Joel 1:13
New International Version
Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.

New Living Translation
Dress yourselves in burlap and weep, you priests! Wail, you who serve before the altar! Come, spend the night in burlap, you ministers of my God. For there is no grain or wine to offer at the Temple of your God.

English Standard Version
Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

Berean Standard Bible
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.

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; Wail, you who minister before the altar; Come, lie all night in sackcloth, You who minister to my God; For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God.

New American Standard Bible
Put on sackcloth And mourn, you priests; Wail, you ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, You ministers of my God, For the grain offering and the drink offering Have been withheld from the house of your God.

NASB 1995
Gird yourselves with sackcloth And lament, O priests; Wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth O ministers of my God, For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God.

NASB 1977
Gird yourselves with sackcloth, And lament, O priests; Wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, For the grain offering and the libation Are withheld from the house of your God.

Legacy Standard Bible
Gird yourselves with sackcloth And lament, O priests; Wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God; For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God.

Amplified Bible
Clothe yourselves with sackcloth And lament (cry out in grief), O priests; Wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth [and pray without ceasing], O ministers of my God, For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God.

Christian Standard Bible
Dress in sackcloth and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar. Come and spend the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, because grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Dress in sackcloth and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar. Come and spend the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, because grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.

American Standard Version
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.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Priests be clothed with sackcloth and mourn, and wail, Servants of the altar! Enter! Pass the night in sackcloth, Ministers of my God, because the fine flour offering and the drink offering is withheld from his house of your God

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Gird yourselves with sackcloth, and lament, ye priests: mourn, ye that serve at the altar: go in, sleep in sackcloths, ye that minister to God: for the meat-offering and drink-offering are withheld from the house of your God.

Contemporary English Version
Mourn, you priests who serve at the altar of my God. Spend your days and nights wearing sackcloth. Offerings of grain and wine are no longer brought to the LORD's temple.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Gird yourselves, and lament, O ye priests, howl, ye ministers of the altars: go in, lie in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: because sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of your God.

English Revised Version
Gird yourselves with sackcloth, and lament, ye priests; howl, ye ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meal offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Put on your sackcloth and mourn, you priests. Cry loudly, you servants of the altar. Spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God. Grain offerings and wine offerings are withheld from your God's temple.

Good News Translation
Put on sackcloth and weep, you priests who serve at the altar! Go into the Temple and mourn all night! There is no grain or wine to offer your God.

International Standard Version
"Put on your mourning clothes, you priests; and cry aloud, you ministering servants at the altar! Come! Stay the night in mourner's clothes, you ministers of my God, because the grain offering and the wine offering is held back from the Temple of your God.

JPS Tanakh 1917
Gird yourselves, 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 is withholden From the house of your God.

Literal Standard Version
Gird, and lament, you priests, | Howl, you servants of the altar, | Come in, lodge in sackcloth, servants of my God, | For present and drink-offering have been withheld from the house of your God.

Majority Standard Bible
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.

New American Bible
Gird yourselves and lament, you priests! wail, ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, ministers of my God! For the grain offering and the libation are withheld from the house of your God.

NET Bible
Get dressed and lament, you priests! Wail, you who minister at the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God, because no one brings grain offerings or drink offerings to the temple of your God anymore.

New Revised Standard Version
Put on sackcloth and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, pass the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God! Grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

New Heart English Bible
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.

Webster's Bible Translation
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 withheld from the house of your God.

World English Bible
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.

Young's Literal Translation
Gird, and lament, ye priests, Howl, ye ministrants of the altar, Come in, lodge in sackcloth, ministrants of my God, For withheld from the house of your God hath been present and libation.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
A Call to Repentance
13Put 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. 14Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.…

Cross References
Revelation 11:3
And I will empower my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth."

1 Kings 21:27
When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted. He lay down in sackcloth and walked around meekly.

Isaiah 22:12
On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.

Jeremiah 4:8
So put on sackcloth, mourn and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us."

Jeremiah 9:10
I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness pasture, for they have been scorched so no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they have gone away.

Ezekiel 7:18
They will put on sackcloth, and terror will overwhelm them. Shame will cover all their faces, and all their heads will be shaved.

Ezekiel 21:12
Cry out and wail, O son of man, for the sword is wielded against My people; it is against all the princes of Israel! They are tossed to the sword with My people; therefore strike your thigh.


Treasury of Scripture

Gird yourselves, and lament, you priests: howl, you ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withheld from the house of your God.

Gird.

Joel 1:8,9
Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth…

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?

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.

ye ministers.

1 Corinthians 9:13
Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?

Hebrews 7:13,14
For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar…

lie.

2 Samuel 12:16
David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.

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.

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…

ye ministers.

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.

1 Corinthians 4:1
Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.

2 Corinthians 3:6
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

for.

