the staple food, bread. Wine was the principal drink in a country where water supplies were neither very plentiful nor very pure. See the comments on verse 6 for the translation of wine. Oil made by squeezing the juice from olives was used for cooking and for lamp fuel, as well as for rubbing on the body.

Since the opening part of the verse spoke of places (the land and the hills), Good News Translation translates the references to crops in terms of the places there they grow, “grainfields” (British edition “cornfields”; Australian edition “wheatfields”), “vineyards, and olive orchards.” In certain cultures it may be necessary to borrow the terms “grape” (or, “vine”) and “olive” and translate “vineyards” and “olive orchards” as “trees that produce fruit called grapes and trees that produce fruit called olives” or “vine tree farms and olive tree farms.” Translators are at liberty to speak of the crops themselves (as Revised Standard Version and most modern translations do), the places where they grow (see Good News Translation), or the trees that produce the fruit, whichever sounds more natural in their language. If they speak of the crops, and have terms for different kinds of wine, they should note that the term used here means new wine (Revised Standard Version; similarly New Jerusalem Bible, Revised English Bible, New International Version), that is, wine which had not fermented for a long period.

Haggai sums up the effect of the drought upon agriculture with a general expression, upon what the ground brings forth, or, as Good News Translation says, “on every crop the ground produces.” He then moves on to say, upon men and cattle, and upon all their labors. Cattle refers not just to cows, but to domestic animals of all kinds, especially including sheep and goats. Domestic animals such as oxen were used in agricultural work like plowing and threshing. Good News Translation expresses this more clearly by saying, “on people and animals, on everything you try to grow.” Contemporary English Version has “your animals and you yourselves. All your hard work will be for nothing.” Some languages, like Hebrew, may have a term for domestic (as opposed to wild) animals, and if so this is an appropriate place to use it.

Though the meanings of the parts of this verse are fairly simple, the whole verse can become rather complicated if translated in a single sentence as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. Translators may prefer to break the verse up into more than one sentence.

Alternative translation models for this verse are:

• I have brought a drought on your [plural] fields and on the hills. It has affected your crops of grain, wine, olive oil and everything else that the ground produces. It has affected both people and animals, and spoiled all your [plural] attempts to grow food.

• I have caused your [plural] fields and hills to dry up. The lack of moisture in the morning [or, dew] has affected your crops of grain, wine, olive oil, and everything else that grows. It has also caused trouble for both you and your animals, and made it impossible for you to grow food.

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Haggai. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2002. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .