The awkward structure of verse 9 presents the
ending clause, “…the ministers of the
Lord…” is easily overcome by looking at a similar usage later on. In 2:17b
where Joel says, “…let the priests, the
ministers of the Lord, weep.” In this verse the ending clause refers to the
noun priests. We are given further description of their function. Likewise, in
v. 9b we can affirm the same intent out of this structure that in the English
appears to be clumsy. These priests in v. 9 are in fact, like those in 2:17,
the ministers of the Lord. The Contemporary English Version, The KJV, and the
ASV all place this modifying clause after the noun clause and before the action
verb. So it sounds like this, “…the
priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn.” And with this rendering we can gain
a clearer idea of the prophet’s intent—that the invader has destroyed the
source of their offerings causing the priests to mourn. Not just because they
could no longer offer up these things to God, but that leftover was a source of
food for them (Lev. 2). So they so were suffering the pain of starvation.
In verse 10 the fields have been destroyed
and the very ground of God’s Land mourns the effects caused by the people’s
unrepentant sin. In this verse we have a sort of summation of the preceding
physical curses. In 10b we are told that the reason the ground mourns is
because the grain is destroyed, the lack of which is lamented by the priests, and
the wine has dried up, whose dearth is especially noticed by the drunkard, and
lastly, the oil has been removed and the sorrow caused by that lack would be
felt far and wide. The lack of oil symbolized the lack of God’s presence and
favor, and the lamps would have none to burn, bringing no light into darkness.
But this lack represents a state much like that of a famine. But the prophet’s
persistence through these exhortations indicates that even the state of
starvation has only driven the people to mourn, as Calvin says, for their
stomachs and not yet for their hearts.
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