JOEL (Analysis)

INTRODUCTION

WHO SPEAKS?

Joel, son of Pethuel, was a prophet of Judah, and is believed to have lived in Jerusalem. His name means “Jehovah is God,” Joe 1:1; Joe 2:1; Joe 2:15; Joe 2:23; Joe 2:32; Joe 3:20-21. Of his personal history nothing more is known.

TO WHOM?

This book is addressed to and concerning the inhabitants of the land of Judah and to the priests and elders of the house of God in particular. The address concerns their sins and rebellion against God, His call for their repentance, certain coming judgments for their sins, and their eventual restoration to and glory in the land of promise, Joe 3:16-17; Joe 3:20-21.

ABOUT WHAT?

Joel prophesies of coming desolation over all Judah, caused by a devastating plague of the palmer worms, insects, and a drought which are to be sent as methods of Divine judgment upon Judah and Israel, God’s chosen people. The plague of insects represented enemy armies that were to devastate the land in judgment. They drifted into a state of moral, ethical, and spiritual apostacy or whoredom, Joe 1:4; Joe 1:12-17. Forgiveness for confessed sins, restoration to their own land, and full kingdom glory are pledged to Judah and Israel, Joel ch. 3.

WHEN?

Joel lived about 800 B.C., as a possible contemporary of Elijah, and certainly of Elisha, and in the days of Jehoram and Uzziah, kings of Judah, 2 Chronicles ch. 22-24. Most of his prophecy concerned the future of Israel and Judah in “the day of the Lord,” the outpouring of the Spirit upon the church at Pentecost, the now approaching era of Israel’s regathering to her land, and the Golden Millennial era that is to follow, Isa 2:12; Joe 2:1; Joe 2:28-29; Act 2:17-21; Act 3:1-21.

WHAT WAS THE OCCASION?

The plague of locusts sent to desolate the land was a picture prophecy of soon coming armies of judgment upon Judah for her rebellion against the laws of God for Judah and Israel.

Yet, the then existing moral and spiritual state in Judah, and her threatened chastisement, was taken by the prophet Joel as an occasion to deliver also a message of a more terrible visitation from God. It was a message designed to bring Israel from her dispersion, to repentance, and to preparation for acceptance of the coming Messiah, and to restore Israel to her former days of glory and blessings, Mal 3:9-18.

CHART I

JOEL—BOOK of JUDGMENT

A. Historical, Literal, Visitation, ch. 1:1-20

1. The word of the Lord came, v. 1-3.

2. The insect desolation of the land, v. 4-14.

3. The plague, a type of the Day of the Lord, v. 15-20.

B. Prophetic Revelation, ch. 2:1 through 3:21.

1. The invasion from the north, preceding Armageddon, 2:1-10.

2. The Lord’s army at Armageddon, 2:11.

3. Repentance of a Jewish remnant in the land, 2:12-17.

4. The Lord’s intervention, in the midst of tribulation, 2:18-27.

C. Israel Preserved—Gentile Nations Judged, 3:1-8

1. The end of the Day of the Lord, 3:9-16.

2. Millennial blessings assured, 3:17-21.

GOD’S CALL THROUGH JOEL

Verses 1:3:

Verse 1 asserts that the “word of the Lord,” of Jehovah, “which shall not pass away,” came to Joel, whose father was Pethuei, which means the “open heartedness or sincerity of God,” Mat 24:34. The name Joel means “Jehovah is God.” This book is therefore to be considered authentic, inspired, or trustworthy, Psa 119:160; 2Ti 3:16-17; 2Pe 1:20-21. It is therefore to be accepted as a Divine call from Jehovah God, to all the inhabitants of the land of Judah, and to Zion especially, Joe 2:1; Joe 2:15; Joe 2:23; Joe 2:32; Joe 3:1; Joe 3:16-17; Joe 3:20-21.

Verse 2 appeals to old men to consider their observations of plagues and experiences in life, then openly testify whether or not they have ever known of so devastating a plague as God has given him to describe. The experienced are to give heed, then testify, regarding the coming announced locust judgment upon their land and people, as Joel calls them to repentance, Psa 107:1.

Verse 3 calls upon these aged of Judah, Jerusalem, and Israel to weigh well the fearful effects and cause of this coming plague and recount it well to and for their posterity. One generation must pass on to another, the love, mercy, and just judgment of an Holy God upon His sinful people, 1Co 10:6; Isa 5:12; Take heed lest Divine lessons be forgotten, Deu 4:9; Deu 6:7; Deu 9:19.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

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, (2Co 5:20😉 and in another place he says, ‘He has deposited with us this treasure as in earthen vessels,’ (2Co 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 היה eie, 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.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

JOELOR A PROPHETS CALL TO REPENTANCE

Joe 1:1 to Joe 3:21

IN taking up the study of the Book of Joel, we want to express the hope that many of you will read and reread this volume. Its brevity makes its reading the task of only a single sitting, and its clear forceful style is sufficiently attractive to invite a second perusal; while a third and fourth review would aid materially in making evident the plan of the Book, and the purposes of the Prophet.

