John Gill Commentary Haggai 2:17

"I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the work of your hands; yet ye [turned] not to me, saith Jehovah." — Haggai 2:17 (ASV)

I smote you with blasting That is, their fields and vineyards, with burning winds, which consumed them; with blights by east winds: this shows the reason of their disappointment, and that it was from the Lord, and for their sins, by way of chastisement and correction:

and with mildew a kind of clammy dew, which corrupts and destroys the fruits of the earth; and is a kind of jaundice to them, as the word signifies; see (Amos 4:9):

and with hail which battered down the corn and the vines, and broke them to pieces; see (Exodus 9:25):

in all the labours of your hands in the corn they sowed, and in the vines they planted:

yet you [turned] not to me, saith the Lord did not consider their evil ways as the cause of all this; nor repent of them, and turn from them to the Lord; to his worship, as the Targum; or to the building of his house, the thing chiefly complained of.

Afflictions, unless sanctified, have no effect upon men to turn them from their sins to the Lord.