Joel 1:7 (WEB)

Passage

He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.

Nearby Context

Joel 1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

Joel 1:6 For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.

Joel 1:7 He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.

Joel 1:8 Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!

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

Study Lenses

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

The nearby context moves from verse 6's "For a nation has come up on..." into verse 8's "Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth...", so "laid" and "vine" 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 "laid" and "vine" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.