Matthew Poole and continuators on Joel 3:13

13 Put ye in the sickle , for the harvest is ripe ; come, get you down , for the press is full , the fats overflow , for their wickedness is great .

Ye mighty ones, ye men of War, Executioners of Divine Vengeance.

Begin to reap, cut down sinners ripe for Judgment, let Tiglath Pilne[illegible: 1 letter]er and his Souldiers cut down Syria and and its King Rezin, 2 King. 15. for their Violence against my People. Let Cyaxares and his Armies begin to cut down Assyria, with Nineveh, and its King for their sins are ripe to Judgment. Let Nebuchadnezzar put in the sickle and cut down Moab, Ammon, mount Seir, Egypt, Tyre, Zidon and the Philistines; after this let Cyrus reap down the ripened Babylonians, and Alexander with his mighty ones reap down Medes and Persians, and let divided Grecian Captains cut down one another, till the Romans cut them down: And when this is done God will have mighty ones still to cut down his enemies persecutors of his Church when the harvest is fully ripe, and till the final and universal Judgment wherein all Gods Enemies shall for ever be destroy'd.

The sins of those several nations are fully ripe.

In another Metaphor the Prophet declares the cutting off the Churches Enemies.

As the Grape-gatherer cuts off the bunches and brings them into the press till it be full and then they are trod, so here the Enemies of Gods people ripe in sin and brought together to be punisht, are to be troden in the Wine-press of Gods displeasure.

a mighty execution is made and the blood of slaughter'd men runs as Wine prest out in greater abundance than the Fats can hold from the press: verified in the slaughter made at the overthrow of the Kingdoms here intended.

The violence, and all manner of sins of these Kingdoms is grown exceeding great.

Marginal references: Rev. 14.15, [illegible: 1 letter]9.