Joel 1:17

17 The heifers have started at their mangers, the treasures are abolished, the wine-presses are broken down; for the corn is withered.

Joel 1:17 Meaning and Commentary

Joel 1:17

The seed is rotten under their clods
Or "grains" F26 of wheat or barley, which had been sown, and, for want of rain, putrefied and wasted away under the clods of earth, through the great drought; so that what with locusts, which cropped that that did bud forth, and with the drought, by reason of which much of the seed sown came to nothing, an extreme famine ensued: the Targum is,

``casks of wine rotted under their coverings:''
the garners are desolate;
the "treasuries" F1, or storehouses, having nothing in them, and there being nothing to put into them; Jarchi makes these to be peculiar for wine and oil, both which failed, ( Joel 1:10 ) ; the barns are broken down;
in which the wheat and barley had used to be laid up; but this judgment of the locusts and drought continuing year after year, the walls fell down, and, no care was taken to repair them, there being no, use for them; these were the granaries, and, as Jarchi, for wheat particularly: for the corn is withered;
that which sprung up withered and dried away, through the heat and drought: or was "ashamed" F2; not answering the expectation of the sower.
FOOTNOTES:

F26 (twdrp) "grana", Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Tarnovius, Cocceius, Bochartus. So Ben Melech, who observes they are so called, because they are separated and scattered under the earth.
F1 (twrua) "thesauri", Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Vatablus, Piscator.
F2 (vybwh) "confusum est", V. L. "puduit", Drusius; "pudore afficit", Cocceius.

Joel 1:17 In-Context

15 Alas, Alas, Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is nigh, and it will come as trouble upon trouble.
16 meat has been destroyed before your eyes, joy and gladness from out of the house of your God.
17 The heifers have started at their mangers, the treasures are abolished, the wine-presses are broken down; for the corn is withered.
18 What shall we store up for ourselves? the herds of cattle have mourned, because they had no pasture; and the flocks of sheep have been utterly destroyed.
19 To thee, O Lord, will I cry: for fire has devoured the fair places of the wilderness, and a flame has burnt up all the trees of the field.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.