Joel 1:13

Repentance Prayer

¹¹ Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.

¹² The vine is dried up, 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: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

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.

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,

¹⁵ Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

This was said to Israel at a particular time, so it is wise to read it together with the surrounding text. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.
KJV: 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.
WEB: Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house.
ASV: Gird yourselves [with sackcloth], and lament, ye priests; wail, ye ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meal-offering and the drink-offering are withholden from the house of your God.
DARBY: Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests; howl, ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the oblation and the drink-offering are withholden from the house of your God.
BLB: Gird yourselves and lament, O priests; wail, [you] ministering before the altar. Come, lodge in sackcloth, [you] ministering before my God, for it is withheld from the house of your⁺ God—the grain offering and the drink offering.

ÅB: Kle dere i sørgedrakt og klag, dere prester! Jamre dere, dere som gjør tjeneste ved alteret! Gå inn og sitt hele natten i sørgedrakt, dere min Guds tjenere! For deres Guds hus må savne matoffer og drikkoffer.
OTB: Kle dere i sekkestrie og klag, dere prester;
jamre, dere som tjener ved alteret.
Kom, tilbring natten i sekkestrie,
dere som tjener min Gud,
for grødeofferet og drikkofferet
er holdt tilbake fra deres Guds hus.
B1930: Klæ eder i sørgedrakt og klag, I prester! Jamre eder, I som gjør tjeneste ved alteret! Gå inn og sitt hele natten i sørgedrakt, I min Guds tjenere! For eders Guds hus må savne matoffer og drikkoffer.

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

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.
Read in context
Joel 1:8–9
Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
Read in context
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, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.
Read in context
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 thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?
Read in context
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 sackcloth, and went softly.
Read in context
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 heads.
Read in context
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.
Read in context
Isaiah 61:6
But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.
Read in context