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Set to dark modeJoel 1:1-20
The Devastation of Locusts
1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
2 Hear this, O elders,
And listen, all inhabitants of the land.
Has anything like this happened in your days
Or in your fathers' days?
3 Tell your sons about it,
And let your sons tell their sons,
And their sons the next generation.
4 What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten;
And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten;
And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten.
5 Awake, drunkards, and weep;
And wail, all you wine drinkers,
On account of the sweet wine
That is cut off from your mouth.
6 For a nation has invaded my land,
Mighty and without number;
Its teeth are the teeth of a lion,
And it has the fangs of a lioness.
7 It has made my vine a waste
And my fig tree splinters.
It has stripped them bare and cast them away;
Their branches have become white.
8 Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth
For the bridegroom of her youth.
9 The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
From the house of the LORD.
The priests mourn,
The ministers of the LORD.
10 The field is ruined,
The land mourns;
For the grain is ruined,
The new wine dries up,
Fresh oil fails.
11 Be ashamed, O farmers,
Wail, O vinedressers,
For the wheat and the barley;
Because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
12 The vine dries up
And the fig tree fails;
The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree,
All the trees of the field dry up.
Indeed, rejoicing dries up
From the sons of men.
13 Gird yourselves with sackcloth
And lament, O priests;
Wail, O ministers of the altar!
Come, spend the night in sackcloth
O ministers of my God,
For the grain offering and the drink offering
Are withheld from the house of your God.
Starvation and Drought
14 Consecrate a fast,
Proclaim a solemn assembly;
Gather the elders
And all the inhabitants of the land
To the house of the LORD your God,
And cry out to the LORD.
15 Alas for the day!
For the day of the LORD is near,
And it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
16 Has not food been cut off before our eyes,
Gladness and joy from the house of our God?
17 The seeds shrivel under their clods;
The storehouses are desolate,
The barns are torn down,
For the grain is dried up.
18 How the beasts groan!
The herds of cattle wander aimlessly
Because there is no pasture for them;
Even the flocks of sheep suffer.
19 To You, O LORD, I cry;
For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness
And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.
20 Even the beasts of the field pant for You;
For the water brooks are dried up
And fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
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Joel 1:13-14 meaning
The prophet Joel issued a final call to lament. This time he addressed the priests, the professional men who fulfilled religious duties in Judah. He used a chain of commands to urge the priests to lament and seek God's favor. He began by saying, Gird yourselves with sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar!
In ancient times, people who mourned usually girded themselves with sackcloth, a garment made of goat or camel hair, which was rough and uncomfortable. The wearing of sackcloth was to symbolize grief or despair. For example, when Jacob thought a wild beast had devoured his son Joseph, he "tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days" (Genesis 37:34). Similarly, Joel asked the priests to wear sackcloth and lament to express their loss because the locust plague had devastated the land of Judah.
The ministers of the altar refer to the priests since they were the professional men who performed the religious duties. These religious men were to lament and wail, expressing their sorrow before the LORD and imploring His favor. So, the prophet continued his call to the priests and said, Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God. Since the locust plague, the invading army came as a chastisement from the Suzerain God, Joel implored the priests to seek God's presence by humbling themselves before Him.
Since the extent of the catastrophe caused by the locust plague demanded more than lament, Joel called on the priests to consecrate a fast. Fasting is the deliberate, temporary abstention from food for religious purposes. It is not a way of asserting one's will but a means of opening oneself to God, expressing grief and sorrow over sins, and redirecting oneself to God. It involves making petitions to God and seeking guidance and wisdom. In this sense, it is a process leading to purification (Psalm 69:10).
In addition to consecrating a fast, the religious leaders were to proclaim a solemn assembly. They were to gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD their God. The purpose was so that they might cry out to Him. Solemn assemblies were occasions for corporate worship. During such gatherings, the people ceased to work and convened for set festivals, such as the seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Deuteronomy 16:8) or the eighth day of the Feast of Booths (Leviticus 23:36; Numbers 29:35; 2 Chronicles 7:9; Nehemiah 8:18). But in this passage, the solemn assembly was called in an emergency (Joel 2:15-16). The prophet called the priests to convene a public gathering so that everyone might cry out to God with a genuine heart to implore His favor. What was needed was repentance, and a change of heart. Joel calls on the priests to lead that effort.