In discussing Hosea, we called attention to the fact that the order of these volumes, as they appear in our Bible, was not necessarily the order of their origin. The date of the Book of Joel is difficult to determine. Hosea told us the king under whom he prophesied, made mention also of the four kings of Judah who reigned in his time; and so definitely fixed for us the period of his prophecy. But the Book of Joel provides no such guide-posts. We know nothing of his personal history, and although the name of his father is given, that name appears nowhere else in sacred story. So we are left without information regarding his family. The result is that students of the Word have parted company when they came to discuss Joels place in history, the majority putting him back as far as 810 to 758 B.C. while others, with some array of arguments, bring him down as late as 500 B. C. We need not stop to enter into this discussion, since what Joel has to say is of equal weight and authority whether uttered at the one time or the other. He was Judahs Prophet, just as Hosea and Amos were Prophets of Israel.

His purpose in writing this prophecy seems to have been twofold, to reveal Gods judgment against sin, and the Day of the Lord, when men should turn from their iniquity to worship * * in spirit and in truth, and the golden Age would be on. In the Hebrew text this Book is divided into four chapters; in your English version, into three chapters; in fact, into no chapters at all. Its form is more like that of a sermon than a book. And while certain parts of it are given to the discussion of certain phases of his subject, the prophecy is worthy to stand as a single discourse, only passing from one subject to another as the preacher makes progress from point to point.

We have elected, therefore, to discuss this volume under terms that will cover the entire Book, following, largely, its own arrangement of thought.

UNFAITHFULNESS AND AFFLICTION

It is not difficult to see that the first chapter opens with a description of a dire affliction which has fallen on the land: an affliction such as had not been in the days of the oldest inhabitants, nor even in the days of their fathers; an affliction which made such an impression upon the generation of Joel that he expected them to tell their children, and their children to repeat it to their grandchildren, and the grandchildren to give it to the generations to come.

The unfaithfulness of Judah was assumed, not described. The Prophets appeal to the people to turn unto the Lord is proof positive that they had turned from the Lord. But he says nothing as to the nature of that turning, and nothing as to the extent of it. It would seem altogether probable that the arrangement of Joel in the Scripture Canon is due to this fact. Hosea had so vividly portrayed the apostasy of Israel and Judah that those who gathered these prophecies into one Book might say Joel fits after Hosea. Hosea tells the condition of the people, and Joel describes the judgments that had come in consequence. If there is any one thought abundantly illustrated in the Old Testament, and often emphasized by the Great Teacher Himself, it is the dire fate of those who are unfaithful to the Lord God. It is found in the writings of practically every Prophet of the Old Testament, and it burns with new meaning when Gods Beloved Son speaks to that subject. In Mat 24:48, we have Jesus description of the faithless servant, and also His severe judgment against him. Joel is not out of date, therefore; he has a message for this generation. It is the message which the Apostle Paul repeated when he said, He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.

The affliction, here, is expressed by the processes of natural law. The scourge which Judah saw is brought about by the locust, or grasshopper. George Adam Smith calls our attention to the fact that though the palmerworm, the locust, the cankerworm and the caterpillar are all mentioned here, they are simply four separate terms for the same devouring insectthe locust, and might be translated properly in these words, That which the shearer left the swarmer hath eaten; that which the swarmer hath left the lapper hath eaten; and that which the lapper hath left the devourer hath eaten.

No man, who has ever looked upon Kansas or Nebraska, in locust years, would charge the Prophet Joel with extravagance in the language which he here employs; and possibly Palestine and vicinity have seen more dreadful scourges. Dr. Doughty, in his volume entitled Arabia Deserta speaks of having seen in this very country clouds of locusts which devoured everything before them: While a traveler to South Africa tells of the space of ten miles on each side of the Sea-cow river, and eighty or ninety miles in length, the whole surface of which was literally covered with these pests; Another was reported, from Syria, concerning a season when the whole face of the mountain was black with them: when the effort to stop their onward march by trenches and fires proved utterly useless; when it required days for their armies to pass a single point, and when the noise of them, as they marched and foraged, was like that of a heavy shower falling on a distant forest. Driver declares that when in an erect position the appearance of these insects, at a little distance, is like that of well-armed horsemen. Ail these testimonies, and more, that might be easily given, corroborate the realism of Joels words in picturing what had occurred to Judahs possessions.

