There is no quotation formula in this verse, but Good News Translation begins it with the words “The LORD says.” This is the equivalent of a phrase found in Hebrew in verse 17, and there translated “says the LORD” in Revised Standard Version. Good News Translation transfers these words to the beginning of the paragraph to make clear at once the source of the message. This has some advantage if it comes immediately after a section heading, but it also has the disadvantage of obscuring the fact that verses 15-19 continue the same speech that began in verse 14. An alternative approach is to remove the section heading at verse 15. That is the recommendation of this Handbook, but translators may take whichever approach fits their language better.

In Hebrew verse 15 begins with the same particle (now) that occurred in 1.5 (“Now therefore”) and 2.4 (“Yet now”). It has the function of marking a new stage in the argument, and should not be simply ignored as in Jerusalem Bible and Good News Translation. It may be translated as now (Revised Standard Version, New International Version, Revised English Bible), “And now” (TAN [New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh], Beck), or “But now” (New Revised Standard Version).

Pray … consider what will come to pass from this day onward: Consider is the same command as that found in 1.5, 7, but here it is strengthened by a particle translated Pray in Revised Standard Version. Since this expression is no longer used in spoken English, most modern versions including Good News Translation simply omit it. If there is a way of making a command emphatic in their language, translators should consider using it here. Consider means “think carefully,” “contemplate,” or “ponder upon.” Come to pass is archaic English. The current expression is “happen.” The next phrase in Hebrew means literally “from this day and upward” (King James Version, Revised Version), and raises the question as to what “upward” can mean in this setting. There are four answers to the question:
(1) In other contexts such as 1 Sam 16.13; 30.25; Hag 2.18, it clearly points to the future, and most modern versions take it to have the same meaning here. Revised Standard Version translates from this day onward (similarly New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New International Version, Beck, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation). The difficulty with this interpretation is that it does not fit the description of poor food supplies in the two verses that follow: the prophet is speaking of blessing for the future, not trouble (verse 19). In order to overcome this problem, some scholars suppose a break in sense after the words from this day onward and treat verses 15b-17 as a parenthesis. Then the opening words of verse 18 repeat 15a and continue on with the prophecy of future blessing. This view is perhaps seen most clearly in New International Version, which places a dash after “from this day on.” This makes sense of the paragraph as a whole, but assumes an extremely awkward construction in the Hebrew.
(2) The Septuagint and older Jewish commentators understood the problem phrase to mean “from this day backward” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh; compare New English Bible/Revised English Bible, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). If taken in this way, it fits much better with verses 15b-17. However, this view involves giving the phrase a meaning not found elsewhere, and moreover exactly opposite to its meaning in verse 18. Among recent writers, this view is supported only by Meyers & Meyers and by Merrill.
(3) The difficulties with both of these views have led other scholars such as Mitchell to think that the phrase does not belong in verse 15 at all, and has come to be inserted there from verse 18 by a copying error.
(4) Several versions take the words as having reference to the future, but do not supply the words what will come to pass as Revised Standard Version does. These words are not in the Hebrew, and Revised Standard Version itself does not supply them in the parallel passage in verse 18. Without them, the phrase from this day onward goes only with the verb consider. This is probably the most satisfactory solution, and is shown most simply in the Jerusalem Bible rendering “Reflect carefully from today onwards.” New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version, New Living Translation, and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible also follow this solution.

It is not altogether clear whether Good News Translation accepts the second or third of these possible views. There are no words in the Good News Translation text exactly equivalent to from this day onward of Revised Standard Version, so it is possible that Good News Translation has accepted the third view, and omitted the phrase. On the other hand, in the sentence “Can’t you see what has happened to you,” the verb “has happened” is in the perfect tense, and thus clearly looks backward rather than forward. This could mean that Good News Translation has accepted the second of the four views listed above. However, the words “what has happened” may be intended to translate a phrase that in the Hebrew occurs at the beginning of verse 16. See the discussion below on verse 16.

Perhaps the best solution of all is to regard the opening clause as an introduction to the paragraph, which is repeated at the beginning of the second half of the paragraph (verse 18a). The argument could then be summarized as “Think carefully from this day onward. You had bad harvests in the past, but from now on things will improve.” This is the interpretation that this Handbook recommends.

Before a stone was placed upon a stone in the temple of the LORD: Revised Standard Version translates literally here. This is a figure of speech called a synecdoche in which one part of the building process (laying the stonework) is taken to represent the whole process. Good News Translation drops the figure and translates in plain language as “Before you started to rebuild the Temple.” The mention of stone here is a hint that such stone was probably available on the spot from the ruins of the earlier Temple. Indeed the floor and perhaps the lower parts of the walls may have been still standing. See the comments on 1.2 and 1.4. For temple see the comments on 1.2. In some languages it may be necessary to say “my Temple” because the LORD is the speaker.

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 .