Discovery BoxJoel 1:5 
Context1:5 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
Joel 1:10
Context1:10 The crops of the fields 6 have been destroyed. 7
The ground is in mourning because the grain has perished.
The fresh wine has dried up;
the olive oil languishes.
Joel 1:16
Context1:16 Our food has been cut off right before our eyes! 8
There is no longer any joy or gladness in the temple of our God! 9
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 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.
7 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”).
8 tn Heb “Has not the food been cut off right before our eyes?” This rhetorical question expects an affirmative answer; the question has been translated as an affirmation for the sake of clarity and emphasis.
9 tn Heb “joy and gladness from the house of our God?” Verse 16b is a continuation of the rhetorical question begun in v. 16a, but has been translated as an affirmative statement to make the meaning clear. The words “There is no longer any” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