We call your attention to the fact that these insects, which may hatch at any season, in innumerable companies, and march forth to consume the very land itself, were regarded by the Prophet as judgments against Judahs sin. It is so that a great many of those wide-spread calamities that visit neighborhoods, and touch even nations, whether inaugurated of God or no, are yet taken possession of by Him, and employed to teach the afflicted the effects of unfaithfulness. To illustratethe ground often cleaves asunder and earthquakes have shattered its parts, but when one opened at the very feet of Korah and followers and swallowed them up and all that appertained to them, Moses felt it was a Divine judgment against their conspiracy. For a long time people have read Bulwer Lyttons volume The Last Days of Pompeii to see the evident connection between the awful sins of that people, which, like those of Sodom, called to Heaven for judgment, and that fateful hour when the silent mountain, whose solitary flickering light had already sent a word of warning, poured forth a torrent of death, and smote men and women, by the hundreds and thousands, leaving them in the very acts of their iniquity so that when the day of exhuming should come, the Judge would be justified or having overthrown the city.

It is only a short time since, that Martinique, with twenty-five thousand inhabitants, had poured upon it a flood of lava which left but one living man in all its limits. He was preserved not because he was righteous, but because he was so vile that they buried him in the lowest cell of one of their prison houses, and even then his flesh was roasted until he has walked the earth bearing the marks of a judgment like the mark of Cain. Let no man misunderstand me! Jesus Himself once distinctly taught that God was not sending these calamities upon certain individuals because they were sinners beyond the rest.

There were present at that season some that told Him, of the Galilean whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things?

I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?

I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish (Luk 13:1-5).

If Joel saw in this devastation of the land by the locusts an occasion of repentance, it was not for the farmers or gardeners whose fruits and vegetables were most utterly destroyed, but for the whole people to learn the lesson, search themselves and see if there were any wicked way in them! And today Jesus seems to be saying to us what God said to this ancient people, and what His Son said to those who reported the Galilsean blood shed by Pilate, Repent!

God, therefore, is confessedly over all. We doubt if Joel meant to suggest that God had, by any miracle, made ready this myriad of locusts, but he did mean to say that all power in Heaven and in earth is with Him, and whatever comes to pass must be by His permission. Even the offensive thingsHis hand is upon them. Few subjects enjoy a greater agreement on the part of the Old Testament Prophets than this touching the Divine presence. Joels name is significant. The very word means The Lord is God. And who can sound the depths of that word, or explore the heights of that thought? Joseph Parker has justly said, The ease or difficulty with which a man can surrender God depends, if I may say, upon the use to which he has become accustomed to put the mysterious term. If God has been but a nebulous and speechless dreama veneration without a corresponding moralitythe act of surrender will be as indefinite as itself. But in our case, as Christian believers and Christian teachers, God is in every part of our life; He has manifested Himself to us; He has taken up His abode with us; the Spirit of His Son is in our hearts, crying, Abba-Father! He searches us and tries us; He acts directly and judicially upon every motive; He guides us with His eye; He besets us behind and before, and lays His hand upon us; to Him our hearts aspire in instinctive as well as in reasoned prayer; the spontaneous outstretching of our hands is towards His holy Temple, if haply we may touch His strength, and feel secure because He is almighty. When we do wrong, our eyes are darkened as with a cloud, and when we do well our hearts feel upon them the light of a smile. That is our case now; in such circumstances surrender would be destruction. We have, if I may so put it, gone too far in our use of God to turn away from Him and yet retain our identity intact. We live and move and have our being in God. We have passed the merely argumentative stage. God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. Our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. This was the old Jewish conception; this is also the Christian conception; and this is the true conception. God * * over all, God blessed for ever

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.

Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come? (Joe 1:14-15).

This Prophet saw God in the storm just as surely as in the sunshine that was to follow. God was present there in the time of their sorrow and witnessed their suffering just as surely as He would be present when the sorrow had passed, and all sighing had fled. With the great Apostle of the New Testament he believed that in Him we live, and move, and have our being.

REPENTANCE AND RESTORATION

At the end of the eleventh verse of the second chapter he has finished his word-picture of devastation, and has reminded his auditors that the Infinite Father, the Lord of Heaven and earth, is in command of this terrible army, and hence his appeal,

Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:

And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil.

Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him; even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord your God? (Joe 2:12-14).

In their affliction He would have His people hear the Fathers voice. It is a blessed suggestion. Our hours of suffering, our seasons of sorrow can be converted into Divine speech, if our hearts turn to Him. As you know by repeated assertions, we do not belong to the company who lay every calamity to the charge of God. Our afflictions we do not count a certain evidence of the Divine disfavor. We have an adversary who is pleased to lay his oppressive hands upon us, but we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, and like Job of old, Satans attack may, under God, become our season of blessing. Or, like the Son of Man, his temptations and trials may afford a positive triumph through the Divine grace.

I asked of my spirit within me

A question that troubled me quite

A querulous question of nature,

Because I was short in my right:

I asked it to search out the reason

Why trouble should light upon earth,

And tears should be mingled with blessing,

And moans with the ringing of mirth.

But a voice, like the voice of an angel,

Said, Turn thee, and question again;

God never afflicts for His pleasure,

Nor troubles the children of men.

His hand is the hand of a Father,

His chastening is good in disguise,

Though the clouds which are resting upon you

May darken this truth from your eyes.

