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.
Parallel translations
- 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.
- 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.
- NKJV 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.
- NASB ¶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.
- NLT 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.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Joel commands the priests to clothe themselves in sackcloth and mourn all night because the offerings have ceased. The spiritual leaders must lead the nation in repentance.
Overview
The priests, who minister at the altar, are summoned to public, prolonged lament over the suspension of the meal and drink offerings. Their mourning is to be wholehearted, even through the night. By calling the leaders to repent first, Joel models how genuine renewal begins with those entrusted with God's worship, and how mourning over broken fellowship with God is the heart of true contrition.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Jer 4:8So put on sackcloth, mourn and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us.”
- Joel 1:8–9Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth.
- 1 Kgs 21:27When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted. He lay down in sackcloth and walked around meekly.
- Jer 9:10I 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.
- Jonah 3:5–8And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.
- Joel 2:17Let the priests who minister before the LORD weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
- Ezek 7:18They will put on sackcloth, and terror will overwhelm them. Shame will cover all their faces, and all their heads will be shaved.
- Heb 7:13–14He of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar.
- 1 Cor 9:13Do you not know that those who work in the temple eat of its food, and those who serve at the altar partake of its offerings?
- Num 29:6These are in addition to the monthly and daily burnt offerings with their prescribed grain offerings and drink offerings. They are a pleasing aroma, an offering made by fire to the LORD.
- 1 Cor 4:1So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
- Lev 2:8–10When you bring to the LORD the grain offering made in any of these ways, it is to be presented to the priest, and he shall take it to the altar.
- 2 Sam 12:16David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted and went into his house and spent the night lying in sackcloth on the ground.
- Isa 61:6But you will be called the priests of the LORD; they will speak of you as ministers of our God; you will feed on the wealth of nations, and you will boast in their riches.
- 2 Cor 6:4Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships, and calamities;
- 2 Cor 3:6And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
- 2 Cor 11:23Are they servants of Christ? I am speaking like I am out of my mind, but I am so much more: in harder labor, in more imprisonments, in worse beatings, in frequent danger of death.
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Christ at the center
The promised outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh and the call to 'everyone who calls on the name of the LORD' are fulfilled at Pentecost in the name of Jesus.
How Joel 1:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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