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Thursday, January 9th, 2025
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J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible

Joel 1:7

He hath turned my vine to a waste, and my fig-tree to splinters, - he hath, barked it clean, and cast it down, bleached are its branches.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Locust;   Nation;   Scofield Reference Index - Day (of Jehovah);   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Fig-Tree, the;   Locust, the;   Vine, the;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Fig;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Feasts and Festivals of Israel;   Nahum, Theology of;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Salmon;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Joel;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Joel, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Fig-Tree ;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Famine;   Locusts;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Locust;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Locust,;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Fig (tree);   White;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Branch and Bough;   Clean;   Color;   Food;   Joel (2);   Locust;   Vine;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Famine;  

Parallel Translations

English Standard Version
It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white.
Geneva Bible (1587)
He maketh my vine waste, & pilleth off the barke of my figge tree: he maketh it bare, and casteth it downe: ye branches therof are made white.
Christian Standard Bible®
It has devastated my grapevineand splintered my fig tree.It has stripped off its bark and thrown it away;its branches have turned white.
Hebrew Names Version
He has laid my vine waste, And stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.
Darby Translation
He hath made my vine a desolation, and barked my fig-tree; he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away: its branches are made white.
Easy-to-Read Version
It destroyed my grapevine. Its good vines withered and died. It destroyed my fig tree, stripped off the bark and threw it away.
Amplified Bible
It has made My vine (My people) a waste and object of horror, And splintered and broken My fig tree. It has stripped them completely bare and thrown them away; Their branches have become white.
American Standard Version
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.
Berean Standard Bible
It 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.
Contemporary English Version
Our grapevines and fig trees are stripped bare; only naked branches remain.
Complete Jewish Bible
He has reduced my vines to waste, my fig trees to splinters — he plucked them bare, stripped their bark and left their branches white."
JPS Old Testament (1917)
He hath laid my vine waste, and blasted my fig-tree; he hath made it clean bare, and cast it down, the branches thereof are made white.
King James Version (1611)
He hath laide my vine waste: and barked my figge-tree: hee hath made it cleane bare, and cast it away, the branches thereof are made white.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
He hath destroyed my vine, & barked my figge tree, he hath pilled it and cast it from him, and hath left bowes therof whyte.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
He has ruined my vine, and utterly broken my fig-trees: he has utterly searched my vine, and cast it down; he has peeled its branches.
English Revised Version
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.
Lexham English Bible
It has made my vine a desolation, and my fig tree a completely splintered stump. It has stripped them bare and thrown them down; their branches have turned white.
Literal Translation
There My vine is desolation, and it has splintered My fig tree. He has stripped it, and thrown it down; its branches grow white.
New Century Version
It has made my grapevine a waste and made my fig tree a stump. It has stripped all the bark off my trees and left the branches white.
New English Translation
They have destroyed our vines; they have turned our fig trees into mere splinters. They have completely stripped off the bark and thrown them aside; the twigs are stripped bare.
New King James Version
He has laid waste My vine, And ruined My fig tree; He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; Its branches are made white.
New Living Translation
It has destroyed my grapevines and ruined my fig trees, stripping their bark and destroying it, leaving the branches white and bare.
New Life Bible
It has made my vine a waste, and has broken my fig tree to pieces. It has torn off their covering and thrown it away. Their branches have become white.
New Revised Standard
It has laid waste my vines, and splintered my fig trees; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches have turned white.
Douay-Rheims Bible
He hath laid my vineyard waste, and hath pilled off the bark of my fig tree: he hath stripped it bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.
George Lamsa Translation
He has laid my vine waste, and has cut off my fig tree and thrown it away; the branches thereof are made white.
Good News Translation
They have destroyed our grapevines and chewed up our fig trees. They have stripped off the bark, till the branches are white.
Webster's Bible Translation
He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast [it] away; its branches are made white.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
It settide my vyner in to desert, and took awei the riynde of my fige tre. It made nakid and spuylide that vyner, and castide forth; the braunchis therof ben maad white.
Young's Literal Translation
It hath made my vine become a desolation, And my fig-tree become a chip, It hath made it thoroughly bare, and hath cast down, Made white have been its branches.
World English Bible
He has laid my vine waste, And stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.
Revised Standard Version
It has laid waste my vines, and splintered my fig trees; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white.
Update Bible Version
He has laid my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree: he has made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.
Bible in Basic English
By him my vine is made waste and my fig-tree broken: he has taken all its fruit and sent it down to the earth; its branches are made white.
New American Standard Bible
It has made my vine a waste And my fig tree a stump. It has stripped them bare and hurled them away; Their branches have become white.
King James Version
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.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
They shal make my vinyarde waist, they shal pyll of the barckes of my fygetrees, strype them bare, cast them awaye, and make the braunches whyte.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
It has made my vine a waste And my fig tree splinters. It has stripped them bare and cast them away; Their branches have become white.
Legacy Standard Bible
It has made my vine a desolationAnd my fig tree splinters.It has stripped them bare and cast them away;Their branches have become white.