And then, said the voice growing softer,

Some things which you counted Gods wrath,

Are only His wonderful blessing,

Revealing themselves in your path;

And that which you counted evil,

Was happily an angel of light,

Gods beautiful angel of sorrow,

Who winged his way through the night.

Repentance was the Prophet Joels appeal. He was like Jonah in his opinion of the character of God when he repeated the words of the Lord,

Turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:

And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil (Joe 2:12-13).

He knew, with the Psalmist, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise (Psa 51:17). You remember Jonahs words when he complained that God had saved Nineveh, I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil. And Joel entertains the same opinion of Him. It is a strange thing that any man knowing his own past, studying the Divine treatment accorded his fellows, or looking into the Scripture to hear what God would say, can reach another conclusion.

Joel believes that this repentance should begin with the leaders of religious opinion,

Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Thy people,

O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? (Joe 2:17).

Hosea has already said, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledgea charge against the priests, and reminds them Like people, like priest? Pentecosts will never come to the Church until Gods Prophets, the men who stand in the pulpit, and through whom the congregations voice their prayers, have made themselves right before the Lord. Long since I have ceased to complain of the pew. I confess to you that I believe profoundly that the pew is what the pulpit makes it. The opinions prevailing among the people are the direct product of the speech of the sacred desk.

When John Wycliff was attempting to recover true religion he declared that it was the business of the preacher to preach the Word and argued that out of false preaching comes the spiritual deadness of the people; that the friars of his time had affected the depravity of the Church, and he announced, then, a truth which ought now to be sung in the ears of every seminary professor, and become the conviction of every theological graduate, namely, It is Gods Word that should be preached. Gods Word is the bread of the soulthe indispensable, wholesome bread. Therefore, to feed the flock in the spiritual sense without Bible truth, is the same thing as if one were to prepare for another a bodily meal without bread. Gods Word is a live seed which begets regeneracy and a spiritual life. Now the chief business of the preacher is to beget and to nourish up members of the church. Therefore it is Gods Word he must preach. Then only will he succeed. I confess I cannot help asking myself sometimes whether I am a worthy successor of my fathers in the Protestant faith.

It has been claimed that every new era has been created by a preacher. Guizot is the authority for the opinion that Paul did more for liberty and free institutions than any other man of two millenniums, Froude only voices what is universally accepted when he affirms that Luther created the Reformation. It was certainly Savonarola who redeemed Florence more effectively than any grand jury of modern times has been able to cleanse Augean stables of municipal life. Dwight Hillis thinks that Caedmon, Bede, Bunyan and the translators of the King James version of the Bible opened up for us the springs of English literature. Cromwell wrote that the Puritan preacher destroyed the Divine right of kings. If the religious leaders are all right, Gods people may behave foolishly, as they did under Moses, but, after all, their leadership will insure their progress through the Wilderness, and their eventual possession of the Promised Land.

But this call to repentance was associated with the promise of restoration. The Prophet Joel knew this to be within the Fathers will and power. He said,

God * * is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil.

Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him; even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord your God? (Joe 2:13-14).

No man will either doubt that willingness or question that power when once, like the Prophet, he has seen God.

Oh, to know the heart of God.Love so deep, so high, so broad,Help me, Lord, to fully prove,All it means that God is Love!

This Book also gives us

THE APOCALYPSE IN OUTLINE

Joel, the Prophet, had a vision of the end of the age centuries before John, the Apostle, put foot on Patmos.

He saw the Pentecost to come.

It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit (Joe 2:28-29).

On the day of Pentecost Peter interpreted and applied these words. When the mockers said,

These men are full of new wine * *

Peter, standing up with the Eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them * * (Act 2:13-14).

This is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel;

And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy (Act 2:16-18).

There are those who profess to have no interest in prophetic studies, who speak of it with scorn as if such studies were mere speculations; but the truth is, until a man works himself into the meaning of prophecy there is for him no plan for the ages, and a great majority of Gods promises are without practical application. To get into the spirit of prophecy is to discover the key of Scripture study. Many of you remember Dr. John Robertson, of Glasgow, Scotland, who, a few years ago in this pulpit, broke unto us the Bread of Life. One day in my study I asked him the question how he came to be a pre-millennialist? He answered, The Worlds Fair compelled me to assume that position in Scriptural study. At the request of Mr. Moody, I came over from Scotland to join with the famous evangelists from the ends of the earth, in a Chicago campaign in the Name of Christ. Day after day I was face to face with defeat. I saw quickly that for every convert to the Gospel that we were making, the Adversary, and his emissaries, were winning a score to such conduct as meant their destruction, and I became despondent over the situation. All the while such men as Moody, Torrey, Chapman, Dixon, Wharton, Pierson, and Gordon not only kept their courage, but seemed positively confident of eventual victory. I was unable to understand their spirit, and when I asked them why they were not discouraged, they answered by pointing to the promises of the prophecies. Though prejudiced against the pre-millennial theory, I made up my mind to see what the Scripture had to say upon the subject, and lo, to my amazement, when once I began to work upon the subject in honest spirit, the meaning of prophecy was made clear, and the Coming of my Master burst forth from the Sacred page, and became to me also the Blessed Hope.

