Joel 1:9

The meal offering and the drink offering is cut off, &c. the means of providing them having been destroyed by the locusts. The cessation of the daily sacrifices would be regarded as a national misfortune: even during the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, they were maintained as long as possible, and when ultimately they had to be suspended, the people, we are told, "were terribly despondent" (Jos. B. J.VI. 2, 1).

On the nature of the meal-offering, see Leviticus 2; and comp. on Amos 5:22. The drink-offering was a libation of wine, which usually accompanied a burnt-offering. Here the reference is, no doubt, to the meal- and drink-offering, which, according to the Priestly Code (Exodus 29:38-42; Numbers 28:3-8), were to accompany the daily morning and evening burnt-offering. A special meal-offering was also offered daily by the high-priest (Leviticus 6:19-20).

the ministers of Jehovah] Joel 1:13; Joel 2:17; cf. Isaiah 61:6; Jeremiah 33:21. The corresponding verb, to minister, is used often of the sacred services of the priests, as Deuteronomy 10:8; Deuteronomy 18:5; Deuteronomy 18:7; Exodus 28:35; Exodus 28:43, &c.