Joel 1:12
The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men. The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
The verse describes the devastation accompanying the day of the Lord, portraying the trouble and destruction soon to come. The vine is dried up and the fig tree languishes, with the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, withered, and crops and harvest failing. The withering of the land's trees is tied to the failing of the harvest and the loss of agricultural abundance.
With that withering, joy is withered away from the sons of men, so that the loss of trees and crops is joined to sorrow, mourning and deprivation. Human gladness disappears as the ordinary signs of life and abundance are removed. In this way the withering of nature and the withering of joy together show the devastation and sorrow of that day.
The same withering portrays the earth's fearful condition during the final plagues, when scorching heat and widespread crop failure leave deprivation before God's people are delivered. It belongs to a prophecy of the world's condition just before the second coming. At that time iniquity abounds as people turn from God and transgress His law and the everlasting covenant.