Book of Joel Chapter 1 Vs. 17

Book of Joel Chapter 1 Vs. 17

The day of the Lord



The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. Joel 1:17


The seed is... Here we have the desolation of Israel in the day of the Lord pictured (Joel 1:17-20; 1:7-13). Not only was all to be cut off for the present, but with it, all hope for the future. The scattered seed, as it lay, each under its clod known to God, was dried up, and so decayed.

the garners are... The “treasuries”, or storehouses, having nothing in them, and there being nothing to put into them; Jarchi makes these to be peculiar for wine and oil, both which failed (Joel 1:10).

the barns are... In which the wheat and barley had used to be laid up; but this judgment of the locusts and drought continuing year after year, the walls fell down, and, no care was taken to repair them, there being no use for them; these were the granaries, and, as Jarchi, for wheat particularly.

for the corn... That which sprung up withered and dried away, through the heat and drought: or was “ashamed”; not answering the expectation of the sower.

This speaks of a time, when the farmers have given up. The seed rots in the ground, and does not produce. There is nothing to put in the barn, so the farmer has let it run down.



We see drought had apparently set in as well, for the seeds had shriveled. The clods (Joel 1:17) may be translated, “their (i.e., the farmers’) shovels.” When the farmers dug into the ground to investigate the absence of green life, the shovels uncovered seeds that had not germinated.