Ah, beloved, if Abraham, living when he did, was privileged of God a look down the ages that revealed to him the day of the Son of Man, and thereby gladdened his heart, who will say that God does not intend us to do what Joel didforesee the conquests to come?

He also saw the special privilege of the Age of the Spirit. He knew that in that day it should come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall he delivered (Joe 2:32).

Evangelism was in his perspective. He saw the Jew and the Gentile alike, brought under the Divine benediction. Even Peter did not fully understand the sweep of His promise.

I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh Jew and Gentile alike. Nor the depths of it Your sons and your daughters * * and your young men, * * and your old men * * and on My servants and on My handmaidens.

That this was to be the portion of men irrespective of station or nationality, Joel made perfectly evident.

Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:

Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong.

Assemble yourselves * * together round about: thither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord.

Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about (Joe 3:9-12).

Then he proceeds to show that all this opposition will be in vain. 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 (Joe 3:13).

Such has been the history of many of His movements in this age of the Spirit. No human opposition or hellish device has been able to retard the progress of our God who is marching on.

Dr. A. B. Simpson tells us that there is an old frontispiece in Wyclifs first Bible representing the cause of truth and the Holy Scriptures by a bright flame, while all around it are the enemies of the truth, with the devil at their head trying to blow it out. The bishops, the priests, the cardinals, and the Pope, with the devil himself leading them, blowing and blowing until it seems as if they would burst. But instead of blowing it out, they only blow it in, and it blazes and blazes until they are scattered before its consuming breath. This is ever true of the cause of Christ. Opposition, persecution, and misrepresentation only strengthen it, as we have all had such good reason often to prove. Nobody can hurt us but ourselves and when the enemy shall come in like a flood let us quietly ask the Spirit of the Lord to lift up a standard against him, and we shall hear a voice proclaiming, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.

Finally, this apocalyptic vision represents alike, millennial glory and terrible judgment. Judgment is repeatedly expressed in this volume. It will be attended by the darkening of the sun and the moon, and the cessation of the shining stars; by the shaking of heaven and earth; by the revelation of the power of God, and His righteous wrath against sin. I shall not attempt to depict the scenes of that judgment, beyond what the Prophet has said. I agree with Henry Van Dyke that there is much concerning this judgment which we ought not to try to peer into, and explain with our little limits of reason. It is not ours to pronounce judgment upon our fellow creatures; the one thing of which we are certain is that God will never do injustice to a single soul; but in every nation, whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be delivered. The rest we may leave in silence with God, and fear when He speaks against sin.

Of that millennial glory we are enamoured.

It shall come to pass in that day * * the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the House of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim * *

But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion (Joe 3:18; Joe 3:20-21).

It is in harmony, beloved, with the twentieth and twenty-first chapters of the Book of Revelation. It is the picture of the consummation of the Ages when the Adversary shall go down into the eternal depths; after which

The Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful (Rev 21:3-3).

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

CRITICAL NOTES.] The prophecy opens with lamentation over the land, made desolate by successive swarms of locusts. Joe. 1:2-4 contain the spirited introduction. Old men] are called upon to note the unusual course of nature. Inhabitants] of Judah, whatever part they occupy, and whatever calamities they have witnessed, are asked to say if in their own, or in the days of their fathers, there had ever been a calamity so sweeping and so terrible. Children] must be impressed with a sense of national disaster, and admonished by the providence of God (Exo. 13:8; Jos. 4:6-7; Psa. 78:6; Psa. 78:8; Joe. 1:4). The four names of the locusts have been thought to be four different species indicated by the etymology of the words, the gnawer (gzm); the multiplier (arbeh); the licker (yeleq); the devourer (chzl). Some critics say that four is the symbol of universality.

Joe. 1:5. Drunkards] An appeal to different classes. Wine-bibbers indulging in their favourite liquor must be roused from stupor to weep and howl, though usually jolly in national calamity.

Joe. 1:6. A nation] Lit. some; four successive empires; symbolically others. The epithets describe their number and savage hostility.

Joe. 1:7. Vine] and fig-trees, common and greatly valued in the days of Solomon (1Ki. 4:25), now destroyed.

HOMILETICS

GODS MESSAGE DEMANDS EARNEST ATTENTION.Joe. 1:1-4

Since the establishment of the kingdom Judah had seen partial and temporary judgments, but none that threatened such destruction as this fearful plague of locusts. Hence the prophet calls attention to it, and urges them to consider its design and transmit its record to posterity. Generations to come must know the judgments of God.

I. The message. Hear this, recorded in Joe. 1:4. The visitation is unparalleled and never to be forgotten in history.

1. It was terrible. Not a mere visit of flying insects, but a succession, plague was to succeed plague, each more destructive than its predecessor. In ordinary providences God testifies against sin. But some ages and churches are made warnings to all generations by the justice of God. Gods penal resources are unlimited, and great as afflictions may have been in the past, the future may bring upon guilty sinners greater still. Why should ye be stricken any more?

