The Word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
KJV
The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
Commentary
Commentary
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 .
1 The word of the L ORD 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.
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 L ORD ; the priests, the L ORD '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.
14 Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the
elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of
the L ORD your God, and cry unto the L ORD ,
15 Alas for the day! for the day of the L ORD 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 L ORD , 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.
INTRODUCTION TO JOEL
In some Hebrew Bibles this prophecy is called "Sepher Joel", the Book of Joel; in the Vulgate Latin version, the Prophecy of Joel; and in the Syriac version, the Prophecy of the Prophet Joel; and the Arabic version, the Prophet Joel; and so the Apostle Peter quotes him, Ac 2:16. His name, according to Hillerus {a}, signifies "the Lord is God"; but others derive it from lay, which in "Hiphil" is lyawh, and signifies "he willed, acquiesced, or is well pleased, so Abarbinei; and hence Schmidt thinks it answers to Desiderius or Erasmus. According to Isidorus {b}, he was born at Bethoron, in the tribe of Reuben, and died and was buried there; and so says Pseudo-Epiphanius {c}. In what age he lived is not easy to say. Aben Ezra expressly affirms there is no way to know it; and so R. David Ganz {d} says, his time we know not; and likewise Abarbinel. Some think he prophesied about the same time Hoses did, after whom he is next placed; and so Mr. Whiston {e} and, Mr. Bedford {f} make him to prophesy much about the same time with Isaiah and Hoses, about eight hundred years before Christ; but, in the Septuagint version, this book is in the fourth order, and not Hoses, but Amos and Micah, are placed before him; and so the author of Juchasin {g} puts the prophets in this order, first Hoses, then Amos, next Isaiah, then Micah, and after him Joel. Some of the Jewish writers, as Jarchi, Kimchi, and Abendana relate, make Joel contemporary with Elisha, and say he prophesied in the, lays of Jehoram the son of Ahab, when the seven years' famine called for came upon the land, 2Ki 8:1. Both in Seder Olam Rabba and Zuta {h} he is placed in the reign of Manasseh; and so in Hilchot Gedolot, as Jarchi observes. And it seems indeed as if he prophesied after the ten tribes were carried captive, which was in the sixth year of Hezekiah's reign, since no mention is made of Israel but with respect to future times, only of Judah and Jerusalem, But, be it when it will that he prophesied, there is no doubt to be made of the authenticity of this book, which is confirmed by the quotations of two apostles out of two: Peter and Paul, Ac 2:16.
{a} Onomast. Sacr. p. 856. {b} De Vita & Mart. Sanct. c. 4. {c} De Vita Proph. c. 14. {d} Tzemach David, par. 1. fol. 14. 2. {e} Chronological Tables, cent. 7. and 8. {f} Scripture Chronology, B. 6. c. 2. p. 646. {g} Fol. 12. 1, 2. {h} P. 55, 105. Ed. Meyer.
INTRODUCTION TO JOEL 1
This chapter describes a dreadful calamity upon the people of the Jews, by locusts and, caterpillars, and drought. After the title of the book, Joe 1:1; old men are called upon to observe this sore judgment to their children, that it might be transmitted to the latest posterity, as that the like to which had not been seen and heard of, Joe 1:2; and drunkards to awake and weep, because the vines were destroyed, and no wine could be made for them, Joe 1:5; and not only husbandmen and vinedressers, but the priests of the Lord, are called to mourn, because such destruction, was made in the fields and vineyards, that there were no meat nor drink offering brought into the house of the Lord, Joe 1:8; wherefore a general and solemn fast is required throughout the land, because of the distress of man and beast, Joe 1:14; and the chapter is concluded with the resolution of the prophet to cry unto the Lord, on account of this calamity, Joe 1:19.
Ver. 1. The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Who this Pethuel was is not known; Jarchi takes him to be the same with Samuel the prophet, who had a son of this name, 1Sa 8:2; and gives this reason for his being called Pethuel, because in his prayer he persuaded God; but the long span of time will by no means admit of this, nor the character of Samuel's son agree with Joel; and therefore is rightly denied by Aben Ezra, who observes, however, that this man was an honourable man, and therefore his name is mentioned; and gives this as a rule, that whenever any prophet mentions the name of his father, he was honourable. Perhaps, it is here observed, to distinguish him from another of the same name; and there was one of this name, Joel, a high priest in the reigns of Uzziah and Jotham, according to Seder Olam Zuta {i} and Abarbinel {k}; in whose time Joel is by some thought to prophesy.
