Joel 1:13 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Joel 1:13
Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
to gird on (as a belt · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
lament
וְסִפְד֜וּve.sif.Du
H5594
properly · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
priests
הַכֹּהֲנִ֗יםha.ko.ha.Nim
H3548
literally one officiating · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
howl
הֵילִ֙ילוּ֙hei.Li.lu
H3213
to howl (with a wailing tone) or yell (with a boisterou… · verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
ministers
מְשָׁרְתֵ֣יme.sha.re.Tei
H8334
to attend as a menial or worshipper · verb, piel active participle, masculine plural construct
altar
מִזְבֵּ֔חַmiz.Be.ach
H4196
an altar · noun, common masculine singular absolute
come
בֹּ֚אוּBo.'u
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
night
לִ֣ינוּLi.nu
H3885
to stop (usually over night) · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
sackcloth
בַשַּׂקִּ֔יםva.sa.Kim
H8242
properly · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
ministers
מְשָׁרְתֵ֖יme.sha.re.Tei
H8334
to attend as a menial or worshipper · verb, piel active participle, masculine plural construct
God
אֱלֹהָ֑י'e.lo.Hai
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
offering
מִנְחָ֥הmin.Chah
H4503
a donation · noun, common feminine singular absolute
offering
וָנָֽסֶךְva.Na.sekh
H5262
a libation · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
withholden
נִמְנַ֛עnim.Na'
H4513
to debar (negatively or positively) from benefit or inj… · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
house
מִבֵּ֥יתmi.Beit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
God
אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֖ם'e.lo.hei.Khem
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 4:8 For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.
Joel 1:8-9 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
1 Kings 21:27 And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackclo…
Jeremiah 9:10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up,…
Ezekiel 7:18 They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their…
Joel 2:17 Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not t…
Jonah 3:5-8 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
Leviticus 2:8-10 And thou shalt bring the meat offering that is made of these things unto the LORD: and when it is presented unto the priest, he shall bring…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Joel 1:8-13
The judgment is here described as very lamentable, and such as all sorts of people should share in; it shall not only rob the drunkards of their pleasure (if that were the worst of it, it might be the better borne), but it shall deprive others of their necessary subsistence, who are therefore called to lament (Joe 1:8), as a virgin laments the death of her lover to whom she was espoused, but not completely married, yet so that he was in effect her husband, or as a young woman lately married, from whom the husband of her youth, her young husband, or the husband to whom she was married when she was young, is suddenly taken away by death. Between a new-married couple that are young, that marrie…
Gird yourselves--namely, with sackcloth; as in Isa 32:11, the ellipsis is supplied (compare Jer 4:8).
lament, ye priests--as it is your duty to set the example to others; also as the guilt was greater, and a greater scandal was occasioned, by your sin to the cause of God.
come--the Septuagint, "enter" the house of God (compare Joe 1:14).
lie all night in sackcloth--so Ahab (Kg1 21:27).
ministers of my God-- (Co1 9:13). Joel claims authority for his doctrine; it is in God's name and by His mission I speak to you.
John Gill on Joel 1:13
Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests,.... Prepare and be ready to raise up lamentation and mourning; or gird yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn in that, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi supply the words; see Jeremiah 4:8;
howl, ye ministers of the altar; who served there, by laying on and burning the sacrifices, or offering incense:
come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God; that is, come into the house of the Lord, as Kimchi; into the court of the priests, and there lie all night, in the sackcloth girded with; putting up prayers to God, with weeping and lamentations, that he would avert the judgments that were come or were coming upon theme:
for the meat offering and the drink…
Joel again summons us wailing and will have the ministers of the altar lament under the conditions of famine. He does not allow us to revel in the misfortunes of others. After sanctifying a fast, calling a solemn assembly and gathering the old men, the children, and those of tender age, we ourselves must further haunt the temple in sackcloth and ashes, prostrated humbly on the ground, because the field is wasted and the meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord, till we draw down mercy by our humiliation.
