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.
3:3 and they cast lots for my people.
They traded 3 a boy for a prostitute;
they sold a little girl for wine so they could drink. 4
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 “gave.”
4 sn Heb “and they drank.” Joel vividly refers to a situation where innocent human life has little value; its only worth is its use in somehow satisfying selfish appetites of wicked people who have control over others (cf. Amos 2:6 and 8:6).