New Living Translation
Joel 1:8
8Weep like a bride dressed in black, mourning the death of her husband.
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 King James Version (NKJV)Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth For the husband of her youth.
Context of Joel 1:8
6A vast army of locusts has invaded my land, a terrible army too numerous to count. Its teeth are like lions’ teeth, its fangs like those of a lioness. 7It has destroyed my grapevines and ruined my fig trees, stripping their bark and destroying it, leaving the branches white and bare. Weep like a bride dressed in black, mourning the death of her husband. 9For there is no grain or wine to offer at the Temple of the Lord. So the priests are in mourning. The ministers of the Lord are weeping. 10The fields are ruined, the land is stripped bare. The grain is destroyed, the grapes have shriveled, and the olive oil is gone.
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 1:13Dress 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.
- Joel 2:12That is why the Lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
- Isaiah 22:12At that time the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, called you to weep and mourn. He told you to shave your heads in sorrow for your sins and to wear clothes of burlap to show your remorse.
- Isaiah 24:7The grapevines waste away, and there is no new wine. All the merrymakers sigh and mourn.
- Isaiah 32:11Tremble, you women of ease; throw off your complacency. Strip off your pretty clothes, and put on burlap to show your grief.
- Jeremiah 9:17This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: “Consider all this, and call for the mourners. Send for the women who mourn at funerals.
- James 4:8Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.
- James 5:1Look here, you rich people: Weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you.
- Proverbs 2:17She has abandoned her husband and ignores the covenant she made before God.
- Jeremiah 3:4Yet you say to me, ‘Father, you have been my guide since my youth.
- Malachi 2:15Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your 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
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