Joel 1:13 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Gird yourselves; bind your mourning sackcloth close to you with a girdle, that it may be more troublesome to the flesh; for though in Hebrew it is only gird, the phrase is well known in the Scripture, on these occasions, to include sackcloth, as what is girded on the mourner, and sackcloth is expressly mentioned Joel 1:8, and in many other places, Isaiah 15:3 Jeremiah 4:8 Lamentations 2:10 Ezekiel 7:18, Ezekiel 27:31. Lament; weep bitterly, as they do who mourn for the dead, lament over your dead joys; let it be a hearty grief, as that of Abraham for Sarah, Genesis 23:2, of Jacob's children and friends sorrowing for his death, Ge 1 10, or of Israel lamenting their brave judge, 1 Samuel 28:3. Ye priests; that you may be example to others, and because they had, as observed yet. 9, a double cause to mourn, one more than the rest of the people. Howl: see Joel 1:5. Ye ministers of the altar: they were the Lord's ministers, Joel 1:9; now ministers of the altar, they served the Lord in the things of the altar. Lie all night; the case needs a continued fasting, weeping, and supplication in the most humble posture, and with all the tokens of an afflicted spirit. The priests should above others mourn; if they mourn in the day, the priests should mourn night and day. My God, who, having sent me to speak to you in his name, doth call you to this, that he may pardon and bless you. when you repent. The meat-offering, & c.: see Joel 1:9.