Pomegranate, palm too and apple,
All trees of the field are dried up:
Yea, joy is abashed and away from the children of
men.
In this passage the same feeling is attributed to men and to the fruits of the land: In grief are the priests, the ground is in grief. And it is repeatedly said that all alike are abashed. By this heavy word we have sought to render the effect of the similarly sounding “hôbhîsha,” that our English version renders ashamed. It signifies to be frustrated, and so disheartened, put out: soured would be an equivalent, applicable to the vine and to joy and to men’s hearts.
Put on mourning, O priests, beat the breast;
Wail, ye ministers of the altar;
Come, lie down in sackcloth, O ministers of my God:
For meal-offering and drink-offering are cut off
from the house of your God.