Joel 1:10
What does Joel 1:10 mean?
A plain-English look at Joel 1:10 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Joel 1:10 means
The land itself is pictured as mourning: fields lie desolate, grain is destroyed, new wine dries up, and oil languishes. These three staples—grain, wine, oil—sum up daily sustenance and festive joy. Their simultaneous failure testifies to comprehensive judgment. Personifying the land teaches that creation groans under the weight of human sin and divine discipline. This is not a minor setback that resilience can quickly fix; it is a deep wound that invites self-examination. The verse warns against presumption that life will always produce; God can withhold, and when He does, the wise seek Him rather than blaming circumstances.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000The field is laid waste, the land mourneth; for the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
KJV
King James Version · 1611The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901The field is laid waste, the land mourneth; for the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949The fields are wasted, the land has become dry; for the grain is wasted, the new wine is kept back, the oil is poor.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Spoiled is the field, mourned hath the ground, For spoiled is the corn, Dried up hath been new wine, languish doth oil.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752The country is destroyed, the ground hath mourned: for the corn is wasted, the wine is confounded, the oil hath languished.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890The field is laid waste, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
Context
After noting the halt of temple offerings, Joel catalogs the broader economic and ecological collapse. This summary of losses prepares for targeted addresses to those who tend the land—farmers and vinedressers—calling them to appropriate sorrow. The flow proceeds from description to exhortation, urging the most affected to lead in lament. Soon Joel will also summon priests to an even more intense, overnight mourning and to convene a national fast, moving from individual grief to organized, communal repentance before Jehovah.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Joel 1:12
The vine is withered, and the fig-tree languisheth; the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field are withered: for joy is withered away from the sons of men.
- Jeremiah 12:11
They have made it a desolation; it mourneth unto me, being desolate; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.
- Joel 1:5
Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and wail, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
- Jeremiah 12:4
How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole country wither? for the wickedness of them that dwell therein, the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our latter end.
- Isaiah 24:3
The earth shall be utterly emptied, and utterly laid waste; for Jehovah hath spoken this word.
- Hosea 9:2
The threshing-floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail her.
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