Joel 1:11
What does Joel 1:11 mean?
A plain-English look at Joel 1:11 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Joel 1:11 means
Farmers are told to be ashamed and vinedressers to wail, because wheat and barley—the basic grains—have failed. Shame here is not mere embarrassment but the heaviness of unrealized expectations: labor has yielded nothing. Their skill and planning cannot overcome God’s withering hand. The prophet dignifies their pain by naming it, yet directs it Godward through lament. Economic collapse becomes a spiritual crisis when it unmasks false securities. The call is not to stoic endurance but to humble grief, acknowledging dependence on the Lord who alone can restore seasons and fertility to the land.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Be confounded, O ye husbandmen, wail, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field is perished.
KJV
King James Version · 1611Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Be confounded, O ye husbandmen, wail, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field is perished.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949The farmers are shamed, the workers in the vine-gardens give cries of grief, for the wheat and the barley; for the produce of the fields has come to destruction.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Be ashamed, ye husbandmen, Howl, vine-dressers, for wheat and for barley, For perished hath the harvest of the field.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752The husbandmen are ashamed, the vinedressers have howled for the wheat, and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Be ashamed, ye husbandmen; howl, ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley: because the harvest of the field hath perished.
Context
Joel continues to apply the general devastation to specific groups, drawing them into the chorus of lament. By addressing those who plant and tend the crops, he highlights how the plague touches daily bread, not just luxuries. The next verse will extend the withering to fruit trees and conclude with the chilling statement that joy itself has withered from humanity. This will bridge to renewed calls for priestly lament and a formal fast, moving from description of sorrow to a structured, national response.
v.10The field is laid waste, the land mourneth; for the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
v.11This passage
v.12The 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.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Romans 5:5
and hope putteth not to shame; because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us.
- Isaiah 17:11
In the day of thy planting thou hedgest it in, and in the morning thou makest thy seed to blossom; but the harvest fleeth away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
- Amos 5:16
Therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, the Lord: Wailing shall be in all the broad ways; and they shall say in all the streets, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful in lamentation to wailing.
- Jeremiah 9:12
Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken, that he may declare it? wherefore is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passeth through?
- Jeremiah 14:3
And their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the cisterns, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are put to shame and confounded, and cover their heads.
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