Discovery BoxJoel 1:7 
Context1:7 They 1 have destroyed our 2 vines; 3
they have turned our 4 fig trees into mere splinters.
They have completely stripped off the bark 5 and thrown them aside;
the 6 twigs are stripped bare. 7
Joel 1:10-12
Context1:10 The crops of the fields 8 have been destroyed. 9
The ground is in mourning because the grain has perished.
The fresh wine has dried up;
the olive oil languishes.
1:11 Be distressed, 10 farmers;
wail, vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley.
For the harvest of the field has perished.
1:12 The vine has dried up;
the fig tree languishes –
the pomegranate, date, and apple 11 as well.
In fact, 12 all the trees of the field have dried up.
Indeed, the joy of the people 13 has dried up!
1 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.
2 tn Heb “my.”
3 tn Both “vines” and “fig trees” are singular in the Hebrew text, but are regarded as collective singulars.
4 tn Heb “my.”
5 tn Heb “it has completely stripped her.”
6 tn Heb “her.”
7 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.
8 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.
9 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”).
10 tn Heb “embarrassed”; or “be ashamed.”
11 tn This Hebrew word וְתַפּוּחַ (vÿtappuakh) probably refers to the apple tree (so most English versions), but other suggestions that scholars have offered include the apricot, citron, or quince.
12 tn These words are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.
13 tn Heb “the sons of man.”
