Joel 1:18

18 How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because they have no pasture; the flocks of sheep are condemned.

Joel 1:18 Meaning and Commentary

Joel 1:18

How do the beasts groan?
&c.] For want of fodder, all green grass and herbs being eaten up by the locusts; or devoured, or trampled upon, and destroyed, by the Chaldeans; and also for want of water to quench their thirst: the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture;
the larger cattle, as oxen; these were in the utmost perplexity, not knowing where to go for food or drink: yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate;
which have shepherds to lead and direct them to pastures, and can feed on commons, where the grass is short, which other cattle cannot; yet even these were in great distress, and wasted away, and were consumed for want of nourishment.

Joel 1:18 In-Context

16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, the joy and the gladness from the house of our God?

17 The seed has rotted under their clods, the storehouses were laid desolate, the barns were destroyed for the wheat is withered.

18 How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because they have no pasture; the flocks of sheep are condemned.

19 O LORD, to thee will I cry for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.

20 The beasts of the field also cry unto thee for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire has devoured the meadows of the wilderness.