2. It was unprecedented. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Old men who could remember events years ago, accustomed to extraordinary things in nature, had never seen anything like this Even in the days of their fathers, in the records of the nation, was there any judgment so terrible in its consequences. Neither the present nor the past generations had known such a calamity. The plague of Egypt lasted only a few days and consisted of few insects; but for multitude and mischief, this was unprecedented. Very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.

3. It was ever to be remembered. Tell ye your children of it, &c. Four generations were to note it. This shall be written for the generation to come. National disasters live in the records of the past, and present calamities are to be fixed in the memories of the future. Greece and Rome, France and England, have each their record written in bitter experience. Woe is pronounced upon those who regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands (Isa. 5:12).

II. The hearers. This calamity was so striking that the attention of the present and all future generations is directed to it.

1. Old men. Hear this, ye old man. Days should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdom, and none are too old to learn. Men of the greatest age and ripest experience have more to learn in life, especially if their lot has fallen in grievous times. If our stock of knowledge be not increasing it is wasting. All should hear the voice of judgments. A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.

2. All the inhabitants of the land. Lest any should escape, all the people are urged to give earnest attention. What concerns one concerns all. None like to hear evil tidings, but they must be pressed upon men sometimes. When God speaks, when vital interests are at stake, all should hear. Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world.

3. Children of another generation. Gods dealings with the present age have a relation to the future. The events of one nation are lessons to all nations. Whatever concerns humanity concerns all men. Generation must declare to generation the wonders of Gods love and the might of his judgments. Our woes must be warnings to posterity, and our corrections their instructions (1Co. 10:6). If the memory of Gods love does not stir up to gratitude, the memory of woe must entreat them to repentance. Take heed to thyself, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen; but teach them thy sons, and thy sons sons (Deu. 4:9; Deu. 6:6-7; Deu. 11:19).

III. The purpose. The present generation must hear and the future be taught for a wise purpose. People are negligent, persist in sin, and bring punishment upon themselves. Hence they must be taught,

1. That God watches over mens conduct. This fact is constantly impressed upon our minds by Gods ways in providence and in creation. Men cannot sin and defy the visitations of God with impunity. Our children may learn this lesson, future generations may read it in our history without our experience.

2. That God directs the events of history. All events are under his control and are overruled for the fulfilment of his will. Yet men regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands (Psa. 28:5). Israel forgot God in his dealings with them. Even at the Red Sea, amid the greatest displays of mercy and judgment, they could not discern him (Psa. 88:11; Psa. 106:13).

3. That God warns men of their danger. Those who forget Gods works are in great danger, and have need of Divine teaching. Israel was a favoured nation, a standing testimony of Gods truth and existence to idolatrous peoples. Israels sufferings were a warning to all nations to avoid Israels guilt. God designs to educate the world in the knowledge of his love and power. The lessons are given to one man to relate to another, written in the experience of one age that another may be impressed; that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.

HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES

Joe. 1:1. It is a mercy that God reveals his word to the Church, when he is about to inflict punishment upon it. This word is not to be sought in wild fanatic spirits, but in chosen servants of God. The word of the Lord that came to Joel.

Individuality merged in Divine commission. Little known of the birth, life, and deeds of Joel. Some known by personal service rather than personal historyDavids mighty men. Others content to live and act in obscurity, and wish to be known only by efforts to save the souls of men.

Joe. 1:2. Hear Gods word addressed to all classes.

1. The common dangers of men.
2. The common needs of men.
3. The common privileges of men. Take heed how ye hear.

Joe. 1:3. Tell your children. Parental duty.

1. A necessary duty.
2. A personal duty.
3. A solemn duty.

4. A duty commanded by God (Deu. 6:7). As far as life and means permit we must prepare for the instruction of the future youth, and transmit the doings of God by succeeding families. The word of God is for this and every age. The doctrines of that word are not effete, but adapted to our wants, and will exert an influence as long as the race shall last.

1. Gods word explains Gods providence, that we may know the author, cause, and design of our affliction.

2. What we learn in the school of providence we should transmit to posterity. That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children (Psa. 68:6).

I. What is to be told? This, i.e. the judgments of God upon Israel. II. To whom are they to be made known? (a) Your children. (b) Their children, and (c) Another generation. Four generations are to keep up the remembrance. III. How are they to be known? Tell, Heb. Cipher them up diligently, after the manner of arithmeticians; reckon up the several years with the several calamities thereof to your children and nephews, that they may hear and fear, and do no more so (Deu. 19:20).

Family Religion. I. The fathers knowledge the childrens heritage. II. The fathers fall the childrens preservation [Treasury of David].

HOMILETICS

NATIONAL CALAMITIES.Joe. 1:4; Joe. 1:6-7

These verses set forth that terrible calamity which was coming upon a land which God once protected and blessed, but which was devastated by a nation of savage and innumerable hosts.

