Haggai 1:9

Ye looked for much, &c. Lit. to look (there was looking) for much, and (it came) to little! Emphatic as ver. 6, where see note. A double blight and curse had come upon them. They had looked for much, had expected a plentiful harvest, and perhaps the appearance of the crops had warranted the expectation. But when they came to gather it in they found the actual yield but little, less even perhaps than they had originally sown. Pusey quotes the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah, i.e. one tenth of what was sown, Isaiah 5:10. And when this little was brought home into the garner, even that melted away by mildew or waste or loss. God did but blow upon it with the breath of His displeasure, and lo it was gone, as though instead of solid grain it had been chaff of the summer threshingfloor.

and ye run, &c. while ye run, R. V., with eager zeal and interest to build and adorn it. See ver. 4. The word run is used in the same figurative way in Psalms 119:32; Proverbs 1:16.