Joel 1:18

The distress of the cattle through lack of pasture (cf. Jeremiah 14:5-6).

are perplexed wandering hither and thither in quest of food [33].

[33] LXX. for מה נאנחה בהמה express מַה־נַּנִּחָה בָהֵמָּה, "what shall we lay up (Deuteronomy 14:28) in them?" connecting the words with Joel 1:17. But such a clause would be a very weak addition to כי הוביש דגן.

yea(or even) the flocks of sheep, &c. even the sheep, which do not require such moist or rich pasture as kine, suffer with them.

are made desolate are held guilty, or (R.V. marg.) suffer punishment. âsham, to be guilty, is sometimes used in the sense of to be held guilty, to bear the consequences of guilt, i.e. to suffer punishment (comp. Hosea 13:16; Isaiah 24:6); and here the term is applied improperly, by a poetical figure, to cattle. The rendering are made desolateis due to the fact that the Jews understood אשׁם in the sense of שׁמם. Merx and Wellh., however, perhaps rightly, read נָשַׁמּוּ, -are made desolate" (Lamentations 4:5), or -stand aghast" (Jeremiah 4:9).