Joel 1 commentary

The most aged could not remember such calamities as were about to take place. Armies of insects were coming upon the land to eat the fruits of it. It is expressed so as to apply also to the destruction of the country by a foreign enemy, and seems to refer to the devastations of the Chaldeans. God is Lord of hosts, has every creature at his command, and, when he pleases, can humble and mortify a proud, rebellious people, by the weakest and most contemptible creatures. It is just with God to take away the comforts which are abused to luxury and excess; and the more men place their happiness in the gratifications of sense, the more severe temporal afflictions are upon them. The more earthly delights we make needful to satisfy us, the more we expose ourselves to trouble.

All who labour only for the meat that perishes, will, sooner or later, be ashamed of their labour. Those that place their happiness in the delights of sense, when deprived of them, or disturbed in the enjoyment, lose their joy; whereas spiritual joy then flourishes more than ever. See what perishing, uncertain things our creature-comforts are. See how we need to live in continual dependence upon God and his providence. See what ruinous work sin makes. As far as poverty occasions the decay of piety, and starves the cause of religion among a people, it is a very sore judgment. But how blessed are the awakening judgments of God, in rousing his people and calling home the heart to Christ, and his salvation!

The sorrow of the people is turned into repentance and humiliation before God. With all the marks of sorrow and shame, sin must be confessed and bewailed. A day is to be appointed for this purpose; a day in which people must be kept from their common employments, that they may more closely attend God's services; and there is to be abstaining from meat and drink. Every one had added to the national guilt, all shared in the national calamity, therefore every one must join in repentance. When joy and gladness are cut off from God's house, when serious godliness decays, and love waxes cold, then it is time to cry unto the Lord. The prophet describes how grievous the calamity. See even the inferior creatures suffering for our transgression. And what better are they than beasts, who never cry to God but for corn and wine, and complain of the want of the delights of sense? Yet their crying to God in those cases, shames the stupidity of those who cry not to God in any case. Whatever may become of the nations and churches that persist in ungodliness, believers will find the comfort of acceptance with God, when the wicked shall be burned up with his indignation.

The word of Jehovah which came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. He names here his father; it is hence probable that he was a man well known and of some celebrity. But who this Pethuel was, all now are ignorant. And what the Hebrews hold as a general rule, that a prophet is designated, whenever his father’s name is added, appears to me frivolous; and we see how bold they are in devising such comments. When no reason for any thing appears to them, they invent some fable, and allege it as a divine truth. When, therefore, they are wont thus to trifle, I have no regard for what is held by them as a rule. But yet it is probable, that when the Prophets are mentioned as having sprung from this or that father, their fathers were men of some note.

Now what he declared by saying, that he delivered the word of the Lord, is worthy of being observed; for he shows that he claimed nothing for himself, as an individual, as though he wished to rule by his own judgment, and to subject others to his own fancies; but that he relates only what he had received from the Lord. And since the Prophets claimed no authority for themselves, except as far as they faithfully executed the office divinely committed to them, and delivered, as it were from hand to hand, what the Lord commanded, we may hence feel assured that no human doctrines ought to be admitted into the Church. Why? Because as much as men trust in themselves, so much they take away from the authority of God. This preface then ought to be noticed, which almost all the Prophets use, namely, that they brought nothing of their own or according to their own judgment, but that they were faithful dispensers of the truth intrusted to them by God.

And the word is said to have been to Joel; not that God intended that he alone should be his disciple, but because he deposited this treasure with him, that he might be his minister to the whole people. Paul also says the same thing, — that to the ministers of the Gospel was committed a message for Christ, or in Christ’s name, to reconcile men to God, (2 Corinthians 5:20;) and in another place he says, ‘He has deposited with us this treasure as in earthen vessels,’ (2 Corinthians 4:7.) We now understand why Joel says, that the word of the Lord was delivered to him, it was not that he might be the only disciple; but as some teacher was necessary, Joel was chosen to whom the Lord committed this office. Then the word of God belongs indeed indiscriminately to all; and yet it is committed to Prophets and other teachers; for they are, so to speak, as it were trustees (depositarii — depositories.)

As to the verb היהeie, there is no need of philosophizing so acutely as Jerome does: “How was the word of the Lord made?” For he feared lest Christ should be said to be made, as he is the word of the Lord. These are trifles, the most puerile. He could not, however, in any other way get rid of the difficulty but by saying that the word is said to be made with respect to man whom God addresses, and not with respect to God himself. All this, as ye must see, is childish; for the Prophet says here only, that the word of the Lord was sent to him, that is, that the Lord employed him as his messenger to the whole people. But after having shown that he was a fit minister of God, being furnished with his word, he speaks authoritatively, for he represented the person of God.

We now see what is the lawful authority which ought to be in force in the Church, and which we ought to obey without dispute, and to which all ought to submit. It is then only that this authority exists, when God himself speaks by men, and the Holy Spirit employs them as his instruments. For the Prophet brings not forward any empty title; he does not say that he is a high priest of the tribe of Levi, or of the first order, or of the family of Aaron. He alleges no such thing, but says that the word of God was deposited with him. Whosoever then demands to be heard in the Church, must of necessity really prove that he is a preacher of God’s word; and he must not bring his own devices, nor blend with the word any thing that proceeds from the judgment of his own flesh.

But first the Prophet reproves the Jews for being so stupid as not to consider that they were chastised by the hand of God, though this was quite evident. Hence they pervert, in my judgment, the meaning of the Prophet, who think that punishments are here denounced which were as yet suspended; for they transfer all these things to a future time. But I distinguish between this reproof and the denunciations which afterwards follow. Here then the Prophet reproaches the Jews, that having been so severely smitten, they did not gain wisdom; and yet even fools, when the rod is applied to their backs, know that they are punished. Since then the Jews were so stupid, that when even chastised they did not understand that they had to do with God, the Prophet justly reproves this madness. “Hear”, he says, “ye old men; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land, and declare this to your children”. But the consideration of this passage I shall put off till tomorrow.

Prayer.

Grant, Almighty God that as almost the whole world give such loose reins to their licentiousness, that they hesitate not either to despise or to regard as of no value thy sacred word — Grant, O Lord that we may always retain such reverence as is justly due to it and to thy holy oracles and be so moved whenever thou deignest to address us that being truly humbled, we may be raised up by faith to heaven, and by hope gradually attain that glory which is as yet hid from us. And may we at the same time so submissively restrain ourselves, as to make it our whole wisdom to obey thee and to do thee service, until thou gatherest us into thy kingdom, where we shall be partakers of thy glory, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Lecture Thirty-ninth.

Hear this, ye old men; and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land: has this been in your days, and in the days of your fathers? This declare to your children and your children to their children, and their children to the next generation: the residue of the locust has the chafer eaten, and the residue of the chafer has the cankerworm eaten, and the residue of the cankerworm has the caterpillar eaten All these are different kinds of locusts. There are in Hebrew ten names for them, designative probably of so many kinds. There are four here: גזם, gizam, the young locust; ארבה, arebe, so called from their number, one on the wing; ילק, ilak, one of the hairy bristly kind; and λψσ᾿, chesil, one unfledged. Following the probable ideal meaning of the words, we may give them these names, —the cutter, the multiplier, the licker, and the devourer. — Ed. I have in the last Lecture already mentioned what I think of this passage of the Prophet. Some think that a future punishment is denounced; but the context sufficiently proves that they mistake and pervert the real meaning of the Prophet; for, on the contrary, he reproves here the hardness of the people, — that they fell not their plagues. And as men are not easily moved by God’s judgments, the Prophet here declares that God had executed such a vengeance as could not be regarded otherwise than miraculous; as though he said, “God often punishes men, and it behaves them to be attentive as soon as he raises up his finger. But common punishments are wont to be unheeded; men soon forget those punishments to which they have been accustomed. God has, however, treated you in an unusual manner, having openly as it were put forth his hand from heaven, and brought on you punishments nothing less than miraculous. Ye must then be more than stupid, if ye perceive not that you are smitten by God’s hand.” This is the true meaning of the Prophet, and may be easily gathered from the words.

Hear, ye old men, he says. He expressly addresses the old, because experience teaches men much; and the old, when they see any thing new or unusual, must know, that it is not according to the ordinary course of things. He who has past his fiftieth or sixtieth year, and sees something new happening which he had never thought of, doubtless acknowledges it as the unusual work of God. This is the reason why the Prophet directs here his discourse to the old; as though he said, “I will not terrify you about nothing; but let the old hear, who have been accustomed for many years to many revolutions; let them now answer me, whether in their whole life, which has been an age on the earth, have they seen any such thing ” We now perceive the design of the Prophet; for he intended to awaken the Jews that they might understand that God had put forth his hand from heaven, and that it was impossible to ascribe what they had seen with their eyes to chance or to earthly causes, but that it was a miracle. And his object was to make the Jews at length ashamed of their folly in not having hitherto been attentive to God’s punishments, and in having always flattered themselves, as though God slept in heaven, when yet he so violently thundered against them, and intended by an extraordinary course to move them, that they might at last perceive that they were summoned to judgment.

He afterwards adds, And all ye inhabitants of the land. Had the Prophet addressed only the old, some might seize on some pretext for their ignorance; hence he addressed and from the least to the greatest; and this he did, that the young might not exempt themselves from blame in proceeding in their obstinacy and in thus mocking God, when he called them to repentance. Hear, he says, all ye inhabitants of the land; has this been in your days or in the days of your fathers? He says first, has such a thing been in your days, for doubtless what happens rarely deserves a greater consideration. It is indeed true that foolish men are blind to the daily works of God; as the favor of God in making his sun to rise daily is but little thought of by us. This happens through our ingratitude; but our ingratitude is doubled, and is much more base and less excusable, when the Lord works in an unwonted manner, and we yet with closed eves overlook what ought to be deemed a miracle. This dullness the Prophet now reproves, Has such a thing, he says, “happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? Ye can recall to mind what your fathers have told you. It is certain that for two ages no such thing has happened. Your torpidity then is extreme, since ye neglect this judgment of God, which from its very rareness ought to have awakened your minds.”

He then adds, Tell it to your children, your children to their children, their children to the next generation. In this verse the Prophet shows that the matter deserved to be remembered, and was not to be despised by posterity, even for many generations. It appears now quite clear that the Prophet threatens not what was to be, as some interpreters think; it would have been puerile: but, on the contrary, he expostulates here with the Jews, because they were so slothful and tardy in considering God’s judgments; and especially as it was a remarkable instance, when God employed not usual means, but roused, and, as it were, terrified men by prodigies. Of this then tell: for עליה olie means no other thing than ‘tell or declare this thing to your children;’ and further, your children to their children. When any thing new happens, it may be, that we are at first moved with some wonder; but our feeling soon vanishes with the novelty, and we disregard what at first caused great astonishment. But the Prophet here showed, that such was the judgment of God of which he speaks, that it ought not to have been overlooked, no, not even by posterity. Let your children, he says, declare it to those after them, and their children to the fourth generation: it was to be always remembered.

He adds what that judgment was, — that the hope of food had for many years disappointed them. It often happened, we know, that locusts devoured the standing corn; and then the chafers and the palmer worms did the same: these were ordinary events. But when one devastation happened, and another followed, and there was no end; when there had been four barren years, suddenly produced by insects, which devoured the growth of the earth; — this was certainly unusual. Hence the Prophet says, that this could not have been chance; for God intended to show to the Jews some extraordinary portent, that even against their will they might observe his hand. When any thing trifling happens, if it be rare, it will strike the attention of men; for we often see that the world makes a great noise about frivolous things. But this wonder, says the Prophet, “ought to have produced effect on you. What then will ye do, since ye are starving, and the causes are evident; for God has cursed your land, and brought these insects, which have consumed your food before your eyes. Since it is so, it is surely the time for you to repent; and you have been hitherto very regardless having overlooked God’s judgments, which have been so remarkable and so memorable.” Let us now proceed.

Joel 1:5

5. 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.

5. 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 Prophet adds this verse for the sake of amplifying; for when God sees men either contemptuously laughing at or disregarding his judgments, he derides them; and this mode the Prophet now adopts. ‘Ye drunkards,’ he says, ‘awake, and weep and howl.’ In these words he addresses, on the subject in hand, those who had willfully closed their eyes to judgments so manifest. The Jews had become torpid, and had covered themselves over as it were with hardness; it was then necessary to draw them forth as by force into the light. But the Prophet accosts the drunkards by name; and it is probable that this vice was then very common among the people. However that might be, the Prophet by mentioning this instance shows more convincingly, that there was no pretense for passing by things, and that the Jews could not excuse their indifference if they took no notice; for the very drunkards, who had degenerated from the state of men, did themselves feel the calamity, for the wine had been cut off from their mouth. And this expression of the Prophet, “Awake”, ought to be noticed; for the drunkards, even while awake, are asleep, and also spend a great portion of time in sleep. The Prophet had this in view, that men, though not endued with great knowledge, but even void of common sense, could no longer flatter themselves; for the very drunkards, who had wholly suffocated their senses, and had become thus estranged in their minds, did yet perceive the judgment of God; though drowsiness held them bound, they were yet constrained to awake at such a manifest punishment. What then does this ignorance mean, when ye see not that you are smitten by God’s hand?

To the same purpose are the words, Weep and howl. Drunkards, on the contrary, give themselves up to mirth, and intemperately indulge themselves; and there is nothing more difficult than to make them to feel sorrow; for wine so infatuates their senses, that they continue to laugh in the greatest calamities. But the Prophet says, Weep and howl, ye drunkards! What then ought sober men to do? He then adds, Cut off is the wine from your mouth. He says not, “The use of wine is taken away from you;” but he says, from your mouth. Though no one should think of vineyards or of winecellars or of cups, yet they shall be forced, willing or unwilling, to feel the judgment of God in their mouth and in their lips. This is what the Prophet means. We then see how much he aggravates what he had said before: and we must remember that his object was to strike shame into the people, who had become thus torpid with regard to God’s judgments.

As to the word עסיס osis, some render it new wine. עסס osas is to press; and hence עסיס osis is properly the wine that is pressed in the wine-vat. New wine is not what is drawn out of the bottle, but what is pressed out as it were by force. But the Prophet, I have no doubt, includes here under one kind every sort of wine. Let us go on.

Joel 1:6-7

6. For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.

6. Quia gens ascendit super terram meam, robusta et absque numero, dentes ejus dentes leonis, et maxillae (alii vertunt, molares) leonis illis (quanquam aliud est nomen: alii vertunt, leunculum.)

7. He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

7. Posuit vineam meam in vastitatem (vel, desolationem) et ficulneam meam in decorticationem: nudando nudavit eam et disjecit, albi facti sunt rami ejus.

Of what some think, that punishment, not yet inflicted, is denounced here on the people, I again repeat, I do not approve; but, on the contrary, the Prophet, according to my view, records another judgment of God, in order to show that God had not only in one way warned the Jews of their sins, that he might restore them to a right mind; but that he had tried all means to bring them to the right way, though they proved to have been irreclaimable. After having then spoke of the sterility of the fields and of other calamities, he now adds that the Jews had been visited with war. But most commentators consider these two verses as containing a more particular description of the devastations produced by the locusts mentioned before. That they are called “a nation” is according to prophetic style, and what has been done by heathen poets: the wasting of the vine and the barking of the fig-tree seem more suitable to this view. It is true that נוי, nation, and not וזם people, as in Proverbs 30:25, is here used; but, as Dr. Henderson observes, it seems to have been selected on purpose “to prepare the minds of the Jews for the allegorical use made of these insects in chapter 2.” — Ed. Surely famine ought to have touched them, especially when they saw that evils, succeeding evils, had happened for several years contrary to the usual course of things, so that they could not be imputed to chance. But when God brought war upon them, when they were already worn out with famine, must they not have been more than insane in mind, to have continued astonied at God’s judgments and not to repent? Then the meaning of the Prophet is, that God had tried, by every means possible, to find out whether the Jews were healable, and had given them every opportunity to repent, but that they were wholly perverse and untamable.

Then he says, Verily a nation came up. The particle כי ki is not to be taken as a causative, but only as explanatory, Verily, or surely, he says, a nation came up; though an inference also is not amiss, if it be drawn from the beginning of the verse: ‘Hear, ye old men, and tell your children;’ what shall we tell? even this, that a nation, etc. But in this form also כי ki would be exegetical, and the sense would be the same. This much as to the meaning of the passage.

A nation, then, came up over my land. God here justly claims the land of Canaan as his own heritage, and does so designedly, that the Jews might more clearly know that he was angry with them; for their condition would not have been worse than that of other nations, had not God resolved to punish them for their sins. There is here then an implied comparison between Judea and other countries, as though the Prophet said, “How comes it, that your land is wasted by wars and many other calamities, while other countries are at rest? This land is no doubt sacred to God, for he has chosen it for himself, that he might rule in it; he has here his own habitation: it then must be that there is some cause for God’s wrath, as your land is so miserably wasted, when other lands enjoy tranquillity.” We now perceive what the Prophet means. A nation, he says, came up upon my land, and what then? God could surely have prevented this; he could have defended his own land, of which he was the keeper, and which was under his protection: how then had it happened that enemies with impunity inundated this land, having marched into it and utterly laid it waste, except that it had been forsaken by the Lord himself?

A nation, he says, came up upon my land, strong and without number; and further, who had the teeth of a lion, the jaw-bones of a young lion. The nations had no strength which God could not in an instant have broken down, nor had he need of mighty auxiliaries, for he could by a nod only have reduced to nothing whatever men might have attempted: when, therefore, the Assyrians so impetuously assailed the Jews they were necessarily exposed to the wantonness of their enemies, for they were unworthy of being protected, as hitherto, by the hand of God.

He afterwards adds, that his vine had been exposed to desolation and waste, his fig-tree to the stripping of the bark. God speaks not here of his own vine, as in some other places, in which he designates his Church by this term; but he calls everything on earth his own, as he calls the whole race of Abraham his children: and he thus reproaches the Jews for having reduced themselves to such wretchedness through their own fault; for they would have never been spoiled by their enemies, had not God, who was wont to defend then, previously rejected them; for there was nothing in their land which he did not claim as his own; as he had chosen the people, so he had consecrated the land to himself. Whatsoever, then, enlisted in Judea, was, as it were, sacred to God. Now when both the vines and the fig-trees were exposed to the depredations of the unbelieving, it was certain that God no longer ruled there. How so? Even because the Jews had expelled him. He afterwards enlarges on the same subject; for what follows, By denuding he has denuded it and cast it away, is not a mere narrative; the Prophet here declares not simply what had taken place; but as we have already said, adduces more proof, and tries to awaken the drowsy senses of the people, yea, to arouse them from that lethargy by which the minds of all had been seized; hence it is that he uses in his teaching so many expressions. This is the reason why he says that the vine and the fig-tree had been denuded, and also that the leaves had been taken away, that the branches had been made bare and white; so that there remained neither produce nor growth.

Many interpreters join these three verses with the former, as if the Prophet now expressed what he had said before of the palmer worm, the chafer, and the locust; for they think that he spake allegorically when he said that all the fruits of the land had been consumed by the locusts and the chafers. They therefore add, that these locusts, or chafers, or the palmer worms, were the Assyrians, as well as the Persian and the Greeks, that is, Alexander of Macedon and the Romans: but this is wholly a strained views so that there is no need of a long argument; for any one may easily perceive that the Prophet mentions another kind of punishments that he might in every way render the Jews inexcusable who were not roused by judgments so multiplied, but remained still obstinate in their vices. Let us now proceed.

Joel 1:8

8. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

8. Plange tanquam puella, accincta sacco, super marito adolescentiae suae.

The Prophet now addresses the whole land. Lament, he says; not in an ordinary way, but like a widow, whose husband is dead, whom she had married when young. The love, we know, of a young man towards a young woman, and so of a young woman towards a young man, is more tender than when a person in years marries an elderly woman. This is the reason that the Prophet here mentions the husband of her youth; he wished to set forth the heaviest lamentation, and hence he says “The Jews ought not surely to be otherwise affected by so many calamities, than a widow who has lost her husband while young, and not arrived at maturity, but in the flower of his age.” As then such widows feel bitterly their loss, so the Prophet has adduced their case.

The Hebrews often call a husband בעל bol, because he is the lord of his wife and has her under his protection. Literally it is, “For the lord of her youth;” and hence it is, that they also called their idols בעלים bolim, as though they were as we have often said in our comment on the Prophet Hosea, their patrons.

The sum of the whole is, That the Jews could not have continued in an unconcerned state, without being void of all reason and discernment; for they were forced, willing or unwilling, to feel a most grievous calamity. It is a monstrous thing, when a widow, losing her husband when yet young, refrains from mourning. Now then, since God had afflicted his land with so many evils, he wished to bring on them, as it were, the grief of widowhood. It follows —

Joel 1:9

9. The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn.

9. Succisa est oblatio et libamen e domo Jehovae: luxerunt sacerdotes, ministri Jehovae.

Here, in other words, the Prophet paints the calamity; for, as it has been said, we see how great is the slowness of men to discern God’s judgments; and the Jews, we know, were not more attentive to them than we are now. It was, therefore, needful to prick them with various goads, as the Prophet now does, as though he said, “If ye are not now concerned for want of food, if ye consider not even what the very drunkards are constrained to feel, who perceive not the evil at a distance, but taste it in their lips — if all these things are of no account with you, do at least look on the temple of God, which is now destitute of its ordinary services; for through the sterility of your fields, through so great a scarcity, neither bread nor wine is offered. Since then ye see that the worship of God has ceased, how is it ye yourselves still remain? Why is it that ye perceive not that God’s fury is kindled against you? For surely except God had been most grievously offended, he would at least have had some regard for his own worship; he would not have suffered his temple to remain without sacrifices.”

The Jews, we know, daily poured their libations, and offered meat-offerings. When, therefore, Joel mentions מנחה meneche and libation, he doubtless meant to show that the worship of God was nearly abolished. But God would have never permitted such a thing, had he not been grievously offended by the sins of men. Hence the indifference, or rather the stupidity of the people, is more clearly proved, inasmuch as they perceived not the signs of God’s wrath made evident even in the very temple. It follows —

Joel 1:10

10. The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

10. Vastatus est ager, luxit terra (hoc est, luxerunt terrae incolae;) quia vastatum est (idem est verbum vel, quia periit) frumentum, aruit (est a verbo יבש, non a בוש, quod significat pudefacere: quanquam utraque radix significationem hanc admittit apud Hebraeos: quia ergo aruit) mustum et exterminatum est (infirmatum ad verbum, ab אמל; sed significat debilitatum esse) oleum.

The Prophet goes on here with the same subject, and uses these many words to give more effect to what he said; for he knew that he addressed the deaf, who, by long habit, had so hardened themselves that God could effect nothing, at least very little, by his word. This is the reason why the Prophet so earnestly presses a subject so evident. Should any one ask what need there was of so many expressions, as it seems to be a needless use of words; I do indeed allow that all that the Prophet wished to say might have been expressed in one sentence, as there is here nothing intricate: but it was not enough that what he said should be understood, except the Jews applied it to themselves, and perceived that they had to do with God; and to make this application they were not disposed. It is not then without reason that the Prophet labors here, and enforces the same thing in many words.

Hence he says, The field is wasted, and the land mourns; for the corn has perished, for dried up has the wine, for destroyed has been the oil. And by these words he intimates that they seeing saw nothing; as though he said, “Let necessity extort mourning from you; ye are indeed starving, all complain of want, all deplore the need of bread and wine; and yet no one of you thinks whence this want is, that it is from the hand of God. Ye feel it in your mouth, ye feel it in your palate, ye feel it in your throat, ye feel it in your stomach; but ye feel it not in your heart.” In short, the Prophet intimates that the Jews were void of right understanding; they indeed deplored their famine, but they were like brute beasts, who, when hungry, show signs of impatience. So the Jews mourned, because their stomach disquieted them; but they knew not that the cause of their want and famine was their sins. It afterwards follows —

Joel 1:11

11. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.

11. Erubescite agricolae, ululate vinitores super tritico et hordeo; quia periit messis agri.

The Prophet says nothing new here, but only strengthens what he had said before, and is not wordy without reason; for he intends here not merely to teach, but also to produce an effect: And this is the design of heavenly teaching; for God not only wishes that what he says may be understood, but intends also to penetrate into our hearts: and the word of God, we know, consists not of doctrine only, but also of exhortations, and threatenings, and reproofs. This plan then the Prophet now pursues: Ye husband men, he says, be ashamed, and ye vinedressers, howl; for perished has the harvest of the field. The sum of the whole is, that the Jews, as we have already said, could by no excuse cover their indifference; for their clamor was everywhere heard, their complaints everywhere resounded, that the land had become a waste, that they were themselves famished that they were afflicted with many calamities; and yet no one acknowledged that God, who visited them for their sins, was the author. But what remains I shall put off until to-morrow.

Prayer

Grant, Almighty God, that as thou invites us daily by various means to repentance, and continues also to urge us, because thou sees our extreme tardiness, — O grant that we may at length be awakened from our indifference, and suffer us not to be inebriated by the charms of Satan and the world; but by thy Spirit rouse us to real groaning, that, being ashamed of ourselves, we may flee to thy mercy, and doubt not but that thou wilt be propitious to us, provided with a sincere heart we call on thee, and seek that reconciliation which thou daily offerest to us by thy Gospel in the name of thy only begotten Son. Amen.

Joel 1:12

12. The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

12. Vitis exaruit, et ficulnea infirmata est (vel, periit;) malogranatum, etiam palma et malus, omnes arbores exaruerunt: certe exaruit gaudium a filiis hominum.

Lecture Fortieth

The Prophet now concludes his subjects which was, that as God executed judgments so severe on the people, it was a wonder that they remained stupefied, when thus reduces to extremities. The vine, he says, has dried up, and every kind of fruit; he adds the fig-tree, afterwards the רמון remun, the pomegranate, (for so they render it,) the palm, the apple-tree, Of the three foregoing trees we may add this account: The pomegranate, רמון, grows about 20 feet high, has a straight stem and spreading branches, and bears large red blossoms. Its fruit is about the size of an orange, and is delicious and cooling. The palm or date-tree, תמר, is sometimes as high as 100 feet, and remarkably straight. Its fruit grows in clusters under its leaves, and is in taste very sweet. Palm branches were emblems of victory. What is called here the apple-tree, תפוח, was no doubt the citron-tree. The word is derived from נפה, to breathe, on account of the extreme fragrance it emits. — Ed. and all trees. And this sterility was a clear sign of God’s wrath; and it would have been so regarded, had not men either wholly deceived themselves, or had become hardened against all punishments. Now this αναὶσθησὶα (insensibility) is as it were the very summit of evils; that is, when men feel not their own calamities, or at least understand not that they are inflicted by the hand of God. Let us now proceed —

Joel 1:13-15

13. Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

13. Accingimini et plangete sacerdotes; ululate, ministri altaris; venite, pernoctate cum saccis, ministri Dei mei: quia prohibita est a domo Dei vestri oblatio et libamen.

14. Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord,

14. Sactificate jejunium, vocate coetum, congregate senes, omnes incoles terrae, in domum Jehovae Dei vestri, et clamate ad Jehovam,

15. Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

15. Heus Diem! Quia propinquus est dies Jehovae, et tanquam vastitas ab Omnipotente veniet.

Now the Prophet begins to exhort the people to repentance. Having represented them as grievously afflicted by the hand of God, he now adds that a remedy was at hand, provided they solicited the favor of God; and at the same tine he denounces a more grievous punishment in future; for it would not have been enough that they had been reminded of their calamities and evils, except they also feared in time to come. Hence the Prophet, that he might the more move them, says, that the hand of God was still stretched out, and that there was something worse nigh at hand, except they of themselves anticipated it. This is the purport of the whole. I now come to the words.

Be girded, lament and howl, he says, ye priests, the ministers of the altar The verb חגרו chegeru may be explained in two ways. Some understand it thus “Gird yourselves with sackcloth;” for shortly after he says with sackcloth, or in sackcloth. But we may take it as simply meaning, gird yourselves, that is, Hasten; for this metaphorical expression often occurs. As to the drift of the passage, there is but little difference, whether we read, “Gird yourselves with sackcloth,” or, “Hasten.” And he addresses the priests, though a common and general exhortation to the whole people afterwards follows. But as God made them the leaders of his people, it behaved them to afford others an example. It is the common duty of all the godly to pray for and to further the salvation of their brethren; but it is a duty especially enjoined on the ministers of the word and on pastors. So also, when God calls those to repentance who preside over others, they ought to lead the way, and for two reasons; — first, because they have not been in vain chosen by the Lord for this end, that they might outshine others, and be as luminaries; — secondly, because they who bear any public office ought to feel a double guilty when the Lord visits public sins with judgment. Private men indeed sin; but in pastors there is the blame of negligence, and still more, when they deviate even the least from the right way, a greater offense is given. Rightly then does the Prophet begin with the priests, when he bids the whole people to repent. And he not only bids them to put on sackcloth, but commands them also, as we shall see, to proclaim a fast, and then to call an assembly: ye priests, he says, be girded, and put on sackcloth, wail, howl, and pass the night in sackcloth; and then he calls them the ministers of the altar and the ministers of God, but in a different sense; for the Prophet does not substitute the altar for God, as he would thus have formed an idol; but they are called the ministers of the altar, because they offered there sacrifices to God. They are indeed with strict propriety the ministers of God; but as the priests, when they sacrificed, stood in the presence of God, and as the altar was to them as it were the way of access to him, they are called the ministers of the altar. He calls them, at the same time, the ministers of God, and, as it has been stated, they are properly so called.

But he says here אלהי alei (my God.) The iod, my, is by some omitted, as if it were a servile letter, but redundant. I, however, doubt not but that the Prophet here mentions Him as his God; for he thus intended to claim more authority for his doctrine. His concern or his contest was with the whole people; and they, no doubt, in their usual ways proudly opposed against him the name of God as their shield. “What! are we not the very people of God?” Hence the Prophet, in order to prove this presumption false, sets forth God as being on his side. He therefore says, ‘The ministers of my God.’ Had any one objected and said, that he was in common the God of the whole people, the Prophet had a ready answer, — “I am specially sent by Him, and sustain his person, and plead the cause which he has committed to me: He is then my God and not yours.” We now then see the Prophet’s meaning in this expression. He now adds, for cut off is offering and libation from the house of our God. He confesses Him at the same time to be their God with reference to the priesthood; for nothing, we know, was presumptuously invented by the Jews, as the temple was built by Godly command, and sacrifices were offered according to the rule of the law. He then ascribes to the priesthood this honor, that God ruled in the temple; for God, as we have already said, approved of that worship as having proceeded from his word: and to this purpose is that saying of Christ, ‘We know what we worship.’ But yet the priests did not rightly worship God; for though their external rites were according to the command of God, yet as their hearts were polluted, it is certain that whatever they did was repudiated by God, until, being touched with the fear of his judgment, they fled to his mercy, as the Prophet now exhorts them to do.

He afterwards adds, sanctify a fast, call an assembly, gather the old, all the inhabitants of the land. קדש kodash means to sanctify and to prepare; but I have retained its proper meaning, sanctify a fast; for the command had regard to the end, that is, sanctification. Then a fast proclaim — for what purpose? That the people might purge themselves from all their pollutions, and present themselves pure and clean before God. Call an assembly. It appears that there was a solemn convocation whenever a fast was proclaimed among the people: for it was not enough for each one privately at home to abstain from food, except all confessed openly, with one mouth and one consent, that they were guilty before God. Hence with a fast was connected a solemn profession of repentance. The uses and ends of a fast, we know, are various: but when the Prophet here speaks of a solemn fast, he doubtless bids the people to come to it suppliantly, as the guilty are wont to do, who would deprecate punishment before a judge, that they may obtain mercy from him. In the second chapter there will be much to say on fasting: I only wish now briefly to touch on the subject.

He afterwards bids the old to be gathered, and then adds, All the inhabitants of the land. But he begins with the old, and justly so, for the guilt of the old is always the heaviest. But this word relates not to age as in a former instance. When he said yesterday, ‘Hear ye, the aged,’ he addressed those who by long experience had learnt in the world many things unknown to the young or to men of middle age. But now the Prophet means by the old those to whom was intrusted the public government; and as through their slothfulness they had suffered the worship of God and all integrity to fall into decay, rightly does the Prophet wish them to be leaders and precursors to the people in their confession of repentance; and further, it behaved them, on account of their office, as we have said of the priests, to lead the way. Joel at the same time shows that the whole people were implicated in guilt, so that none could be excepted, for he bids them all to come with the elders.

Call them, he says, to the house of Jehovah your God, and cry ye to Jehovah. We hence learn why he had spoken of fasting and of sackcloth, even that they might humbly deprecate God’s wrath; for fasting of itself would have been useless, and to put on sackcloth, we know, is in itself but an empty sign: but prayer is what the Prophet sets here in the highest rank, and fasting is only an appendage, and so is sackcloth. Whosoever then puts on sackcloth and withholds prayer, is guilty of mockery; and no one can derive any good from mere fasting; but when fasting and sackcloth are added to prayer, and are as it were handmaids, then they are not uselessly practiced. We may then observe, that the end of fasting and sackcloth was no other, than that the priests together with the whole people, might present themselves suppliantly before God, and confess themselves worthy of destruction, and that they had no hope except from his gratuitous mercy. This is the meaning.

It now follows, Alas the day! for nigh is the day of Jehovah. Here the Prophet, as it was at first stated, threatens something worse in future than what they had experienced. He has hitherto been showing their torpidity; now he declares that they had not yet suffered all their punishments, but that there was something worse to be feared, except they turned seasonably to God. And he now exclaims, as though the day of Jehovah was before his eyes, and he calls it the day of Jehovah, because in that day God would stretch-forth his hand to execute judgment; for while he tolerates men or bears with their sins, he seems not to rule in the world. And though this mode of speaking is common enough in Scripture, it ought yet to be carefully noticed; for all seem not to understand that God calls that his own day, when he will openly shine forth and appear as the judge of the world: but as long as he spares us, his face seems to be hidden from us; yea, he seems not to govern the world. The Prophet therefore declares here that the day of the Lord was at hand; for it cannot be, but that the Lord must at length rise up and ascend his throne to punish men, though for a time he may connive at them. But the interjection, expressive of grief, intimates that the judgment, of which the Prophet speaks, was not to be despised, for it would be dreadful; and he wished to strike terror into the Jews, for they were too secure. And he says, The day is nigh, that they might not procrastinate, as they were wont to do, from day to day: for though men be touched by God’s judgments they yet even desire time to be prolonged to them, and they come very tardily to God. Hence the Prophet, that he might correct this their great slothfulness, says that the day was nigh.

He adds, כשד משדי יבוא kashed meshadi ibu ‘as a desolation from the Almighty will it come.’ The word שדי shadi signifies a conqueror; but it proceeds from the verb שדד shadad; and this in Hebrew means “to desolate,” or “to destroy.” The powerful and the conqueror is called שדי shadi; and hence they call God שדי shadi, on account of his power. Some derive it from udder: then they call God שדי shadi as though Scripture gave him this name, because from him flows all abundance of good things as from a fountain. But I rather refer this name to his strength and power, for the Jews, we know, gloried in the name of God as one armed to defend their safety. Whenever then the Prophets said that God was שדי shadi, the people laid hold on this as a ground for false confidence, “God is almighty, we are then secure from all evils.” But yet this confidence was not founded on the promises: and it was, we know, an absurd and profane presumption to have thus abused the name of God. Since then the Jews foolishly pricked themselves on this, that God had adopted them for his people, the prophet says here, “There will come a desolation from the Almighty;” that is, “God is Almighty, but ye are greatly deceived in thinking that your safety is secured by his power; for he will, on the contrary, be opposed to you, inasmuch as ye have provoked his wrath.” It follows —

Joel 1:16-17

16. Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

16. An non coram oculis nostris cibus excisus est? e domo Dei nostri gaudium et exultatio?

17. The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.

17. Putrefacta sunt grana subtus sulcos suos, desolata sunt reconditoria (vel, apothecae desolatae sunt,) diruta sunt horrea, quia exaruit frumentum.

He repeats the same thing as before, for he reproaches the Jews for being so slow to consider that the hand of God was against them. Has not the meat, he says, been cut off before our eyes? joy and exultation from the house of our God? Here he chides the madness of the Jews, that they perceived not things set before their eyes. He therefore says that they were blind in the midst of light, and that their sight was such, that seeing they saw nothing: they surely ought to have felt distressed, when want reached the temple. For since God had commanded the first-fruits to be offered to him, the temple ought not by any means to have been without its sacrifices; and though mortals perish a hundred times through famine and want, yet God ought not to be defrauded of his right. When, therefore, there was now no offering nor libation, how great was the stupidity of the people not to feel this curse, which ought to have wounded them more than if they had been consumed a hundred times by famine? We see then the design of the Prophet’s words, that is, to condemn the Jews for their stupidity; for they considered not that a most grievous judgment was brought on them, when the temple was deprived of its usual sacrifices.

He afterwards adds, that joy and gladness were taken away: for God commanded the Jews to come to the temple to give thanks and to acknowledge themselves blessed, because he had chosen his habitation among them. Hence this expression is so often repeated by Moses, ‘Thou shalt rejoice before thy God;’ for by saying this, God intended to encourage the people the more to come cheerfully to the temple; as though he said, “I certainly want not your presence, but I wish by my presence to make you glad.” But now when the worship of God ceased, the Prophet says, that joy had been also abolished; for the Jews could not cheerfully give thanks to God when his curse was before their eyes, when they saw that he was their adversary, and also when they were deprived of the ordinances of religion. We now then perceive why the Prophet joins joy and gladness with oblations: they were the symbols of thanksgiving.

He shows the cause of the evil, Rotted have the grains in the very furrows. For they call seeds פרדות peredut from the act of scattering. He then calls grains by this name, because they are scattered; and he says that they rotted in the fields when they ought to have germinated. He then adds, The granaries halve become desolated and the barns have been pulled down; for there was no use for them. Hence we conclude, that sterility had become most grievousand perpetual; for if the people had been only afflicted by famine for a few harvests or for one year, the Prophet would not have spoken thus. The famine must then have been, as it has been already stated for a long time. Let us now proceed —

Joel 1:18

18. How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

18. Quomodo ingemuit bestia? Confusa sunt armenta boum? Quia desunt illis pascua: etiam greges ovium desolati sunt.

The Prophet amplifies his reproof, that even oxen as well as other animals felt the judgment of God. There is then here an implied comparison between the feeling of brute animals and the insensibility of the people, as though he said, “There is certainly more intelligence and reason in oxen and other brute animals than in you; for the herds groan, the flocks groan, but ye remain stupid and confounded. What does this mean?” We then see that the Prophet here compares the stupidity of the people with the feeling of animals, to make them more ashamed.

How, he says, has the beast groaned? The question serves to show vehemence; for if he had said in the form of a narrative, that the animals groaned, that the cattle were confounded, and that the flocks perished, the Jews would have been less affected; but when he exclaims and, moved with astonishment, speaks interrogatively, How does the beast groan? He, no doubt, wished to produce an effect on the Jews, that they might perceive the judgment of God, which they had before passed by with their eyes closed, though it was quite manifest. It follows —

Joel 1:19-20

19. O Lord, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.

19. Ad te Jehovam clamabo, quia ignis consumpsit pascua (vel, habitacula) deserti: et flamma accendit omnes arbores agri.

20. And the beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

20. Etiam bestiae agri clamabunt ad te (quanquam ערג proprium est cervi, ut dicunt grammatici, sicuti etiam Psalmo 42 habetur: est illic idem verbum: clamabunt igitur bestiae ad te,) quia aruerunt decursus aquarum, quia ignis consumpsit habitacula (vel, pascua) deserti.

When the Prophet saw that he succeeded less than he expected, leaving the people, he speaks of what he would do himself, I will cry to thee, Jehovah. He had before bidden others to cry, and why does he not now press the same thing? Because he saw that the Jews were so deaf and listless as to make no account of all his exhortations: he therefore says, “I will cry to thee, Jehovah; for they are touched neither by shame nor by fear. Since they throw aside every regard for their own safety, since they account as nothing my exhortations I will leave them, and will cry to thee;” which means this, — “I see, Lord, that all these calamities proceed from thy hand; I will not howl as profane men do, but I will ascribe them to thee; for I perceive thee to be acting as a judge in all the evils which we suffer.” Having then before declared that the Jews were more tardy than brute animals and having reproached them for feeling less acutely than oxen and sheep, the Prophet now says, that though they all remained obstinate, he would yet do what a pious man and a worshipper of God ought to do, I will cry to thee — Why? Because the fire has consumed the pastures, or the dwellings, of the wilderness.

He here again gives an awful record of God’s judgments. Though the heat may burn up whole regions, yet we know that pasture-lands do not soon wither, especially on mountains; and of such cold pastures he speaks here. We know that however great may be the fertility of mountains, yet coolness prevails there, and that, in the greatest drought, the mountainous regions are ever green. But the Prophet tells us here of an unusual thing, that the dwellings of the wilderness were burnt up. Some render נאות naut pastures; others, dwellings: but as to the meaning, we may read either; for the Prophet refers here to cold and humid regions, which never want moisture in the greatest heats. Some render the word, the beautiful or fair spots of the wilderness, but improperly. He doubtless means pastures, or dwellings, or folds. The fire then has consumed the dwellings, or pastures of the wilderness. This was not usual; it did not happen according to the ordinary course of nature: it then follows that it was a miracle. This is the reason why the Prophet says, that it was now time to cry to God; for it did not appear to be fortuitous, that the heat had burnt up regions which were moist and well watered. The flame, he says hath burnt up all the trees of the field.

He afterwards adds The beasts of the field will also cry (for the verb is in the plural number;) the beasts then will cry. The Prophet expresses here more clearly what he had said before that though the brute animals were void of reasons they yet felt God’s judgment, so that they constrained men by their example to feel ashamed, for they cried to God: the beasts then of the field cry. He ascribes crying to them, as it is elsewhere ascribed to the young ravens. The young ravens, properly speaking, do not indeed call on God; and yet the Psalmist says so, and that, because they confess, by raising up their bills, that there is no supply for their want except God supports them. So also the Prophet mentions here the beasts as crying to God. It is indeed a figure of speech, called personification; for this could not be properly said of beasts. But when the beasts made a noise under the pressure of famine, was it not such a calling on God as their nature admitted? As much then as the nature of brute animals allows, they may be said to seek their food from the Lord, when they send forth lamentable cries and noises, and show that they are oppressed with famine and want. When, therefore, the Prophet attributes crying to beasts, he at the same time reproaches the Jews with their stupidity, that they did not call on God. “What do you mean,” he says. “See the brute animals; they show to you what ought to be done; it is at least a teaching that ought to have effect on you. If I and the other prophets have lost all our labor, if God has in vain performed the office of a teacher among you, let the very oxen at least be your teachers; to whom indeed it is a shame to be disciples, but it is a greater shame not to attend to what they teach you; for the oxen by their example lead you to God.”

We now perceive how much vehemence there is in the Prophet’s words, when he says, Even the beasts of the field will cry to God; for the streams of waters have dried up, and the fire has consumed the dwellings, or the pastures of the wilderness. He again teaches what I have lately stated, that sterility proceeded from the evident judgment of God, and that it ought to have struck dread into men, for it was a sort of miracle. When, therefore the courses of waters dried up on the mountains, how could it be deemed natural? אפיקים aphikim mean courses of waters or valleys through which the waters run. The Prophet here refers, no doubt, to those regions which, through the abundance of water, always retain their fertility. When, therefore, the very valleys were burnt up, they ought surely to own that something wonderful had happened. On this account, he ascribes crying to herds and brute animals, and not any sort of crying, but that by which they called on God. What remains we shall defer till to-morrow.

Prayer.

Grant, Almighty God, that as thou sees us to be surrounded with the infirmity of our flesh, and so held by, and, as it were, overwhelmed with, earthly cares, that we can hardly raise up our hearts and minds to thee, — O grant, that being awaked by thy word and daily warnings, we may at length feel our evils, and that we may not only learn by the stripes thou inflictest on us, but also of our own accord, summon ourselves to judgment, and examine our hearts, and thus come to thy presence, being our own judges; so that we may anticipate thy displeasure, and thus obtain that mercy which thou best promised to all, who, turning only to thee, deprecate thy wrath, and also hope for thy favor, through the name of one Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Chapter 2

Lecture Forty-first

Joel 2:1-11

1. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

1. Clangite tuba in Sion, et clamate (alii vertunt, tantarizate: sed est generale verbum: clamate igitur, vel, clamorem odite) in monte sancto meo: contremiscant omnes incolae terrae, quia venit dies Jehovae, quia propinquus est.

2. A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

2. Dies tenebrarum et caliginis, dies nubis et obscuritatis, sicut aurora expanditur super montes, populus magnus et robustus (vel, terribilis;) similis ei non fuit a seculo, et post eum, non addet (hoc est, non erit amplius) ad annos generationis et generationis (ego cogor uno contextu legere haec omnia; dicam postea suo loco rationem.)

3. A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.

3. Coram facie ejus (coram ipso) devorans ignis, et post eum exuret flamma: sicut hortus Eden terra coram ipso (ante faciem ejus ad verbum;) et post eum desertum solitudinis (vel, vastitatis;) adeoque evasio non erit ei.

4. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.

4. Quasi aspectus equorum aspectus ejus, et tanquam equites current.

5. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

5. Sicut vocem quadrigarum (sic מרכבות interpretes vertunt: postea dicam de hoc verbo,) super cacumina montium saltabunt, secundum vocem flammae ignis vorantis stipulam, quasi populus robustus (vel, terribilis) paratus ad proelium.

6. Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.

6. A facie ejus pavebunt populi, omnes facies colligent nigredinem.

7. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:

7. Quasi gigantes (vel, fortes) discurrent, sicut viri proelii ascendent murum, et vir (hoc est, quisque in viis suis ambulabit, et non tardabunt gressus suos (alii, non inquirent de viis suis.)

8. Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.

8. Vir fratrem suum (hoc est, quisque socium suum) non premet, quisque in viis suis ambulabit: usque in gladium cadent (hoc est, super gladium cadent) non vulnerabuntur (alii, non concupiscent.)

9. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.

9. Per urbem gradientur, per murum discurrent, in domos ascendent, usque ad fenestras intrabunt tanquam fur.

10. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:

10. Coram eo contremiscet terra, et angentur coeli; sol et luna nigrescent, et stellae retrahent splendorem suum.

11. And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

11. Et Jehova edet vocem suam coram exercitu suo, quia magna valde castra ejus: quia robustus qui facit (vel, exequitur) verbum ejus; quia magnus dies Jehovae, et terribilis valde, et quis sustinebit eum?

INTRODUCTION

Joel (meaning "one to whom Jehovah is God," that is, worshipper of Jehovah) seems to have belonged to Judah, as no reference occurs to Israel; whereas he speaks of Jerusalem, the temple, the priests, and the ceremonies, as if he were intimately familiar with them (compare Joe 1:14; 2:1, 15, 32; 3:1, 2, 6, 16, 17, 20, 21). His predictions were probably delivered in the early days of Joash 870-865 B.C.; for no reference is made in them to the Babylonian, Assyrian, or even the Syrian invasion; and the only enemies mentioned are the Philistines, Phoenicians, Edomites, and Egyptians (Joe 3:4, 19). Had he lived after Joash, he would doubtless have mentioned the Syrians among the enemies whom he enumerates since they took Jerusalem and carried off immense spoil to Damascus (2Ch 24:23, 24). No idolatry is mentioned; and the temple services, the priesthood, and other institutions of the theocracy, are represented as flourishing. This all answers to the state of things under the high priesthood of Jehoiada, through whom Joash had been placed on the throne and who lived in the early years of Joash (2Ki 11:17, 18; 12:2-16; 2Ch 24:4-14). He was the son of Pethuel.

The first chapter describes the desolation caused by an inroad of locusts--one of the instruments of divine judgment mentioned by Moses (De 28:38, 39) and by Solomon (1Ki 8:37). The second chapter (Joe 2:1-11): the appearance of them, under images of a hostile army suggesting that the locusts were symbols and forerunners of a more terrible scourge, namely, foreign enemies who would consume all before them. (The absence of mention of personal injury to the inhabitants is not a just objection to the figurative interpretation; for the figure is consistent throughout in attributing to the locusts only injury to vegetation, thereby injuring indirectly man and beast). Joe 2:12-17: exhortation to repentance, the result of which will be: God will deliver His people, the former and latter rains shall return to fertilize their desolated lands, and these shall be the pledge of the spiritual outpouring of grace beginning with Judah, and thence extending to "all flesh." Joe 2:18-3:21: God's judgments on Judah's enemies, whereas Judah shall be established for ever.

Joel's style is pre-eminently pure. It is characterized by smoothness and fluency in the rhythms, roundness in the sentences, and regularity in the parallelisms. With the strength of Micah it combines the tenderness of Jeremiah, the vividness of Nahum, and the sublimity of Isaiah. As a specimen of his style take the second chapter wherein the terrible aspect of the locusts, their rapidity, irresistible progress, noisy din, and instinct-taught power of marshalling their forces for their career of devastation, are painted with graphic reality.

CHAPTER 1

Joe 1:1-20. The Desolate Aspect of the Country through the Plague of Locusts; the People Admonished to Offer Solemn Prayers in the Temple; for This Calamity Is the Earnest of a Still Heavier One.

1. Joel--meaning, "Jehovah is God."

son of Pethuel--to distinguish Joel the prophet from others of the name. Persons of eminence also were noted by adding the father's name.

2-3. A spirited introduction calling attention.

old men--the best judges in question concerning the past (De 32:7; Job 32:7).

Hath this been, &c.--that is, Hath any so grievous a calamity as this ever been before? No such plague of locusts had been since the ones in Egypt. Ex 10:14 is not at variance with this verse, which refers to Judea, in which Joel says there had been no such devastation before.

4. This verse states the subject on which he afterwards expands. Four species or stages of locusts, rather than four different insects, are meant (compare Le 11:22). Literally, (1) the gnawing locust; (2) the swarming locust; (3) the licking locust; (4) the consuming locust; forming a climax to the most destructive kind. The last is often three inches long, and the two antennæ, each an inch long. The two hinder of its six feet are larger than the rest, adapting it for leaping. The first "kind" is that of the locust, having just emerged from the egg in spring, and without wings. The second is when at the end of spring, still in their first skin, the locusts put forth little ones without legs or wings. The third, when after their third casting of the old skin, they get small wings, which enable them to leap the better, but not to fly. Being unable to go away till their wings are matured, they devour all before them, grass, shrubs, and bark of trees: translated "rough caterpillars" (Jr 51:27). The fourth kind, the matured winged locusts (see on Na 3:16). In Joe 2:25 they are enumerated in the reverse order, where the restoration of the devastations caused by them is promised. The Hebrews make the first species refer to Assyria and Babylon; the second species, to Medo-Persia; the third, to Greco-Macedonia and Antiochus Epiphanes; the fourth, to the Romans. Though the primary reference be to literal locusts, the Holy Spirit doubtless had in view the successive empires which assailed Judea, each worse than its predecessor, Rome being the climax.

5. Awake--out of your ordinary state of drunken stupor, to realize the cutting off from you of your favorite drink. Even the drunkards (from a Hebrew root, "any strong drink") shall be forced to "howl," though usually laughing in the midst of the greatest national calamities, so palpably and universally shall the calamity affect all.

wine ... new wine--"New" or "fresh wine," in Hebrew, is the unfermented, and therefore unintoxicating, sweet juice extracted by pressure from grapes or other fruit, as pomegranates (So 8:2). "Wine" is the produce of the grape alone, and is intoxicating (see on Joe 1:10).

6. nation--applied to the locusts, rather than "people" (Pr 30:25, 26), to mark not only their numbers, but also their savage hostility; and also to prepare the mind of the hearer for the transition to the figurative locusts in the second chapter, namely, the "nation" or Gentile foe coming against Judea (compare Joe 2:2).

my land--that is, Jehovah's; which never would have been so devastated were I not pleased to inflict punishment (Joe 2:18; Is 14:25; Jr 16:18; Eze 36:5; 38:16).

strong--as irresistibly sweeping away before its compact body the fruits of man's industry.

without number--so Jud 6:5; 7:12, "like grasshoppers (or "locusts") for multitude" (Jr 46:23; Na 3:15).

teeth ... lion--that is, the locusts are as destructive as a lion; there is no vegetation that can resist their bite (compare Re 9:8). Pliny says "they gnaw even the doors of houses."

7. barked--Bochart, with the Septuagint and Syriac, translates, from an Arabic root, "hath broken," namely, the topmost shoots, which locusts most feed on. Calvin supports English Version.

my vine ... my fig tree--being in "My land," that is, Jehovah's (Joe 1:6). As to the vine-abounding nature of ancient Palestine, see Nu 13:23, 24.

cast it away--down to the ground.

branches ... white--both from the bark being stripped off (Ge 30:37), and from the branches drying up through the trunk, both bark and wood being eaten up below by the locusts.

8. Lament--O "my land" (Joe 1:6; Is 24:4).

virgin ... for the husband--A virgin betrothed was regarded as married (De 22:23; Mt 1:19). The Hebrew for "husband" is "lord" or "possessor," the husband being considered the master of the wife in the East.

of her youth--when the affections are strongest and when sorrow at bereavement is consequently keenest. Suggesting the thought of what Zion's grief ought to be for her separation from Jehovah, the betrothed husband of her early days (Jr 2:2; Eze 16:8; Ho 2:7; compare Pr 2:17; Jr 3:4).

9. The greatest sorrow to the mind of a religious Jew, and what ought to impress the whole nation with a sense of God's displeasure, is the cessation of the usual temple-worship.

meat offering--Hebrew, mincha; "meat" not in the English sense "flesh," but the unbloody offering made of flour, oil, and frankincense. As it and the drink offering or libation poured out accompanied every sacrificial flesh offering, the latter is included, though not specified, as being also "cut off," owing to there being no food left for man or beast.

priests ... mourn--not for their own loss of sacrificial perquisites (Nu 18:8-15), but because they can no longer offer the appointed offerings to Jehovah, to whom they minister.

10. field ... land--differing in that "field" means the open, unenclosed country; "land," the rich red soil (from a root "to be red") fit for cultivation. Thus, "a man of the field," in Hebrew, is a "hunter"; a "man of the ground" or "land," an "agriculturist" (Ge 25:27). "Field" and "land" are here personified.

new wine--from a Hebrew root implying that it takes possession of the brain, so that a man is not master of himself. So the Arabic term is from a root "to hold captive." It is already fermented, and so intoxicating, unlike the sweet fresh wine, in Joe 1:5, called also "new wine," though a different Hebrew word. It and "the oil" stand for the vine and the olive tree, from which the "wine" and "oil" are obtained (Joe 1:12).

dried up--not "ashamed," as Margin, as is proved by the parallelism to "languisheth," that is, droopeth.

11. Be ... ashamed--that is, Ye shall have the shame of disappointment on account of the failure of "the wheat" and "barley ... harvest."

howl ... vine dressers--The semicolon should follow, as it is the "husbandmen" who are to be "ashamed ... for the wheat." The reason for the "vine dressers" being called to "howl" does not come till Joe 1:12, "The vine is dried up."

12. pomegranate--a tree straight in the stem growing twenty feet high; the fruit is of the size of an orange, with blood-red colored pulp.

palm tree--The dates of Palestine were famous. The palm is the symbol of Judea on coins under the Roman emperor Vespasian. It often grows a hundred feet high.

apple tree--The Hebrew is generic, including the orange, lemon, and pear tree.

joy is withered away--such as is felt in the harvest and the vintage seasons (Psa 4:7; Is 9:3).

13. Gird yourselves--namely, with sackcloth; as in Is 32:11, the ellipsis is supplied (compare Jr 4:8).

lament, ye priests--as it is your duty to set the example to others; also as the guilt was greater, and a greater scandal was occasioned, by your sin to the cause of God.

come--the Septuagint, "enter" the house of God (compare Joe 1:14).

lie all night in sackcloth--so Ahab (1Ki 21:27).

ministers of my God--(1Co 9:13). Joel claims authority for his doctrine; it is in God's name and by His mission I speak to you.

14. Sanctify ... a fast--Appoint a solemn fast.

solemn assembly--literally, a "day of restraint" or cessation from work, so that all might give themselves to supplication (Joe 2:15, 16; 1Sa 7:5, 6; 2Ch 20:3-13).

elders--The contrast to "children" (Joe 2:16) requires age to be intended, though probably elders in office are included. Being the people's leaders in guilt, they ought to be their leaders also in repentance.

15. day of the Lord--(Joe 2:1, 11); that is, the day of His anger (Is 13:9; Ob 15; Zep 1:7, 15). It will be a foretaste of the coming day of the Lord as Judge of all men, whence it receives the same name. Here the transition begins from the plague of locusts to the worse calamities (Joe 2:1-11) from invading armies about to come on Judea, of which the locusts were the prelude.

16. Compare Joe 1:9, and latter part of Joe 1:12.

joy--which prevailed at the annual feasts, as also in the ordinary sacrificial offerings, of which the offerers ate before the Lord with gladness and thanksgivings (De 12:6, 7, 12; 16:11, 14, 15).

17. is rotten--"is dried up," "vanishes away," from an Arabic root [Maurer]. "Seed," literally, "grains." The drought causes the seeds to lose all their vitality and moisture.

garners--granaries; generally underground, and divided into separate receptacles for the different kinds of grain.

18. cattle ... perplexed--implying the restless gestures of the dumb beasts in their inability to find food. There is a tacit contrast between the sense of the brute creation and the insensibility of the people.

yea, the ... sheep--Even the sheep, which are content with less rich pasturage, cannot find food.

are made desolate--literally, "suffer punishment." The innocent brute shares the "punishment" of guilty man (Ex 12:29; Jon 3:7; 4:11).

19. to thee will I cry--Joel here interposes, As this people is insensible to shame or fear and will not hear, I will leave them and address myself directly to Thee (compare Is 15:5; Jr 23:9).

fire--that is, the parching heat.

pastures--"grassy places"; from a Hebrew root "to be pleasant." Such places would be selected for "habitations" (Margin). But the English Version rendering is better than Margin.

20. beasts ... cry ... unto thee--that is, look up to heaven with heads lifted up, as if their only expectation was from God (Job 38:41; Psa 104:21; 145:15; 147:9; compare Psa 42:1). They tacitly reprove the deadness of the Jews for not even now invoking God.

The word of the Lord that came to Joel - See the introduction for some account of this prophet, whose history is very obscure. Bishop Newcome thinks that he prophesied while the kingdom of Judah subsisted, and refers to Joe 2:1, Joe 2:15, (see also Joe 1:14 (note), and the note there), but not long before its subversion as his words, Joe 3:1, seem to imply that its captivity was approaching. See 2Kgs 21:10-15. He therefore favors the conjecture of Drusius, that this prophet lived under Manasseh, and before his conversion, 2Chr 33:13; that is, some time from before Christ 697 to (suppose) 660.

Ye old men - Instead of הזקנים hazzekenim old men, a few MSS. have הכהנים haccohanim, ye priests, but improperly.

Hath this been in your days - He begins very abruptly; and before he proposes his subject, excites attention and alarm by intimating that he is about to announce disastrous events, such as the oldest man among them has never seen, nor any of them learnt from the histories of ancient times.

Tell ye your children of it - To heighten the effect, he still conceals the subject, and informs them that it is such as should be handed down from father to son through all generations.

That which the palmerworm hath left - Here he begins to open his message, and the words he chooses show that he is going to announce a devastation of the land by locusts, and a famine consequent on their depredations. What the different insects may be which he specifies is not easy to determine. I shall give the words of the original, with their etymology.

The palmerworm, גזם gazam, from the same root, to cut short; probably the caterpillar, or some such blight, from its cutting the leaves of the trees into pieces for its nourishment.

The locust, ארבה arbeh, from רבה rabah, to multiply, from the immense increase and multitude of this insect.

Cankerworm, ילק yelek, from לק lak, to lick or lap with the tongue; the reference is uncertain.

Caterpillar, חסיל chasil, from חסל chasal, to consume, to eat up, the consumer. Bishop Newcome translates the first grasshopper; the second, locust; the third, devouring locust; and the fourth, consuming locust. After all that has been said by interpreters concerning these four animals, I am fully of opinion that the arbeh, or locust himself, is the gazam, the yelek, and the chasil and that these different names are used here by the prophet to point out the locust in its different states, or progress from embryo to full growth. See the note on Joe 2:2 (note).

Awake, ye drunkards - The general destruction of vegetation by these devouring creatures has totally prevented both harvest and vintage; so that there shall not be wine even for necessary uses, much less for the purposes of debauchery. It is well known that the ruin among the vines by locusts prevents the vintage for several years after.

A nation is come up upon my land - That real locusts are intended there can be little doubt; but it is thought that this may be a double prophecy, and that the destruction by the Chaldeans may also be intended, and that the four kinds of locusts mentioned above may mean the four several attacks made on Judea by them. The first in the last year of Nabonassar, (father of Nebuchadnezzar), which was the third of Jehoiakim; the second when Jehoiakim was taken prisoner in the eleventh year of his reign; the third in the ninth year of Zedekiah and the fourth three years after, when Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. Others say that they mean four powers which have been enemies of the Jews:

1. The palmerworm, the Assyrians and Chaldeans.

2. The locust, the Persians and Medes.

3. The cankerworm, the Greeks, and particularly Antiochus Epiphanes.

4. The caterpillar, the Romans.

Others make them four kings; Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnezzar. But of such similitudes there is no end; and the best of them is arbitrary and precarious.

He hath laid my vine waste - The locusts have eaten off both leaves and bark. חשף חשפה chasoph chasaphah, he hath made it clean bare; שדד שדה suddad sadeh, the field is laid waste, Joe 1:10; and כשד משדי kesod mishshaddai, a destruction from the Almighty, Joe 1:15; are all paronomasias in which this prophet seems to delight.

Lament like a virgin - for the husband of her youth - Virgin is a very improper version here. The original is בתולה bethulah, which signifies a young woman or bride not a virgin, the proper Hebrew for which is עלמה almah. See the notes on Isa 7:14 (note), and Mat 1:23 (note).

The meat-offering and the drink-offering is cut off - The crops and the vines being destroyed by the locusts, thee total devastation in plants, trees, corn, etc., is referred to and described with a striking variety of expression in this and the following verses.

The vine is dried up - Dr. Shaw observes that in Barbary, in the month of June, the locusts collect themselves into compact bodies a furlong or more square, and march on, eating up every thing that is green or juicy, and letting nothing escape them, whether vegetables or trees.

They destroy the pomegranate, the palm, the apple, (תפוח tappuach, the citron tree), the vine, the fig, and every tree of the field. See the note on Joe 2:2 (note).

Call a solemn assembly - עצרה atsarah signifies a time of restraint, as the margin has it. The clause should be translated - consecrate a fast, proclaim a time of restraint; that is, of total abstinence from food, and from all secular employment. All the elders of the land and the representatives of the people were to be collected at the temple to cry unto the Lord, to confess their sins, and pray for mercy. The temple was not yet destroyed. This prophecy was delivered before the captivity of Judah.

Alas for the day! - The Syriac repeats this, the Vulgate, Septuagint, and Arabic, thrice: "Alas, alas, alas, for the day!"

As a destruction from the Almighty - The destruction that is now coming is no ordinary calamity; it is as a signal judgment immediately inflicted by the Almighty.

The seed is rotten under their clods - When the sprout was cut off as low as possible by the locusts, there was no farther germination. The seed rotted away.

How do the beasts groan! - I really think that the neighing of horses, or braying of asses, is wonderfully expressed by the sound of the original: מה נאנחה בהמה mah Neenchah behemah, how do the horses neigh! how do the asses bray! בהמה behemah is a collective name for all domestic cattle, and those used in husbandry.

Cattle are perplexed - They are looking everywhere, and wandering about to find some grass, and know not which way to run.

O Lord, to thee will I cry - Let this calamity come as it may, we have sinned, and should humble ourselves before God; and it is such a calamity as God alone can remove, therefore unto him must we cry.

The fire hath devoured the pastures - This may either refer to a drought, or to the effects of the locusts; as the ground, after they have passed over it, everywhere appears as if a sheet of flame had not only scorched, but consumed every thing.

The beasts of the field cry also unto thee - Even the cattle, wild and tame, are represented as supplicating God to have mercy upon them, and send them provender! There is a similar affecting description of the effects of a drought in Jeremiah, Jer 14:6.

The rivers of waters are dried up - There must have been a drought as well as a host of locusts; as some of these expressions seem to apply to the effects of intense heat.

For המדבר hammidbar, "the wilderness," one of my oldest MSS. reads מדבר midbar, "wilderness" simply, as in Jer 14:19. Eight or ten of Dr. Kennicott's have the same reading.

Sold unto the Grecians - These were the descendants of Javan, Gen 10:2-5. And with them the Tyrians trafficked, Eze 27:19.

That ye might remove them far from their border - Intending to send them as far off as possible, that it might be impossible for them to get back to reclaim the land of which you had dispossessed them.

I will raise them - I shall find means to bring them back from the place whither ye have sold them, and they shall retaliate upon you the injuries they have sustained. It is said that Alexander and his successors set at liberty many Jews that had been sold into Greece. And it is likely that many returned from different lands, on the publication of the edict of Cyrus. - Newcome.

I will sell your sons - When Alexander took Tyre, he reduced into slavery all the lower people, and the women. Arrian, lib. ii., says that thirty thousand of them were sold. Artaxerxes Ochus destroyed Sidon, and subdued the other cities of Phoenicia. In all these wars, says Calmet, the Jews, who obeyed the Persians, did not neglect to purchase Phoenician slaves, whom they sold again to the Sabeans, or Arabs.

Prepare war - Let all the enemies of God and of his people join together; let them even call all the tillers of the ground to their assistance, instead of laboring in the field; let every peasant become a soldier. Let them turn their agricultural implements into offensive weapons, so that the weak, being well armed, may confidently say, I am strong: yet, when thus collected and armed, Jehovah will bring down thy mighty ones; for so the clause in Joe 3:11 should be rendered.

Let the heathen be wakened - The heathen shall be wakened.

The valley of Jehoshaphat - Any place where God may choose to display his judgments against his enemies.

Put ye in the sickle - The destruction of his enemies is represented here under the metaphor of reaping down the harvest; and of gathering the grapes, and treading them in the wine-presses.

Multitudes, multitudes - המנים המנים hamonim, hamonim, crowds upon crowds, in the valley of decision, or excision: the same as the valley of Jehoshaphat, the place where God is to execute judgment on his enemies.

The sun and the moon shall be darkened - High and mighty states shall be eclipsed, and brought to ruin, and the stars - petty states, princes, and governors - shall withdraw their shining; withhold their influence and tribute from the kingdoms to which they have belonged, and set up themselves as independent governors.

The Lord also shall roar out of Zion - His temple and worship shall be reestablished there, and he will thence denounce his judgments against the nations. "The heavens and the earth shall shake." There shall be great commotions in powerful empires and their dependencies; but in all these things his own people shall be unmoved, for God shall be their hope and strength.

So shall ye know - By the judgments I execute on your enemies, and the support I give to yourselves, that I am the all-conquering Jehovah; and that I have again taken up my residence in Jerusalem. All this may refer, ultimately, to the restoration of the Jews to their own land; when holiness to the Lord shall be their motto; and no strange god, or impure people, shall be permitted to enter the city, or even pass through it; they shall have neither civil nor religious connections with any who do not worship the true God in spirit and in truth. This, I think, must refer to Gospel times. It is a promise not ye fulfilled.

In that day - After their return from their captivities.

The mountains shall drop down new wine - A poetic expression for great fertility. Happy times: peace and plenty. The vines shall grow luxuriantly on the sides of the mountains; and the hills shall produce such rich pastures that the flocks shall yield abundance of milk.

And all the rivers of Judah - Far from being generally dry in the summer, shall have their channels always full of water.

And a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord - See the account of the typical waters in Ezekiel 47, to which this seems to have a reference; at least the subject is the same, and seems to point out the grace of the Gospel, the waters of salvation, that shall flow from Jerusalem, and water the valley of Shittim. Shittim was in the plains of Moab beyond Jordan; Num 33:49; Jos 3:1; but as no stream of water could flow from the temple, pass across Jordan, or reach this plain, the valley of Shittim must be considered symbolical, as the valley of Jehoshaphat. But as Shittim may signify thorns, it may figuratively represent the most uncultivated and ferocious inhabitants of the earth receiving the Gospel of Christ, and being civilized and saved by it. We know that briers and thorns are emblems of bad men; see Eze 2:6. Thus all the figures in this verse will point out the happy times of the Gospel: the mountains shall drop down new wine; the hills flow with milk; the thorny valleys become fertile, etc. Similar to those almost parallel words of the prince of poets: -

Mistaque ridenti colocasia fundet acantho.

