Joel 1:20

20 Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.

Joel 1:20 in Other Translations

20 The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

20 Even the beasts of the field pant for you because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

20 Even the wild animals cry out to you because the streams have dried up, and fire has consumed the wilderness pastures.

20 Wild animals, dying of thirst, look to you for a drink. Springs and streams are dried up. The whole country is burning up.

20 Yea, the beasts of the field pant unto thee; for the water brooks are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

20 Even wild animals long for you. Streams run dry. Fire has burned up the open pastures.

20 Even the wild animals cry out to You, for the river beds are dried up, and fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness.

20 Even the wild animals cry out to you for help. The streams of water have dried up. Fire has burned up the grasslands.

Joel 1:20 Meaning and Commentary

Joel 1:20

The beasts of the field cry also unto thee
As well as the prophet, in their way; which may be mentioned, both as a rebuke to such who had no sense of the judgments upon them, and called not on the Lord; and to express the greatness of the calamity, of which the brute creatures were sensible, and made piteous moans, as for food, so for drink; panting thorough excessive heat and vehement thirst, as the hart, after the water brooks, of which this word is only used, ( Psalms 42:1 ) ; but in vain: for the rivers of waters are dried up;
not only springs, and rivulets and brooks of water, but rivers, places where were large deep waters, as Aben Ezra explains it; either by the Assyrian army, the like Sennacherib boasts ( Isaiah 37:25 ) ; and is said to be done by the army of Xerxes, wherever it came; or rather by the excessive heat and scorching beams of the sun, by which such effects are produced: and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness;
(See Gill on Joel 1:19); and whereas the word rendered pastures signifies both "them" and "habitations" also; and, being repeated, it may be taken in one of the senses in ( Joel 1:19 ) ; and in the other here: and so Kimchi who interprets it before of "tents", here explains it of grassy places in the wilderness, dried up, as if the sun had consumed them.

Joel 1:20 In-Context

18 How the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

19 To you, LORD, I call, for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.

20 Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.

Cross References

• 1. S Psalms 42:1; S Psalms 104:21
• 2. 1 Kings 17:7
• 3. Joel 2:22