John Trapp on Joel 1:7

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.