1. Joel 3:13 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What do the expressions “put in the sickle” and “the vats overflow” mean?

Joel 3:13 (ESV)

13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great.

Enthusiastically Joel calls upon God to go and smite the enemies (put in the sickle as in the standing wheat in the field; trample them down as you would tread grapes and so squeeze them, cf. Revelation 14:14–20; Revelation 19:15–21), for their sins are beyond all bounds. The vats are overflowing, so numerous are the crimes.