I. Calamities by diminutive creatures. In one sense nothing is insignificant in the hands of God. A fly with Gods message could choke a king, says Jeremy Taylor. Armed with his vengeance, the meanest creatures become the mightiest. In the East so proverbial is the power of the locusts, that the insects are made to say to Mahomet, We are the army of the great God; we produce ninety-nine eggs; if the hundred were completed we should consume the whole earth and all that is in it. In every stage of their existence, says Dr Thompson, these locusts give a most impressive view of the power of God to punish a wicked world. All creatures are under Gods control. The lion from the forest and the wind from heaven do his bidding. Hosts of angels and swarms of insects can punish a guilty people.

II. Calamities in dreadful succession. Whatever time intervened, calamity followed calamity, each destructive, but all together most terrible in their consequences. Travellers tell us that swarm succeeds swarm, darken the sun, extend hundreds of miles, and devour every green thing. Volney says that the quantity of these insects is a thing incredible to any one who has not seen it himself. The judgments of God are often linked together like a chain, each one drawing on the other. Yet, says one, at each link of the lengthening chain, allowing space and time for repentance to break it through. If men like Pharaoh harden their hearts they will be destroyed. By executing thy judgments upon them by little and little thou gavest them place of repentance, not being ignorant that they were a naughty generation (Wis. 12:10).

III. Calamities most destructive.

1. Fierce as a lion. Whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, &c. Nothing can resist their bite. They gnaw even the doors of houses, says Pliny. The sharp and prominent eye-teeth of the lion and lioness are ascribed to them. They appear to be created for a scourge, says a traveller, since to strength incredible for so small a creature they add saw-like teeth, admirably calculated to eat up all the herbs in the land.

2. Destructive to all vegetation. One feature is presented after another in a way to rouse attention. (a) All tender herbs were destroyed. What was left by the palmer-worm was eaten by the locust; and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten. (b) Choice fruit trees, such as vines and fig-trees, were destroyed. The vine is most prominent as the more noble and valuable tree. It flourished from time immemorial, was most fruitful, and a source of wealth to the people. These were the trees of Judea, and to have them destroyed was a calamity not common to a people whose common drink was wine. (c) Desolation was extreme. Young shoots and even the bark of trees were not spared. Drooping vines and injured fig-trees, with their leafless branches and peeled bark, were effects of wasting plagues for many years. This picture is not exaggerated in the least. It is fearfully accurate, and an awful symbol of the desolation of churches and nations caused by sin. The Christian Church is Gods vineyard. If it yields not fruit, it may be laid waste. Prevailing sins will be visited by corresponding judgments. How great must be that guilt which leads God to punish his own land! I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briars and thorns.

A SOLEMN WARNING TO DRUNKARDS.Joe. 1:5

All classes are called upon to repent. The wine-bibbers are to wake up to a recognition of the hand of God, to weep and wail, for the judgment has touched what they most love. Drunkenness is the greatest curse of this land, and the greatest hindrance to the gospel. In a community educated, wise, and pious, it is a source of powerful mischief; but among the masses of mankind, governed by appetite and not intelligence, it has been terribly destructive.

I. Drunkards frustrate the design of nature. Whatever produce of the earth is fit for food is placed at mans disposal. He should co-operate with God in the laws of providence, for the growth and increase of this food. All waste in nature is condemnable. Yet the sole end for which some cultivate the fig-tree and the vine, the garden and the farm, is selfish indulgence. Natures gifts are abused, and the benevolent design of God is nullified and reversed. Drunkards virtually say concerning fruit and grain, To me they shall not be for meat.

II. Drunkards render themselves insensible to danger. Awake, ye drunkards. All sin stupefies; but drunkenness intoxicates the mind, lulls the conscience, hardens the heart, and turns into society a sordid, selfish animal. This delirium is the most solemn feature of the case. The victim having lost all sensibility and will, has no power to awake, and sleeps quietly like one lying down in the midst of the sea, or upon the top of the mast. The senses even seem stupefied. He may be stricken and beaten, but he feels it not (Pro. 23:35), more senseless than the brute who satisfies nature, not lust; he is lost to shame, enslaved by appetite, and seeks relief from temporary awakening, by yielding himself again to his ruinous sin. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.

With ceaseless, ravenous, and remorseless rage,
By day and nighton Sabbath and on work day,
The monster feeds and feasts and fattens on its prey.

