Joel 1:16-18

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

There is no longer any joy or gladness in the temple of our God! ² 

1:17 The grains of seed ³  have shriveled beneath their shovels. ⁴ 

Storehouses have been decimated

and granaries have been torn down, for the grain has dried up.

1:18 Listen to the cattle groan! ⁵ 

The herds of livestock wander around in confusion ⁶ 

because they have no pasture.

Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

[1:16]  ¹ 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.

[1:16]  ² 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.

[1:17]  ³ tn Heb “seed.” The phrase “the grains of” does not appear in the Hebrew, but has been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[1:17]  ⁴ tc This line is textually uncertain. The MT reads “the seed shrivels in their shovels/clods.” One Qumran manuscript (4QXXII^c) reads “the heifers decay in [their] s[talls].” LXX reads “the heifers leap in their stalls.”

[1:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “how the cattle groan!”

[1:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “the herds of cattle are confused.” The verb בּוּךְ (bukh, “be confused”) sometimes refers to wandering aimlessly in confusion (cf. Exod 14:3).