(Verse 13, 14.) Clothe yourselves and lament, priests; howl, ministers of the altar; enter, lie down in sackcloth, ministers of my God, because the sacrifice and libation have perished from the house of your God; sanctify a fast, call an assembly, gather the elders, all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God, and cry out to the Lord. LXX: Clothe yourselves and lament, priests; bewail, you who minister at the altar; enter, sleep in sacks, ministers of God, because the sacrifice and libation have failed from the house of your God; sanctify a fast, proclaim healing; gather the elders, all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God, and cry out to the Lord forcefully. Whoever is a holy priest and eats the Pascha of the Lord, let him gird himself with the belt of chastity and listen with the apostles: Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning in your hands (Luke XII, 35). But whoever is a sinner and is tormented by his own conscience, let him gird himself with sackcloth and weep, either for his own sins or for the sins of the people, and let him enter the Church from which he had departed because of his sins, and let him lie down or sleep in sackcloth, so that he may make up for the past pleasures, through which he had offended God, with the austerity of life. For those who dress in soft clothing are in the houses of kings (Matt. XV). But let the priests gird themselves and wail and howl, and sleep in sackcloth, as the prophet exhorts them to repentance, saying: O ministers of my God, how the sacrifice and libation have perished from the house of your God (Joel II), of which it has been said above. It is not enough to weep or lament and put on the attire of mourners, unless they sanctify the fast and call for a gathering. If every fasting pleased God, He would never say: 'Sanctify the fast.' And: 'I have not chosen such a fast,' says the Lord (Isaiah 58). And in the Gospel, those who make their faces appear pale, so that they may be seen by men to fast, are condemned (Matthew 6); and on the days of your fasts, you strike with fists, and oppress the poor. Therefore, now He says: 'Sanctify the fast.' Manichaeus fasts, and many heretics, especially the Encratites, of whom Tatianus is the leader, but this fast is worse because of excess and drunkenness. And let us call upon heaven, or healing, that through our repentance we may cure…
Dictionary and topics
Drink-offering — Consisted of wine (Num. 15:5; Hos. 9:4) poured around the altar (Ex. 30:9). Joined with meat-offerings (Num. 6:15, 17; 2 Kings 16:13; Joel 1:9, 13; 2:14), presented daily (Ex. 29:40), on the Sabbath…
Minister — One who serves, as distinguished from the master. (1.) Heb. meshereth, applied to an attendant on one of superior rank, as to Joshua, the servant of Moses (Ex. 33:11), and to the servant of Elisha (2…
Drink Offering · Omission of, caused by bad vintage — Omission of, caused by bad vintage
Famine · Caused: Grief and mourning — Caused: Grief and mourning
Judgments · Should lead to: Humiliation — Should lead to: Humiliation
Meat Offerings · The Jews: Often prevented from offering, by judgments — The Jews: Often prevented from offering, by judgments
Nation · Chastised — Chastised
Night · The Jews: In affliction spent, in sorrow and humiliation — The Jews: In affliction spent, in sorrow and humiliation
Sabbath, The · The Jews lay in, when in deep affliction — The Jews lay in, when in deep affliction
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Joel 1:13-15
Joel 1:13-15
13. Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
13. Accingimini et plangete sacerdotes; ululate, ministri altaris; venite, pernoctate cum saccis, ministri Dei mei: quia prohibita est a domo Dei vestri oblatio et libamen.
14. Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord,
14. Sactificate jejunium, vocate coetum, congregate senes, omnes incoles terrae, in domum Jehovae Dei vestri, et clamate ad J…
The affliction is not removed by mourning and lamentation, but only through repentance and supplication to the Lord, who can turn away all evil. The prophet therefore proceeds to call upon the priests to offer to the Lord penitential supplication day and night in the temple, and to call the elders and all the people to observe a day of fasting, penitence, and prayer; and then offers supplication himself to the Lord to have compassion upon them (Joe 1:19). From the motive assigned for this appeal, we may also see that a terrible drought had been associated with the devastation by the locusts, from which both man and beast had endured the most bitter suffering, and that Joel regarded this terr…
The priests were to lead all the people in public rites of mourning at the Temple. Their outward actions must be matched by authentic inward change (see 2:13).
