Joel 1:10

1:10 The crops of the fields ¹  have been destroyed. ² 

The ground is in mourning because the grain has perished.

The fresh wine has dried up;

the olive oil languishes.

Joel 1:5

1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, ³  and weep!

Wail, all you wine drinkers, ⁴ 

because the sweet wine ⁵  has been taken away ⁶  from you. ⁷ 

Joel 2:24

2:24 The threshing floors are full of grain;

the vats overflow with fresh wine and olive oil.

Joel 2:19

2:19 The Lord responded ⁸  to his people,

“Look! I am about to restore your grain ⁹ 

as well as fresh wine and olive oil.

You will be fully satisfied. ¹⁰ 

I will never again make you an object of mockery among the nations.

Joel 3:18

3:18 On that day ¹¹  the mountains will drip with sweet wine, ¹² 

and the hills will flow with milk. ¹³ 

All the dry stream beds ¹⁴  of Judah will flow with water.

A spring will flow out from the temple ¹⁵  of the Lord,

watering the Valley of Acacia Trees. ¹⁶ 

[1:10]  ¹ tn Heb “the field has been utterly destroyed.” The term “field,” a collective singular for “fields,” is a metonymy for crops produced by the fields.

[1:10]  ² tn Joel uses intentionally alliterative language in the phrases שֻׁדַּד שָׂדֶה (shuddad sadeh, “the field is destroyed”) and אֲבְלָה אֲדָמָה (’avlah ’adamah, “the ground is in mourning”).

[1:5]  ³ sn The word drunkards has a double edge here. Those accustomed to drinking too much must now lament the unavailability of wine. It also may hint that the people in general have become religiously inebriated and are unresponsive to the Lord. They are, as it were, drunkards from a spiritual standpoint.

[1:5]  ⁴ sn Joel addresses the first of three groups particularly affected by the locust plague. In v. 5 he describes the effects on the drunkards, who no longer have a ready supply of intoxicating wine; in vv. 11-12 he describes the effects on the farmers, who have watched their labors come to naught because of the insect infestation; and in vv. 13-14 he describes the effects on the priests, who are no longer able to offer grain sacrifices and libations in the temple.

[1:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “over the sweet wine, because it.” Cf. KJV, NIV, TEV, NLT “new wine.”

[1:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “cut off” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV); NAB “will be withheld.”

[1:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “your mouth.” This is a synecdoche of part (the mouth) for whole (the person).

[2:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[2:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “Look! I am sending grain to you.” The participle used in the Hebrew text seems to suggest imminent action.

[2:19]  ⁷ tc One of the Qumran manuscripts (4QXXII^c) inserts “and you will eat” before “and you will be fully satisfied” (the reading of the MT, LXX).

[3:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “and it will come about in that day.”

[3:18]  ⁸ tn Many English translations read “new wine” or “sweet wine,” meaning unfermented wine, i.e., grape juice.

[3:18]  ⁹ sn The language used here is a hyperbolic way of describing both a bountiful grape harvest (“the mountains will drip with juice”) and an abundance of cattle (“the hills will flow with milk”). In addition to being hyperbolic, the language is also metonymical (effect for cause).

[3:18]  ¹⁰ tn Or “seasonal streams.”

[3:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “house.”

[3:18]  ¹² tn Heb “valley of Shittim.” The exact location of the Valley of Acacia Trees is uncertain. The Hebrew word שִׁטִּים (shittim) refers to a place where the acacia trees grow, which would be a very arid and dry place. The acacia tree can survive in such locations, whereas most other trees require more advantageous conditions. Joel’s point is that the stream that has been mentioned will proceed to the most dry and barren of locations in the vicinity of Jerusalem.