Joel 1:7 (DRB)

Passage

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.

Nearby Context

Joel 1:5 Awake, ye that are drunk, and weep, and mourn all ye that take delight in drinking sweet wine: for it is cut off from your mouth.

Joel 1:6 For a nation come up upon my land, strong, and without number: his teeth are like the teeth of a lion: and his cheek teeth as of a lion's whelp.

Joel 1:7 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.

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

Joel 1:9 Sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of the Lord: the priests, the Lord's ministers, have mourned:

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "hath", "laid", "vineyard", "waste", "pilled", "bark", and "tree". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "hath" and "laid", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 6's "For a nation come up upon my..." into verse 8's "Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth...", so "hath" and "laid" 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 "hath" and "laid" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.