Joel 1:13-14
Joel commands the priests to put on sackcloth and lead the whole community in fasting, sacred assembly, and prayer before the Lord their God.
13 Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house.
14 Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Yahweh, your God, and cry to Yahweh.
Joel commands the priests to put on sackcloth and lead the whole community in fasting, sacred assembly, and prayer before the LORD their God.
To command the priests and ministers of the altar to put on sackcloth, spend the night in mourning, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly, and cry out to the LORD — placing spiritual leaders at the front of the community's lament.
This unit is the structural pivot of chapter 1 — moving from lament description to commanded priestly action. The sequence of priestly commands (sackcloth, overnight mourning, fast, assembly, prayer) structures the full communal response that will climax in Joel's personal prayer in 1:19-20.
A Devastated Land and the Call to Lament Before the LORD
When devastation exposes the fragility of life, God calls his people to wake up, lament honestly, and cry out to him before the day of the LORD comes near.