Contextual Overview

1 The word of Yahweh, which came unto Joel, son of Pethuel. 2 Hear this, ye elders, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land, - hath this ever happened in your days? or in the days of your fathers? 3 Concerning it, to your children, tell ye the story, - and your children, to their children, and their children, to the generation following: - 4 That which was left by the creeping locust, hath the swarming locust eaten, and, that which was left by the swarming locust, hath the grass locust eaten; and, that which was left by the grass locust, hath the corn locust eaten. 5 Awake, ye drunkards, and weep, and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, - over the new wine, because it hath been cut off from your mouth. 6 For, a nation, hath come up over my land, bold, and without number, - his teeth, are the teeth of a lion, and, the fangs of a lioness, hath he! 7 He hath turned my vine to a waste, and my fig-tree to splinters, - he hath, barked it clean, and cast it down, bleached are its branches.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

laid: Joel 1:12, Exodus 10:15, Psalms 105:33, Isaiah 5:6, Isaiah 24:7, Jeremiah 8:13, Hosea 2:12, Habakkuk 3:17

barked my fig tree: Heb. laid my fig-tree for a barking

Reciprocal: Proverbs 30:27 - The locusts Isaiah 32:10 - for Jeremiah 2:3 - all that Malachi 3:11 - neither

Cross-References

Genesis 1:8
And God called the expanse, heavens. So it was evening - and it was morning, a, second day.
Genesis 1:9
And God said - Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together, into one place, and let the dry - ground appear. And it was so.
Genesis 1:11
And God said - Let the land put-forth vegetation-herb yielding seed, fruit-tree, bearing fruit, after its kind, whose seed is within it on the land. And it was so,
Genesis 1:15
yea let them be for luminaries in the expanse of the heavens, to give light on the earth. And it was so.
Genesis 1:24
And God said - Let the land, bring forth, living soul, after its kind, tame-beast and creeping thing and wild-beast, of the land, after its kind. And it was so.
Genesis 1:28
And God blessed them, and God said to them Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, - and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the bird of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth on the land.
Genesis 1:29
And God said - Lo! I have given to you - every herb yielding seed which is on the face of all the land, and every tree wherein is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, - to you, shall it be, for food;
Job 26:8
Who bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent beneath them;
Psalms 104:10
Who hast sent forth springs, through the torrent-beds, Between the mountains, they flow along;
Psalms 148:4
Praise him, O ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that are above the heavens;

Gill's Notes on the Bible

He hath laid my vine waste,.... That is, the locust, which spoiled the vines in Judea, the singular being put for the plural, by gnawing the branches, biting the tops of them, and devouring the leaves and the fruit; and so not only left them bare and barren, but destroyed them: this may emblematically represent the Assyrians or Babylonians wasting the land of Judea, the vine and vineyard of the Lord of hosts; see Isaiah 5:1;

and barked my fig tree; gnawed off the bark of them; locusts are not only harmful to vines, as is hinted by Theocritus o, but to fig trees also: Pliny p speaks of fig trees in Boeotia gnawn by locusts, which budded again; and mentions it as something wonderful and miraculous that they should: and yet Sanctius observes, that these words cannot be understood properly of the locusts, since fig trees cannot be harmed by the bite or touch of them; which, besides their roughness, have an insipid bitter juice, which preserves them from being gnawn by such creatures; and the like is observed of the cypress by Vitruvius q; but the passage out of Pliny shows the contrary. Some interpret it of a from or scum they left upon the fig tree when they gnawed it, such as Aben Ezra says is upon the face of the water; and something like this is left by caterpillars on the leaves of trees, which destroy them;

he hath made it clean bare; stripped it of its leaves and fruit, and bark also:

and cast [it] away; having got out all the juice they could:

the branches thereof are made white; the bark being gnawed off, and all the greenness and verdure of them dried up; so trees look, when this is their case: and thus the Jews were stripped by the Chaldeans of all their wealth and treasure, and were left bare and naked, and as the scum and offscouring of all things.

o Idyll. 5. p Nat. Hist. l. 17. c. 25. q De Architectura, l. 2. c. 9. p. 70.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree - This describes an extremity of desolation. The locusts at first attack all which is green and succulent; when this has been consumed, then they attack the bark of trees. : “When they have devoured all other vegetables, they attack the trees, consuming first the leaves, then the bark.” : “A day or two after one of these bodies were in motion, others were already hatched to glean after them, gnawing off the young branches and the very bark of such trees as had escaped before with the loss only of their fruit and foliage.” : “They carried desolation wherever they passed. After having consumed herbage, fruit, leaves of trees, they attacked even their young shoots and their bark. Even the reeds, wherewith the huts were thatched, though quite dry, were not spared.” : “Everything in the country was devoured; the bark of figs, pomegranates, and oranges, bitter hard and corrosive, escaped not their voracity.” The effects of this wasting last on for many years .

