Joel 1:11

1:11 Be distressed, ¹  farmers;

wail, vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley.

For the harvest of the field has perished.

Joel 1:13

1:13 Get dressed ²  and lament, you priests!

Wail, you who minister at the altar!

Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God,

because no one brings grain offerings or drink offerings

to the temple of your God anymore. ³ 

Jeremiah 4:8

4:8 So put on sackcloth!

Mourn and wail, saying,

‘The fierce anger of the Lord

has not turned away from us!’” ⁴ 

Ezekiel 30:2

30:2 “Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘Wail, “Alas, the day is here!” ⁵ 

James 5:1

Warning to the Rich

5:1 Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud ⁶  over the miseries that are coming on you.

[1:11]  ¹ tn Heb “embarrassed”; or “be ashamed.”

[1:13]  ² tn Heb “put on.” There is no object present in the Hebrew text, but many translations assume “sackcloth” to be the understood object of the verb “put on.” Its absence in the Hebrew text of v. 13 is probably due to metrical considerations. The meter here is 3 + 3, and that has probably influenced the prophet’s choice of words.

[1:13]  ³ tn Heb “for grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.”

[4:8]  ⁴ tn Or “wail because the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned away from us.” The translation does not need to assume a shift in speaker as the alternate reading does.

[30:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “Alas for the day.”

[5:1]  ⁶ tn Or “wail”; Grk “crying aloud.”