Joel 1:17
The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
The seed is rotten under their clods,.... Or "grains" {z} of wheat or barley, which had been sown, and, for want of rain, putrefied and wasted away under the clods of earth, through the great drought; so that what with locusts, which cropped that that did bud forth, and with the drought, by reason of which much of the seed sown came to nothing, an extreme famine ensued: the Targum is,
"casks of wine rotted under their coverings:''
the garners are desolate; the "treasuries" {a}, or storehouses, having nothing in them, and there being nothing to put into them; Jarchi makes these to be peculiar for wine and oil, both which failed, Joel 1:10;
the barns are broken down; in which the wheat and barley had used to be laid up; but this judgment of the locusts and drought continuing year after year, the walls fell down, and, no care was taken to repair them, there being no, use for them; these were the granaries, and, as Jarchi, for wheat particularly:
for the corn is withered; that which sprung up withered and dried away, through the heat and drought: or was "ashamed" {b}; not answering the expectation of the sower.
{z} twdrp "grana", Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Tarnovius, Cocceius, Bochartus. So Ben Melech, who observes they are so called, because they are separated and scattered under the earth.
{a} twrua "thesauri", Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Vatablus, Piscator.
{b} vybwh "confusum est", V. L. "puduit", Drusius; "pudore afficit", Cocceius.