17 The seed [1] is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.

Other Translations of Joel 1:17

New International Version

17 The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods.The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up.

English Standard Version

17 The seed shrivels under the clods;The meaning of the Hebrew line is uncertain the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are torn down because the grain has dried up.

The Message

17 The seeds in the field are dead, barns deserted, Grain silos abandoned. Who needs them? The crops have failed!

New King James Version

17 The seed shrivels under the clods, Storehouses are in shambles; Barns are broken down, For the grain has withered.

New Living Translation

17 The seeds die in the parched ground, and the grain crops fail. The barns stand empty, and granaries are abandoned.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on Joel 1:17

Commentary on Joel 1:14-20

(Read Joel 1:14-20)

The sorrow of the people is turned into repentance and humiliation before God. With all the marks of sorrow and shame, sin must be confessed and bewailed. A day is to be appointed for this purpose; a day in which people must be kept from their common employments, that they may more closely attend God's services; and there is to be abstaining from meat and drink. Every one had added to the national guilt, all shared in the national calamity, therefore every one must join in repentance. When joy and gladness are cut off from God's house, when serious godliness decays, and love waxes cold, then it is time to cry unto the Lord. The prophet describes how grievous the calamity. See even the inferior creatures suffering for our transgression. And what better are they than beasts, who never cry to God but for corn and wine, and complain of the want of the delights of sense? Yet their crying to God in those cases, shames the stupidity of those who cry not to God in any case. Whatever may become of the nations and churches that persist in ungodliness, believers will find the comfort of acceptance with God, when the wicked shall be burned up with his indignation.