Bible Strands
Joel 1:13
Put 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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses priests and altar ministers during a catastrophic drought that has halted temple worship. He commands them to adopt mourning rituals because the grain and drink offerings are no longer available at the house of God.
The words — The command חִגְרוּ (chig.Ru) literally means "gird yourselves" or "put on sackcloth," paired with סִפְדוּ (sif.Du) for "lament." These terms directly trigger the ritual mourning described in the verse.
The thread — This call to sackcloth and wailing echoes Jeremiah 4:8, Joel 1:8, and 1 Kings 21:27, where leaders adopt identical mourning postures in response to divine judgment or national crisis.
Why it lands — The text demands that religious officials publicly acknowledge their inability to perform prescribed duties before God. Readers must confront how institutional worship collapses when the community fails to sustain its covenant obligations.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 4:8 So put on sackcloth, mourn and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us.”
- Joel 1:8 Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth.
- 1 Kings 21:27 When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted. He lay down in sackcloth and walked around meekly.
- Jeremiah 9:10 I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness pasture, for they have been scorched so no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they have gone away.
- Ezekiel 7:18 They will put on sackcloth, and terror will overwhelm them. Shame will cover all their faces, and all their heads will be shaved.
- Joel 2:17 Let 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?’”
- Jonah 3:5 And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.
- Leviticus 2:8 When you bring to the LORD the grain offering made in any of these ways, it is to be presented to the priest, and he shall take it to the altar.
- Numbers 29:6 These are in addition to the monthly and daily burnt offerings with their prescribed grain offerings and drink offerings. They are a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD.
- 2 Samuel 12:16 David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted and went into his house and spent the night lying in sackcloth on the ground.