Ipsae lacte domum referent destenta capellae

Ubera: nec magnos metuent armenta leones.

Molli paullatim flavescet campus arista,

Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva:

Et durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella.

Virg. Ed. 4:20.

Unbidden earth shall wreathing ivy bring,

And fragrant herbs the promises of spring.

The goats with streaming dugs shall homeward speed;

And lowing herds, secure from lions, feed.

Unlabour'd harvests shall the fields adorn,

And cluster'd grapes shall grow on every thorn:

The knotted oaks shall showers of honey weep.

Dryden.

Egypt shall be a desolation - While peace, plenty, and prosperity of every kind, shall crown my people, all their enemies shall be as a wilderness; and those who have used violence against the saints of God, and shed the blood of innocents (of the holy Martyrs) in their land, when they had political power; these and all such shall fall under the just judgments of God.

But Judah shall dwell for ever - The true Church of Christ shall be supported, while all false and persecuting Churches shall be annihilated. The promise may also belong to the full and final restoration of the Jews, when they shall dwell at Jerusalem as a distinct people professing the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For, behold, in those days - According to the preceding prophecy, these days should refer to Gospel times, or to such as should immediately precede them. But this is a part of the prophecy which is difficult to be understood. All interpreters are at variance upon it; some applying its principal parts to Cambyses; his unfortunate expedition to Egypt; the destruction of fifty thousand of his troops (by the moving pillars of sand) whom he had sent across the desert to plunder the rich temple of Jupiter Ammon; his return to Judea, and dying of a wound which he received from his own sword, in mounting his horse, which happened at Ecbatane, at the foot of Mount Carmel. On which his army, composed of different nations, seeing themselves without a head, fell out, and fought against each other, till the whole were destroyed. And this is supposed to be what Ezekiel means by Gog and Magog, and the destruction of the former. See Ezekiel 38 and 39.

Others apply this to the victories gained by the Maccabees, and to the destruction brought upon the enemies of their country; while several consider the whole as a figurative prediction of the success of the Gospel among the nations of the earth. It may refer to those times in which the Jews shall be brought in with the fullness of the Gentiles, and be re-established in their own land. Or there may be portions in this prophecy that refer to all the events; and to others that have not fallen yet within the range of human conjecture, and will be only known when the time of fulfillment shall take place. In this painful uncertainty, rendered still more so by the discordant opinions of many wise and learned men, it appears to be my province, as I have nothing in the form of a new conjecture to offer, to confine myself to an explanation of the phraseology of the chapter; and then leave the reader to apply it as may seem best to his own judgment.

I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem - This may refer to the return from the Babylonish captivity; extending also to the restoration of Israel, or the ten tribes.

Came to Joel - Probably in the latter end of Jeroboam the second's reign over Israel and in the days of Uzziah, over Judah.

Old men - The oldest among you, who can remember things done many years ago.

Palmer - worm - Four sorts of insects, are here mentioned, which succeeded each other, and devoured all that might be a support to the Jews, whence ensued a grievous famine.

Is cut off - Suddenly cut off even when you are ready to drink it, and totally cut off by these devouring vermin.

A nation - An innumerable multitude of locusts and caterpillars, called a nation here, as Solomon calls the conies and the ant, Prov 30:25,26, and perhaps a prognostick of a very numerous and mighty nation, that ere long will invade Judah. Strong - Mighty in power, and undaunted in courage, if you refer it to the Assyrian or Babylonians; if to those vermin, they are, though each weak by itself, yet in those multitudes, strong and irresistible. A great lion - Such waste as lions make, these the locusts do, and the Assyrians will make.

The husband of her youth - Espoused to her, but snatched away by an untimely death.

The drink - offering - By the destruction of the vines, all wine (out of which they ought to offer the drink - offering) failed.

The corn - The wheat and barley, is eaten up in its greenness. Dried up - The drought was so great, that the vines were withered, and all their hopes of new wine cut off. The oil - The olive - trees. Languisheth - This is a plain account of the reason why the priests were called to mourn, and why the meal - offering and drink - offering were cut off.

Be ye ashamed - This is a just cause why you should lament and enquire why God is so displeased with you.

Sanctify ye - Ye priests, set apart a day wherein to afflict yourselves, confess your sins, and sue out your pardon. Into the house - The courts of the temple, where the people were wont to pray.

The day of the Lord - A day of greater trouble than yet they felt, troubles which God will heap upon them. Shall it come - Unless fasting, prayers and amendment prevent.

Cut off - Devoured by locusts, or withered with drought.

Laid desolate - Run to ruin because the owners discouraged with the barrenness of the seasons, would not repair them.

The fire - The immoderate heats. The wilderness - The world, only means places not ploughed, and less inhabited than others.

Cry - They utter their complaints, their sad tones, they have a voice to cry, as well as an eye to look to God.

1 THE word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel .

Since this Preface is word for word the same with that of Hosea, chap. 1. ver. 1. see it there explained.

Supposed to be of the Posterity of Reuben, therefore could not be (as the Iews suppose) Samuel's Son, nor will his time fit to 1 Chron. 5.4, 8. but of what Tribe soever, we know he came from God, and with his authority, and is so cited by the Apostle, Acts 2.16.

More of this man I know not, and 'tis possible he might be, as the Iews suppose, very eminent, because he is named, however 'tis an honour to be reported a Prophets Father. The time of his Prophesying, though not demonstrable, is with greatest probability laid about the latter end of Ieroboam the second his Reign over Israel, and in the dayes of Vzziah over Iudah.

2 Hear this , ye old men , and give ear all ye inhabitants of the land g: Hath this been in your dayes , or even in the days of your fathers ?

He is about to report a very wonderful occurrence, and desires all to consider it, mark it well, and tell me what you know.

The oldest among you, who can remember things done in your dayes, when you were young, some scores of years past.

It is an appeal to all that may possibly know more then others, and remember better then others can.

Did you personally ever know the like?

Did your Fathers ever tell you of such a thing happening in their dayes? was there ever such a thing known among them? Have you ever heard them speak of it?

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

Declare it very particularly, or record it, write it as in a book, that your children may know it, and the memory of it may be perpetuated, for as it was a very wonderful and unusual thing; so it was for to mind us of the cause of it, and what it taught, or should have taught them and us.

4 That which the palmer-worm hath left, hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left, hath the canker-worm eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left, hath the caterpillar eaten.

Four sorts of Insects pernicious to all sorts of Trees, Corn and Herbs, are here mentioned, which did succeed each other, and devouted all that might be a future support to the Iewes, whence ensued a grievous famine for four years together, say the Iewish Interpreters, though there is no cogent reason in what they mention for proof hereof. These insects might in the same year succeed each other, the one as is usual might come sooner, the rest successively, each in its season, and so spoil the springing of all things, which they did (I do believe) really, and though these might be Emblems of some future devastation, yet it seems most agreeable to reason, and the Context, that there should really have been such caterpillars, and other vermine, and that they did devour all that was green; and though this is no where else mentioned, as I remember, in the sacred History, yet it is likely 'twas done, as here told, and as so done was a figure of some greater devastation made by Forreign Powers, as by Tiglath-Pileser, Salmaneser, Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar.

Marginal references: Heb. the residue of the palmer-worm.

5 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 .

Great drinkers of intoxicating liquors are apt to sleep, and be secure, the Prophet doth therefore here call to them, as to sleepers, and by one apt word expresseth a double duty, vigilance of mind, as well as of the body, so may this be parallel'd with Rom. 13.11. 1 Thes. 5.6. 1 Pet. 5.8. or Eph. 5.14.

Riotous livers, such as Prov 23.30, 31, 32. and Isa. 5.11, 12. whose life is nothing but a continued feasting with choicest Wines, and in excess, such as Amos 6.4, 5, 6. describeth.

Lament your condition with sober tears, for the sorrowes coming upon you are just matter of weeping, nor will an ordinary degree of weeping suffice. Cry out, and howl like men surprized with unsupportable miseries, Isa. 13.6 and 14.32. and 15.2.

Who offend by an inordinate use of Wine, for it is not to be understood of every one that drinketh Wine, but of such as before are called drunkards, who are in love with Wine.

Which is sweet and pleasing to the taste, and no doubt drank without stint or measure by men of that Age, against which Ioel Prophesieth.

Suddenly cut off, even when you are ready to drink it, and totally all cut off by these devouring vermin; which as 'twas a Narrative of what was already done, refers to that waste and famine by the locusts, as 'tis Allegorical and Predictive, 'twill be more dreadfully fulfilled when the enemies of Iudah shall destroy all.

6 For a nation is come up upon my land , strong , and without number , whose teeth are the teeth of a lyon , and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lyon .

An innumerable multitude of locusts and catterpillars, called a Nation here, as Solomon calls the Conies and the Ant, Prov. 30.25, 26. A prognostick of a very numerous and mighty Nation, that ere long will invade Iudah.

Or suddenly will come

upon Canaan which God calls his land, or more particularly the two Tribes, Iudea strictly taken,

Mighty in power, and undaunted in courage, if you refer it to the Assyrian or Babylonians; if to those vermin, they are, though each weak by it self, yet in those multitudes which come, strong enough, and irresistible, and shall do Gods work, that is, waste the Land, and devour all before them.

Not simply numberless, but in such multitudes none of you shall be able to recount them.

A strong Lyon, of the middle Age, that hath Whelps, and hunts the prey for them.

Which is old, and the more fierce and terrible in his looks, no way lessened in his strength, and that preys for his young ones, now what waste such Lyons make, such these Locusts will make, such Assyrians will make.

This verse countenanceth their conjecture, who take the locusts and vermin to be Emblematical in part as well as literal; for it seems not very suitable, to call their teeth, teeth of a Lyon.

7 He hath laid my vine waste , and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare , and cast it away , the branches thereof are made white.

That Nation of locusts verse 6. both literally and mistically understood.

Made it a desolation, i. e. most desolate, which is more particularly declared in what followeth.

Peel'd off the bark, which is certain destruction to the Tree.

Eat of all the rind, and green bark, and left the body of both Vine and Fig-tree bare and stript.

As vermin cast out of their mouth, the chewings of what they spoil, so here,

all the branches of both Vine and Fig-tree are by these devouring vermin made white, all their green being eaten off; so miserably desolate will the enemy signified by these locusts, make Iudah, Gods Vine.

Marginal references: Heb. laid my fig-tree for a barking.

8 ¶ Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth .

This is minatory, and threatens calamitous times shall come, as well as directive, what to do when they are come, when God calls for weeping, we must not rejoyce.

This tells us to whom the Prophet directs this part of his Sermon, 'tis to those who amidst the Iews were like chast and modest Virgins, whose heart was fixed on one, her own, her chosen beloved Husband.

In deep mournings the people of those Countries did use sackcloth in their mourning habit, and wore it girded close to their skin.

Either married to her in youth, or espoused to her, but snatcht away from her by an untimely death, which she doth most bitterly lament.

The vicious and wicked among the Iews were alarmed and threatned in the former part of the Chapter; Now the Prophet bespeaks the good and Godly among them to prepare for mournful times.

9 The meat-offering and the drink-offering is cut off from the house of the LORD ; the priests the LORDS ministers mourn .

Which by divine appointment was to be of fine Flower, Oyl and Frankincense, as Lev. 2.1. &c. and 6.14. &c. This meat-offering was necessary to every Sacrifice offered under the Law; so that without the Mincha, or meat-offering, the Sacrifice was maimed and illegal.

Required daily, as appears Exod. 29.40, 41. and Numb. 28.8. a fourth part of a hin of wine, for one lamb, Numb. 28.7.

By the destruction of the vines, by the locusts forementioned, all that wine (out of which they ought to offer the drink-offering) did fail.

It was to be poured out if Wine, and part of the meat-offering was to be burnt on the Altar, so both were disposed according to the Law, in the house of the Lord.

Sons of Aaron, with the Levites,

who did serve the Lord in the services of the Temple.

Grieve inwardly, and express it by outward signs, these had more cause then others to mourn, for as they had equal cause with others in respect to God, whose service hereby failed, so the Priests, in respect to their private gain and maintenance had more cause to mourn, their provision was by this means shortened.

10 The field is wasted , the land mourneth , for the corn is wasted : the new wine is dryed up , the oyl languisheth .

The soil that was wont to be fat and fruitful, and did shout with fruits, now lyeth waste, horrid to look upon, and such as promises no fruit, the famine in their houses, and the ceasing of the Sacrifices in the house of God, is like to be perpetuated.

The inhabitants of the Land by an usual figure, here called the Land.

The Wheat and Barley, their bread corn is eaten up in its greenness by these devouring locusts, whether in the letter by vermine, or in the figure by the Babylonians.

The word may as well be rendered is ashamed, or confounded, 'tis then a figurative expression, which this Prophet useth, verse 12.17. in the last of which 'tis rendered, withered, if you retain as well you may, our Version, it plainly tells us, the heats and drought with them was so great, that the Vines were withered, and all their hopes of new wine by this means cut off.

The Olive-Trees as the Vines fade too, and promise very little Oyl.

Neither able to send sap from the root to maintain its verdure, nor to put forth berries, or to bring them to maturity. Now as these words declare what barrenness was now upon the land; so 'tis a plain account of the reason why the Priests are called to mourn, and why the meat-offering and drink-offering are [illegible: 1 word] off, these must cease when that ceaseth, which made them up Corn, Wine and Oyl.

Marginal references: Or▪ [illegible: 1 span]

11 Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen : howl, O ye vine-dressers , for the wheat, and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished .

Some read it assertively, the Husbandmen are ashamed, and as to matter of fact, 'tis true, they were ashamed, but the Imperative Mood, or by way of Exhortation it better will suit the Context; They are now called upon to blush, repent and search into the cause of this barrenness, and loss of their labour in plowing, sowing and manuring their Tillage, the Prophet aims at this principally, to bring them, as well as the Priests to Repentance.

A sort of men so well known with that people, as Gardiners are with us, men whose work was to plant, water, prune and manage Vineyards, and whose labour (unless for sin blasted) did usually succeed to a great increase.

Your sins have brought upon you this woful scarcity, your harvest in which you expected your labours and cares should be recompenced is perished, quite destroy'd, as the word imports. This is just cause why you O Husbandmen should lament and farther enquire why God is so displeased with you.

12 The vine is dryed up , and the fig-tree languisheth, the pomegranate-tree , the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree , even all the trees of the field are withered , because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

See ver. 10. let. u.

A Tree well known, and the fruit of it was usually a great advantage, and benefit to the people of those Countries.

A pleasant tree as appears Cant. 4.13. and 7.12. and its fruit lovely, therefore fit for ornaments about the pillars of the Temple. These in the common drought and by locusts have lost their beauty, and fail the hopes of him that planted them.

Of great beauty in the height, and uniformity of its growth, and that doth rise under the weight which would depress it, Psal. 92.12. with these Ezekiels Temple was adorned, chap. 40.16, 22, 26. with the branches of these, triumphant shews were also made, but these are wither'd and dry.

The fruit whereof was very useful, and did ordinarily well recompence the care of the Planter, but now as other trees fail them.

None so hardy and able to bear unkind seasons, but are now destroyed by the judgments of God in drought and locusts.

Not as in Autumn, when the leaf falleth, but because the root fails is either dead or dying.

Or therefore, or surely, for the particle here used is oftentimes assertive, not causal.

All mirth and livelyness of men is blasted with this dismal blast upon their labours and hopes, they cannot rejoyce who foresee they shall be, nay, are already pincht with want and famine.

13 Gird your selves, and lament , ye priests : howl ye ministers of the altar : come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God : for the meat-offering, and the drink-offering is withholden from the house of your God .

Bind your mourning sackcloth close to you with a girdle, that it may be more troublesome to the flesh, for though in Heb. 'tis only gird, the phrase is well known in the Scripture, on these occasions, to include sackcloth, as what is girded on the mourner, and verse 8. sackcloth is expresly mentioned, and in many other places, Isa. 15.3. Ier. 4.8. Lam. 2.10. Ezek. 7.18. and 27.31.

Weep bitterly as they do who mourn for the dead, lament over your dead joyes, let it be a hearty grief, as that of Abraham for Sarah, Gen. 23.2. of Iacob's children and friends sorrowing for his death, Gen. 50.10. or of Israel lamenting their brave Judge, 1 Sam: 28.3.

That you may be example to others, and because they had, as observed verse 9. a double cause to mourn, one more then the rest of the people.

See ver. 5. let. n.

Verse 9. let. p. They were the Lords Ministers, now Ministers of the Altar, they served the Lord in the things of the Altar.

The case needs a continued fasting, weeping and supplication in the most humble posture, and with all the tokens of an afflicted spirit. The Priests should above others mourn, if they mourn in the day, the Priests should mourn night and day.

Who having sent me to speak to you in his name, doth call you to this, that he may pardon and bless you when you repent.

Vid. ver. 9. let. k. l. m. n.

14 ¶ Sanctifie ye a fast , call a solemn assembly , gather the elders , and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God , and cry unto the LORD .

You Priests, Ministers of my God, set apart a day, or more dayes, appoint a time, forbid all servile work, and sensual pleasures, do what you may to prepare for such a necessary work.

Wherein to afflict your selves, confess your sins, repent of them, and sue out your pardon, return to God, that he may remove your present calamities, and prevent the future.

Proclaim and publish it, that every one may know they are restrain'd from common, daily work, and that they are commanded to come together, most solemnly to seek the Lord.

Both for Age and for Authority, Magistrates and Rulers who possibly had been by their sins, more then others, cause of these grievous calamities, and should now be examples to others in repenting.

Make this Fast as publick universal as you can, command all the people of the land, all that dwell with you, perhaps the Prophet intends Proselytes of the Law, and those of Commerce as well as the Iewes.

Courts of the Temple. for Priests only might go into the Temple it self, the Court of Israel, where the people were wont to pray.

Remember the Covenant by which you are his people, and he is your God▪ that you may plead his promises as well as wait for his mercies

With tears of Repentance, with Prayer of Faith, cry more with the broken heart then loud voice.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 letter]hap. 2.15.; [illegible: 1 letter]ev. 23.36.; [illegible: 1 word], day of [illegible: 1 word].

15 Alas for the day : for the day of the LORD is at hand , and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come .

This verse and the three next may be lookt upon either as a particular declaration of the grounds of this Fast, or as a direction how to manage the Fast, a suggesting to the people what they should spread before the Lord, or else as the words of the Priests, bewailing the calamitous state of the Land,

It is a very pathetical bemoaning themselves, which speaks their sense of the evil they suffer'd,

The day of trouble, sorrow and great distress.

This explains the former; It is a day of greater troubles then yet they felt, troubles which God will heap upon them, a day in which God will be Judge, and punish by the locusts, by the drought, and by Babylonians, unless you repent.

Great calamities were now upon them, and greater were approaching to them, if the Prophet Ioel aim at the Captivity either, of the two Tribes, it was 180 years off, if of the ten Tribes it was about 60 years off, for he Prophesieth about the latter end of Ieroboam the second; it is likely therefore he aimeth at some other calamities.

A total overthrow of the Kingdom, the worship of God, and all your labours in your land.

Whose displeasure as a consuming fire, can and will burn up all before it, his power and hand will do it, and then nothing can resist it.

Most certainly and speedily nothing can retard, or divert it, unless Fasting, Prayers and Tears, and amendment do it.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. 30.7.; [illegible: 1 word]. 13.6.

16 Is not the meat cut off before our eyes , yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God ?

The question does most vehemently affirm our food, what we should eat, i. e. all provision we should live upon·

Devoured by locusts, or withered with drought, 'tis perisht·

We see it, 'tis not so far off as what is foretold, 'tis under our eye.

Sacrifices fail much, and Priests have scarce enough to live upon, while free will Offerings, first Fruits and Tithes, amount to very little, not sufficient to feast the Sacrificers and Offerers, who on such occasion did use to rejoyce in the house of God.

Marginal references: Deut. 16.11.14, 15.

17 The seed is rotten under their clods , the garners are laid desolate , the barns are broken down ; for the corn is withered .

Called so from the seeds-man's scattering it abroad when he soweth it, and in this place only so used, for ought I can observe, and yet this use of it here is justified by all the following words; the grain which is sown for the seed against next spring.

Is putrified, grown musty and fruitless, nor is this word any where else used in Scripture.

And Earth, from under which the seed covered should spring up, but now as unsound, rotten and fruitless seed is lost under it.

Or Storehouses, Treasuries of Corn, in which 'twas kept for future use,

Either run to ruin, because the owners discouraged with the barrenness of the seasons, would not repair them, this will intimate that this judgment lasted some years, and is better ground for it, than the four sorts of vermin repeated one after another, in verse 4. or else desolate, being pull'd down, and the materials employed for other uses, till they may have Corn to keep in them.

In which they lodged their unthreshed Corn.

Neglected, and without repair.

There was no use of them, no Corn to be laid up, all withered, and therefore the Barns were not regarded.

Marginal references: Heb. grains.

18 How do the beasts groan ? the herds of cattel are perplexed, because they have no pastures; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

So great was the penury and want of sustenance, that the beasts in the field pincht with hunger, groaned, made dismal noise for fodder and water, the first word, beasts, is general, and contains all sorts.

The greater Cattel which go wandering about, and range over all places, yet can find no pasturage.

Which led by Shepherds, might likely be supposed better secured, yet their Shepherds find no Pasture, and the sheep pine away, and starve. These things are mentioned, either as convincing men of their stupidity, who were less sensible of present miseries then brute beasts were, or to provoke them to lay to heart the pressing calamities, or as arguments that he would pity and relieve innocent brutes, though he punisht sinful brutes.

19 O LORD , to thee will I cry : for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness , and the flame hath burnt all the trees of the field.

Maker and preserver of these poor famisht Cattel.

Either 'tis the Prophets Prayer he maketh, or a form prescribed for the Priests.

The immoderate heats, or else the scorching and blasting flashes of fire in the air, which in those hot Countries are more frequent and more pernicious then in colder Climates.

The fruitful and pleasant places where Shepherds pitcht their Tents, and were use to feed their sheep, all are parcht and dryed as if burnt with fire.

Either because the Shepherds chose to pitch their Tents far from Cities and Towns, or else, because in those vast Wildernesses there were some fruitful Pastures scattered up and down, some lower places of Springs and Water-courses.

The flashes of fire from the Clouds, or in the Air, without Thunder, or else Lightenings with Thunder.

That they neither afford their fruit, their shade, or their green boughs for brouse for the relief of man or beast. This extream desolation should affect them all, it doth shame the sinfully sensless among them, and it is a good argument to use with God, whose creatures they are as well as man.

Marginal references: Or, habitations

20 The beasts of the field cry also unto thee : for the rivers of waters are dryed up , and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness .

Vid. verse 18. let x.

The wilder sort, that rove about many miles seeking their livelyhood, find no sustenance, they look up to God, and cry to him, these creatures that can better shift for themselves, yet can make no good shift; they utter their complaints in their sad tones, they have a voice to cry, as well as an eye to look to God.

