Joel 1:8-10

A Call to Lament

1:8 Wail ¹  like a young virgin ²  clothed in sackcloth,

lamenting the death of ³  her husband-to-be. ⁴ 

1:9 No one brings grain offerings or drink offerings

to the temple ⁵  of the Lord anymore. ⁶ 

So the priests, those who serve the Lord, are in mourning.

1:10 The crops of the fields ⁷  have been destroyed. ⁸ 

The ground is in mourning because the grain has perished.

The fresh wine has dried up;

the olive oil languishes.

[1:8]  ¹ sn The verb is feminine singular, raising a question concerning its intended antecedent. A plural verb would be expected here, the idea being that all the inhabitants of the land should grieve. Perhaps Joel is thinking specifically of the city of Jerusalem, albeit in a representative sense. The choice of the feminine singular verb form has probably been influenced to some extent by the allusion to the young widow in the simile of v. 8.

[1:8]  ² tn Or “a young woman” (TEV, CEV). See the note on the phrase “husband-to-be” in the next line.

[1:8]  ³ tn Heb “over the death of.” The term “lamenting” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.

[1:8]  ⁴ sn Heb “the husband of her youth.” The woman described here may already be married, so the reference is to the death of a husband rather than a fiancé (a husband-to-be). Either way, the simile describes a painful and unexpected loss to which the national tragedy Joel is describing may be compared.

[1:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “house.” So also in vv. 13, 14, 16.

[1:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “grain offering and drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord,”

[1:10]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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”).