Yoel 1:8

A Call to Lament

1:8 Wail ¹  like a young virgin ²  clothed in sackcloth,

lamenting the death of ³  her husband-to-be. ⁴ 

Yoel 1:11

1:11 Be distressed, ⁵  farmers;

wail, vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley.

For the harvest of the field has perished.

Yoel 1:14

1:14 Announce a holy fast; ⁶ 

proclaim a sacred assembly.

Gather the elders and ⁷  all the inhabitants of the land

to the temple of the Lord your God,

and cry out to the Lord.

[1:8]  ¹ sn The verb is feminine singular, raising a question concerning its intended antecedent. A plural verb would be expected here, the idea being that all the inhabitants of the land should grieve. Perhaps Joel is thinking specifically of the city of Jerusalem, albeit in a representative sense. The choice of the feminine singular verb form has probably been influenced to some extent by the allusion to the young widow in the simile of v. 8.

[1:8]  ² tn Or “a young woman” (TEV, CEV). See the note on the phrase “husband-to-be” in the next line.

[1:8]  ³ tn Heb “over the death of.” The term “lamenting” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.

[1:8]  ⁴ sn Heb “the husband of her youth.” The woman described here may already be married, so the reference is to the death of a husband rather than a fiancé (a husband-to-be). Either way, the simile describes a painful and unexpected loss to which the national tragedy Joel is describing may be compared.

[1:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “embarrassed”; or “be ashamed.”

[1:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “consecrate a fast” (so NASB).

[1:14]  ⁷ tc The conjunction “and” does not appear in MT or LXX, but does appear in some Qumran texts (4QXII^c and 4QXII^g).