Discovery BoxJoel 1:9-10 
Context1:9 No one brings grain offerings or drink offerings
to the temple 1 of the Lord anymore. 2
So the priests, those who serve the Lord, are in mourning.
1:10 The crops of the fields 3 have been destroyed. 4
The ground is in mourning because the grain has perished.
The fresh wine has dried up;
the olive oil languishes.
Joel 2:12
Context2:12 “Yet even now,” the Lord says,
“return to me with all your heart –
with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
Tear your hearts, 5
not just your garments!”
1 tn Heb “house.” So also in vv. 13, 14, 16.
2 tn Heb “grain offering and drink offering are cut off from the house of the
3 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.
4 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”).
5 sn The figurative language calls for genuine repentance, and not merely external ritual that goes through the motions.
