1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, 1 and weep!
Wail, all you wine drinkers, 2
because the sweet wine 3 has been taken away 4 from you. 5
1:6 For a nation 6 has invaded 7 our 8 land.
There are so many of them they are too numerous to count. 9
Their teeth are like those 10 of a lion;
they tear apart their prey like a lioness. 11
1:7 They 12 have destroyed our 13 vines; 14
they have turned our 15 fig trees into mere splinters.
They have completely stripped off the bark 16 and thrown them aside;
the 17 twigs are stripped bare. 18
1:8 Wail 19 like a young virgin 20 clothed in sackcloth,
lamenting the death of 21 her husband-to-be. 22
1:9 No one brings grain offerings or drink offerings
to the temple 23 of the Lord anymore. 24
So the priests, those who serve the Lord, are in mourning.
1:13 Get dressed 25 and lament, you priests!
Wail, you who minister at the altar!
Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God,
because no one brings grain offerings or drink offerings
to the temple of your God anymore. 26
1 sn The word drunkards has a double edge here. Those accustomed to drinking too much must now lament the unavailability of wine. It also may hint that the people in general have become religiously inebriated and are unresponsive to the Lord. They are, as it were, drunkards from a spiritual standpoint.
2 sn Joel addresses the first of three groups particularly affected by the locust plague. In v. 5 he describes the effects on the drunkards, who no longer have a ready supply of intoxicating wine; in vv. 11-12 he describes the effects on the farmers, who have watched their labors come to naught because of the insect infestation; and in vv. 13-14 he describes the effects on the priests, who are no longer able to offer grain sacrifices and libations in the temple.
3 tn Heb “over the sweet wine, because it.” Cf. KJV, NIV, TEV, NLT “new wine.”
4 tn Heb “cut off” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV); NAB “will be withheld.”
5 tn Heb “your mouth.” This is a synecdoche of part (the mouth) for whole (the person).
6 sn As becomes increasingly clear in what follows, this nation is to be understood figuratively. It refers to the locust invasion as viewed from the standpoint of its methodical, destructive advance across the land (BDB 156 s.v. גּוֹי 2). This term is used figuratively to refer to animals one other time (Zeph 2:14).
7 tn Heb “has come up against.”
8 tn Heb “my.”
9 tn Heb “[It] is huge and there is not number.”
10 tn Heb “its teeth are the teeth of a lion.”
11 tn Heb “its incisors are those of a lioness.” The sharp, cutting teeth are metonymical for the action of tearing apart and eating prey. The language is clearly hyperbolic. Neither locusts nor human invaders literally have teeth of this size. The prophet is using exaggerated and picturesque language to portray in vivid terms the enormity of the calamity. English versions vary greatly on the specifics: KJV “cheek teeth”; ASV “jaw-teeth”; NAB “molars”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “fangs.”
12 tn Heb “it.” Throughout vv. 6-7 the Hebrew uses singular forms to describe the locust swarm, but the translation uses plural forms because several details of the text make more sense in English as if they are describing the appearance and effects of individual locusts.
13 tn Heb “my.”
14 tn Both “vines” and “fig trees” are singular in the Hebrew text, but are regarded as collective singulars.
15 tn Heb “my.”
16 tn Heb “it has completely stripped her.”
17 tn Heb “her.”
18 tn Heb “grow white.”
sn Once choice leafy vegetation is no longer available to them, locusts have been known to consume the bark of small tree limbs, leaving them in an exposed and vulnerable condition. It is apparently this whitened condition of limbs that Joel is referring to here.
19 sn The verb is feminine singular, raising a question concerning its intended antecedent. A plural verb would be expected here, the idea being that all the inhabitants of the land should grieve. Perhaps Joel is thinking specifically of the city of Jerusalem, albeit in a representative sense. The choice of the feminine singular verb form has probably been influenced to some extent by the allusion to the young widow in the simile of v. 8.
20 tn Or “a young woman” (TEV, CEV). See the note on the phrase “husband-to-be” in the next line.
21 tn Heb “over the death of.” The term “lamenting” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.
22 sn Heb “the husband of her youth.” The woman described here may already be married, so the reference is to the death of a husband rather than a fiancé (a husband-to-be). Either way, the simile describes a painful and unexpected loss to which the national tragedy Joel is describing may be compared.
23 tn Heb “house.” So also in vv. 13, 14, 16.
24 tn Heb “grain offering and drink offering are cut off from the house of the
25 tn Heb “put on.” There is no object present in the Hebrew text, but many translations assume “sackcloth” to be the understood object of the verb “put on.” Its absence in the Hebrew text of v. 13 is probably due to metrical considerations. The meter here is 3 + 3, and that has probably influenced the prophet’s choice of words.
26 tn Heb “for grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.”