New King James Version
Joel 1:8
8Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth For the husband of her youth.
Joel 1:8 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
- New International Version (NIV)Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth grieving for the betrothed of her youth.
- English Standard Version (ESV)Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth.
- New Living Translation (NLT)Weep like a bride dressed in black, mourning the death of her husband.
Context of Joel 1:8
6For a nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he has the fangs of a fierce lion. 7He has laid waste My vine, And ruined My fig tree; He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; Its branches are made white. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth For the husband of her youth. 9The grain offering and the drink offering Have been cut off from the house of the Lord; The priests mourn, who minister to the Lord. 10The field is wasted, The land mourns; For the grain is ruined, The new wine is dried up, The oil fails.
Read all of Joel 1Joel 1:8 word by word
אֱלִ֕י כִּבְתוּלָ֥ה חֲגֻֽרַת־שַׂ֖ק עַל־בַּ֥עַל נְעוּרֶֽיהָ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Joel 1:8
- Joel 1:13Gird 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.
- Joel 2:12“Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
- Isaiah 22:12And in that day the Lord God of hosts Called for weeping and for mourning, For baldness and for girding with sackcloth.
- Isaiah 24:7The new wine fails, the vine languishes, All the merry-hearted sigh.
- Isaiah 32:11Tremble, you women who are at ease; Be troubled, you complacent ones; Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare, And gird sackcloth on your waists.
- Jeremiah 9:17Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider and call for the mourning women, That they may come; And send for skillful wailing women, That they may come.
- James 4:8Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- James 5:1Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!
- Proverbs 2:17Who forsakes the companion of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God.
- Jeremiah 3:4Will you not from this time cry to Me, ‘My Father, You are the guide of my youth?
- Malachi 2:15But did He not make them one, Having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.
Commentaries on Joel 1:8
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 8Lament like a virgin - for the husband of her youth - Virgin is a very improper version here. The original is בתולה bethulah, which signifies a young woman or bride not a virgin, the proper Hebrew for which is עלמה almah . See the notes on Isaiah 7:14; (note), and Matthew 1:23; (note).Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 8Lament like a virgin - The prophet addresses the congregation of Israel, as one espoused to God; “Lament thou,‘ daughter of Zion,” or the like. He bids her lament, with the bitterest of sorrows, as one who, in her virgin years, was just knit into one with the husband of her youth, and then at once was, by God‘s judgment, on the very day of her espousal, ere yet she ceased to be a virgin, parted by death. The mourning which God commands is not one of…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 8-13Verses 8-13 All who labour only for the meat that perishes, will, sooner or later, be ashamed of their labour. Those that place their happiness in the delights of sense, when deprived of them, or disturbed in the enjoyment, lose their joy; whereas spiritual joy then flourishes more than ever. See what perishing, uncertain things our creature-comforts are. See how we need to live in continual dependence upon God and his providence. See what ruinous work…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 8Wail like a virgin: Judah is like a young engaged woman whose marriage never happens because her husband dies.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 88. Lament--O "my land" (Joe 1:6; Is 24:4). virgin ... for the husband--A virgin betrothed was regarded as married (De 22:23; Mt 1:19). The Hebrew for "husband" is "lord" or "possessor," the husband being considered the master of the wife in the East. of her youth--when the affections are strongest and when sorrow at bereavement is consequently keenest. Suggesting the thought of what Zion's grief ought to be for her separation from Jehovah, the betrothed…Read the comment
Topics related to Joel 1:8
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Joel 1
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
New King James Version — © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc
Commentaries