Be confounded, O tillers of the soil: The Hebrew verb rendered Be confounded means “be ashamed” here. There is a wordplay between this verb and the Hebrew verb for “fails” in the previous verse. The farmers should be ashamed because their work has failed. Translators will have to determine how to express with an imperative verb the idea of being ashamed by crop failure. A possible model is “Be embarrassed, because of what has happened.” In English-speaking cultures it is not normal to speak of disappointment over crop failure as a cause for “shame,” so Good News Translation uses the term “Grieve.” Good News Translation‘s choice of this verb has probably been influenced by the verb wail in the following parallel line. New Revised Standard Version has “Be dismayed,” New Jerusalem Bible says “Stand dismayed,” and Revised English Bible uses “Despair.” Tillers of the soil, or “plowmen,” is a way of describing “farmers” (Good News Translation) by their activity rather than by their professional name.

Wail, O vinedressers: Wail is a form of mourning referred to earlier in Joel 1.5. Vinedressers are the people who take care of grapevines, doing such things as pruning and weeding.

Bible en français courant interprets the Hebrew verb forms in the first two lines as statements rather than commands, saying “The farmers are dismayed, the vinedressers cry out their despair.” In the context of this lament it is better to render the verbs as imperatives, as most versions do.

O tillers and O vinedressers are an archaic English form of address borrowed from ancient classical languages. New Revised Standard Version changes this to the modern form, saying “you farmers” and “you vinedressers.”

For the wheat and barley expresses the topic of the lament. Wheat and barley are grasses that have been cultivated from ancient times. Their seeds grow as spikes, or rows of seeds, at the end of a long stalk. The seeds (or, grains) are ground into flour for baking bread. In Old Testament times barley was the less valuable of the two, and it was commonly fed to animals. It was also eaten by humans when wheat was not available or was too expensive. Nowadays barley is mainly used for the production of beer. If wheat and/or barley are not known in the local context and there is no generic word available for them, translators may have to use terms for locally grown cereals such as millet or maize, either as substitutes or as part of a comparison. This line does not state what happened to the wheat and barley, but it is implied that these crops suffered the same damage as did the harvest of the field in the next line.

Because the harvest of the field has perished: The harvest of the field means “all the crops” (Good News Translation); the phrase of the field may be left implicit in most languages. Has perished means they “are destroyed” (Good News Translation). Translators may use verbs here that are suitable for general crop failure or for the specific destruction by locusts or drought.

Good News Translation has combined the thought of the last two lines and has included the word “yes” as a marker of increasing intensity; not only have the wheat and barley been destroyed, but in fact all the crops, including the grapes.

Quoted with permission from de Blois, Kees & Dorn, Louis. A Handbook on Joel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2020. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .