Joel 1:7
in Joel 1It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away; the branches have turned white.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.
KJV
He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.
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This verse in Joel 1
Commentary
9 notes on this verseA commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
barked--BOCHART, with the Septuagint and Syriac, translates, from an Arabic root, "hath broken," namely, the topmost shoots, which locusts most feed on. CALVIN supports English Version. my vine . . . my fig tree--being in "My land," that is, Jehovah's (Joe 1:6).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
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.
This site's exposition
It has laid waste My grapevine
Locusts gnaw the bark from young branches, which can leave a vine or a fig tree barren for years. The white branches are wood stripped bare. In 1 Kings 4:25 the vine and the fig tree are the picture of Judah living in safety.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 6,7.) For a strong and innumerable nation will ascend over my land: its teeth, like lion's teeth, and its molars, like lion cubs. It has turned my vineyard into a desert, and has stripped my fig tree bare: it has made it naked and thrown it away; its branches have turned white. LXX: For a strong and innumerable nation will ascend over the land: its teeth, like a lion's teeth, and its molars, like lion cubs.
The Medieval Church1 voice
O wretched beings, who by going after the praises of men waste to themselves all the fruits of their labors, and while they aim to show themselves to the eyes of others, blast all that they do. When the evil spirits prompt them to boastfulness, taking them for a prey they strip bare their works, as we have said.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
They eat the very bark of the fig-tree, and so kill it. Thus the fig-tree does not blossom, nor is there fruit in the vine. A call to the drunkards to lament this judgment (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
He hath laid my vine waste,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
He hath laid my vine waste - The locusts have eaten off both leaves and bark. חשף חשפה chasoph chasaphah, he hath made it clean bare; שדד שדה suddad sadeh, the field is laid waste, Joe 1:10; and כשד משדי kesod mishshaddai, a destruction from the Almighty, Joe 1:15; are all paronomasias in which this prophet seems to delight.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree - This describes an extremity of desolation.
The words behind it
10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| שָׂ֤ם | sam | it has made | H7760 → | |
| גַּפְנִי֙ | gafni | vine[s] my | H1612 → | 55 times |
| לְשַׁמָּ֔ה | leshamah | into a waste | H8047 → | |
| וּתְאֵנָתִ֖י | uteenati | and fig tree[s] my | H8384 → | 39 times |
| לִקְצָפָ֑ה | liktzafah | into a stump | H7111 → | |
| חָשֹׂ֤ף | chasof | completely <strip bare> | H2834 → | |
| חֲשָׂפָהּ֙ | chasafah | it has stripped bare it | H2834 → | |
| וְהִשְׁלִ֔יךְ | vehishlikh | and it has thrown [it] away | H7993 → | |
| הִלְבִּ֖ינוּ | hilbinu | they have become white | H3835 → | |
| שָׂרִיגֶֽיהָ׃ | sarigeiha | branches its | H8299 → |
שָׂ֤םit has made
samH7760 →
גַּפְנִי֙vine[s] my
gafniH1612 →55 times
לְשַׁמָּ֔הinto a waste
leshamahH8047 →
וּתְאֵנָתִ֖יand fig tree[s] my
uteenatiH8384 →39 times
לִקְצָפָ֑הinto a stump
liktzafahH7111 →
חָשֹׂ֤ףcompletely <strip bare>
chasofH2834 →
חֲשָׂפָהּ֙it has stripped bare it
chasafahH2834 →
וְהִשְׁלִ֔יךְand it has thrown [it] away
vehishlikhH7993 →
הִלְבִּ֖ינוּthey have become white
hilbinuH3835 →
שָׂרִיגֶֽיהָ׃branches its
sarigeihaH8299 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 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
Amos 4:9“I struck you with blight and mildew in your growing gardens and vineyards; the locust devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.
it leads to
- Haggai 2:17
I struck you—all the work of your hands—with blight, mildew, and hail, but you did not turn to Me, declares the LORD.
- Deuteronomy 28:22
The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish.
- Joel 1:4
What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.
- Haggai 2:17
Through
Joel 1:12The grapevine is dried up, and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, palm, and apple—all the trees of the orchard—are withered. Surely the joy of mankind has dried up.
it leads to
- Isaiah 16:10
Joy and gladness are removed from the orchard; no one sings or shouts in the vineyards. No one tramples the grapes in the winepresses; I have put an end to the cheering.
- Isaiah 24:11
In the streets they cry out for wine. All joy turns to gloom; rejoicing is exiled from the land.
- Song of Solomon 2:3
Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
- Joel 1:10
The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails.
- Isaiah 16:10
Through
Isaiah 5:6I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up. I will command the clouds that rain shall not fall on it.”
it leads to
- Isaiah 7:23–25
And on that day, in every place that had a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briers and thorns will be found.
- Isaiah 7:23–25
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies3
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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); Gregory the Dialogist, MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 2:8.82; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Joel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.