Joel 1:10

10 The fields are laid waste, the ground mourns; because the grain is destroyed, the wine fails, the oil languishes.

Joel 1:10 Meaning and Commentary

Joel 1:10

The field is wasted
By the locust, that eat up all green things, the grass and herbs, the fruit and leaves of trees; and also by the Chaldeans trampling on it with their horses, and the increase of which became fodder for them: the land mourneth;
being destitute, nothing growing upon it, and so looked dismally, and of a horrid aspect; or the inhabitants of it, for want of provision: for the corn is wasted;
by the locusts, and so by the Assyrian or Chaldean army, before it came to perfection: the new wine is dried up:
in the grape, through the drought after mentioned: or, "is ashamed" F18; not answering the expectations of men, who saw it in the cluster, promising much, but failed: the oil languisheth;
or "sickens" F19; the olive trees withered; the olives fell off, as the Targum, and so the oil failed: the corn, wine, and oil, are particularly mentioned, not only as being the chief support of human life, as Kimchi observes, and so the loss of them must be matter of lamentation to the people in general; but because of these the meat and drink offerings were, and therefore the priests in particular had reason to mourn.


FOOTNOTES:

F18 (vybwh) "erubuit", Tigurine version, Mercer, Liveleus; "puduit", Drusius, Tarnovius; "pudefit", Cocceius.
F19 (llma) "infirmatum est", Montanus. So some in Vatablus.

Joel 1:10 In-Context

8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth.
9 The cereal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the LORD. The priests mourn, the ministers of the LORD.
10 The fields are laid waste, the ground mourns; because the grain is destroyed, the wine fails, the oil languishes.
11 Be confounded, O tillers of the soil, wail, O vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field has perished.
12 The vine withers, the fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are withered; and gladness fails from the sons of men.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.