Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth means grieve with the deep mourning of a young bride dressed in mourning cloth for the husband she married in her youth and lost to death. The grief is over a literal plague of devouring locusts, strong and numberless with lion's teeth, that laid waste vine and fig tree, cut off grain and drink offering so priests mourn, wasted field and corn and dried up wine and oil, and withered all trees of the field. It belongs to a prophecy of destruction, distress, famine, pestilence and widespread mourning just before Christ's second coming and the great day of Jehovah. It therefore calls men and women to do that weeping now in fasting and prayer before it is too late, for the day of the Lord is near, and those who understand the signs and take the Lord's shelter need not be destroyed.
Lament's Meaning and Setting
The virgin is a bride, the husband of her youth is her dead husband, and being girded with sackcloth is being dressed in mourning cloth as a sign of grief. The call is to mourn as deeply as a young bride mourning her husband, wearing sackcloth in grief over devastating loss. It is the deep mourning of a young bride or young wife grieving the husband she married in her youth, expressing the depth of loss caused by the devastation and calamity in the land.
The lament belongs to the wider sorrow over the land's destruction by insect devastation and failed crops. Crops and food supplies are destroyed, the field and land are laid waste, and joy withers from men before the day of the Lord, and the chapter's lament is connected to that coming disaster. It belongs to the description of devastation and suffering caused by crop destruction and related calamities, portraying the people's grief as the mourning of a young woman whose husband has died.
The lament is over locust devastation set forth as a strong and numberless nation with lion's teeth that laid the vine waste and stripped and whitened the fig tree. It cut off new wine from the drunkards and drinkers of wine, and cut off the grain offering and drink offering from the house of the Lord so the priests mourn. It wasted the field and corn and dried up the new wine and oil so the land mourns, and it destroyed the wheat and barley harvest so husbandmen are ashamed and vinedressers howl. It dried up and withered the vine, fig, pomegranate, palm, apple and all trees of the field so joy withers from men, for which priests and ministers of the altar are to dress in mourning and lie all night in mourning cloth because the offerings are withheld from the house of God. It stands with the weeping of drunkards over lost wine and the mourning of priests over stopped offerings as a vivid picture of the wasting of the vineyard and the stripping bare of olive and fig trees.
The chapter describes devastation by literal devouring insects and literal locusts with teeth like a lion, not figurative human armies. It is the account of a literal plague of locusts upon the Jews that made their hearts faint and consumed their strength with famine. That left them weak and in danger of being warred against, brought into subjection, and ruled over by the watchful heathen, giving occasion for the heathen by-word Where is their God.
Last-Day Prophecy and Application
Joel 1:8 belongs to a prophecy describing conditions just before Christ's second coming. The chapter depicts the last days, when destruction and distress bring widespread mourning. The calamities serve as illustrations of troubles preceding the great day of Jehovah. The verse begins a prophecy of lament over widespread blight and loss of crops and fruit, whose fulfillment at this time is foreshadowed by the general potato blight over the earth and the general blight upon apple trees.
The prophecy is applied to insect pests becoming increasingly numerous and threatening crops, until harvesting nearly any crop becomes impossible, and this pestilence is a sign of the times. The chapter describes literal devouring insects and literal pests, not figurative human armies, which were costly to control and would become an increasing threat. Joel 1 describes famine and pestilence among the judgments for which God's people must prepare before Christ comes, warning that the coming destruction will include plagues, sores, and scarcity. It describes a dreadful time when God's restraining power is withdrawn and an army of destructive insects is released, a calamity that accompanies the plagues of Revelation and comes upon those outside the ark of safety. Amid these conditions disease and death are rampant and joy withers from people's faces.
Joel 1 and 2 together describe a typical work like the day of atonement and the feast of tabernacles that follows, which takes place after the third angel's message and before the Lord comes, belonging to mortal probation and not to immortal saints. The verse calls men and women to lament now like a virgin girded with sackcloth, doing the weeping before it is too late because the great day of the Lord is near and hastens greatly. The prophecy earnestly calls God's people to fasting and prayer to avert calamity. Those who understand these signs and take the Lord's shelter need not be destroyed, while Christ's servants can remain joyful and share that joy with others.
The same condition returns in a spiritual sense today when the church is brought into strait places where only the arm of the Lord can deliver and help seems delayed. Spiritual heathen around watch for failure and mock with gibes and jeers at apparent calamity. The people of God understand the lesson, humble themselves, repent zealously, and so relate themselves to God that He can bestow favor. He appears for their deliverance and joy and for the confusion and dismay of their enemies.
Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth means grieve with the deep mourning of a young bride dressed in mourning cloth for the husband she married in her youth and lost to death. The grief is over a literal plague of devouring locusts, strong and numberless with lion's teeth, that laid waste vine and fig tree, cut off grain and drink offering so priests mourn, wasted field and corn and dried up wine and oil, and withered all trees of the field. It belongs to a prophecy of destruction, distress, famine, pestilence and widespread mourning just before Christ's second coming and the great day of Jehovah. It therefore calls men and women to do that weeping now in fasting and prayer before it is too late, for the day of the Lord is near, and those who understand the signs and take the Lord's shelter need not be destroyed.
Lament's Meaning and Setting
The virgin is a bride, the husband of her youth is her dead husband, and being girded with sackcloth is being dressed in mourning cloth as a sign of grief. The call is to mourn as deeply as a young bride mourning her husband, wearing sackcloth in grief over devastating loss. It is the deep mourning of a young bride or young wife grieving the husband she married in her youth, expressing the depth of loss caused by the devastation and calamity in the land.
The lament belongs to the wider sorrow over the land's destruction by insect devastation and failed crops. Crops and food supplies are destroyed, the field and land are laid waste, and joy withers from men before the day of the Lord, and the chapter's lament is connected to that coming disaster. It belongs to the description of devastation and suffering caused by crop destruction and related calamities, portraying the people's grief as the mourning of a young woman whose husband has died.
The lament is over locust devastation set forth as a strong and numberless nation with lion's teeth that laid the vine waste and stripped and whitened the fig tree. It cut off new wine from the drunkards and drinkers of wine, and cut off the grain offering and drink offering from the house of the Lord so the priests mourn. It wasted the field and corn and dried up the new wine and oil so the land mourns, and it destroyed the wheat and barley harvest so husbandmen are ashamed and vinedressers howl. It dried up and withered the vine, fig, pomegranate, palm, apple and all trees of the field so joy withers from men, for which priests and ministers of the altar are to dress in mourning and lie all night in mourning cloth because the offerings are withheld from the house of God. It stands with the weeping of drunkards over lost wine and the mourning of priests over stopped offerings as a vivid picture of the wasting of the vineyard and the stripping bare of olive and fig trees.
The chapter describes devastation by literal devouring insects and literal locusts with teeth like a lion, not figurative human armies. It is the account of a literal plague of locusts upon the Jews that made their hearts faint and consumed their strength with famine. That left them weak and in danger of being warred against, brought into subjection, and ruled over by the watchful heathen, giving occasion for the heathen by-word Where is their God.
Last-Day Prophecy and Application
Joel 1:8 belongs to a prophecy describing conditions just before Christ's second coming. The chapter depicts the last days, when destruction and distress bring widespread mourning. The calamities serve as illustrations of troubles preceding the great day of Jehovah. The verse begins a prophecy of lament over widespread blight and loss of crops and fruit, whose fulfillment at this time is foreshadowed by the general potato blight over the earth and the general blight upon apple trees.
The prophecy is applied to insect pests becoming increasingly numerous and threatening crops, until harvesting nearly any crop becomes impossible, and this pestilence is a sign of the times. The chapter describes literal devouring insects and literal pests, not figurative human armies, which were costly to control and would become an increasing threat. Joel 1 describes famine and pestilence among the judgments for which God's people must prepare before Christ comes, warning that the coming destruction will include plagues, sores, and scarcity. It describes a dreadful time when God's restraining power is withdrawn and an army of destructive insects is released, a calamity that accompanies the plagues of Revelation and comes upon those outside the ark of safety. Amid these conditions disease and death are rampant and joy withers from people's faces.
Joel 1 and 2 together describe a typical work like the day of atonement and the feast of tabernacles that follows, which takes place after the third angel's message and before the Lord comes, belonging to mortal probation and not to immortal saints. The verse calls men and women to lament now like a virgin girded with sackcloth, doing the weeping before it is too late because the great day of the Lord is near and hastens greatly. The prophecy earnestly calls God's people to fasting and prayer to avert calamity. Those who understand these signs and take the Lord's shelter need not be destroyed, while Christ's servants can remain joyful and share that joy with others.
The same condition returns in a spiritual sense today when the church is brought into strait places where only the arm of the Lord can deliver and help seems delayed. Spiritual heathen around watch for failure and mock with gibes and jeers at apparent calamity. The people of God understand the lesson, humble themselves, repent zealously, and so relate themselves to God that He can bestow favor. He appears for their deliverance and joy and for the confusion and dismay of their enemies.