{i} Fol. 104. {k} In Meyer. Anotat. in ib. p, 626.
Joel 1:2
Ver. 2. Hear this, ye old men,.... What the prophet was about to relate, concerning the consumption of the fruits of the earth, by various sorts of creatures, and by a drought; and these are called upon to declare if ever the like had been known or heard of by them; who by reason of age had the greatest opportunities of knowledge of this sort, and could remember what they had heard or seen, and would faithfully relate it: this maybe understood of elders in office, as well as in age;
and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land; or "earth", not of the whole earth; but of the land of Judea; who were more particularly concerned in this affair, and therefore are required to listen attentively to it:
hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? that is, not the selfsame thing, but anything equal to it; a judgment of the same kind and nature, and of the same degree. By this question it seems the like had never been in the memory of any man living; nor in former times, in the days of their ancestors, as could be averted upon report; or attested on the credit of annals, chronicles, or other methods of conveying the history of ages past. As for the plague of locusts in Egypt, though they were such as; never find been, nor would be there any more; yet such or greater, and more in number than those, might be in Judea; besides, they continued but a few, lays at most, these four years successively, as Kimchi observes; and who thinks that in Egypt there was but one sort of locusts, here four; but the passage he quotes in Ps 78:46; contradicts him; to which may be added
Ps 105:34.
Joel 1:3
Ver. 3. Tell ye your children of it,.... Give them a particular account of it; describe the creatures and their number as near as you can; say when they begun and how long they continued, and what devastations they made, and what was the cause and reason of such a judgment, your sins and transgressions:
and [let] your children [tell] their children, and their children other generation; or, "to the generation following" {l}; let it be handed down from one generation to another that it may be a caution to future posterity how they behave and lest they bring down the like awful judgments on them. What this referred to was as follows:
{l} rxa rwdl "posteritati sequenti", Vatablus; "generationi posterae", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Tarnovius.
Joel 1:4
Ver. 4. That which the palmer worm hath left hath the locust eaten,.... These, with the two following, are four kinds of, locusts as Jarchi observes; though it is difficult to fix the particular species designed; they seem to have their names from some peculiar properties belonging to them; as the first of these from their sheering or cropping off the fruits and leaves of trees; and the second from the vast increase of them, the multitude they bring forth and the large numbers they appear in:
and that which the locust hath left hath the canker worm eaten; which in the Hebrew language is called from its licking up the fruits of the earth, by which it becomes barren:
and that which the canker worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten; which has its name from wasting and consuming all that comes in its way: now these came not together, but followed one another; not one one year, and another the second, and so on throughout four years, as Kimchi thinks; for though the calamity lasted some years as is manifest from Joe 2:25; yet it is not reasonable, that, for instance what the palmer worm left the first year should remain in the fields and vineyards, on the fig trees and vines till the next year for the locust to consume and is on:, but rather these all appeared in succession in one and the same year; and so what the palmer worm left having eaten up what was most agreeable to them, the locust came and devoured what they had left; and then what they left was destroyed by the canker worm, which fed on that which was most grateful to them; and last of all came the caterpillar, and consumed all the others had left; and this might be continued for years successively: when this calamity was, we have no account in sacred history; whether it was in the seven years' famine in the days of Elisha, or the same with what Amos speaks of, Am 4:6; is not easy to say: and though it seems to be literally understood, as the drought later mentioned, yet might be typical of the enemies of the Jews succeeding one another in the destruction of them. Not of the four monarchies, the Babylonians, Persians, Grecians, and Romans, as Lyra and Abarbinel; since the Persians particularly never entered into the land of Judea and wasted it; though this is the sense of the ancient Jews, as Jerom relates; for he says the Hebrews interpret the "palmer worm" of the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Chaldeans, who, coming from one climate of the world, destroyed both the ten and the two tribes, that is, all the people of Israel: the locust they interpret of the Medes and Persians, who, having overturned the Chaldean empire, carried the Jews captive: the "canker worm" is the Macedonians, and all the successors of Alexander; especially King Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes, who like a canker worm sat in Judea, and devoured all the remains of the former kings, under whom were the wars of the Maccabees: the "caterpillar" they refer to the Roman empire, the fourth and last that oppressed the Jews, and drove them out of their borders. Nor of the several kings of Assyria and Babylon, who followed one another, and wasted first the ten tribes, and then the other two, as Tiglathpileser, Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnezzar, so Theodoret; since this prophecy only relates to the two tribes. Rather therefore this may point at the several invasions and incursions of the Chaldean army into Judea, under Nebuchadnezzar and his generals; first, when he came up against Jerusalem, and made Jehoiakim tributary to him; a second time, when he carried Jehoiachin and his family into Babylon, with a multitude of the Jews, and their wealth; a third time, when he besieged Jerusalem, and took it, and Zedekiah the king, and carried him captive; and a fourth time, when Nebuzaradan came and burnt the temple, and the houses of Jerusalem, and broke down the walls of it, and cleared the land of its inhabitants and riches; see
2Ki 24:1.
