Joel 1:11 (WEB)

Passage

Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished.

Nearby Context

Joel 1:9 The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh’s house. The priests, Yahweh’s ministers, mourn.

Joel 1:10 The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes.

Joel 1:11 Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished.

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

Joel 1:13 Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "confounded", "farmers", "wail", "vineyard", "keepers", "wheat", "barley", and "harvest". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "confounded" and "farmers", 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 has dried up and the...", so "confounded" and "farmers" 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 "farmers" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.