Joel 1:13 (GNV)

Passage

Girde your selues and lament, ye Priests: howle ye ministers of the altar: come, and lie all night in sackecloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meate offring, and the drinke offring is taken away from the house of your God.

Nearby Context

Joel 1:11 Be ye ashamed, O husband men: howle, O ye vine dressers for the wheate, and for the barly, because the haruest of the fielde is perished.

Joel 1:12 The vine is dried vp, and the figge tree is decayed: the pomegranate tree and the palme tree, and the apple tree, euen all the trees of the fielde are withered: surely the ioy is withered away from the sonnes of men.

Joel 1:13 Girde your selues and lament, ye Priests: howle ye ministers of the altar: come, and lie all night in sackecloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meate offring, and the drinke offring is taken away from the house of your God.

Joel 1:14 Sanctifie you a fast: call a solemne assemblie: gather the Elders, and all the inhabitants of the land into the House of the Lord your God, and cry vnto the Lord,

Joel 1:15 Alas: for the day, for the day of the Lord is at hand, and it commeth as a destruction from the Almightie.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "girde", "selues", "lament", "priests", "howle", "ministers", "altar", and "come". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "girde" and "selues", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 12's "The vine is dried vp and the..." into verse 14's "Sanctifie you a fast call a solemne...", so "girde" and "selues" 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 "girde" and "selues" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.