The cereal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the LORD: A cereal offering consisted of flour made from grain (New Revised Standard Version “grain offering”), and a drink offering was wine. These offerings were to be given twice daily in the Temple (Exo 29.38-42; Num 28.3-8). They were also offered at other times. An offering is something given or presented to Yahweh and may be translated as such. Many languages do not have a generic word for “grain,” as we have in English. Since the grain offering consisted of wheat or barley flour, translators may render it accordingly. For comments on “wine,” see Joel 1.5.

Are cut off refers to the locusts stopping the supply of flour and wine to the Temple. It simply means that they are no longer available. See the use of this verb in Joel 1.5.

The house of the LORD is a common way of referring to the Temple in Jerusalem. There was no other house of Yahweh to which his people were to come for worship.

The Good News Translation restructuring of these two lines can serve as a good model: “There is no grain or wine to offer in the Temple.” Bible en français courant has “No one any longer brings to the temple offerings of wheat or offerings of wine” (similarly Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). An alternative is “The grain and wine offerings can no longer take place in the Temple [or, House of God].”

The priests mourn, the ministers of the LORD: The priests and the ministers of the LORD refer to the same group of people; priests emphasizes their role of sacrificing on behalf of the people, and ministers emphasizes their role of serving, or ministering, in the Temple. The definite article the is used with both these nouns since they are a known group. In many cultures people are familiar with the concept of “priest” from traditional religion. Because such a person often is involved in rituals that are considered incompatible with the Christian faith, Christians often object to the use of traditional vocabulary of this kind in Bible translations. In such situations a more neutral expression such as “sacrificer” may be acceptable. Good News Translation has combined priests and ministers and makes explicit both the reason for their mourning and the way in which they ministered: “the priests mourn because they have no offerings for the LORD.” Another possible model is “Because of this [that is, the preceding statement] the priests mourn.” Some languages require a change of order in such cause-effect statements. If so, the whole verse may be rendered as follows:

• The priests, the servants of Yahweh, mourn,
because there is no grain and wine to offer in the Temple.

Textual Note: For the third line of this verse the Septuagint has “Mourn, you priests” (also New English Bible) instead of The priests mourn. This translation is possible if the first vowel in the Hebrew verb here is changed to make the verb imperative. However, the traditional Hebrew text (the Masoretic Text) seems to be better suited to the message and structure of the discourse. The Hebrew Old Testament Text Project (Hebrew Old Testament Text Project) gives the Masoretic Text a {B} rating, meaning that this is the preferred text in spite of some doubt.

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 .