Joel 1:5
in Joel 1Wake 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.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and wail, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
KJV
Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
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This verse in Joel 1
Commentary
7 notes on this verseIt should touch them in a tender part; the new wine which they loved so well should be cut off from their mouth. Note, It is just with God to take away those comforts which are abused to luxury and excess, to recover the corn and wine which are prepared for Baal, which are made the food and fuel of a base lust. And to them judgments of that kind are most grievous.
This site's exposition
Wake up, you drunkards, and weep
on Joel 1:5-7
The drunkards are roused first because the vine is the first loss: the sweet wine "has been cut off from your mouth". Verse 6 calls the swarm "a nation", with "the teeth of a lion", an insect plague told in an invading army's words.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
(Verse 5.) Wake up, you drunkards, and weep and howl, all you who drink wine in sweetness, because it has perished from your mouth. LXX: Wake up, you who are drunk with your wine, and mourn and lament, all you who drink wine in intoxication, because it has been taken away from your mouth. Like old men and elders, we should listen: nothing intoxicates like disturbance of the mind. There is a sadness that leads to death: this detestable drunkenness is it.
What a servile mentality from a crazed brain that knows how to do nothing else but gabble. We must reply to our opponents, "You are drunken men; rouse yourselves from your cups." Why do you do such violence to the truth? Why have you twisted the sense of the divine teachings so as to have been carried off the royal road?
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Awake, ye drunkards, and weep: and howl, all ye drinkers of wine,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Awake, ye drunkards - The general destruction of vegetation by these devouring creatures has totally prevented both harvest and vintage; so that there shall not be wine even for necessary uses, much less for the purposes of debauchery. It is well known that the ruin among the vines by locusts prevents the vintage for several years after.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Awake, ye drunkards, and weep - All sin stupefies the sinner. All intoxicate the mind, bribe and pervert the judgment, dull the conscience, blind the soul and make it insensible to its own ills. All the passions, anger, vain glory, ambition, avarice and the rest are a spiritual drunkenness, inebriating the soul, as strong drink doth the body. : “They are called drunkards, who, confused with the love of this world, feel not the ills which they suffer.
The words behind it
12 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הָקִ֤יצוּ | hakitzu | awake | H6974 → | |
| שִׁכּוֹרִים֙ | shikorim | O drunkards | H7910 → | |
| וּבְכ֔וּ | uvekhu | and weep | H1058 → | |
| וְהֵילִ֖לוּ | veheililu | and wail | H3213 → | 30 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | O all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| שֹׁ֣תֵי | shotei | drinkers of | H8354 → | |
| יָ֑יִן | yayin | wine | H3196 → | |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| עָסִ֕יס | ʾasis | sweet wine | H6071 → | |
| כִּ֥י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| נִכְרַ֖ת | nikhrat | it has been cut off | H3772 → | 288 times |
| מִפִּיכֶֽם׃ | mipikhem | from mouth your | H6310 → |
הָקִ֤יצוּawake
hakitzuH6974 →
שִׁכּוֹרִים֙O drunkards
shikorimH7910 →
וּבְכ֔וּand weep
uvekhuH1058 →
וְהֵילִ֖לוּand wail
veheililuH3213 →30 times
כָּל־O all
kol-H3605 →5413 times
שֹׁ֣תֵיdrinkers of
shoteiH8354 →
יָ֑יִןwine
yayinH3196 →
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
עָסִ֕יסsweet wine
ʾasisH6071 →
כִּ֥יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
נִכְרַ֖תit has been cut off
nikhratH3772 →288 times
מִפִּיכֶֽם׃from mouth your
mipikhemH6310 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
James 5:1Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.
it leads to
- Proverbs 11:28
He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like foliage.
- 1 Timothy 6:9–10
Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.
- Proverbs 11:4
Riches are worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.
- Luke 6:24–25
But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.
- Luke 12:16–21
Then He told them a parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced an abundance.
- Proverbs 11:28
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies3
On this verse
On this chapter
About Joel
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Cyril of Alexandria, ON THE UNITY OF CHRIST; Jerome, Commentary on Joel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.