Bible Commentaries
Joel 1

Verse 1

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JOEL

Chronological Notes relative to the commencement of Joel's

prophesying, upon the supposition that this event took place

about six hundred and ninety years before the commencement of

the Christian era.

-Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3314.

-Year of the Julian Period, 4024.

-Year since the Flood, 1658.

-Year from the foundation of Solomon's temple, 322.

-Year since the division of Solomon's monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 285.

-Year since the extinction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, 31.

-Third year of the twenty-second Olympiad.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to the Varronian computation, 64.

-Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 690.

-Cycle of the Sun, 20.

-Cycle of the Moon, 15.

-Third year of Eryxias, the last decennial archon of the Athenians.

-First year of Anaxidamus, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Proclidae.

-Thirty-fifth year of Eurycrates I., king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Eurysthenidae.

-Eleventh year of Deioces, the first king of the Medes.

-Fortieth year of Perdiccas I., king of Macedon.

-Twenty-ninth year of Gyges, king of Lydia.

-Ninth year of Manasseh, king of Judah.

CHAPTER I

This and the beginning of the next chapter contain a double

prophecy, applicable in its primary sense to a plague of

locusts which was to devour the land, and to be accompanied

with a severe drought and famine; and in its secondary sense

it denotes the Chaldean invasion. Both senses must be admitted:

for some of the expressions will apply only to the dearth by

insects; others to the desolation by war. The contexture of

both is beautiful and well conducted. In this chapter the

distress of every order of people is strongly painted; and not

only does the face of nature languish when the God of nature

is displeased, 1-19;

but the very beasts of the field, by a bold figure, are

represented as supplicating God in their distress, and

reproaching the stupidity of man, 20.

NOTES ON CHAP. I

Verse Joel 1:1. 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 Joel 2:1; Joel 2:15, (see also Joel 1:14, and the note there,) but not long before its subversion as his words, Joel 3:1, seem to imply that its captivity was approaching. See 2 Kings 21:10-15. He therefore favours the conjecture of Drusius, that this prophet lived under Manasseh, and before his conversion, 2 Chronicles 33:13; that is, some time from before Christ 697 to (suppose) 660.

Verse 2

Verse Joel 1:2. 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.

Verse 3

Verse Joel 1:3. 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.

Verse 4

Verse 4. 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. Joel 2:2.

Verse 5

Verse 5. 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.

Verse 6

Verse 6. 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.

Verse 7

Verse 7. 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, Joel 1:10; and כשד משדי kesod mishshaddai, a destruction from the Almighty, Joel 1:15; are all paronomasias in which this prophet seems to delight.

Verse 8

Verse 8. 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. Isaiah 7:14, and "Matthew 1:23".

Verse 9

Verse 9. The meat-offering and the drink-offering is cut off — The crops and the vines being destroyed by the locusts, the total devastation in plants, trees, corn, &c., is referred to and described with a striking variety of expression in this and the following verses.

Verse 12

Verse 12. 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. Joel 2:2.

Verse 14

Verse 14. 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.

Verse 15

Verse 15. 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.

Verse 17

Verse 17. 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.

Verse 18

Verse Joel 1:18. 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.

Verse 19

Verse Joel 1:19. 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.

Verse 20

Verse Joel 1:20. 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, Jeremiah 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 Joel 1:19. Eight or ten of Dr. Kennicott's have the same reading.