Joel 1 · Verse 15

Joel 1:15

Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

Joel 1:15, King James Version

Joel 1:15 in other translations

BSB	Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
WEB	Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
ASV	Alas for the day! for the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
YLT	And cry unto Jehovah, ‘Alas for the day! For near is a day of Jehovah, And as destruction from the mighty it cometh.
DARBY	Alas for the day! for the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
BBE	Sorrow for the day! for the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Ruler of all it will come.
Webster	Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

What does Joel 1:15 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

15. day of the Lord--(Joe 2:1, 11); that is, the day of His anger (Is 13:9; Ob 15; Zep 1:7, 15). It will be a foretaste of the coming day of the Lord as Judge of all men, whence it receives the same name. Here the transition begins from the plague of locusts to the worse calamities (Joe 2:1-11) from invading armies about to come on Judea, of which the locusts were the prelude.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 15 Alas for the day! - The Syriac repeats this, the Vulgate, Septuagint, and Arabic, thrice: "Alas, alas, alas, for the day!" As a destruction from the Almighty - The destruction that is now coming is no ordinary calamity; it is as a signal judgment immediately inflicted by the Almighty.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on 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…

Read the full comment on Joel 1:14-20 →

Joel 1:15 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

אֲהָ֖הּ'a.Hahalas!H162

לַיּ֑וֹםlai.Yomfor the dayH3117

כִּ֤יkiforH3588

קָרוֹב֙ka.rOv[is] nearH7138

י֣וֹםYom[the] day ofH3117

יְהוָ֔הYah.wehYahwehH3068

וּכְשֹׁ֖דu.khe.Shodand like devastationH7701

מִשַׁדַּ֥יmi.sha.Daifrom [the] AlmightyH7706

יָבֽוֹא\׃ya.Vo'it will comeH935

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Joel 1:15

Isaiah 13:6-9
Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt: And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
Zephaniah 1:14-18
The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. …
Jeremiah 30:7
Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.
Ezekiel 7:2-12
Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land. Now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations. And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come. …
Joel 2:11
And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?
Joel 2:31
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.
James 5:9
Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
Revelation 6:17
For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
Luke 19:41-44
And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
Psalms 37:13
The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming.
Joel 2:1-2
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.
Amos 5:16-18
Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the Lord. Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Alas.
2:2; Jer 30:7; Am 5:16-18
the day of.
2:1; Ps 37:13; Isa 13:6-9; Eze 7:2-12; 12:22-28; Zep 1:14-18
Lu 19:41-44; Jas 5:9; Re 6:17

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

Joel 1:14
Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord,
Joel 1:15
Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
Joel 1:16
Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

Read all of Joel 1

Joel 1:15 in other languages

Spanish Reina-Valera 1909	¡Ay del día! porque cercano está el día de Jehová, y vendrá como destrucción por el Todopoderoso.
French Bible J.N. Darby 1885	Hélas, quel jour! car le jour de l’ Éternel est proche, et il viendra comme une destruction du Tout-puissant.
German Elberfelder 1871	Ach über den Tag! denn nahe ist der Tag Jehovas, und er kommt wie eine Verwüstung vom Allmächtigen.
Latin Clementine Vulgate	A, a, a, diei! quia prope est dies Domini, et quasi vastitas a potente veniet.