Joel 1:5
Ver. 5. Awake, ye drunkards, and weep: and howl, all ye drinkers of wine,.... Who are used to neither, either to awake or to howl, being very prone to drowsiness upon their drinking bouts, and to mirth and jollity in them; but now should be awake, and sober enough, not as being a virtue in them, but through want of wine; and for the same reason should howl, as follows:
because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth; the locusts having spoiled the vines and eaten the grapes, no new wine could be made, and so none could be brought in cups to their mouths; nor they drink it in bowls, as they had used to do; and which, being sweet and grateful to their taste, they were wont to drink in great abundance, till they were inebriated with it; but now there was a scarcity, their lips were dry, but not their eyes. The word, Kimchi says, signifies all liquor which is squeezed by bruising or treading.
Joel 1:6
Ver. 6. For a nation is come up upon my land,.... A nation of locusts, so called from their great numbers, and coming from foreign parts; just as the ants are called a "people", and the conies a "folk",
Pr 30:25; and which were an emblem of the nation of the Chaldeans, which came up from Babylon, and invaded the land of Judea; called by the Lord "my land", because he had chosen it for the habitation of his people; here he himself had long dwelt, and had been served and worshipped in it: though Kimchi thinks these are the words of the inhabitants of the land, or of the prophet; but if it can be thought they are any other than the words of God, they rather seem to be expressed by the drunkards in particular, howling for want of wine, and observing the reason of it:
strong, and without number; this description seems better to agree with the Assyrians or Chaldeans, who were a mighty and powerful people, as well as numerous; though locusts, notwithstanding they are weak, singly taken, yet, coming in large bodies, carry all before them, and there is no stopping them:
whose teeth [are] the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion; or "the grinders" {m} of such an one; being hard, strong, and sharp, to bite off the tops, boughs, and branches of trees: Pliny {n} says, locusts will gnaw with their teeth the doors of houses; so the teeth of locusts are described in Re 9:8; this may denote the strength, cruelty, and voraciousness of the Chaldean army.
{m} tweltm "molares", Pagninus, Mercerus, Burkius. {n} Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 29.
Joel 1:7
Ver. 7. He hath laid my vine waste,.... That is, the locust, which spoiled the vines in Judea, the singular being put for the plural, by gnawing the branches, biting the tops of them, and devouring the leaves and the fruit; and so not only left them bare and barren, but destroyed them: this may emblematically represent the Assyrians or Babylonians wasting the land of Judea, the vine and vineyard of the Lord of hosts; see Isa 5:1;
and barked my fig tree; gnawed off the bark of them; locusts are not only harmful to vines, as is hinted by Theocritus {o}, but to fig trees also: Pliny {p} speaks of fig trees in Boeotia gnawn by locusts, which budded again; and mentions it as something wonderful and miraculous that they should: and yet Sanctius observes, that these words cannot be understood properly of the locusts, since fig trees cannot be harmed by the bite or touch of them; which, besides their roughness, have an insipid bitter juice, which preserves them from being gnawn by such creatures; and the like is observed of the cypress by Vitruvius {q}; but the passage out of Pliny shows the contrary. Some interpret it of a from or scum they left upon the fig tree when they gnawed it, such as Aben Ezra says is upon the face of the water; and something like this is left by caterpillars on the leaves of trees, which destroy them;
he hath made it clean bare; stripped it of its leaves and fruit, and bark also:
and cast [it] away; having got out all the juice they could:
the branches thereof are made white; the bark being gnawed off, and all the greenness and verdure of them dried up; so trees look, when this is their case: and thus the Jews were stripped by the Chaldeans of all their wealth and treasure, and were left bare and naked, and as the scum and offscouring of all things.
{o} Idyll. 5. {p} Nat. Hist. l. 17. c. 25. {q} De Architectura, l. 2. c. 9. p. 70.