Joel 1:9
The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD'S ministers, mourn.

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 it unto the altar…

Numbers 29:6
Beside the burnt offering of the month, and his meat offering, and the daily burnt offering, and his meat offering, and their drink offerings, according unto their manner, for a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto the LORD.

Jump to Previous
Altar Drink Drink-Offering Gird God's Grain House Howl Lie Meal Meal-Offering Meat Meat-Offering Ministers Mourn Night Offering Priests Sackcloth Wail Withheld Withholden Yourselves
Jump to Next
Altar Drink Drink-Offering Gird God's Grain House Howl Lie Meal Meal-Offering Meat Meat-Offering Ministers Mourn Night Offering Priests Sackcloth Wail Withheld Withholden Yourselves
Joel 1
1. Joel, declaring various judgments of God, exhorts to observe them,
8. and to mourn.
14. He prescribes a solemn fast to deprecate those judgments.














(13) Gird yourselves, and lament.--The priests are exhorted to commence preparations for a national humiliation, beginning with themselves; for the visitation touches them in a vital part: they have no sacrifices to offer to the Lord.

Verse 13. - Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God. The invitation, or rather exhortation, here is to something more than lamentation and mourning; for, however natural in the circumstances, affliction itself could not avert or remove the calamity. They are urged, therefore, to repentance as well as lamentation. They were to assume the outward signs of the inward grace: they were to gird themselves with sackcloth, the outward symbol of their inward sorrow; next they were to enter the temple or house of God; they were to spend the night there in the attitude and garb of mourners; night and day they were to bewail their sins with humble, penitent, and contrite hearts. The priests are the persons first addressed, and that not only because, in discharge of their priestly functions as ministers of Jehovah and ministering at the altar, they had been specially touched by the present distress; but also because of their official position they were to present an example to the people whose leaders they were and on whose behalf they ministered (comp. 1 Corinthians 9:13, "Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?"). Kimchi gives a correct exposition of this verse: "Gird, that is to say, gird on sackcloth, and he explains afterwards, pass the night in sackcloth, because even by night ye shall not remove the sackcloth from off you; perhaps Jehovah will have mercy upon you. And he says, 'ministers of the altar,' and adds, 'ministers of my God,' because the ministry was as the altar to God; and he connects the ministry to God - to the altar, as wherein they minister to Jehovah." For the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God. This is the reason assigned for the urgent call to repentance; and it is much the same with that in the beginning of the ninth verse.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Put on [sackcloth]
חִגְר֨וּ (ḥiḡ·rū)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine plural
Strong's 2296: To gird, gird on, gird oneself

and lament,
וְסִפְד֜וּ (wə·sip̄·ḏū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine plural
Strong's 5594: To tear the hair and beat the breasts, to lament, to wail

O priests;
הַכֹּהֲנִ֗ים (hak·kō·hă·nîm)
Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 3548: Priest

wail,
הֵילִ֙ילוּ֙ (hê·lî·lū)
Verb - Hifil - Imperative - masculine plural
Strong's 3213: To howl, make a howling

O ministers
מְשָׁרְתֵ֣י (mə·šā·rə·ṯê)
Verb - Piel - Participle - masculine plural construct
Strong's 8334: To attend as a, menial, worshipper, to contribute to

of the altar.
מִזְבֵּ֔חַ (miz·bê·aḥ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4196: An altar

Come,
בֹּ֚אוּ (bō·’ū)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine plural
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

spend the night
לִ֣ינוּ (lî·nū)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine plural
Strong's 3885: To stop, to stay permanently, to be obstinate

in sackcloth,
בַשַּׂקִּ֔ים (ḇaś·śaq·qîm)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 8242: A mesh, coarse loose cloth, sacking, a bag

O ministers
מְשָׁרְתֵ֖י (mə·šā·rə·ṯê)
Verb - Piel - Participle - masculine plural construct
Strong's 8334: To attend as a, menial, worshipper, to contribute to

of my God,
אֱלֹהָ֑י (’ĕ·lō·hāy)
Noun - masculine plural construct | first person common singular
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

because
כִּ֥י (kî)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

the grain
מִנְחָ֥ה (min·ḥāh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 4503: A donation, tribute, a sacrificial offering

and drink offerings
וָנָֽסֶךְ׃ (wā·nā·seḵ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 5262: A libation, a cast idol

are withheld
נִמְנַ֛ע (nim·na‘)
Verb - Nifal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 4513: To debar, from benefit, injury

from the house
מִבֵּ֥ית (mib·bêṯ)
Preposition-m | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 1004: A house

of your God.
אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֖ם (’ĕ·lō·hê·ḵem)
Noun - masculine plural construct | second person masculine plural
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative


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OT Prophets: Joel 1:13 Put on sackcloth and mourn you priests! (Jl Joe.)
Joel 1:12
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