Joel 1:11 (ASV)

Passage

Be confounded, O ye husbandmen, wail, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field is perished.

Nearby Context

Joel 1:9 The meal-offering and the drink-offering are cut off from the house of Jehovah; the priests, Jehovah`s ministers, mourn.

Joel 1:10 The field is laid waste, the land mourneth; for the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

Joel 1:11 Be confounded, O ye husbandmen, wail, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field is perished.

Joel 1:12 The vine is withered, and the fig-tree languisheth; the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field are withered: for joy is withered away from the sons of men.

Joel 1:13 Gird yourselves [with sackcloth], and lament, ye priests; wail, ye ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meal-offering and the drink-offering are withholden from the house of your God.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "confounded", "husbandmen", "wail", "vinedressers", "wheat", "barley", "harvest", and "field". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "confounded" and "husbandmen", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 10's "The field is laid waste the land..." into verse 12's "The vine is withered and the fig-tree...", so "confounded" and "husbandmen" belong inside that flow. In Joel context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "confounded" and "husbandmen" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.