Joel 1:8-12 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Reader Related Verse
Bible Comments

The land is bidden to mourn as bitterly as a maiden mourning her betrothed, dead ere the marriage day. For most terrible consequence of the famine caused by the locusts no corn, wine, or oil can be had for the daily sacrifice, which is interrupted. Such a suspension, which seemed to snap the link between Yahweh and His people, occurred during the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, and was regarded as an appalling omen. The land and its tillers alike bewail (read mg. Joel 1:11) the blasting of corn and fruit. In a word, all joy is vanished.

Joel 1:8. husband: a betrothal with the Jews is counted as marriage.

Joel 1:9. the Lord's ministers: possibly emend to the ministers of the altar.

Joel 1:10. Contains several word-plays. dried up: the verb is the same as that rendered be ashamed (Joel 1:11) and withered (Joel 1:12); of persons it means to stand abashed, of things to fail, miscarry.

Related Commentaries of Joel 1:8

Joel 1:8-12

8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

9 The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD'S ministers, mourn.

10 The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

11 Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.

12 The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.