Grain and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD.
Parallel translations
- WEB The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh’s house. The priests, Yahweh’s ministers, mourn.
- KJV The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD’s ministers, mourn.
- NKJV The grain offering and the drink offering Have been cut off from the house of the Lord; The priests mourn, who minister to the Lord.
- NASB The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off From the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, The ministers of the Lord.
- NLT For 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.
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
With the harvest destroyed, the temple offerings have ceased and the priests mourn. The disaster has interrupted Israel's worship of God.
Overview
The locust plague has cut off the grain and wine needed for the daily meal and drink offerings, so fellowship with God through prescribed worship is disrupted. The priests, as Yahweh's ministers, mourn this severing of covenant communion. The verse shows that the deepest loss in judgment is not material but the interruption of worship, pointing ahead to Christ, whose once-for-all offering secures unbroken access to God (Hebrews 10:19-22).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Joel 2:14Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him—grain and drink offerings for the LORD your God.
- 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?’”
- Hos 9:4They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, and their sacrifices will not please Him, but will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat will be defiled. For their bread will be for themselves; it will not enter the house of 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.
- 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.
- Lam 1:16For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears. For there is no one nearby to comfort me, no one to revive my soul. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.
- 2 Chr 13:10But as for us, the LORD is our God. We have not forsaken Him; the priests who minister to the LORD are sons of Aaron, and the Levites attend to their duties.
- Lam 1:4The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to her appointed feasts. All her gates are deserted; her priests groan, her maidens grieve, and she herself is bitter with anguish.
- Joel 1:16Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes—joy and gladness from the house of our God?
- Exod 28:1“Next, have your brother Aaron brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, to serve Me as priests.
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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 1:9 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.