The Meaning of Joel 1:3 Explained

Joel 1:3

KJV: Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

YLT: Concerning it to your sons talk ye, And your sons to their sons, And their sons to another generation.

Darby: Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation:

ASV: Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Tell  ye your children  of it, and [let] your children  [tell] their children,  and their children  another  generation. 

What does Joel 1:3 Mean?

Context Summary

Joel 1:1-20 - A Summons To Penitence
We know nothing of Joel beyond this book. He was content to be God's mouthpiece and remain unknown. His message was one of unparalleled woe. The memory of God's loving kindness ought to have kept His people faithful and loyal, but since grace and love had failed to affect them awful judgments were announced. A small insect, the locust, was to prostrate man's boasted power. The four kinds of locusts here described and which doubtless devastated the country, were also symbols of the four world-empires, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, and Rome, which were to lay waste the Holy Land. Such judgments call for acts of repentance, such as fasting, humiliation, and intercession. There are days in national experience when it becomes us to gird ourselves and lament. The ministers and elders of the Church should lead the way. Where there has been infidelity to the great Lover of souls, when the visible Church or the individual member has turned from Christ to the wanton world, then joy withers away, Joel 1:12, spiritual worship ceases, Joel 1:9, and there can be neither peace nor safety until there has been repentance and return. [source]

Chapter Summary: Joel 1

1  Joel, declaring various judgments of God, exhorts to observe them,
8  and to mourn
14  He prescribes a solemn fast to deprecate those judgments

What do the individual words in Joel 1:3 mean?

about it your children Tell and [let] your children [tell] their children and their children generation another
עָלֶ֖יהָ לִבְנֵיכֶ֣ם סַפֵּ֑רוּ וּבְנֵיכֶם֙ לִבְנֵיהֶ֔ם וּבְנֵיהֶ֖ם לְד֥וֹר אַחֵֽר

עָלֶ֖יהָ  about  it 
Parse: Preposition, third person feminine singular
Root: עַל 
Sense: upon, on the ground of, according to, on account of, on behalf of, concerning, beside, in addition to, together with, beyond, above, over, by, on to, towards, to, against.
לִבְנֵיכֶ֣ם  your  children 
Parse: Preposition-l, Noun, masculine plural construct, second person masculine plural
Root: בֵּן 
Sense: son, grandson, child, member of a group.
סַפֵּ֑רוּ  Tell 
Parse: Verb, Piel, Imperative, masculine plural
Root: סָפַר 
Sense: to count, recount, relate.
וּבְנֵיכֶם֙  and  [let]  your  children  [tell] 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Noun, masculine plural construct, second person masculine plural
Root: בֵּן 
Sense: son, grandson, child, member of a group.
לִבְנֵיהֶ֔ם  their  children 
Parse: Preposition-l, Noun, masculine plural construct, third person masculine plural
Root: בֵּן 
Sense: son, grandson, child, member of a group.
וּבְנֵיהֶ֖ם  and  their  children 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Noun, masculine plural construct, third person masculine plural
Root: בֵּן 
Sense: son, grandson, child, member of a group.
לְד֥וֹר  generation 
Parse: Preposition-l, Noun, masculine singular
Root: דֹּור 
Sense: period, generation, habitation, dwelling.
אַחֵֽר  another 
Parse: Adjective, masculine singular
Root: אַחֵר  
Sense: another, other, following.