Joel 1:8
Ver. 8. Lament like a virgin,.... This is not the continuation of the prophet's speech to the drunkards; but, as Aben Ezra observes, he either speaks to himself, or to the land the Targum supplies it, O congregation of Israel; the more religious and godly part of the people are here addressed; who were concerned for the pure worship of God, and were as a chaste virgin espoused to Christ, though not yet come, and for whom they were waiting; these are called upon to lament the calamities of the times in doleful strains, like a virgin:
girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth; either as one that had been betrothed to a young man, but not married, he dying after the espousals, and before marriage; which must be greatly distressing to one that passionately loved him; and therefore, instead of her nuptial robes, prepared to meet him and be married in, girds herself with sackcloth; a coarse hairy sort of cloth, as was usual, in the eastern countries, to put on in token of mourning: or as one lately married to a young man she dearly loved, and was excessively fond of, and lived extremely happy with; but, being suddenly snatched away from her by death, puts on her widow's garments, and mourns not in show only, but in reality; having lost in her youth her young husband, she had the strongest affection for: this is used to express the great lamentation the people are called unto in this time of their distress.
Joel 1:9
Ver. 9. The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord,.... The meat offering was made of fine flour, oil, and frankincense; and the drink offering was of wine; and, because of the want of corn and wine, these were not brought to the temple as usual; and which was matter of great grief to religious persons, and especially to the priests, as follows:
the priests, the Lord's ministers, mourn; partly because they had no work to do, and could not answer to their character, the ministers of the Lord, in ministering about holy things, and bringing the sacrifices and offerings of the people to him; and partly because of their want of food, their livelihood greatly depending on the offerings brought, part of which belonged to them, and on which they and their families lived.
Joel 1:10
Ver. 10. The field is wasted,.... By the locust, that eat up all green things, the grass and herbs, the fruit and leaves of trees; and also by the Chaldeans trampling on it with their horses, and the increase of which became fodder for them:
the land mourneth; being destitute, nothing growing upon it, and so looked dismally, and of a horrid aspect; or the inhabitants of it, for want of provision:
for the corn is wasted; by the locusts, and so by the Assyrian or Chaldean army, before it came to perfection:
the new wine is dried up: in the grape, through the drought after mentioned: or, "is ashamed" {r}; not answering the expectations of men, who saw it in the cluster, promising much, but failed:
the oil languisheth; or "sickens" {s}; the olive trees withered; the olives fell off, as the Targum, and so the oil failed: the corn, wine, and oil, are particularly mentioned, not only as being the chief support of human life, as Kimchi observes, and so the loss of them must be matter of lamentation to the people in general; but because of these the meat and drink offerings were, and therefore the priests in particular had reason to mourn.
{r} vybwh "erubuit", Tigurine version, Mercer, Liveleus; "puduit", Drusius, Tarnovius; "pudefit", Cocceius. {s} llma "infirmatum est", Montanus. So some in Vatablus.
Joel 1:11
Ver. 11. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen,.... Tillers of the land, who have took a great deal of pains in cultivating the earth, dunging, ploughing, and sowing it; confusion may cover you, because of your disappointment, the increase not answering to your expectations and labours:
howl, O ye vinedressers; that worked in the vineyards, set the vines, watered and pruned them, and, when they had done all they could to them, were dried up with the drought, or devoured by the locusts, as they were destroyed by the Assyrians or Chaldeans; and therefore had reason to howl and lament, all their labour being lost:
for the wheat and for the barley: because the harvest of the field is perished; this belongs to the husbandmen, is a reason for their shame and blushing, because the wheat and barley were destroyed before they were ripe; and so they had neither wheat nor barley harvest. The words, by a transposition, would read better, and the sense be clearer, "thus, be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen, for the wheat and for the barley: because the harvest", &c. "howl, O ye vine dressers"; for what follows:
Joel 1:12
Ver. 12. The vine is dried up,.... Withered away, stripped of its leaves and fruits, and its sap and moisture gone: or, "is ashamed" {t}; to see itself in this condition, and not answer the expectation of its proprietor and dresser:
and the fig tree languisheth; sickens and dies, through the bite of the locusts:
the pomegranate tree: whose fruit is delicious, and of which wine was made: the palm tree also; which bears dates:
and the apple tree; that looks so beautiful, when either in bloom, or laden with fruit, and whose fruit is very grateful to the palate; so that both what were for common use and necessary food, and what were for delight and pleasure, were destroyed by these noisome creatures:
[even] all the trees of the field are withered; for locusts not only devour the leaves and fruits of trees, but hurt the trees themselves; burn them up by touching them, and cause them to wither away and die, both by the saliva and dung, which they leave upon them, as Bochart, from various authors, has proved:
because joy is withered away from the sons of men; this is not given as a reason of the above trees dried up and withered, but of the lamentation of the vinedressers and husbandmen: or else the particle
yk is merely expletive, or may be rendered, "therefore", or "truly", or "surely" {u}, "joy is withered", or "ashamed"; it blushes to appear, as it used to do at the time of harvest; but now there was no harvest, and so no joy expressed, as usually was at such times; see Isa 9:3.
