Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth.
Parallel translations
- WEB Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!
- KJV Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
- NKJV Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth For the husband of her youth.
- NASB ¶Wail like a virgin clothed with sackcloth For the groom of her youth.
- NLT Weep like a bride dressed in black, mourning the death of her husband.
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 calls the people to mourn deeply, like a young bride grieving her dead betrothed. The depth of sorrow should match the severity of the loss.
Overview
The prophet summons the community to anguished lament, comparing it to a virgin's grief over the husband of her youth, one of the most piercing sorrows imaginable. Such mourning is the fitting response to God's judgment and a step toward repentance. Genuine grief over sin and its consequences, rather than mere regret over loss, is what God seeks in His people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Isa 22:12On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.
- Mal 2:15Has not the LORD made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because He seeks godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.
- Jas 5:1Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.
- Jer 9:17–19This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Take note, and summon the wailing women; send for the most skillful among them.
- Isa 32:11Shudder, you ladies of leisure; tremble, you daughters of complacency. Strip yourselves bare and put sackcloth around your waists.
- Jer 3:4Have you not just called to Me, ‘My Father, You are my friend from youth.
- Joel 1:13–15Put 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.
- Prov 2:17who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.
- Joel 2:12–14“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”
- Amos 8:10I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.
- Jas 4:8–9Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- Isa 24:7–12The new wine dries up, the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan.
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 1:8 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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