Who only canst open thy hand, and fill them, learn ye brutish among men, look and cry to God; And again, have pity O God, many of thy sinless creatures perish without relief, hear them, though thou shouldst not hear men.

Most extream and tedious drought, which hath dryed up the Rivers themselves, there is no drink for the Cattle, they must perish without help, unless thou O God send a plentiful and fruitful rain.

Vid. this explain'd above verse 19. let. c. d. e.

Marginal references: Psal. 104.2[illegible: 1 letter] ▪

Joel

Introduction

Person and Times of the Prophet Joel. - Joel (יואל, i.e., whose God is Jehovah, Ἰωήλ) is distinguished from other men of the same name, which occurs very frequently (e.g., 1Sa 8:2; 1Ch 4:35; 1Ch 5:4; 1Ch 8:12; 1Ch 6:21; 1Ch 7:3; 2Ch 29:12; Neh 11:9), by the epithet “son of Pethuel” (פּתוּאל, the open-heartedness or sincerity of God). Nothing is known of the circumstances connected with his life, since the traditional legends as to his springing from Bethom (Βηθών, al. Θεβυράν in Ps. Epiph.), or Bethomeron in the tribe of Reuben (Ps. Doroth.), are quite unsupported. All that can be inferred with any certainty from his writings is, that he lived in Judah, and in all probability prophesied in Jerusalem. The date of his ministry is also a disputed point; though so much is certain, namely, that he did not live in the reign of Manasseh or Josiah, or even later, as some suppose, but was one of the earliest of the twelve minor prophets. For even Amos (Amo 1:2) commences his prophecy with a passage from Joel (Joe 3:16), and closes it with the same promises, adopting in Joel 9:13 the beautiful imagery of Joel, of the mountains dripping with new wine, and the hills overflowing (Joe 3:18). And Isaiah, again, in his description of the coming judgment in ch. 13, had Joel in his mind; and in v. 6 he actually borrows a sentence from his prophecy (Joe 1:15), which is so peculiar that the agreement cannot be an accidental one. Consequently, Joel prophesied before Amos, i.e., before the twenty-seven years of the contemporaneous reigns of Uzziah and Jeroboam II. How long before, can only be inferred with any degree of probability from the historical circumstances to which he refers in his prophecy. The only enemies that he mentions besides Egypt and Edom (Joe 3:19), as those whom the Lord would punish for the hostility they had shown towards the people of God, are Tyre and Zidon, and the coasts of Philistia (Joe 3:4); but not the Syrians, who planned an expedition against Jerusalem after the conquest of Gath, which cost Joash not only the treasures of the temple and palace, but his own life also (2Ki 12:18.; 2Ch 24:23.), on account of which Amos predicted the destruction of the kingdom of Syria, and the transportation of the people to Assyria (Amo 1:3-5). But inasmuch as this expedition of the Syrians was not “directed against the Philistines, so that only a single detachment made a passing raid into Judah on their return,” as Hengstenberg supposes, but was a direct attack upon the kingdom of Judah, to which the city of Gath, that Rehoboam had fortified, may still have belonged (see at 2Ki 12:18-19), and inflicted a very severe defeat upon Judah, Joel would surely have mentioned the Syrians along with the other enemies of Judah, if he had prophesied after that event. And even if the absence of any reference to the hostility of the Syrians towards Judah is not strictly conclusive when taken by itself, it acquires great importance from the fact that the whole character of Joel’s prophecy points to the times before Amos and Hosea. We neither meet with any allusion to the sins which Hosea and Amos condemn on the part of Judah, and which brought about the Assyrian judgment; nor is idolatry, as it prevailed under Joram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah, ever mentioned at all; but, on the contrary, the Jehovah-worship, which Jehoiada the high priest restored when Joash ascended the throne (2Ki 11:17.; 2Ch 23:16.), is presupposed with all its well-regulated and priestly ceremonial. These circumstances speak very decidedly in favour of the conclusion that the first thirty years of the reign of Joash, during which the king had Jehoiada the high priest for his adviser, are to be regarded as the period of Joel’s ministry. No well-founded objection can be brought against this on account of the position which his book occupies among the minor prophets, since there is no ground for the opinion that the writings of the twelve minor prophets are arranged with a strict regard to chronology.

2. The Book of Joel. - The writings of Joel contain a connected prophetic proclamation, which is divided into two equal halves by Joe 2:18 and Joe 2:19. In the first half the prophet depicts a terrible devastation of Judah by locusts and scorching heat; and describing this judgment as the harbinger, or rather as the dawn, of Jehovah’s great day of judgment, summons the people of all ranks to a general day of penitence, fasting, and prayer, in the sanctuary upon Zion, that the Lord may have compassion upon His nation (Joel 1:2-2:17). In the second half there follows, as the divine answer to the call of the people to repentance, the promise that the Lord will destroy the army of locusts, and bestow a rich harvest blessing upon the land by sending early and latter rain (Joe 2:19-27), and then in the future pour out His Spirit upon all flesh (Joe 2:28-32), and sit in judgment upon all nations, who have scattered His people and divided His land among them, and reward them according to their deeds; but that He will shelter His people from Zion, and glorify His land by rivers of abundant blessing (ch. 3). These two halves are connected together by the statement that Jehovah manifests the jealousy of love for His land, and pity towards His people, and answers them (Joe 2:18-19). So far the commentators are all agreed as to the contents of the book. But there are differences of opinion, more especially as to the true interpretation of the first half, - namely, whether the description of the terrible devastation by locusts is to be understood literally or allegorically.The allegorical exposition is found even in the Chaldee, where the four names of the locusts are rendered literally in Joe 1:4, whereas in Joe 2:25 we find hostile tribes and kingdoms instead; also in Ephraem Syrus, Cyril of Alex., Theodoret, and Jerome, although Theodoret regards the literal interpretation as also admissible, and in Abarb., Luther, and many other expositors. And lately it has been vigorously defended by Hengstenberg in his Christology (i. p. 302 translation), and by Hävernick (Introduction, ii. 2, p. 294ff.), who both of them agree with the fathers in regarding the four swarms of locusts as representing the imperial powers of Chaldea, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. On the other hand, Rufinus, Jarchi, Ab. Ezra, Dav. Kimchi, support the literal view that Joel is describing a terrible devastation of the land by locusts; also Bochart, Pococke, J. H. Michaelis, and in the most recent times, Hofmann and Delitzsch.

The decision of this question depends upon the reply that is given to the prior question, whether Joel 1:2-2:17 contains a description of a present or a future judgment. If we observe, first of all, that the statement in Joe 2:18 and Joe 2:19, by which the promise is introduced, is expressed in four successive imperfects with Vav. consec. (the standing form for historical narratives), there can be no doubt whatever that this remark contains a historical announcement of what has taken place on the part of the Lord in consequence of the penitential cry of the people. And if this be established, it follows still further that the first half of our book cannot contain the prediction of a strictly future judgment, but must describe a calamity which has at any rate in part already begun. This is confirmed by the fact that the prophet from the very outset (Joe 1:2-4) described the devastation of the land by locusts as a present calamity, on the ground of which he summons the people to repentance. As Joel begins with an appeal to the old men, to see whether such things have happened in their own days, or the days of their fathers, and to relate them to their children and children’s children, and then describes the thing itself with simple perfects, יתר הגּזם אכל וגו, it is perfectly obvious that he is not speaking of something that is to take place in the future, but of a divine judgment that has been inflicted already.“Some imagine,” as Calvin well observes, “that a punishment is here threatened, which is to fall at some future time; but the context shows clearly enough that they are mistaken and mar the prophet’s true meaning. He is rather reproving the hardness of the people, because they do not feel their plagues.”

It is true that the prophets frequently employ preterites in their description of future events, but there is no analogous example that can be found of such a use of them as we find here in Joe 1:2-4; and the remark made by Hengstenberg, to the effect that we find the preterites employed in exactly the same manner in ch. 3, is simply incorrect. But if Joel had an existing calamity before his eye, and depicts it in Joe 1:2., the question in dispute from time immemorial, whether the description is to be understood allegorically or literally, is settled in favour of the literal view. “An allegory must contain some significant marks of its being so. Where these are wanting, it is arbitrary to assume that it is an allegory at all.” And we have no such marks here, as we shall show in our exposition in detail. “As it is a fact established by the unanimous testimony of the most credible witnesses, that wherever swarms of locusts descend, all the vegetation in the fields immediately vanishes, just as if a curtain had been rolled up; that they spare neither the juicy bark of woody plants, nor the roots below the ground; that their cloud-like swarms darken the air, and render the sun and even men at a little distance off invisible; that their innumerable and closely compact army advances in military array in a straight course, most obstinately maintained; that it cannot be turned back or dispersed, either by natural obstacles or human force; that on its approach a loud roaring noise is heard like the rushing of a torrent, a waterfall, or a strong wind; that they no sooner settle to eat, than you hear on all sides the grating sound of their mandibles, and, as Volney expresses it, might fancy that you heard the foraging of an invisible army; - if we compare these and other natural observations with the statements of Joel, we shall find everywhere the most faithful picture, and nowhere any hyperbole requiring for its justification and explanation that the army of locusts should be paraphrased into an army of men; more especially as the devastation of a country by an army of locusts is far more terrible than that of an ordinary army; and there is no allusion, either expressed or hinted at, to a massacre among the people. And if we consider, still further, that the migratory locusts (Acridium migratorium, in Oken, Allg. Naturgesch. v. 3, p. 1514ff.) find their grave sometimes in dry and barren steppes, and sometimes in lakes and seas, it is impossible to comprehend how the promise in Joe 2:20 - one part of the army now devastating Judah shall be hurled into the southern desert, the van into the Dead Sea, and the rear into the Mediterranean - can harmonize with the allegorical view” (Delitzsch).Proofs of this have been collected in great numbers by Sam. Bochart (Hieroz.), and both Oedmann (Vermischte Sammlungen, ii. 76ff. and vi. 74ff.) and Credner (appendix to his Commentary on Joel) have contributed abundant gleanings gathered from the reports of travellers.

The only thing that appears to favour the idea that the locusts are used figuratively to represent hostile armies, is the circumstance that Joel discerns in the devastation of the locusts as depicted by him, the drawing near or coming of the day of the Lord (Joe 1:15; Joe 2:1), connected with the fact that Isaiah speaks of the judgment upon Baal, which was accomplished by a hostile army, in the words of Joel (Joe 1:15; see Isa 13:6). But on closer examination, this appearance does not rise into reality. It is true that by the “day of Jehovah” we cannot understand a different judgment from the devastation of the locusts, since such a supposition would be irreconcilable with Joe 2:1. But the expression, “for the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty does it come,” shows that the prophet did not so completely identify the day of the Lord with the plague of locusts, as that it was exhausted by it, but that he merely saw in this the approach of the great day of judgment, i.e., merely one element of the judgment, which falls in the course of ages upon the ungodly, and will be completed in the last judgment. One factor in the universal judgment is the judgment pronounced upon Babylon, and carried out by the Medes; so that it by no means follows from the occurrence of the words of Joel in the prophecy of Isaiah, that the latter put an allegorical interpretation upon Joel’s description of the devastation by the locusts.

But even if there are no conclusive indications or hints, that can be adduced in support of the allegorical interpretation, it cannot be denied, on the other hand, that the description, as a whole, contains something more than a poetical painting of one particular instance of the devastation of Judah by a more terrible swarm of locusts than had ever been known before; that is to say, that it bears an ideal character surpassing the reality, - a fact which is overlooked by such commentators as can find nothing more in the account than the description of a very remarkable plague. The introduction, “Hear this, ye old men; and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land: hath this been in your days, or in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children the following generation” (Joe 1:2-3); and the lamentation in v. 9, that the meat-offering and drink-offering have been destroyed from the house of Jehovah; and still more, the picture of the day of the Lord as a day of darkness and of gloominess like the morning red spread over the mountains; a great people and a strong, such as has not been from all eternity, and after which there will be none like to for ever and ever (Joe 2:2), - unquestionably show that Joel not only regarded the plague of locusts that came upon Judah in the light of divine revelation, and as a sign, but described it as the breaking of the Lord’s great day of judgment, or that in the advance of the locusts he saw the army of God, at whose head Jehovah marched as captain, and caused His voice, the terrible voice of the Judge of the universe, to be heard in the thunder (Joe 2:11), and that he predicted this coming of the Lord, before which the earth trembles, the heavens shake, and sun, moon, and stars lose their brightness (Joe 2:10), as His coming to judge the world. This proclamation, however, was no production of mere poetical exaggeration, but had its source in the inspiration of the Spirit of God, which enlightened the prophet; so that in the terrible devastation that had fallen upon Judah he discerned one feature of the day of judgment of the Lord, and on the ground of the judgment of God that had been thus experienced, proclaimed that the coming of the Lord to judgment upon the whole world was near at hand. The medium through which this was conveyed to his mind was meditation upon the history of the olden time, more especially upon the judgments through which Jehovah had effected the redemption of His people out of Egypt, in connection with the punishment with which Moses threatened the transgressors of the law (Deu 28:38-39, Deu 28:42), - namely, that locusts should devour their seed, their plants, their fields, and their fruits. Hengstenberg has correctly observed, that the words of Joel in Joe 2:10, “There have not been ever the like,” are borrowed from Exo 10:14; but it is not in these words alone that the prophet points to the Egyptian plague of locusts. In the very introduction to his prophecy (Joe 1:2-3), viz., the question whether such a thing has occurred, and the charge, Tell it to your children, etc., there is an unmistakeable allusion to Exo 10:2, where the Lord charges Moses to tell Pharaoh that He will do signs, in order that Pharaoh may relate it to his son and his son’s son, and then announces the plague of locusts in these words: “that thy fathers and thy fathers’ fathers have not seen such things since their existence upon the earth” (Exo 10:6).

As the basis of this judgment of God which fell upon Egypt in the olden time, and by virtue of a higher illumination, Joel discerned in the similar judgment that had burst upon Judah in his own time, a type of the coming of Jehovah’s great day of judgment, and made it the substratum of his prophecy of the judgment of the wrath of the Lord which would come upon Judah, to terrify the sinners out of their self-security, and impel them by earnest repentance, fasting, and prayer, to implore the divine mercy for deliverance from utter destruction. This description of the coming day of Jehovah, i.e., of the judgment of the world, for which the judgment inflicted upon Judah of the devastation by locusts prepared the way, after the foretype of these occurrences of both the olden and present time, is no allegory, however, in which the heathen nations, by whom the judgments upon the covenant nation that had gone further and further from its God would be executed in the time to come, are represented as swarms of locusts coming one after another and devastating the land of Judah; but it has just the same reality as the plague of locusts through which God once sought to humble the pride of the Egyptian Pharaoh. We are no more at liberty to turn the locusts in the prophecy before us into hostile armies, than to pronounce the locusts by which Egypt was devastated, allegorical figures representing enemies or troops of hostile cavalry. Such a metamorphosis as this is warranted neither by the vision in Amo 7:1-3, where Amos is said to have seen the divine judgment under the figure of a swarm of locusts; nor by that described in Rev 9:3., where locusts which come out of the bottomless pit are commanded neither to hurt the grass nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only to torment men with their scorpion-stings: for even in these visions the locusts are not figurative, representing hostile nations; but on the basis of the Egyptian plague of locusts and of Joel’s prophecy, they stand in Amos as a figurative representation of the devastation of the land, and in the Apocalypse as the symbol of a supernatural plague inflicted upon the ungodly. Lastly, another decisive objection to the allegorical interpretation is to be found in the circumstance, that neither in the first nor in the second half of his book does Joel predict the particular judgments which God will inflict in the course of time, partly upon His degenerate people, and partly upon the hostile powers of the world, but that he simply announces the judgment of God upon Judah and the nations of the world in its totality, as the great and terrible day of the Lord, without unfolding more minutely or even suggesting the particular facts in which it will be historically realized. In this respect, the ideality of his prophecy is maintained throughout; and the only speciality given to it is, that in the first half the judgment upon the covenant people is proclaimed, and in the second the judgment upon the heathen nations: the former as the groundwork of a call to repentance; the latter as the final separation between the church of the Lord and its opponents. And this separation between the covenant nation and the powers of the world is founded on fact. The judgment only falls upon the covenant nation when it is unfaithful to its divine calling, when it falls away from its God, and that not to destroy and annihilate it, but to lead it back by means of chastisement to the Lord its God. If it hearken to the voice of its God, who speaks to it in judgments, the Lord repents of the evil, and turns the calamity into salvation and blessing. It was Joel’s mission to proclaim this truth in Judah, and turn the sinful nation to its God. To this end he proclaimed to the people, that the Lord was coming to judgment in the devastation that the locusts had spread over the land, and by depicting the great and terrible day of the Lord, called upon them to turn to their God with all their heart. This call to repentance was not without effect. The Lord was jealous for His land, and spared His people (Joe 2:18), and sent His prophets to proclaim the removal of the judgment and the bestowal of a bountiful earthly ad spiritual blessing: viz., for the time immediately ensuing the destruction of the army of locusts, the sending of the teacher for righteousness, and a plentiful fall of rain for the fruitful supply of the fruits of the ground (Joe 2:19, Joe 2:27); and in the more remote future, the pouring out of His Spirit upon the whole congregation, and on the day of the judgment upon all nations the deliverance and preservation of His faithful worshippers; and finally, after the judgment, the transformation and eternal glory of Zion (Joel 2:28-3:21). Here, again, the ideality of the prophetic announcement is maintained throughout, although a distinction is made between the inferior blessing in the immediate future, and the higher benediction of the church of God at a more distant period. The outpouring of the Spirit of God upon all flesh is followed, without any intervening link, by the announcement of the coming of the terrible day of the Lord, as a day of judgment upon all nations, including those who have shown themselves hostile to Judah, either in Joel’s own time or a little while before. The nations are gathered together in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and there judged by Jehovah through His mighty heroes; but the sons of Israel are delivered and sheltered by their God. Here, again, all the separate judgments, which fall upon the nations of the world that are hostile to God, during the many centuries of the gradual development of the kingdom of God upon earth, are summed up in one grand judicial act on the day of Jehovah, through which the separation is completely effected between the church of the Lord and its foes, the ungodly power of the world annihilated, and the kingdom of God perfected; but without the slightest hint, that both the judgment upon the nations and the glorification of the kingdom of God will be fulfilled through a succession of separate judgments.

The book of Joel, therefore, contains two prophetic addresses, which are not only connected together as one work by the historical remark in Joe 2:18-19, but which stand in the closest relation to each other, so far as their contents are concerned, though the one was not delivered to the people directly after the other, but the first during the devastation by the locusts, to lead the people to observe the judgment of God and to assemble together in the temple for a service of penitence and prayer; and the second not till after the priests had appointed a day of fasting, penitence, and prayer, in the house of the Lord, in consequence of His solemn call to repentance, and in the name of the people had prayed to the Lord to pity and spare His inheritance. The committal of these addresses to writing did not take place, at any rate, till after the destruction of the army of the locusts, when the land began to recover from the devastation that it had suffered. But whether Joel committed these addresses to writings just as he delivered them to the congregation, and merely linked them together into one single work by introducing the historical remark that unites them, or whether he merely inserted in his written work the essential contents of several addresses delivered after this divine judgment, and worked them up into one connected prophecy, it is impossible to decide with certainty. But there is no doubt whatever as to the composition of the written work by the prophet himself. - For the different commentaries upon the book of Joel, see my Introduction to the Old Testament.

I. The Judgment of God, and the Prophet’s Call to Repentance - Joel 1:2-2:17

An unparalleled devastation of the land of Judah by several successive swarms of locusts, which destroyed all the seedlings, all field and garden fruits, all plants and trees, and which was accompanied by scorching heat, induced the prophet to utter a loud lamentation at this unparalleled judgment of God, and an earnest call to all classes of the nation to offer prayer to the Lord in the temple, together with fasting, mourning, and weeping, that He might avert the judgment. In the first chapter, the lamentation has reference chiefly to the ruin of the land (Joel 1:2-20); in the second, the judgment is depicted as a foretype and harbinger of the approaching day of the Lord, which the congregation is to anticipate by a day of public fasting, repentance, and prayer (Joel 2:1-17); so that ch. 1 describes rather the magnitude of the judgment, and ch. 2:1-17 its significance in relation to the covenant nation.

Lamentation over the Devastation of Judah by Locusts and Drought - Joel 1

After an appeal to lay to heart the devastation by swarms of locusts, which has fallen upon the land (Joe 1:2-4), the prophet summons the following to utter lamentation over this calamity: first the drunkards, who are to awake (Joe 1:5-7); then the congregation generally, which is to mourn with penitence (Joe 1:8-12); and then the priests, who are to appoint a service of repentance (Joe 1:13-18). For each of these appeals he gives, as a reason, a further description of the horrible calamity, corresponding to the particular appeal; and finally, he sums up his lamentation in a prayer for the deliverance of the land from destruction (Joe 1:19, Joe 1:20).