{t} hvybwh "confusa est", V. L. "pudefacta est", Cocceius; "pudet", Drusius. {u} yk "ideo", Grotius; "imo", Piscator; "sane", Mercer.
Joel 1:13
Ver. 13. Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests,.... Prepare and be ready to raise up lamentation and mourning; or gird yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn in that, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi supply the words; see Jer 4:8;
howl, ye ministers of the altar; who served there, by laying on and burning the sacrifices, or offering incense:
come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God; that is, come into the house of the Lord, as Kimchi; into the court of the priests, and there lie all night, in the sackcloth girded with; putting up prayers to God, with weeping and lamentations, that he would avert the judgments that were come or were coming upon theme:
for the meat offering and the drink offering are withholden from the house of your God; See Gill on "Joe 1:9".
Joel 1:14
Ver. 14. Sanctify yea a fast,.... This is spoken to the priests, whose business it was to appoint a fast, as the Targum renders it; or to set apart a time for such religious service, as the word signifies; and to keep it holy themselves, and see that it was so kept by others: Kimchi interprets it, prepare the people for a fast; give them notice of it, that they may be prepared for it:
call a solemn assembly; of all the people of the land later mentioned: or, "proclaim a restraint" {w}; a time of ceasing, as a fast day should be from all servile work, that attendance may be given to the duties of it, prayer and humiliation:
gather the elders: meaning not those in age, but in office:
[and] all the inhabitants of the land; not the magistrates only, though first and principally, as examples, who had been deeply concerned in guilt; but the common people also, even all of them:
[into] the house of the Lord your God; the temple, the court of the Israelites, where they were to go and supplicate the Lord, when such a calamity as this of locusts and caterpillars were upon them; and where they might hope the Lord would hear them, and remove his judgments from them, 1Ki 8:37;
and cry unto the Lord; in prayer, with vehemence and earnestness of soul.
{w} hrue warq "vocate retentionem", Montanus; "proclamate diem interdicti", Junius & Tremellius, Heb. "interdictum", Piscator; "edicite coetum cum cessatione", Cocceius.
Joel 1:15
Ver. 15. Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord [is] at hand,.... A time of severer and heavier judgments than these of the locusts, caterpillars, &c. which were a presage and emblem of greater ones, even of the total destruction of their city, temple, and nation, either by the Chaldeans, or by the Romans, or both:
and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come; unawares, suddenly, and irresistibly: there is in the Hebrew text an elegant play on words, which may be rendered, as "wasting from the waster", or "destruction from the destroyer, shall it come" {x}; even from the almighty God, who is able to save and destroy, and none can deliver out of his hands; see Isa 13:6; the word signifies one powerful and victorious, as Aben Ezra observes; and so it does in the Arabic language.
{x} ydvm dvk "uti vastitas a Deo vastatore", Drusius.
Joel 1:16
Ver. 16. Is not the meat cut off before our eyes?.... Such an interrogation most strongly affirms; it was a matter out of all question, they could not but see it with their eyes; it was a plain case, and not to be denied, that every eatable thing, or that of which food was wont to be made, was cut off by the locusts, or the drought, or by the Assyrian or Chaldean army:
[yea], joy and gladness from the house of our God; the harvest being perished, there were no firstfruits brought to the temple, which used to be attended with great joy; and the corn and vines being wasted, no meat offerings made of fine flour, nor drink offerings of wine, were offered, which used to make glad God and man; nor any other sacrifices, on which the priests and their families lived, and were matter of joy to them; and these they ate of in the temple, or in courts adjoining to it. So Philo {y} the Jew says of the ancient Jews, that
"having prayed and offered sacrifices, and appeased the Deity, they washed their bodies and souls; the one in lavers, the other in the streams of the laws, and right instruction; and being cheerful, turned themselves to their food, not going home oftentimes, but remaining in the holy places where they sacrificed; and as mindful of the sacrifices, and reverencing the place, they kept a feast truly holy, not shining either in word or deed.''
{y} De Plantatione Noe, p. 237.
