Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes—joy and gladness from the house of our God?
Parallel translations
- WEB Isn’t the food cut off before our eyes; joy and gladness from the house of our God?
- KJV Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
- NKJV Is not the food cut off before our eyes, Joy and gladness from the house of our God?
- NASB Has food not been cut off before our eyes, and Joy and rejoicing from the house of our God?
- NLT Our food disappears before our very eyes. No joyful celebrations are held in the house of our 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 observes that food and the joy of worship have been cut off before their very eyes. The people can plainly see God's hand stripping away both sustenance and gladness.
Overview
The prophet draws attention to the visible evidence of judgment: provisions are gone and the joyful gladness once found in God's house has ceased. The pairing of physical food and the joy of worship shows how deeply the disaster reaches. It reminds God's people that true gladness flows from communion with Him, a joy fully restored in the fellowship Christ secures.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Deut 12:6–7To that place you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and heave offerings, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, as well as the firstborn of your herds and flocks.
- Ps 105:3Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
- Ps 43:4Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my greatest joy. I will praise You with the harp, O God, my God.
- Isa 3:7On that day he will cry aloud: “I am not a healer. I have no food or clothing in my house. Do not make me leader of the people!”
- Deut 12:11–12then the LORD your God will choose a dwelling for His Name. And there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice offerings you vow to the LORD.
- Joel 1:5–9Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth.
- Amos 4:6–7“I beset all your cities with cleanness of teeth and all your towns with lack of bread, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.
- Joel 1:13Put 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.
- Deut 16:10–15And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with a freewill offering that you give in proportion to how the LORD your God has blessed you,
- Isa 62:8–9The LORD has sworn by His right hand and by His mighty arm: “Never again will I give your grain to your enemies for food, nor will foreigners drink the new wine for which you have toiled.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 1:16 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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