Joel 1:8 (DBY)

Passage

Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

Nearby Context

Joel 1:6 For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number: his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a lioness.

Joel 1:7 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.

Joel 1:8 Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

Joel 1:9 The oblation 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 corn is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "wail", "like", "virgin", "girded", "sackcloth", "husband", and "youth". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "wail" and "like", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 7's "He hath made my vine a desolation..." into verse 9's "The oblation and the drink-offering are cut...", so "wail" and "like" 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 "wail" and "like" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.