Joe 1:1-4

Joe 1:1 contains the heading to the book, and has already been noticed in the introduction. Joe 1:2. “Hear this, ye old men; and attend, all ye inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing indeed happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? Joe 1:1. Ye shall tell your sons of it, and your sons their sons, and their sons the next generation. Joe 1:4. The leavings of the gnawer the multiplier ate, and the leavings of the multiplier the licker ate, and the leavings of the licker the devourer ate.” Not only for the purpose of calling the attention of the hearers to his address, but still more to set forth the event of which he is about to speak as something unheard of - a thing that has never happened before, and therefore is a judgment inflicted by God - the prophet commences with the question addressed to the old men, whose memory went the furthest back, and to all the inhabitants of Judah, whether they had ever experienced anything of the kind, or heard of such a thing from their fathers; and with the command to relate it to their children, and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.“As he is inquiring concerning the past according to the command of Moses in Deu 32:7, he asks the old men, who have been taught by long experience, and are accustomed, whenever they see anything unusual, to notice that this is not according to the ordinary course of nature, which they have observed for so many years. And since this existing calamity, caused by the insects named, has lasted longer and pressed more heavily than usual, he admonishes them to carry their memory back to the former days, and see whether anything of the kind ever happened naturally before; and if no example can be found, the prophet’s advice is, that they should recognise this as the hand of God from heaven.” - Tarnov. “The inhabitants of the land” are the inhabitants of Judah, as it was only with this kingdom that Joel was occupied (cf. Joe 1:14 and Joe 2:1). זאת is the occurrence related in Joe 1:4, which is represented by the question “Has this been in your days?” as a fact just experienced. Yether haggâzâm, the leavings of the gnawer, i.e., whatever the gnawer leaves unconsumed of either vegetables or plants. The four names given to the locusts, viz., gâzâm, 'arbeh, yeleq, and châsil, are not the names applied in natural history to four distinct species, or four different generations of locusts; nor does Joel describe the swarms of two successive years, so that “gâzâm is the migratory locust, which visits Palestine chiefly in the autumn, 'arbeh the young brood, yeleq the young locust in the last stage of its transformation, or before changing its skin for the fourth time, and châsı̄l the perfect locust after this last change, so that as the brood sprang from the gâzâm, châsı̄l would be equivalent to gâzâm” (Credner). This explanation is not only at variance with Joe 2:25, where gâzâm stands last, after châsı̄l, but is founded generally merely upon a false interpretation of Nah 3:15-16 (see the passage) and Jer 51:27, where the adjective sâmâr (horridus, horrible), appended to yeleq, from sâmâr, to shudder, by no means refers to the rough, horny, wing-sheath of the young locusts, and cannot be sustained from the usage of the language, It is impossible to point out any difference in usage between gâzâm and châsı̄l, or between these two words and 'arbeh. The word gâzâm, from gâzâm, to cut off (in Arabic, Ethiopic, and the Rabb.), occurs only in this passage, in Joe 2:25, and in Amo 4:9, where it is applied to a swarm of flying locusts, which leave the vine, fig-tree, and olive, perfectly bare, as it is well known that all locusts do, when, as in Amos, the vegetables and field fruits have been already destroyed. 'Arbeh, from râbhâh, to be many, is the common name of the locust, and indeed in all probability of the migratory locust, because this always appears in innumerable swarms. Châsı̄l, from châsal, to eat off, designates the locust (hâ'arbeh), according to Deu 28:38, by its habit of eating off the field crops and tree fruits, and is therefore used in 1Ki 8:37; 2Ch 6:28; Psa 78:46, as synonymous with hâ'arbeh, and in Isa 33:4 in its stead. Yeleq, from yâlaq = lâqaq, to lick, to lick off, occurs in Psa 105:34 as equivalent to 'arbeh, and in Nahum as synonymous with it; and indeed it there refers expressly to the Egyptian plague of locusts, so that young locusts without wings cannot possibly be thought of. Haggâzâm the gnawer, hayyeleq the licker, hechâsı̄l the devourer, are therefore simply poetical epithets applied to the 'arbeh, which never occur in simple plain prose, but are confined to the loftier (rhetorical and poetical) style. Moreover, the assumption that Joel is speaking of swarms of locusts of two successive years, is neither required by Joe 2:25 (see the comm. on this verse), nor reconcilable with the contents of the verse itself. If the 'arbeh eats what the gâzâm has left, and the yeleq what is left by the 'arbeh, we cannot possibly think of the field and garden fruits of two successive years, because the fruits of the second year are not the leavings of the previous year, but have grown afresh in the year itself.Bochart (Hieroz. iii. p. 290, ed. Ros.) has already expressed the same opinion. “If,” he says, “the different species had been assigned to so many different years, the 'arbeh would not be said to have eaten the leavings of the gâzâm, or the yeleq the leavings of the 'arbeh, or the châsı̄l the leavings of the yeleq; for the productions of this year are not the leavings of last, nor can what will spring up in future be looked upon as the leavings of this. Therefore, whether this plague of locusts was confined to one year, or was repeated for several years, which seems to be the true inference from Joe 2:25, I do not think that the different species of locusts are to be assigned to different years respectively, but that they all entered Judaea in the same year; so that when one swarm departed from a field, another followed, to eat up the leavings of the previous swarm, if there were any; and that this was repeated as many times as was necessary to consume the whole, so that nothing at all should be left to feed either man or beast.”

The thought is rather this: one swarm of locusts after another has invaded the land, and completely devoured its fruit. The use of several different words, and the division of the locusts into four successive swarms, of which each devours what has been left by its precursor, belong to the rhetorical drapery and individualizing of the thought. The only thing that has any real significance is the number four, as the four kinds of punishment in Jer 15:3, and the four destructive judgments in Eze 14:21, clearly show. The number four, “the stamp of oecumenicity” (Kliefoth), indicates here the spread of the judgment over the whole of Judah in all directions.

Joe 1:5-7

In order that Judah may discern in this unparalleled calamity a judgment of God, and the warning voice of God calling to repentance, the prophet first of all summons the wine-bibbers to sober themselves, and observe the visitation of God. Joe 1:5. “Awake, ye drunken ones, and weep! and howl, all ye drinkers of wine! at the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. Joe 1:6. For a people has come up over my land, a strong one, and innumerable: its teeth are lion’s teeth, and it has the bite of a lioness. Joe 1:7. It has made my vine a wilderness, and my fig-tree into sticks. Peeling, it has peeled it off, and cast it away: its shoots have grown white.” הקיץ to awake out of the reeling of intoxication, as in Pro 23:35. They are to howl for the new wine, the fresh sweet juice of the grape, because with the destruction of the vines it is taken away and destroyed from their mouth. Joe 1:6 and Joe 1:7 announce through whom. In the expression gōi ‛âlâh (a people has come up) the locusts are represented as a warlike people, because they devastate the land like a hostile army. Gōi furnishes no support to the allegorical view. In Pro 30:25-26, not only are the ants described as a people (‛âm), but the locusts also; although it is said of them that they have no king. And ‛âm is synonymous with gōi, which has indeed very frequently the idea of that which is hostile, and even here is used in this sense; though it by no means signifies a heathen nation, but occurs in Zep 2:9 by the side of ‛âm, as an epithet applied to the people of Jehovah (i.e., Israel: see also Gen 12:2). The weapons of this army consist in its teeth, its “bite,” which grinds in pieces as effectually as the teeth of the lion or the bite of the lioness (מתלּעות; see at Job 29:17). The suffix attached to ארצי does not refer to Jehovah, but to the prophet, who speaks in the name of the people, so that it is the land of the people of God. And this also applies to the suffixes in גּפני and תּאנתי in Joe 1:7. In the description of the devastation caused by the army of locusts, the vine and fig-tree are mentioned as the noblest productions of the land, which the Lord has given to His people for their inheritance (see at Hos 2:14). לקצפה, εἰς κλασμόν, literally, for crushing. The suffix in chăsâphâh refers, no doubt, simply to the vine as the principal object, the fig-tree being mentioned casually in connection with it. Châsaph, to strip, might be understood as referring simply to the leaves of the vine (cf. Psa 29:9); but what follows shows that the gnawing or eating away of the bark is also included. Hishlı̄kh, to throw away not merely what is uneatable, “that which is not green and contains no sap” (Hitzig), but the vine itself, which the locusts have broken when eating off its leaves and bark. The branches of the vine have become white through the eating off of the bark (sârı̄gı̄m, Gen 40:10).H. Ludolf, in his Histor. Aethiop. i. c. 13, §16, speaking of the locusts, says: “Neither herbs, nor shrubs, nor trees remain unhurt. Whatever is either grassy or covered with leaves, is injured, as if it had been burnt with fire. Even the bark of trees is nibbled with their teeth, so that the injury is not confined to one year alone.”

Joe 1:8-12

The whole nation is to mourn over this devastation. Joe 1:8 . “Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. Joe 1:9. The meat-offering and the drink-offering are destroyed from the house of Jehovah. The priests, the servant of Jehovah. mourn. Joe 1:10. The field is laid waste, the ground mourns: for the corn is laid waste: the new wine is spoiled, the oil decays. Joe 1:11. Turn pale, ye husbandmen; howl, ye vinedressers, over wheat and barley: for the harvest of the field is perished. Joe 1:12. The vine is spoiled, and the fig-tree faded; the pomegranate, also the palm and the apple tree: all the trees of the field are withered away; yea, joy has expired from the children of men.” In Joe 1:8 Judah is addressed as the congregation of Jehovah. אלי is the imperative of the verb אלה, equivalent to the Syriac 'elā', to lament. The verb only occurs here. The lamentation of the virgin for the בּעל נעוּריה, i.e., the beloved of your youth, her bridegroom, whom she has lost by death (Isa 54:6), is the deepest and bitterest lamentation. With reference to חגרת־שׂק, see Delitzsch on Isa 3:24. The occasion of this deep lamentation, according to Joe 1:9, is the destruction of the meat-offering and drink-offering from the house of the Lord, over which the servants of Jehovah mourn. The meat and drink offerings must of necessity cease, because the corn, the new wine, and the oil are destroyed through the devastation of the field and soil. Hokhrath minchâh does not affirm that the offering of the daily morning and evening sacrifice (Exo 29:38-42) - for it is to this that מנחה ונסך chiefly, if not exclusively, refers - has already ceased; but simply that any further offering is rendered impossible by the failure of meal, wine, and oil. Now Israel could not suffer any greater calamity than the suspension of the daily sacrifice; for this was a practical suspension of the covenant relation - a sign that God had rejected His people. Therefore, even in the last siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, the sacrificial worship was not suspended till it had been brought to the last extremity; and even then it was for the want of sacrificers, and not of the material of sacrifice (Josephus, de bell. Jud. vi. 2, 1). The reason for this anxiety was the devastation of the field and land (Joe 1:10); and this is still further explained by a reference to the devastation and destruction of the fruits of the ground, viz., the corn, i.e., the corn growing in the field, so that the next harvest would be lost, and the new wine and oil, i.e., the vines and olive-trees, so that they could bear no grapes for new wine, and no olives for oil. The verbs in Joe 1:11 are not perfects, but imperatives, as in the fifth verse. הבישׁ has the same meaning as bōsh, as in Jer 2:26; Jer 6:15, etc., to stand ashamed, to turn pale with shame at the disappointment of their hope, and is probably written defectively, without ו, to distinguish it from הובישׁ, the hiphil of יבשׁ, to be parched or dried up (Joe 1:10 and Joe 1:12). The hope of the husbandmen was disappointed through the destruction of the wheat and barley, the most important field crops. The vine-growers had to mourn over the destruction of the vine and the choice fruit-trees (Joe 1:12), such as the fig and pomegranate, and even the date-palm (gam-tâmâr), which has neither a fresh green rind nor tender juicy leaves, and therefore is not easily injured by the locusts so as to cause it to dry up; and tappūăch, the apple-tree, and all the trees of the field, i.e., all the rest of the trees, wither. “All trees, whether fruit-bearing or not, are consumed by the devastating locusts” (Jerome). In the concluding clause of Joe 1:12, the last and principal ground assigned for the lamentation is, that joy is taken away and withered from the children of men (hōbbı̄sh min, constr. praegn.). כּי introduces a reason here as elsewhere, though not for the clause immediately preceding, but for the הבישׁוּ and הילילוּ in Joe 1:11, the leading thought in both verses; and we may therefore express it by an emphatic yea.

Joe 1:13-14

The affliction is not removed by mourning and lamentation, but only through repentance and supplication to the Lord, who can turn away all evil. The prophet therefore proceeds to call upon the priests to offer to the Lord penitential supplication day and night in the temple, and to call the elders and all the people to observe a day of fasting, penitence, and prayer; and then offers supplication himself to the Lord to have compassion upon them (Joe 1:19). From the motive assigned for this appeal, we may also see that a terrible drought had been associated with the devastation by the locusts, from which both man and beast had endured the most bitter suffering, and that Joel regarded this terrible calamity as a sign of the coming of the day of the Lord. Joe 1:13. “Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests; howl, ye servants of the altar; come, pass the night in sackcloth, ye servants of my God: for the meat-offering and drink-offering are withdrawn from the house of your God. Joe 1:14. Sanctify a fast, call out an assembly, assemble the elders, all ye inhabitants of the land, at the house of Jehovah your God, and cry to Jehovah.” From what follows we must supply bassaqqı̄m (with sackcloth) to chigrū (gird yourselves). Gird yourselves with mourning apparel, i.e., put it on (see Joe 1:8). In this they are to pass the night, to offer supplication day and night, or incessantly, standing between the altar and the porch (Joe 2:17). “Servants of my God,” i.e., of the God whose prophet I am, and from whom I can promise you a hearing. The reason assigned for this appeal is the same as for the lamentation in Joe 1:9. But it is not the priests only who are to pray incessantly to the Lord; the elders and all the people are to do the same. קדּשׁ צום, to sanctify a fast, i.e., to appoint a holy fast, a divine service of prayer connected with fasting. To this end the priests are to call an ‛ătsârâh, i.e., a meeting of the congregation for religious worship. ‛Atsârâh, or ‛ătsereth, πανήγυρις, is synonymous with מקרא קודשׁ in Lev 23:36 (see the exposition of that passage). In what follows, כּל־ישׁבי ה is attached ἀσυνδέτως to זקנים; and the latter is not a vocative, but an accusative of the object. On the other hand, בּית יהוה is an accus. loci, and dependent upon אספוּ. זעק, to cry, used of loud and importunate prayer. It is only by this that destruction can still be averted.

Joe 1:15 “Alas for the day! for the day of Jehovah is near, and it comes like violence from the Almighty.” This verse does not contain words which the priests are to speak, so that we should have to supply לאמר, like the Syriac and others, but words of the prophet himself, with which he justifies the appeal in Joe 1:13 and Joe 1:14. ליּום is the time of the judgment, which has fallen upon the land and people through the devastation by the locusts. This “day” is the beginning of the approaching day of Jehovah, which will come like a devastation from the Almighty. Yōm Yehōvâh is the great day of judgment upon all ungodly powers, when God, as the almighty ruler of the world, brings down and destroys everything that has exalted itself against Him; thus making the history of the world, through His rule over all creatures in heaven and earth, into a continuous judgment, which will conclude at the end of this course of the world with a great and universal act of judgment, through which everything that has been brought to eternity by the stream of time unjudged and unadjusted, will be judged and adjusted once for all, to bring to an end the whole development of the world in accordance with its divine appointment, and perfect the kingdom of God by the annihilation of all its foes. (Compare the magnificent description of this day of the Lord in Isa 2:12-21.) And accordingly this particular judgment - through which Jehovah on the one hand chastises His people for their sins, and on the other hand destroys the enemies of His kingdom - forms one element of the day of Jehovah; and each of these separate judgment is a coming of that day, and a sign of His drawing near. This day Joel saw in the judgment that came upon Judah in his time, keshōd misshaddai, lit., like a devastation from the Almighty, - a play upon the words (since shōd and shaddai both come from shâdad), which Rückert renders, though somewhat too freely, by wie ein Graussen vom grossen Gott. כ is the so-called כ veritatis, expressing a comparison between the individual and its genus or its idea. On the relation between this verse and Isa 13:6, see the Introduction.

Joe 1:16-20 “Is not the food destroyed before our eyes, joy and exulting from the house of our God? Joe 1:17. The grains have mouldered under their clods, the storehouses are desolate, the barns have fallen down; because the corn is destroyed. Joe 1:18. How the cattle groan! the herds of oxen are bewildered, for no pasture was left for them; even the flocks of sheep suffer.” As a proof that the day of the Lord is coming like a devastation from the Almighty, the prophet points in Joe 1:16 to the fact that the food is taken away before their eyes, and therewith all joy and exulting from the house of God. “The food of the sinners perishes before their eyes, since the crops they looked for are snatched away from their hands, and the locust anticipates the reaper” (Jerome). אכל, food as the means of sustenance; according to Joe 1:19, corn, new wine, and oil. The joy is thereby taken from the house of Jehovah, inasmuch as, when the crops are destroyed, neither first-fruits nor thank-offerings can be brought to the sanctuary to be eaten there at joyful meals (Deu 12:6-7; Deu 16:10-11). And the calamity became all the more lamentable, from the fact that, in consequence of a terrible drought, the seed perished in the earth, and consequently the prospect of a crop the following year entirely disappeared. The prophet refers to this in Joe 1:17, which has been rendered in extremely different ways by the lxx, Chald., and Vulg., on account of the ̔απ. λεγ. עבשׁוּ, פּרדות, and מגרפות (compare Pococke, ad h. l.). עבשׁ signifies to moulder away, or, as the injury was caused by dryness and heat, to dry up; it is used here of grains of corn which lose their germinating power, from the Arabic ‛bs, to become dry or withered, and the Chaldee עפשׁ, to get mouldy. Perudōth, in Syriac, grains of corn sowed broadcast, probably from pârad, to scatter about. Megrâphōth, according to Ab. Esr., clods of earth (compare Arab. jurf, gleba terrai), from gâraph, to wash away (Jdg 5:21) a detached piece of earth. If the seed-corn loses its germinating power beneath the clod, no corn-harvest can be looked for. The storehouses ('ōtsârōth; cf. 2Ch 32:27) moulder away, and the barns (mammegurâh with dag. dirim. = megūrâh in Hag 2:19) fall, tumble to pieces, because being useless they are not kept in proper condition. The drought also deprives the cattle of their pasture, so that the herds of oxen and flocks of sheep groan and suffer with the rest from the calamity. בּוּך, niphal, to be bewildered with fear. 'Ashēm, to expiate, to suffer the consequences of men’s sin.

The fact, that even irrational creatures suffer along with men, impels the prophet to pray for help to the Lord, who helps both man and beast (Psa 36:7). Joe 1:19. “To Thee, O Jehovah, do I cry: for fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has consumed all the trees of the field. Joe 1:20. Even the beasts of the field cry unto Thee; for the water-brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.” Fire and flame are the terms used by the prophet to denote the burning heat of the drought, which consumes the meadows, and even scorches up the trees. This is very obvious from the drying up of the water-brooks (in Joe 1:20). For Joe 1:20, compare Jer 14:5-6. In Jer 14:20 the address is rhetorically rounded off by the repetition of ואשׁ אכלה וגו from Jer 14:19.

Joel

We are altogether uncertain concerning the time when this prophet prophesied; it is probable that it was about the same time Amos prophesied, not for the reason that the rabbin give, "Because Amos begins his prophecy with that wherewith Joel concludes his, The Lord shall roar out of Zion," but for the reason Dr. Lightfoot gives, "Because he speaks of the same judgments of locusts, and drought, and fire, that Amos laments, which is an intimation that they appeared about the same time, Amos in Israel and Joel in Judah. Hosea and Obadiah prophesied about the same time; and it appears that Amos prophesied in the days of Jeroboam, the second king of Israel, Amos vii. 10. God sent a variety of prophets, that they might strengthen the hands one of another, and that out of the mouth of two or three witnesses every word might be established. In this prophecy, I. The desolations made by hosts of noxious insects is described, ch. i. and part of ch. ii. II. The people are hereupon called to repentance, ch. ii. III. Promises are made of the return of mercy upon their repentance (ch. ii.), and promises of the pouring out of the Spirit in the latter days. IV. The cause of God's people is pleaded against their enemies, whom God would in due time reckon with (ch. iii.); and glorious things are spoken of the gospel—Jerusalem and of the prosperity and perpetuity of it.

This chapter is the description of a lamentable devastation made of the country of Judah by locusts and caterpillars. Some think that the prophet speaks of it as a thing to come and gives warning of it beforehand, as usually the prophets did of judgments coming. Others think that it was now present, and that his business was to affect the people with it and awaken them by it to repentance. I. It is spoken of as a judgment which there was no precedent of in former ages, ver. 1-7. II. All sorts of people sharing in the calamity are called upon to lament it, ver. 8-13. III. They are directed to look up to God in their lamentations, and to humble themselves before him, ver. 14-20.

Threatenings of Judgment. (b. c. 720.)

1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. 2 Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? 3 Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. 4 That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. 5 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. 6 For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. 7 He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

It is a foolish fancy which some of the Jews have, that this Joel the prophet was the same with that Joel who was the son of Samuel (1 Sam. viii. 2); yet one of their rabbin very gravely undertakes to show why Samuel is here called Pethuel. This Joel was long after that. He here speaks of a sad and sore judgment which was now brought, or to be brought, upon Judah, for their sins. Observe,

I. The greatness of the judgment, expressed here in two things:—1. It was such as could not be paralleled in the ages that were past, in history, or in the memory of any living, v. 2. The old men are appealed to, who could remember what had happened long ago; nay, and all the inhabitants of the land are called on to testify, if they could any of them remember the like. Let them go further than any man's memory, and prepare themselves for the search of their fathers (Job viii. 8), and they would not find an account of the like in any record. Note, Those that outdo their predecessors in sin may justly expect to fall under greater and sorer judgments than any of their predecessors knew. 2. It was such as would not be forgotten in the ages to come (v. 3): "Tell you your children of it; let them know what dismal tokens of the wrath of God you have been under, that they make take warning, and may learn obedience by the things which you have suffered, for it is designed for warning to them also. Yea, let your children tell their children, and their children another generation; let them tell it not only as a strange thing, which may serve for matter of talk" (as such uncommon accidents are records in our almanacs—It is so long since the plague, and fire—so long since the great frost, and the great wind), "but let them tell it to teach their children to stand in awe of God and of his judgments, and to tremble before him." Note, We ought to transmit to posterity the memorial of God's judgments as well as of his mercies.

II. The judgment itself; it is an invasion of the country of Judea by a great army. Many interpreters both ancient and modern understand it of armies of men, the forces of the Assyrians, which, under Sennacherib, took all the defenced cities of Judah, and then, no doubt, made havoc of the country and destroyed the products of it: nay, some make the four sorts of animals here names (v. 4) to signify the four monarchies which, in their turns, were oppressive to the people of the Jews, one destroying what had escaped the fury of the other. Many of the Jewish expositors think it is a parabolic expression of the coming of enemies, and their multitude, to lay all waste. So the Chaldee paraphrast mentions these animals (v. 4); but afterwards (ch. ii. 25) puts instead of them, Nations, peoples, tongues, languages, potentates, and revenging kingdoms. But it seems much rather to be understood literally of armies of insects coming upon the land and eating up the fruits of it. Locusts were one of the plagues of Egypt. Of them it is said, There never were any like them, nor should be (Exod. x. 14), none such as those in Egypt, none such as these in Judah—none like those locusts for bigness, none like these for multitude and the mischief they did. The plague of locusts in Egypt lasted but for a few days; this seems to have continued for four years successively (as some think), because here are four sorts of insects mentioned (v. 4), one destroying what the other left; but others think they came all in one year. We are not told, in the history of the Old Testament, when this happened, but we are sure that no word of God fell to the ground; and, though a devastation by these insects is primarily intended here, yet it is expressed in such a language as is very applicable to the destruction of the country by a foreign enemy invading it, because, if the people were not humbled and reformed by that less judgment which devoured the land, God would send this greater upon them, which would devour the inhabitants; and by the description of that they are bidden to take it for a warning. If this nation of worms do not subdue them, another nation shall come to ruin them. Observe, 1. What these animals are that are sent against them—locusts and caterpillars, palmer-worms and canker-worms, v. 4. We cannot now describe how these differed one from another; they were all little insects, any one of them despicable, and which a man might easily crush with his foot or with his finger; but when they came in vast swarms, or shoals, they were very formidable and ate up all before them. Note, God is Lord of hosts, has all creatures at his command, and, when he pleases, can humble and mortify a proud and rebellious people by the weakest and most contemptible creatures. Man is said to be a worm; and by this it appears that he is less than a worm, for, when God pleases, worms are too hard for him, plunder his country, eat up that for which he laboured, destroy the forage, and cut off the subsistence of a potent nation. The weaker the instrument is that God employs the more is his power magnified. 2. What fury and force they came with. They are here called a nation (v. 6), because they are embodied, and act by consent, and as it were with a common design; for, though the locusts have no king, yet they go forth all of them by bands (Prov. xxx. 27), and it is there mentioned as an instance of their wisdom. It is prudence for those that are weak severally to unite and act jointly. They are strong, for they are without number. The small dust of the balance is light, and easily blown away, but a heap of dust is weighty; so a worm can do little (yet one worm served to destroy Jonah's gourd), but numbers of them can do wonders. They are said to have teeth of a lion, of a great lion, because of the great and terrible execution they do. Note, Locusts become as lions when they come armed with a divine commission. We read of the locusts out of the bottomless pit, that their teeth were as the teeth of lions, Rev. ix. 8. 3. What mischief they do. They eat up all before them (v. 4); what one leaves the other devours; they destroy not only the grass and corn, but the trees (v. 7): The vine is laid waste. There vermin eat the leaves which should be a shelter to the fruit while it ripens, and so that also perishes and comes to nothing. They eat the very bark of the fig-tree, and so kill it. Thus the fig-tree does not blossom, nor is there fruit in the vine.

