Joel 1:16

1:16 Our food has been cut off right before our eyes!

There is no longer any joy or gladness in the temple of our God!

Psalms 4:7

4:7 You make me happier

than those who have abundant grain and wine.

Isaiah 9:3

9:3 You have enlarged the nation;

you give them great joy.

They rejoice in your presence

as harvesters rejoice;

as warriors celebrate when they divide up the plunder.

Isaiah 16:10

16:10 Joy and happiness disappear from the orchards,

and in the vineyards no one rejoices or shouts;

no one treads out juice in the wine vats

I have brought the joyful shouts to an end.

Isaiah 24:11

24:11 They howl in the streets because of what happened to the wine; 10 

all joy turns to sorrow; 11 

celebrations disappear from the earth. 12 

Jeremiah 48:3

48:3 Cries of anguish will arise in Horonaim,

‘Oh, the ruin and great destruction!’

Hosea 9:1-2

Fertility Cult Festivals Have Intoxicated Israel

9:1 O Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly 13  like the nations,

for you are unfaithful 14  to your God.

You love to receive a prostitute's wages 15 

on all the floors where you thresh your grain.

9:2 Threshing floors and wine vats will not feed the people, 16 

and new wine only deceives them. 17 


tn Heb “Has not the food been cut off right before our eyes?” This rhetorical question expects an affirmative answer; the question has been translated as an affirmation for the sake of clarity and emphasis.

tn Heb “joy and gladness from the house of our God?” Verse 16b is a continuation of the rhetorical question begun in v. 16a, but has been translated as an affirmative statement to make the meaning clear. The words “There is no longer any” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

tn Heb “you place joy in my heart.” Another option is to understand the perfect verbal form as indicating certitude, “you will make me happier.”

tn Heb “from (i.e., more than) the time (when) their grain and their wine are abundant.”

sn The Lord is addressed directly in vv. 3-4.

tc The Hebrew consonantal text reads “You multiply the nation, you do not make great the joy.” The particle לֹא (lo’, “not”) is obviously incorrect; the marginal reading has לוֹ (lo, “to him”). In this case, one should translate, “You multiply the nation, you increase his (i.e., their) joy.” However, the parallelism is tighter if one emends הַגּוֹי לוֹ (hagoy lo, “the nation, to him”) to הַגִּילָה (haggilah, “the joy,” a noun attested in Isa 65:18), which corresponds to הַשִּׂמְחָה (hasimkhah, “the joy”) later in the verse (H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:386). As attractive as this reading is, it has not textual evidence supporting it. The MT reading (accepting the marginal reading “to him” for the negative particle “not”) affirms that Yahweh caused the nation to grow in population and increased their joy.

tn Heb “as they are happy.” The word “warriors” is supplied in the translation to clarify the word picture. This last simile comes close to reality, for vv. 4-5 indicate that the people have won a great military victory over their oppressors.

tn Heb “wine in the vats the treader does not tread.”

sn The Lord appears to be the speaker here. See 15:9.

10 tn Heb “[there is] an outcry over the wine in the streets.”

11 tn Heb “all joy turns to evening,” the darkness of evening symbolizing distress and sorrow.

12 tn Heb “the joy of the earth disappears.”

13 tn Heb “do not rejoice unto jubilation”; KJV “Rejoice not…for joy”; NASB “Do not rejoice…with exultation.”

14 tn Heb “you have committed adultery”; NRSV “you have played the whore.”

15 tn Heb “you love the wages of the prostitute” (NIV similar); NAB “loving a harlot’s hire.”

16 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

17 tn Heb “her” (so KJV, ASV). This is taken as a collective singular (so also most modern English versions).