He hath made it clean bare - o: “It is sufficient, if these terrible columns stop half an hour on a spot, for everything growing on it, vines, olive trees, and grain, to be entirely destroyed. After they have passed, nothing remains but the large branches, and the roots which, being under ground, have escaped their voracity.” : “After eating up the corn, they fell upon the vines, the pulse, the willows and even the hemp, notwithstanding its great bitterness.” : “They are particularly injurious to the palm trees; these they strip of every leaf and green particle, the trees remaining like skeletons with bare branches.” : “The bushes were eaten quite bare, though the animals could not have been long on the spot. They sat by hundreds on a bush gnawing the rind and the woody fibres.”

The branches thereof are made white - o: “The country did not seem to be burnt, but to be much covered with snow, through the whiteness of the trees and the dryness of the herbs. It pleased God that the fresh crops were already gathered in.”

The “vine” is the well-known symbol of God’s people Psalms 80:8, Psalms 80:14; Song of Solomon 2:13, Song of Solomon 2:15; Hosea 10:1; Isaiah 5:1-7; Isaiah 27:2; the fig too, by reason of its sweetness, is an emblem of His Church and of each soul in her, bringing forth the fruit of grace Hosea 9:10; Matthew 21:19; Luke 13:6-7. When then God says, “he hath laid My vine waste,” He suggests to us, that He is not speaking chiefly of the visible tree, but of that which it represents. The locusts, accordingly, are not chiefly the insects, which bark the actual trees, but every enemy which wastes the heritage of God, which He calls by those names. His vineyard, the Jewish people, was outwardly and repeatedly desolated by the Chaldaens, Antiochus Epiphanes, and afterward by the Romans. The vineyard, which the Jews had, was, (as Jesus foretold,) let out to other farmers when they had killed Him; and, thenceforth, is the Christian Church, and, subordinately each soul in her. : “Pagan and heretical Emperors and heresiarchs wasted often the Church of Christ. antichrist shall waste it. They who have wasted her are countless. For the Psalmist says, “They who hate me without a cause are more than the hair’s of my head” Psalms 69:4.

: “The nation which cometh up against the soul, are the princes of this world and of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, of whom the Apostle Peter saith, “Our adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour” 1 Peter 5:8. If we give way to this nation, so that they should come up in us, immediately they will make our vineyard where we were accustomed to make “wine to gladden the heart of man” Psalms 104:15, a desert, and bark or break our fig tree, that we should no more have in us those most sweet gifts of the Holy Spirit. Nor is it enough for that nation to destroy the vineyard and break the fig tree, unless it also destroy whatever there is of life in it, so that, its whole freshness being consumed. the switches remain white and dead, and that be fulfilled in us, “If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” Luke 23:31. : “The Church, at least apart of it, is turned into a desert, deprived of spiritual goods, when the faithful are led, by consent to sin, to forsake God. “The fig tree is barked,” when the soul which once abounded with sweetest goods and fruits of the Holy Spirit, hath those goods lessened or cut off. Such are they who, having “begun in the Spirit” Galatians 3:3, are perfected by the flesh.”

“ By spirits lying in wait, the vineyard of God is made a desert, when the soul, replenished with fruits, is wasted with longing for the praise of people. That “people barks” the “fig tree” of God, in that, carrying away the misguided soul to a thirst for applause, in proportion as it draws her on to ostentation, it strips her of the covering of humility. “Making it clean bare, it despoils it,” in that, so long as it lies hidden in its goodness, it is, as it were, clothed with a covering of its own, which protects it. But when the mind longs that which it has done should be seen by others, it is as though “the fig tree despoiled” had lost the bark that covered it. And so, as it follows, “The branches thereof are made white;” in that his works, displayed to the eyes of people, have a bright show; a name for sanctity is gotten, when good actions are published. But as, upon the bark being removed, the branches of the fig tree wither, so observe that the deeds of the arrogant, paraded before human eyes, wither through the very act of socking to please. Therefore the mind which is betrayed through boastfulness is rightly called a fig tree barked, in that it is at once fair to the eye, as being seen, and within a little of withering, as being bared of the covering of the bark. Within, then, must our deeds be laid up, if we look to a reward of our deeds from Him who seeth within.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 7. 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, Joel 1:10; and כשד משדי kesod mishshaddai, a destruction from the Almighty, Joel 1:15; are all paronomasias in which this prophet seems to delight.


 
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