1:10 The crops of the fields 1 have been destroyed. 2
The ground is in mourning because the grain has perished.
The fresh wine has dried up;
the olive oil languishes.
1:20 Even the wild animals 3 cry out to you; 4
for the river beds 5 have dried up;
fire has destroyed 6 the grassy pastures. 7
1 tn Heb “the field has been utterly destroyed.” The term “field,” a collective singular for “fields,” is a metonymy for crops produced by the fields.
2 tn Joel uses intentionally alliterative language in the phrases שֻׁדַּד שָׂדֶה (shuddad sadeh, “the field is destroyed”) and אֲבְלָה אֲדָמָה (’avlah ’adamah, “the ground is in mourning”).
3 tn Heb “beasts of the field.”
4 tn Heb “long for you.” Animals of course do not have religious sensibilities as such; they do not in any literal sense long for Yahweh. Rather, the language here is figurative (metonymy of cause for effect). The animals long for food and water (so BDB 788 s.v. עָרַג), the ultimate source of which is Yahweh.
5 tn Heb “sources of water.”
6 tn Heb “consumed.”
7 tn Heb “the pastures of the wilderness.”