Joel - 1:17



17 The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Joel 1:17.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
The seeds rot under their clods; the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the grain is withered.
The beasts have rotted in their dung, the barns are destroyed, the storehouses are broken down: because the corn is confounded.
The seeds are rotten under their clods, the granaries are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
The seeds rot under their clods; the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
The seed hath perished under their clods, the granaries are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
Rotted have scattered things under their clods, Desolated have been storehouses, Broken down have been granaries, For withered hath the corn.
The grains have become small and dry under the spade; the store-houses are made waste, the grain-stores are broken down; for the grain is dry and dead.
The grains shrivel under their hoes; The garners are laid desolate, The barns are broken down; For the corn is withered.
The heifers decay in their stalls. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.
The mules have rotted in their own manure, the barns have been demolished, the wine cellars have been destroyed, because the grain has been ruined.
Putrefacta sunt grana subtus sulcos suos, desolata sunt reconditoria (vel, apothecae desolatae sunt,) diruta sunt horrea, quia exaruit frumentum.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

The seed is rotten under the clods - 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 lay desolate, nay, were allowed to go to ruin, in hopelessness of any future harvest.

The seed is rotten under their clods - When the sprout was cut off as low as possible by the locusts, there was no farther germination. The seed rotted away.

The seed is rotten under their clods,.... Or "grains" (z) of wheat or barley, which had been sown, and, for want of rain, putrefied and wasted away under the clods of earth, through the great drought; so that what with locusts, which cropped that that did bud forth, and with the drought, by reason of which much of the seed sown came to nothing, an extreme famine ensued: the Targum is,
"casks of wine rotted under their coverings:''
the garners are desolate; the "treasuries" (a), 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 broken down; 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 is withered; that which sprung up withered and dried away, through the heat and drought: or was "ashamed" (b); not answering the expectation of the sower.
(z) "grana", Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Tarnovius, Cocceius, Bochartus. So Ben Melech, who observes they are so called, because they are separated and scattered under the earth. (a) "thesauri", Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Vatablus, Piscator. (b) "confusum est", V. L. "puduit", Drusius; "pudore afficit", Cocceius.

is rotten--"is dried up," "vanishes away," from an Arabic root [MAURER]. "Seed," literally, "grains." The drought causes the seeds to lose all their vitality and moisture.
garners--granaries; generally underground, and divided into separate receptacles for the different kinds of grain.

Laid desolate - Run to ruin because the owners discouraged with the barrenness of the seasons, would not repair them.

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