Joel 1:13-15

The cessation of the daily sacrifices again occupies the prophet's thought; and he turns to the priests, bidding them not mourn only (Joel 1:9), but clothe themselves in sackcloth, and proclaim a day of public fast and humiliation. The occasion, namely, is not one for grief only: it is one which calls also for penitence and prayer; such a calamity is a judgement, not merely betokening God's present anger with His people, but awakening the apprehension of sorer judgements in the future, which it behoves the nation, by timely penitence, if possible to avert.

Gird yourselves viz. with sackcloth (Joel 1:8), as the R.V. supplies. So Isaiah 32:11.

lament wail (see on Amos 5:16). A different word from the unusual one so rendered in Joel 1:8.

ministers of the altar cf. ministers of the sanctuary, Ezekiel 45:4.

lie all night in sackcloth as Ahab did, when he humbled himself before Elijah (1 Kings 21:27). The sackcloth would be a token not only of grief, but also of penitence (1 Ki. l.c.; Nehemiah 9:1; Jonah 3:5-6); and the mention of it leads on accordingly to the thought of Joel 1:14.