Joel 1:17
Ver. 17. The seed is rotten under their clods,.... Or "grains" {z} of wheat or barley, which had been sown, and, for want of rain, putrefied and wasted away under the clods of earth, through the great drought; so that what with locusts, which cropped that that did bud forth, and with the drought, by reason of which much of the seed sown came to nothing, an extreme famine ensued: the Targum is,
"casks of wine rotted under their coverings:''
the garners are desolate; the "treasuries" {a}, or storehouses, having nothing in them, and there being nothing to put into them; Jarchi makes these to be peculiar for wine and oil, both which failed, Joe 1:10;
the barns are broken down; in which the wheat and barley had used to be laid up; but this judgment of the locusts and drought continuing year after year, the walls fell down, and, no care was taken to repair them, there being no, use for them; these were the granaries, and, as Jarchi, for wheat particularly:
for the corn is withered; that which sprung up withered and dried away, through the heat and drought: or was "ashamed" {b}; not answering the expectation of the sower.
{z} twdrp "grana", Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Tarnovius, Cocceius, Bochartus. So Ben Melech, who observes they are so called, because they are separated and scattered under the earth. {a} twrua "thesauri", Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Vatablus, Piscator. {b} vybwh "confusum est", V. L. "puduit", Drusius; "pudore afficit", Cocceius.
Joel 1:18
Ver. 18. How do the beasts groan?.... For want of fodder, all green grass and herbs being eaten up by the locusts; or devoured, or trampled upon, and destroyed, by the Chaldeans; and also for want of water to quench their thirst:
the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; the larger cattle, as oxen; these were in the utmost perplexity, not knowing where to go for food or drink:
yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate; which have shepherds to lead and direct them to pastures, and can feed on commons, where the grass is short, which other cattle cannot; yet even these were in great distress, and wasted away, and were consumed for want of nourishment.
Joel 1:19
Ver. 19. O Lord, to thee will I cry,.... Or pray, as the Targum; with great vehemency and earnestness, commiserating the case of man and beast: these are the words of the prophet, resolving to use his interest at the through of grace in this time of distress, whatever others did:
for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness; or, "of the plain" {c} though in the wildernesses of Judea, there were pastures for cattle: Kimchi interprets them of the shepherds' tents or cotes, as the word {d} is sometimes used; which were will not to be pitched where there were pastures for their flocks: and so the Targum renders it, "the habitations of the wilderness"; these, whether pastures or habitations, or both, were destroyed by fire, the pastures by the locusts, as Kimchi; which, as Pliny {e} says, by touching burn the trees, herbs, and fruits of the earth; see Joe 2:3; or by the Assyrians or Chaldeans, who by fire and sword consumed all in their way; or by a dry burning blasting wind, as Lyra; and so the Targum interprets it of a strong east wind like fire: it seems rather to design extreme heat and excessive drought, which burn up all the produce of the earth:
and the flame hath burnt all the trees of the field; which may be understood of flashes of lightning, which are common in times of great heat and drought; see Ps 83:14.
{c} rbdm "non tantum desertum significat sed et campum sativum", Oecolampadius. "A place of pasture for cattle", Ben Melech. {d} twan "caulas", Piscator. So Ben Melech. {e} Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 29.
Joel 1:20
Ver. 20. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee,.... As well as the prophet, in their way; which may be mentioned, both as a rebuke to such who had no sense of the judgments upon them, and called not on the Lord; and to express the greatness of the calamity, of which the brute creatures were sensible, and made piteous moans, as for food, so for drink; panting thorough excessive heat and vehement thirst, as the hart, after the water brooks, of which this word is only used,
Ps 42:1; but in vain:
for the rivers of waters are dried up; not only springs, and rivulets and brooks of water, but rivers, places where were large deep waters, as Aben Ezra explains it; either by the Assyrian army, the like Sennacherib boasts Isa 37:25; and is said to be done by the army of Xerxes, wherever it came; or rather by the excessive heat and scorching beams of the sun, by which such effects are produced:
and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness;
See Gill on "Joe 1:19"; and whereas the word rendered pastures signifies both "them" and "habitations" also; and, being repeated, it may be taken in one of the senses in Joe 1:19; and in the other here: and so Kimchi who interprets it before of "tents", here explains it of grassy places in the wilderness, dried up, as if the sun had consumed them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.
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. WHBC 878.2
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.
The more earthly delights we
make needful to satisfy us, the more we expose ourselves to
trouble. WHBC 878.2
Sources: Matthew Henry; Gill's Exposition; Matthew Henry Concise
Commentary
Commentary