What Does Joel 1:5 Mean in the King James?
Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The thing that once dulled the senses becomes the absence that forces them awake.
THE MEANING
You hear a summons to wake from intoxication just as the wine is cut off from your mouth. The deprivation is not disguised: weeping and howling give voice to what this loss feels like now.
THE ROOT
נִכְרַת
nikhrat
GROWS FROM
כרת
karat
to cut, sever, or cut off
The verse’s “cut off” uses כרת (karat), “to cut”; the same verb appears in כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berit), “cut a covenant.” Hebrew uses this root for both severance and covenant-making, giving the loss a forceful edge while the verse still names a literal absence of wine.
ALSO GROWS
karat berit: literally, “cut a covenant”; idiomatically, make a covenant
כָּרַת בְּרִית
Genesis uses this same root in “made a covenant,” showing that כרת can name a decisive act of separation or binding.
karet: cutting off; excision
כָּרֵת
This related form echoes the force of the severance described in the verse.
שִׁכּוֹרִים
shikkorim
GROWS FROM
שכר
shakar
to become drunk or intoxicated
“drunkards” in this verse is shikkorim. The root joins the intoxicated person to the intoxicating drink: Hebrew uses related forms for “drunk” and “strong drink.” The command to wake lands against that shared root as the familiar wine disappears.
ALSO GROWS
shekar: strong or intoxicating drink
שֵׁכָר
This branch names a drink by its intoxicating quality, sharing the root found in “drunkards.”
shikkor: drunk; intoxicated
שִׁכּוֹר
This form names the state of the people summoned to wake.
THE PATTERN
When abundance is removed, what it was holding at bay surfaces as grief and hunger.
The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.THE THREAD
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:In Joel, נִכְרַת (nikhrat) means “is cut off”; Genesis uses the same root כרת (karat), “cut,” in כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berit), “cut a covenant,” translated “made a covenant.” The shared root shows that this verb can name both a severance and a covenant-making act, sharpening the sense of what has been parted from the drinkers.
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