III. A call to the drunkards to lament this judgment (v. 5): Awake and weep, all you drinkers of wine. This intimates, 1. That they should suffer very sensibly by this calamity. It should touch them in a tender part; the new wine which they loved so well should be cut off from their mouth. Note, It is just with God to take away those comforts which are abused to luxury and excess, to recover the corn and wine which are prepared for Baal, which are made the food and fuel of a base lust. And to them judgments of that kind are most grievous. The more men place their happiness in the gratification of sense the more pressing temporal afflictions are upon them. The drinkers of water need not to care when the vine was laid waste; they could live as well without it as they had done; it was no trouble to the Nazarites. But the drinkers of wine will weep and howl. The more delights we make necessary to our satisfaction the more we expose ourselves to trouble and disappointment. 2. It intimates that they had been very senseless and stupid under the former tokens of God's displeasure; and therefore they are here called to awake and weep. Those that will not be roused out of their security by the word of God shall be roused by his rod; those that will not be startled by judgments at a distance shall be themselves arrested by them; and when they are going to partake of the forbidden fruit a prohibition of another nature shall come between the cup and the lip, and cut off the wine from their mouth.

Threatenings of Judgment. (b. c. 720.)

8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. 9 The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord ; the priests, the Lord 's ministers, mourn. 10 The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. 11 Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. 12 The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men. 13 Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

The judgment is here described as very lamentable, and such as all sorts of people should share in; it shall not only rob the drunkards of their pleasure (if that were the worst of it, it might be the better borne), but it shall deprive others of their necessary subsistence, who are therefore called to lament (v. 8), as a virgin laments the death of her lover to whom she was espoused, but not completely married, yet so that he was in effect her husband, or as a young woman lately married, from whom the husband of her youth, her young husband, or the husband to whom she was married when she was young, is suddenly taken away by death. Between a new-married couple that are young, that married for love, and that are every way amiable and agreeable to each other, there is great fondness, and consequently great grief if either be taken away. Such lamentation shall there be for the loss of their corn and wine. Note, The more we are wedded to our creature-comforts that harder it is to part with them. See that parallel place, Isa. xxxii. 10-12. Two sorts of people are here brought in, as concerned to lament this devastation, countrymen and clergymen.

I. Let the husbandmen and vine-dressers lament, v. 11. Let them be ashamed of the care and pains they have taken about their vineyards, for it will be all labour lost, and they shall gain no advantage by it; they shall see the fruit of their labour eaten up before their eyes, and shall not be able to save any of it. Note, Those who labour only for the meat that perishes will, sooner or later, be ashamed of their labour. The vine-dressers will then express their extreme grief by howling, when they see their vineyards stripped of leaves and fruit, and the vines withered, so that nothing is to be had or hoped for from them, wherewith they might pay their rent and maintain their families. The destruction is particularly described here: The field is laid waste (v. 10).; all is consumed that is produced; the land mourns; the ground has a melancholy aspect, and looks ruefully; all the inhabitants of the land are in tears for what they have lost, are in fear of perishing for want, Isa. xxiv. 4; Jer. iv. 28. "The corn, the bread-corn, which is the staff of life, is wasted; the new wine, which should be brought into the cellars for a supply when the old is drunk, is dried up, is ashamed of having promised so fair what it is not now able to perform; the oil languishes, or is diminished, because (as the Chaldee renders it) the olives have fallen off." The people were not thankful to God as they should have been for the bread that strengthens man's heart, the wine that makes glad the heart, and the oil that makes the face to shine (Ps. civ. 14, 15); and therefore they are justly brought to lament the loss and want of them, of all the products of the earth, which God had given either for necessity or for delight (this is repeated, v. 11, 12)—the wheat and barley, the two principal grains bread was then made of, wheat for the rich and barley for the poor, so that the rich and poor meet together in the calamity. The trees are destroyed, not only the vine and the fig-tree (as before, v. 7), which were more useful and necessary, but other trees also that were for delight—the pomegranate, palm-tree, and apple-tree, yea, all the trees of the field, as well as those of the orchard, timber-trees as well as fruit-trees. In short, all the harvest of the field has perished, v. 11. And by this means joy has withered away from the children of men (v. 11); the joy of harvest, which is used to express great and general joy, has come to nothing, is turned into shame, is turned into lamentation. Note, The perishing of the harvest is the withering of the joy of the children of men. Those that place their happiness in the delights of the sense, when they are deprived of them, or in any way disturbed in the enjoyment of them, lose all their joy; whereas the children of God, who look upon the pleasures of sense with holy indifference and contempt, and know what it is to make God their hearts' delight, can rejoice in him as the God of their salvation even when the fig-tree does not blossom; spiritual joy is so far from withering then, that it flourishes more than ever, Hab. iii. 17, 18. Let us see here, 1. What perishing uncertain things all our creature-comforts are. We can never be sure of the continuance of them. Here the heavens had given their rains in due season, the earth had yielded her strength, and, when the appointed weeks of harvest were at hand, they saw no reason to doubt but that they should have a very plentiful crop; yet then they are invaded by these unthought-of enemies, that lay all waste, and not by fire and sword. It is our wisdom not to lay up our treasure in those things which are liable to so many untoward accidents. 2. See what need we have to live in continual dependence upon God and his providence, for our own hands are not sufficient for us. When we see the full corn in the ear, and think we are sure of it—nay, when we have brought it home, if he blow upon it, nay, if he do not bless it, we are not likely to have any good of it. 3. See what ruinous work sin makes. A paradise is turned into a wilderness, a fruitful land, the most fruitful land upon earth, into barrenness, for the iniquity of those that dwelt therein.

II. Let the priests, the Lord's ministers, lament, for they share deeply in the calamity: Gird yourselves with sackcloth (v. 13); nay, they do mourn, v. 9. Observe, The priests are called the ministers of the altar, for on that they attended, and the ministers of the Lord (of my God, says the prophet), for in attending on the altar they served him, did is work, and did him honour. Note, Those that are employed in holy things are therein God's ministers, and on him they attend. The ministers of the altar used to rejoice before the Lord, and to spend their time very much in singing; but now they must lament and howl, for the meat-offering and drink-offering were cut off from the house of the Lord (v. 9), and the same again (v. 13), from the house of your God. "He is your God in a particular manner; you are in a nearer relation to him than other Israelites are; and therefore it is expected that you should be more concerned than others for that which is a hindrance to the service of his sanctuary." It is intimated, 1. That the people, as long as they had the fruits of the earth brought in in their season, presented to the Lord his dues out of them, and brought the offerings to the altar and tithes to those that served at the altar. Note, A people may be filling up the measure of their iniquity apace, and yet may keep up a course of external performances in religion. 2. That, when the meat and drink failed, the meat-offering and drink-offering failed of course; and this was the sorest instance of the calamity. Note, As far as any public trouble is an obstruction to the course of religion it is to be upon that account, more than any other, sadly lamented, especially by the priests, the Lord's ministers. As far as poverty occasions the decay of piety and the neglect of divine offices, and starves the cause of religion among a people, it is indeed a sore judgment. When the famine prevailed God could not have his sacrifices, nor could the priests have their maintenance; and therefore let the Lord's ministers mourn.

Threatenings of Judgment; A Proclamation for a Fast. (b. c. 720.)

14 Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord , 15 Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. 16 Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? 17 The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. 18 How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. 19 O Lord , to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. 20 The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

We have observed abundance of tears shed for the destruction of the fruits of the earth by the locusts; now here we have those tears turned into the right channel, that of repentance and humiliation before God. The judgment was very heavy, and here they are directed to own the hand of God in it, his mighty hand, and to humble themselves under it. Here is,

I. A proclamation issued out for a general fast. The priests are ordered to appoint one; they must not only mourn themselves, but they must call upon others to mourn too: "Sanctify a fast; let some time be set apart from all worldly business to be spent in the exercises of religion, in the expressions of repentance and other extraordinary instances of devotion." Note, Under public judgments there ought to be public humiliations; for by them the Lord God calls to weeping and mourning. With all the marks of sorrow and shame sin must be confessed and bewailed, the righteous of God must be acknowledged, and his favour implored. Observe what is to be done by a nation at such a time. 1. A day is to be appointed for this purpose, a day of restraint (so the margin reads it), a day in which people must be restrained from their other ordinary business (that they may more closely attend God's service), and from all bodily refreshments; for, 2. It must be a fast, a religious abstaining from meat and drink, further than is of absolute necessity. The king of Nineveh appointed a fast, in which they were to taste nothing, Jonah iii. 7. Hereby we own ourselves unworthy of our necessary food, and that we have forfeited it and deserve to be wholly deprived of it, we punish ourselves and mortify the body, which has been the occasion of sin, we keep it in a frame fit to serve the soul in serving God, and, by the appetite's craving food, the desires of the soul towards that which is better than life, and all the supports of it, are excited. This was in a special manner seasonable now that God was depriving them of their meat and drink; for hereby they accommodated themselves to the affliction they were under. When God says, You shall fast, it is time to say, We will fast. 3. There must be a solemn assembly. The elders and the people, magistrates and subjects, must be gathered together, even all the inhabitants of the land, that God might be honoured by their public humiliations, that they might thereby take the more shame to themselves, and that they might excite and stir up one another to the religious duties of the day. All had contributed to the national guilt, all shared in the national calamity, and therefore they must all join in the professions of repentance. 4. They must come together in the temple, the house of the Lord their God, because that was the house of prayer, and there they might be hope to meet with God because it was the place which he had chosen to put his name there, there they might hope to speed because it was a type of Christ and his mediation. Thus they interested themselves in Solomon's prayer for the acceptance of all the requests that should be put up in or towards this house, in which their present case was particularly mentioned. 1 Kings vii. 37, If there be locust, if there be caterpillar. 5. They must sanctify this fast, must observe it in a religious manner, with sincere devotion. What is a fast worth if it be not sanctified? 6. They must cry unto the Lord. To him they must make their complaint and offer up their supplication. When we cry in our affliction we must cry to the Lord; this is fasting to him, Zech. vii. 5.

II. Some considerations suggested to induce them to proclaim this fast and to observe it strictly.

1. God was beginning a controversy with them. It is time to cry unto the Lord, for the day of the Lord is at hand, v. 15. Either they mean the continuance and consequences of this present judgment which they now saw but breaking in upon them, or some greater judgments which this was but a preface to. However it be, this they are taught to make the matter of their lamentation: Alas, for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand. Therefore cry to God. For, (1.) "The day of his judgment is very near, it is at hand; it will not slumber, and therefore you should not. It is time to fast and pray, for you have but a little time to turn yourselves in." (2.) It will be very terrible; there is no escaping it, no resisting it: As a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. See Isa. xiii. 6. It is not a correction, but a destruction; and it comes from the hand, not of a weak creature, but of the Almighty; and who knows (nay, who does not know) the power of his anger? Whither should we go with our cries but to him from whom the judgment we dread comes? There is no fleeing from him but by fleeing to him, no escaping destruction from the Almighty but by making our submission and supplication to the Almighty; this is taking hold on his strength, that we may make peace, Isa. xxvii. 5.

2. They saw themselves already under the tokens of his displeasure. It is time to fast and pray, for their distress is very great, v. 16. (1.) Let them look into their own houses, and was no plenty there, as used to be. Those who kept a good table were now obliged to retrench: Is not the meat cut off before our eyes? If, when God's hand is lifted up, men will not see, when his hand is laid on they shall see. Is not the meat many a time cut off before our eyes? Let us then labour for that spiritual meat which is not before our eyes, and which cannot be cut off. (2.) Let them look into God's house, and see the effects of the judgment there; joy and gladness were cut off from the house of God. Note, The house of our God is the proper place of joy and gladness; when David goes to the altar of God, it is to God my exceeding joy; but when joy and gladness are cut off from God's house, either by corruption of holy things or the persecution of holy persons, when serious godly decays and love waxes cold, then it time to cry to the Lord, time to cry, Alas!

3. The prophet returns to describe the grievousness of the calamity, in some particulars of it. Corn and cattle are the husbandman's staple commodities; now here he is deprived of both. (1.) The caterpillars have devoured the corn, v. 17. The garners, which they used to fill with corn, are laid desolate, and the barns broken down, because the corn has withered, and the owners think it not worth while to be at the charge of repairing them when they have nothing to put in them, nor are likely to have any thing; for the seed it rotten under the clods, either through too much rain or (which was the more common case in Canaan) for want of rain, or perhaps some insects under ground ate it up. When one crop fails the husband man hopes the next may make it up; but here they despair of that, the seedness being as bad as the harvest. (2.) The cattle perish too for want of grass (v. 18): How do the beasts groan! This the prophet takes notice of, that the people might be affected with it and lay to heart the judgment. The groans of the cattle should soften their hard and impenitent hearts. The herds of cattle, the large cattle (black cattle we call them), are perplexed; nay, even the flocks of sheep, which will live upon a common and be content with very short grass, are made desolate. See here the inferior creatures suffering for our transgression, and groaning under the double burden of being serviceable to the sin of man and subject to the curse of God for it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake.

III. The prophet stirs them up to cry to God, with the consideration of the examples given them for it.

1. His own example (v. 19): O Lord! to thee will I cry. He would not put them upon doing that which he would not resolve to do himself; nay, whether they would do it or no, he would. Note, If God's ministers cannot prevail to affect others with the discoveries of divine wrath, yet they ought to be themselves affected with them; if they cannot bring others to cry to God, yet they themselves be much in prayer. In time of trouble we must not only pray, but cry, must be fervent and importunate in prayer; and to God, from whom both the destruction is and the salvation must be, ought our cry to be always directed. That which engaged him to cry to God was, not so much any personal affliction, as the national calamity: The fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, which seems to be meant of some parching scorching heat of the sun, which was as fire to the fruits of the earth; it consumed them all. Note, When God calls to contend by fire it concerns those that have any interest in heaven to cry mightily to him for relief. See Num. xi. 2; Amos vii. 4, 5.

2. The example of the inferior creatures: "The beasts of the field do not only groan, but cry unto thee, v. 20. They appeal to thy pity, according to their capacity, and as if, though they are not capable of a rational and revealed religion, yet they had something of dependence upon God by natural instinct." At least, when they groan by reason of their calamity, he is pleased to interpret it as if they cried to him; much more will he put a favourable construction upon the groanings of his own children, though sometimes so feeble that they cannot be uttered, Rom. viii. 26. The beasts are here said to cry unto God, as from him the lions seek their meat (Ps. civ. 21) and the young ravens, Job xxxviii. 41. The complaints of the brute-creatures here are for want of water (The rivers are dried up, through the excessive heat), and for want of grass, for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness. And what better are those than beasts who never cry to God but for corn and wine, and complain of nothing but the want of delight of sense? Yet their crying to God in those cases shames the stupidity of those who cry not to God in any case.

CHAP. I.

Verſe 1. THE Word of the Lord that came, &c.] See the Note on Hoſea 1.1. with whom, Hierom and ſome other Interpreters, make this Prophet a Contemporary, for the likeneſſe of Argument: and that common Canon of the Jew-Doctours, that the Prophet who ſets not down his time, is to be held of the ſame time, with him that is placed before him. The Seventy ſet him not onely after Hoſea, but alſo after Amos and Micah: Sedar Olam Zuta. Sic Funccius Genebrard. and the ancient Hebrew Chronicle, called Sedar-Olam affirmeth, that Joel propheſied together with Nahum and Habakkuk, in the dayes of king Manaſſeh: which Druſius would prove out of Joel 3.5. Others, with more ſhew of reaſon, out of 2 King. 21.10. and 23.26. Joel might very well be one of thoſe Prophets that denounced Gods heavy judgements againſt Iudah, for the ſinnes and abominations of Manaſſeh, whom ſome make to be his convert. For although at firſt the Lord ſpake to Manaſſeh, and to his people, but they would not hearken (2 Chron. 23.10) yet the rod might ſet the word awork afterwards: for Manaſſeh when he was in affliction beſought the Lord, and humbled himſelf greatly (verſe 12.) and Ioel might very well be to him a ſonne of Pethuel, or of Gods perſwaſion: God, by his miniſtery might ſpeak to his heart, Hoſ. 2.14. ſet before him an open door, Oſtium Dei. (another Etymon of the name Pethuel) Rev. 3.8. miniſter unto him an entrance further and further into Chriſts everlaſting kingdom, 2 Pet. 1.11. If any think it more likely that Ioel propheſied under Ioſiah king of Judah, when that great famine fell out which is deſcribed in like termes by Ieremy, chap. 14.1, 2. compared with 2 King. 23.26. I ſhall not ſtrive with him. But that this Joel was the ſonne of Samuel (here called Pethuel) a perſwader of God, becauſe what he asked of God he obtained) as R. Salomon would carry it, I cannot imagine: for that Joel was not a Prophet,1 Sam. 8.1, 3, 5. but a corrupt Judge.

Verſe 2. Hear this ye old men,] Who, as ye are fitteſt to hear ſerious diſcourſes (Ariſtotle excludeth young men from his Ethick-Lectures, becauſe raw, and raſh:Ariſt. Ethic. green wood is ever ſhrinking, and warping) ſo ye are more experienced; and yet not ſo wiſe, but that, by hearing, ye may become wiſer, Prov. 1.5. Solon ſaid, he could never be too old to learn. Julianus the Lawyer ſaid, that when he had one foot in the grave, yet he would have the other in the ſchool. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Solon. David Chytraus, when he lay a dying, lifted up himſelf to hear the divine diſcourſes of his friends, that ſat by him; and ſaid, that he ſhould die with better cheer, if he might die, learning ſomething.

and give ear all, &c.] Hear and give ear: draw up the ears of your mindes to the ears of your bodies,Si moribundus o[illegible: 1 letter]iam aliquid didiciſſet. Melch Ad. Jer. 13.15. that one ſound may pierce both. When theſe two words are joyned together, as they are often, the matter propounded, is either very dark, or very remarkable, and commands attention, as Deut. 1.45. Eſay 1.2, 10. Jer. 13.15. Hoſ. 5.1.

all ye inhabitants of the land,] ſc. of Judea, or all ye inhabitants of the whole earth, q. d. I ſhall ſpeak of ſo great a matter, as that I could wiſh to be heard all the world over. And becauſe all men love to hear news, I ſhall tell you that, that was never known to fall out in any age. Rem novam pollicetur emphaticoter[illegible: 1 letter]s quam more Rhetorico, ſaith Oecolampadius. Prick up your ears therefore and liſten.

Hath this been in your dayes, or even in the dayes of your fathers?] Was there ever ſuch havock made by ſeverall ſorts of vermine ſucceſſively, for four yeers together? This was the very finger of God, Exod. 8.19. all whoſe works (by how ſmall inſtruments ſoever) are great, ſought out of all them that have pleaſure therein, Pſal. 111.2. His extraordinary works eſpecially, are to be noted and noticed; the memory of them is to be tranſmitted to all poſterity. This ſhall be written for the generation to come, Pſal. 102.18. They ſhall come and ſhall declare his righteouſneſſe, unto a people that ſhall be born, that he hath done this, Pſal. 22.31. Sed vae ſtupori noſtro. There is a wo to ſuch as regard not the works of the Lord, neither conſider the operation of his hands, Eſay 5 12. that make of them but a nine dayes wonderment at beſt, and ſo paſſe them over. Whereas every judgement of God ſhould be a warning-peal to repentance. We be like the Smiths dog, (ſaith One) who the harder the Anvil is beaten on, lyes by, and ſleeps the ſounder. Like the hen (ſaith Another) which loſeth her chickens one after another by the devouring kite; and yet ſtill continues to pick up what lies before her: ſuch a deep drowſineſſe and droſſineſſe of ſpirit, there is upon moſt of us.

Verſe 3. Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children,] Heb. Cipher them up diligently, after the manner of A[illegible: 1 letter]ithmeticians: reckon up the ſeverall years,Deut. 19.20. with the ſeverall calamities thereof to your children and nephews; that they may hear, and fear, and do no more ſo. Let your woes be their warnings, your ſufferings their ſtanding-ſermons; your corrections their inſtructions. See 1 Cor. 10.5, to 12.Greg. Mor. Ruina majorum ſit cautela minorum. Haſt thou marked the old-way (ſaith Eliphas to Job, Chap. 22.15, 16.) which wicked men have trodden, which were cut down out of time: whoſe foundation was overflowen with a flood, (Heb. a flood was poured upon their foundation) which ſaid unto God, Depart from us, &c? He ſpeaketh of thoſe Antediluvian Atheiſts, buried in one univerſall grave of waters. See Ioſh. 22.20. Neh. 13.26. Iude 5, 6, 7. and learn to keep a Catalogue of Gods great works, whether of mercy or judgement; yea to poliſh and garniſh them for the uſe of poſterity, not with vain affectation of wit, not with pedantick pomp of words, but with ſobriety, and holy gravity, as here: ſuch as may ſtick by our children, and leave impreſſion.

Verſe 4. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Zachala. [non-Latin text not transcribed] Eruca ab erodendo. Iſidor. lib. 12. Orig c 5. Lecuſta quaft locae uſtulans. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. That which the palmer-worm hath left, hath the locuſt eaten,] The palmer-worm hath its name in Hebrew from ſhaving. (becauſe it ſhaveth off the fruits of the earth.) In Chaldee from creeping: In Greek from crookning: In Latine from gnawing. The Locuſt hath its name in Hebrew from multitudo, wherewith the very Sun is darkened: In Latine from burning places, where it ſpoileth: In Greek from cropping the tops of corne, and plants, which as they fled, they fed upon. The Canker-worm hath its name in Hebrew from licking: In Chaldee from fleeing: In Greek and Latine from feeding upon the flowers of apples and other fruits. Comeſter ſome render it. Flemings call it, The preacher, a bombo quem polando edit from the noiſe it maketh as it flies. The Caterpiller hath its name Chaſil, from waſting, becauſe it utterly conſumeth all, not onely fruits and leaves, but tender boughes and branches: Ʋt ita creſcat oratio ſicut ipſum malum, to ſhew that as their ſinne increaſed, ſo did their puniſhment. The Lord of Hoſts cannot poſſibly want a weapon wherewith to beat a rebel: neither may wicked men expect that He ſhould lay down the bucklers firſt. To that bold queſtion of Pharaoh, Exod. 5.2. Who is the Lord that I ſhould obey him? God made a large reply, by his armies of locuſts, lice, ſlies, &c. till Pharaoh was forced to anſwer himſelf, The Lord is righteous. What ſpoil hath been made by theſe deſpicable creatures here mentioned in other countreys, Pliny recordeth. Pierius teſtifieth that the Egyptians made the Locuſt an Hieroglyphick of Famine.Plin. l. 11. c. 29 And although we finde not expreſſely ſet down in the holy Hiſtory, when this particular plague was executed, yet we need not doubt but it was done according to Deut. 28.38, 39. See 1 King. 8.37.

Verſe 5. Awake ye drunkards,] ye Ale-ſtakes, and Suckers (Heb. Shiccorim) that pour in heady and intoxicating drinks, ſuch as ſoon lay you to ſleep, and (beſides) take away your heart, Hoſ. 4.11. rob you of your ſelves, and lay a beaſt in your room. Portentoſum ſane potionis genus, ſaith Pliny concerning ale, Lib. 14. cap. ult. that exceſſively drunk, maketh men more ſleepy then dormiſe: beſides that worſe ſleep of carnall ſecurity, Eph. 5.14. Rom. 13.11. Theſe therefore are here called upon to be ſober and watch, (See 1 Theſſ. 5.6. 1 Pet. 5.8. 1 Pet. 4.7.) ye to weep and howl, to turn their laughter into mourning, and their joy into heavineſſe. And why? For their ſinne they ſhould have done (as that drunkard in the Eccleſiaſticall Hiſtory, that, toucht with a ſenſe of his ſin, wept himſelf blind) but here they are ſarcaſtically called upon to weep for their great loſſe, as they eſteem it.Vinum merum nondum dilutum.

Becauſe of the new-wine for it is cut off from your mouth,] As many things fall out betwixt the chin and the challice, the cup and the lip: You made account to have mouthed it, to have ſwilled your ſouls, as they ſay, and to have ſwallowed it down your wide gullets. But behold, it falls out ſomewhat otherwiſe: the caterpiller hath been before you, and left you nothing better then Adams-ale to tipple. This is cold comfort to the drunkard, whoſe Word is that of the Vine in Jothams parable, Non poſſum relinquere vinum meum, Take away my liquor,Aug. de temp. ſer. 131. you take away my life. Auſtin brings him in ſaying, Malle ſe vitam quàm vinum eripi, He had rather loſe his life then his wine. And Ambroſe tells of one Theotimus, that being told by his Phyſicians, that much quaffing would make him blinde, Vale lumen amicum, ſaid he, Farewell ſweet eyes; if ye will not bear wine, ye are no eyes for me. This drunkard would rather loſe his ſight then his ſin; his ſoul then his luſt. Such kinde of perſons are like the Panther, which is ſaid to love the dung of man ſo much, as if it be hang'd on high from it, it will skip and leap up, and never leave till it have burſt it ſelf in pieces to get it: and this is the way they take that creature. God will take theſe naturall brute beaſts, made to be taken and deſtroyed, 2 Pet. 2.14. after another manner. He will not onely cut them ſhort enough here,Grand ſign. Serag. 186. but turn a cup of fire and brimſtone down their throats, Pſal. 11.6. which will be worſe to them then that ladle full of boyling lead, poured down the throat of a drunken Turk, by the command of a Baſhaw.

Verſe 6. For a nation is come up upon my land,] A nation, ſc. of vermine,Sic columella de apibus. Virgil. de piſcib Hom. de muſcis. by ſwarmes, as verſ. 9. called afterwards, an army chap. 2.11. and a people, chap. 2.2. See the like Prov. 30.25, 26. Is come,] that is, ſhortly ſhall come. Ʋpon my land,] this glorious and goodly land, as it is called Dan. 11.16. Tarnouius makes this by a miméſis to be the drunkards lamentation A nation is come up, &c. Strong and without number.] yea therefore ſtrong, becauſe without number: inſuperable, becauſe innumerable. Feeble they are, and yet formidable; becauſe ſet on by God Almighty, whoſe warriers they are, as the Roman ſpoylers are called, Matt. 22.7. And perhaps the Aſſyrians may here be hinted at. I doubt not but the literall ſence is chiefly intended: Neither can I concur with Oecolampadius, who holdeth it to be Propheta indignum, unbeſeeming the Prophet, to preach thus concerning worms and locuſts: For concerning ſuch poor creatures deal the Prophets by the inſtinct of the Holy Ghoſt, in ſundry other places, Prov. 6.6. Am. 4.9. and 7.1. Nahum. 3.15. Whoſe teeth are the teeth of a lion.] that is, they devour all that is in their way; as there is no ſtanding before a lion, no not before a moth, that hath commiſſion to cruſh a man, Job 4.19.

Verſe 7. He hath laid my vine waſt] The Prophet proceeds in aggravating the the calamity, that he might make the people the more ſenſible. There is nothing in the world more ſtupid and more ſtubborn then a drunkard. Of ſuch it is that that ſaying of an Ancient is often verified, Ablatus eſt à peccantibus timor, ne poſſit eſſe cautela, Feare is taken away from offendours, that there ſhould be no caution againſt it. Here therefore let the words of the wiſe be as goads and as nailes faſtened by the Maſters of the aſſemblies. Let them ſo preach with Peter, that their hearers may be prickt at heart Act. 2, 37. may be galled and ſawed as it were Act. 7.54. may ſtartle and tremble, as Act. 24.25. may awaken out of that dead lathergy,2 Tim. 2.26. whereinto Satan hath caſt them, and recover out of his ſnare, who are taken captive by him at his pleaſure. True it is, we can hardly get men to believe that hell is ſo hot, or ſin ſo heavie, or the devill ſo black, or God ſo unmerciful as the Preachers make him. The Lion, ſay they, is not ſo terrible as he is painted; nor is our caſe ſo dangerous as is born us in hand. Sed nos pergamus exaggerare, ſaith Pareus here. Let Gods Miniſters lay load upon mens ſins, and ſet forth to the full the miſeries that will fall upon them. The Prophets did ſo for temporal (as here moſt graphically and to the life) ſhall not we much more for eternal puniſhments? Oh (ſaith One) that I could get words to gore your very hearts with ſmarting pain: that this doctrine might be written in your fleſh!

and barked my fig-tree] Take away the bark from the tree, and the ſap can never find the way to the boughes. Theſe Vermine had barked the trees with their teeth, caſt the bark out of their mouths upon the ground, and made the branches naked and all white as froth; ſo that the drunkards, deprived of their ſweet draughts, were brought ad efflationem animae (as the Calde here expoundeth Chetſephah) to an yielding up of the ghoſt, yea, ad laqueum & reſtim, as the Latines, to the very halter.

Verſe 8. Lament like a Virgin] Our Prophet hath done with his drunkards: and now applyeth himſelf to the ſoberer ſort, whom alſo he calleth to deep and downright mourning, in this caſe of common calamity; there being not any ſo innocent and holy, but had ſome hand, if not upon the greater cart-ropes yet ſurely upon the ſmaller cords that drew down dearth and judgment upon the land.

lament therefore like a Virgin] betrothed, but bereft of her eſpouſed husband, before ſhe was married to him; So Piſcator. Others underſtand it of her that (lately a virgin, but now new-married) paſſionately loved her husband and bitterly bewaileth his death; which ſome young women have taken ſo grievouſly, that they have refuſed to live any longer; but have choſen to put an end to their life and grief together, as hiſtorians teſtify.

girded with Sackcloth] Sacco non ſerico, with mourning weeds as a teſtimony of, help to your humiliation. The dead we ſee, may be lawfully lamented: indeed it is one of the dues of the dead. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Justa defunctorum. It is fit that the body, when ſown in corruption, ſhould be watered by the tears of thoſe that plant it in the earth. Only we muſt not mourn in this caſe as heathens Without hope. 1 Theſ. 4.13. Our grief muſt not be exceſſive, either for meaſure or continuance; Neither muſt we mourn ſo much for our friends departed, as for our ſins againſt God. In the former caſe baldneſs is forbidden: in the later it is required Iſa. 22.12. And Zach. 12.10.11.13. One poor woman weeping over Chriſt ſhall be as deeply affected as all the people were in that unſpeakable loſſe of their good king Joſiah, at Hadadrimmon in the vally of Megiddo, where Jeremiah lamented, and all the ſinging men and ſinging women ſpake of Joſiah in their lamentation, and made them an ordinance &c. 2 Chron. 35.24.25.

Verſe 9. The meat-offering and the drink-offering is cut off] Periit libatio & oblatio. This was the godly mans greateſt grief, that there wanted matter of teſtifying their thankfulneſs to God in his commanded worſhips: and that God was ſo deeply diſpleaſed, as that he had deprived Himſelf and his Miniſters of the due allowance; ſo that they alſo mourned, and could not chreefully execute their office, for lack of maintenance; for they were not of the Camelion-kind.

Verſe 10. The field is waſted the land mourneth] The ſacrifices are not only cut off for preſent, but little hopes left for the future: for the field, that common ſtorehouſe, that horreum unde hauriatur, is waſted: Shuddad Sadeh, there is an elegant alluſion in the Original: as in the following words a Proſopopoeia not inferiour to thoſe of the Poets, as Luther and Vatablus here note.

The land mourneth] By an ordinary Metaphor among the Hebrewes, thoſe things are ſaid to mourn that are waſted, defolated, corrupted and changed for the worſe. Lam. 2.8. the rampart and the wall are ſaid to lament, Plutarch. and to languiſh together. When Epheſtion died, Alexander not only clypped his horſes and mules hair, but plucked down alſo the battlements of the walles of the city: becauſe it ſhould appear that the walls and ramparts did mourn for his death: So Eſay 24.7. The new wine mourneth, the vine languiſheth: all the merry-hearted do ſigh. It is fit that if the land mourn, and faile of her increaſe, men ſhould much more mourn and be moved with a ſenſe of their ſins, the cauſe of ſuch calamities. The earth lies under a curſe of barrenneſſe, at its beſt Gen. 3.17. and was never ſo beautiful and cheerfull ſince the Fall of Adam. At this day it lyeth bed-rid, as it were, waiting for the comming of the Son of God, that it may be delivered from the bondage of corruption Rom. 8.20. But in times of dearth, it ſeemeth to mourn more then ordinary, yea to bluſh and bleed.

the new wine is dried up] Or is abaſhed: as loth to look men in the face, becauſe not anſwerable to their expectation, See Eſay. 33.9.

the oyl languiſheth] Or, is ſick. Corn, wine, and oyle, are the maine ſupports of mans life: all's gone.

Verſe 11. Be ye aſhamed O ye husbandmen] This Repetition of his former exhortation is not needleſſe: for man is a ſtout and ſtubborn creature: neither goeth any thing more againſt the hair and the heart with him, then to come downward, and to be ſo ſoundly ſenſible of Gods judgements, as ſeriouſly to repent. Hence St. James his extraordinary importunity in preſſing this moſt needfull but much neglected duty, chap. 4.9, 10. He knew, & ſo did our Prophet, that this work muſt be done, or elſe men are undone. Hence that heap of words.Se[illegible: 2 letters]ca. Nunquam ſatis dioitur quod nunquam ſatis diſcitur. That can never be too much taught, that is never enough learned.

Verſe 12. The Vine is dried up, and the Figtree languiſheth] God cutteth you ſhort of all things both for neceſſity and delight: and this is ſo much inculcated, and iterated, that you may not ſlight it as a common occurrence: but be deeply affected with it, as a ſore affliction. Verba toties repetita viva ſunt, vera ſunt, ſana ſunt, plana ſunt. Let no man think that this is a ſuperfluous tautologie, Aug. or an idle repetition of the ſame thing. For, in ſacred ſcripture there is not a tittle in vain: there is not an apex whereon there hangs not a mountain of fenſe, as the Rabbines uſe to ſay. By one and the ſame thing repeated, memory is helped, affection is excited, and matters of moment are better minded, Phil. 3.1. Beſides, Repetitio confirmatio eſt, ſaith Ambroſe,De bone Mart. c. 12. The repeating of a matter implyeth 1 The infallible truth of it. 2 The inexpreſſible excellency of it. 3 The profitable uſe of it. 4 The abſolute neceſſity of it. Aut faciendum, aut patiendum.

Verſe 13. Gird your ſelves and lament ye Prieſts] Be you Preſt, and firſt in the practiſe of humiliation: Be you an example of the believers in word in converſation &c. 1 Tim. 4.12. a patern of piety. Si vis ne flere &c. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Horat. Judg. 9.18. If others ſhall lament, you muſt begin to them: and ſay as Abimelech did to his ſouldiers, What ye have ſeen me do, make haſt and do likewiſe: and as St. Paul doth to his Philippians, Thoſe things which ye have both learned and received, and heard and ſeen in me, do; Philip. 4.9. and the God of peace ſhall be with you.

for the meat-offering and the drink-offering, &c.] your maintenance is ſubſtracted, and (that which ſhould more affect you) the ſacred ſervice of God is intermitted, and ſo the glory is departed, the dayly ſacrifice is neglected, which the Jewes counted and called The abomination of deſolation. Phineas his wife was not without natural affection 1 Sam. 4.21. but her ſpiritual affections prevailed. Therefore in the declaration of her ſorrow, that of her father in law and husband is but once named: but twice it came in, The glory is departed, The glory is departed. All comforts are but Ichabods to a good heart without the ordinances: without the ſincere milk of the word Gods new-born babes cannot be quitted.Tom. 4. Oper. Lat. p. 424. I could not live in Paradiſe without the Word (ſaid Luther) as with the Word, I could eaſily live in hell it ſelf.

Verſe 14. Sanctify ye a faſt] Having humbled your ſelves, preach repentance to others. That's the beſt ſermon that's digged out of a mans own breſt. Sanctify your ſelves firſt, and then prepare your brothren, ſaith loſiah to the Prieſts of his time 2 Cron. 35.6. A religious faſt (for that the Prophet intends here by Sanctify) rightly obſerved and referred to religious ends, is both a teſtimony of true repentance, and a furtherance thereunto: for it cames the rebell fleſh 1 Cor. 9. ult. which elſe will wantonize, and overtop the Spirit Deut. 32.15. And it giveth wings to our prayers, which before groveld on the ground, as it were. Faſting inflameth prayer; and prayer ſanctifieth faſting.

ſanctify therefore a faſt, call a ſolemn aſſembly] Heb. a day of reſtraint ſeparating your ſelves as Zech. 8.19. from all fleſhly delights; amercing and puniſhing your ſelues in that ſort by an holy revenge, as Pſal. 35.13. and afflicting your ſoules with voluntary ſorrowes for your ſins and miſeries.

gather the Elders] both thoſe qui canis & annis ſunt tales, who are full of dayes and ſo of ſins; and alſo thoſe, that are in place of authority: whoſe offences have ſored higher on the wings of Example, and Scandal.

and all the inhabitants of the land] For as all are ſin-guilty, ſo your unanimity and charity will further the ſervice. All ſhould get together in this caſe, and bring their buckets to quench a common fire: the more publike and general the humiliation is, the more pleaſing and prevalent, Judg. 20.26. 2 Chron. 30.3, 13. Ion. 3.5, 7, 8.

into the houſe of the Lord your God] which houſe was a type of Chriſt, (in whom God heareth His) and had made many promiſes to prayers there put up in faith, 1 King. 8.37, 38, 39. 2 Chron. 6.28, 29.

of the Lord your God] Yours ſtill by vertue of the covenant: be ſure to keep faith in heart, when we are at the greateſt und[illegible: 1 letter]r.

And cry unto the Lord] with the heart at leaſt as Moſes did at the red ſea,Moſes egit vocis ſilentio ut magis audivetur. when yet none heard him but the ear of heaven only; and as Hannah did when ſhe uttered no audible voyce, and yet poured forth her ſoul to the Lord with ſuch a ſtrange and unwonted writing of her lips, that Eli thought ſhe had been drunk.

Verſe 15 Alas for the day &c.]1 Sam. 1.15. Gr. Alas, Alas, Alas; the Vulgar Latine A, A, A, which à Lupide makes much adoe about, to little purpoſe.

for the day of the Lord] that is, The day of the greateſt evils and miſeries then ever hitherto they had ſuffered, if repentance prevent not. That they had ſuffered much already appeareth chap. 2.25. but thoſe were but the b[illegible: 1 letter]ginnings of their ſorrowes, if they yet went on in their ſins.

for as a deſtruction from the Almighty ſhall it come] An Elegant Agnomination there is in the Original: together with an alluſion to that tremend title of God Shaddai. The Jewes (probably) boaſted much and bare themſelves over-bold upon their intereſt in God almighty. The Prophet therefore tel's them that Gods greateſt power ſhould be little to their profit whiles impenitent: for that it ſhould be put forth and exerciſed for their utter deſtruction. Aben-Ezra interpreteth Shaddai a Conqueror, Others a Deſtroyer, which a Conqueror muſt needs be. And hereto this text and that Eſa. 13.6. do allude, when they ſay Shod ſhall come from Shaddai, Deſtruction from the Almighty. Here alſo we may learn when we are under affliction, to aſcend to the firſt cauſe thereof Am. 3.6. as David did in that three years famine 2 Sam. 21.1. See [illegible: 1 letter]am. 3.38.

Verſe 16 Is not the meat cut off before your eyes?] Heb. before your eyes: and ſo it appeareth to be the Prophets ſpeech, and not a form preſcribed by him to the people, by adding the word (ſaying) to the end of the fourteenth verſe Cry to the Lord, ſaying, Alas for the day &c. And it is as if the Prophet ſhould ſay; Doe ye not yet ſee what caſe you are in? Are ye ſo ſtupid and ſo ſtout or ſturdy, as not to ſtoop though ſtarved almoſt? ſhould not Vexation give underſtanding; Are not the fierceſt creatures tamed with hard hunger? Will not men in ſuch caſe buy or beg food of their deadly enemies? O brawny breaſts! O horny heart-ſtrings!

yea joy and gladneſſe from the houſe of our God?] All Gods ſervices were to be performed with joy: but now, for want of corn and wine (which cheareth God and man Iudg. 9.13.) the dayly ſacrifice ceaſed, and all good hearts were thereby ſadded. See verſ. 9 with the Note.

Verſe 17 The ſeed is rotten under their clods] It lieth buried or drowned with exceſſive rain and moiſture, corrupting the ſeed ſoon after it was ſown: and that which was not ſo marred, was afterwards, when it came to be corn, dried up with exceſſive heat.

The corn is withered.] So that the garners were deſolated, the barnes broken down for want of ſtuffing, and for that there was no uſe of them, ſith they ſowed, but reaped not, Mic. 6.15. The husbandman was called to mourning, Amos 5.16, for a three-fold calamity that lay upon his tillage. Firſt, Immoderate rain, in or about ſeeding. Secondly, Locuſts and other vermine at ſpring. Thirdly, extreme drought after all, verſe 19, 20. Thus God followeth ſinners with one plague in the neck of another, (as he did Pharaoh, that ſturdy rebell) till he have made his foes his footſtools To multiply ſin, is to multiply ſorrow, Pſal. 16.4. to heap up wickedneſſe, is to heap up wrath, Rom 2.5. I will heap miſchiefs upon them,Si quoties peccent homines ſua fulmina mittat Jupiter, exiguo tempora inermis er[illegible: 2 letters]. Ovid. ſaith God, I will ſpend mine arrows upon them, Deut. 32.23. which yet cannot be all ſpent up, as the Poet feared of his Jupiter, that if he ſhould puniſh men for every offence, his ſtore of thunder-bolts would be ſoon ſpent and exhauſted.

Verſe 18. How do the beaſts groun]? The wilde beaſts groan in their kinde. The herds of cattell] home and tame beaſts, as oxen, &c. are perplexed,] as not knowing what to do: 'tis the ſame word with that, Eſth. 3.15. God had hid his face, (withdrawn his hand) and they were troubled, he taketh away their breath, (for lack of paſture) they die and return to their duſt, as David telleth us in his Phyſicks, Pſal. 104.29. Epiphaxius his Phyſiologer reporteth of the bird called Charadius, that being brought where a ſick man lieth, if he look upon the ſick with a fixed and unremoved eye, there is hopes of recovery: but if he look another way, the diſeaſe is deadly. Sure it is, that if God look in mercy upon man and beaſt, they are cared and catered for, Pſal. 36.7. and 104.27. and 145.15, 16, &c. and the contrary. yea the flocks of ſheep, &c. which yet can bite upon the bare, live with a little, and get paſture, where the bigger creatures cannot come.

Verſe. 19. O Lord to thee will I cry.] I will, though others will not. I have called upon others to cry mightily unto thee, and to meet thee by repentance: but they ranquam monſtra marina, as ſo many Sea-monſters, paſſe by my words with a deaff ear, they refuſe to return: thy hand is lifted up in threatning, and will fall down in puniſhing, but they will not ſee, Eſay. 26.11. they will not ſearch, they will not have their eyes (like the windowes in Solomons Temple) broad inward: the eyes of their mindes are as ill ſet (for this matter) as the eyes of their bodies, they ſee not what's within. But whatever they do,1 King. 6.4. my ſoul ſhall weep in ſecret for their pride, and mine eyes ſhall weep ſore, &c. (Jer. 13.17.) for their inſenſibleneſſe of their miſery.

For the fire hath devoured the paſtures,] that is, the immoderate ſcorching heat of the ſeaſon. See Pſal. 83.14. Jer. 17.6. Or the blaſting winde, as Lyra expounds it; or the locuſts, as Druſius, or God, (who is a conſuming fire) by any, or all theſe inſtruments of his wrath, as Tarnouius.

And the flame hath burnt all the arees of the field.] This was dreadfull; but yet nothing to that conflagratio mundi, ſpoken of by St. Peter, 2 Epiſt. 3.12. when the heavens being on fire, ſhall be diſſolved, and the elements melt with fervent heat on the heads of the wicked: who ſhall give a terrible account, with the world all on alight fire about their ears.

Verſe 20. The beaſts of the field cry alſo unto thee,] Glocitant, a term taken from Deer: they cry as they can, they cry by implication, imploring thine help, each for himſelf. See Pſal. 149.9. Job 39.3. Pſal. 104.27. And ſhould men be ſilent?

For the rivers of the waters are dried up,] This maketh the Hart bray after the water-brooks, yea ſhed tears as hunters ſay the Hart will, when hot and hard-beſtead for water. Hereto David ſeems to allude, Pſal. 42.5. My tears have been my meat, &c.

And the fire hath devoured the paſtures of the wilderneſſe.] This had been ſaid before verſe 19. The reaſon of ſuch repetitions, ſee above in the Notes on verſes 11, 12. Neither let this laſt exaggeration of the common calamity, by that which befell the bruit beaſts, ſeem ſuperfluous. For whereas the ſecurity and obſtinacy of moſt men is ſuch, that they take little notice of preſent preſſures, but promiſe themſelves peace and ſafety, whatſoever God by his ſervants ſhall ſay to the contrary: it is but needfull ſurely, that their danger ſhould be inculcated, and their calamity ſet out, and ſet on with utmoſt importunity, and vehemency.