III. Drunkards will be roused from sottish slumber. For it is cut off from your mouth. Locusts were to destroy the vines, the grapes would cease to grow, and the sweetness and strength of the new wine would be taken from them. Take away my wine, you take away my life, said one. God will deprive men of idolized indulgence, and force them to weep and howl by his judgments. The more inordinately they lust, the more pinching will be their distress. A wilful waste will bring a woeful want. If temporal sufferings do not rouse the drunkard, the epicure, and the sensualist to a sense of their sin and danger, what must be their feelings when weeping and howling will be without hope and intermission? Let weeping for things temporal beget care not to lose things eternal. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red: it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1

Joe. 1:1-4. The Jewish theocracy is passed away, but God is still the moral governor of the world; and in perfect harmony with the principles of the New Testament, which teach us not to pronounce a man to be a sinner above other men, because on him the tower of Siloam falls, we may interpret the prevalence of natural evils in any country as meant by God to call the attention of the people to those moral evils which abound amongst them. So that if untimely weather come, or malignant diseases come, or any form of calamity come;if people ask one another, Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Did you ever know such a season, such weather, such sickness, or such death?it is only the province of religious duty to look on such things as the working out of great laws, of moral righteousness;to recognize mans sin as the awful fact lying under what man calls his misfortunes, and by timely repentance to secure forgiveness; and thus turn the visitation into a blessed chastisement [Stoughton].

Joe. 1:4; Joe. 1:6-7. Locusts. The insect that destroyed all the peach-trees in St. Helena was imported from the Cape, says Kirby and Spence. We know, says Burke, that a swarm of locusts, however individually despicable, can render a country more desolate than Gengis Khan or Tamerlane. When God Almighty chose to humble the pride and presumption of Pharaoh and bring him to shame, he did not effect his purpose with tigers and lions. He sent lice, mice, frogs, and everything loathsome and contemptible, to pollute and destroy the country.

Joe. 1:5. Drunkards. Be sober in diet. Nature is content with a little; but where sobriety wanteth, nothing is enough. The body must have sufficient lest it faint in necessary duties; but beware of gluttony and drunkenness. Christ saith, Take heed, overload not your hearts with these burdens of excess. Be not drunken with wine. These lessons are fit for England, where ancient sobriety hath given place to superfluity, where many such men are as fare daintily day by day. God grant their end be not like his, who riotously wasting here the creatures of God, wanted afterwards a drop of water when he would gladly have had it [Sandys].

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

THE EXCLAIMER OF REPENTANCEGODS PROPHET

TEXT: Joe. 1:1-3

1

The word of Jehovah that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

2

Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or 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.

QUERIES

a.

Who was Pethuel?

b.

Why ask if such a thing had happened in past generations?

c.

What purpose would be served in telling of this event for generations to come?

PARAPHRASE

This is the message of Jehovah God that came by revelation to Joel who is the son of Pethuel. Listen to this all you aged men and let all the other people of the land give their attention! Are you able to recall in all your days or the days of your ancestors such a disaster as this? You shall teach your children the significance of this and your children shall teach their children and their children shall teach other generations.

SUMMARY

The event Joel is about to interpret is so unprecedented it is to be used to teach many future generations of the judgment of God.

COMMENT

Joe. 1:1 THE WORD OF JEHOVAH THAT CAME TO JOEL THE SON OF PETHUEL; Joel unequivocally claims his message to have been revealed from Jehovah. He did not get it from other prophets or from other sources. His interpretation of the locust plague and drought came directly from God. Of Pethuel we know nothing other than this. Undoubtedly he is mentioned only to distinguish this Joel from another well-known Joel of that day.

Joe. 1:2 HEAR THIS . . . HATH THIS BEEN IN YOUR DAYS . . . OR YOUR FATHERS? This locust plague, coupled with the drought, brought such unexampled devastation to the land of Judah that the most ancient man of the nation could not remember any time to equal it for its terribleness. Using historical events for didactic purposes was a principle established by the Law of Moses (cf. Deu. 6:4-9; Deu. 32:7, etc.). Joels record of this calamity has served hundreds of generations of God-fearing people for over 2500 years, as a warning and a source of strength.

Joe. 1:3 TELL YOUR CHILDREN . . . THEIR CHILDREN . . . AND . . . ANOTHER GENERATION; This same principle, using historical events for teaching the nature of God, is just as valid today as it was then, inasmuch as we have divine revelation by which we may apply and interpret these events. We shall deal with this more specifically later.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(1) Joel.Compounded of JehovahEl, the composite title of the God of Revelation and of Nature, which is the subject of Psalms 19. It was a favourite name among the Jews, and was borne by an ancestor of Samuel, who gave it to his elder son. There is nothing known of the personal history of Joel the prophet, except the name of his father, Pethuel, orLXX.Bethuel.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

1. The title.

The word of Jehovah A title similar to that in Hos 1:1; Mic 1:1; Zep 1:1 (see on Hos 1:1). Brevity and simplicity are in favor of authenticity, but that its “simplicity testifies to its great antiquity” (Hitzig) cannot be maintained (compare Nah 1:1; Hab 1:1; Mal 1:1). For names see Introduction, p. 125.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘The word of YHWH which came to Joel the son of Pethuel.’

The whole prophecy is summed up in these words. It is to be seen as ‘the word of YHWH’, that is, as God speaking directly to Judah. And He did it through Joel (‘YHWH is God’), the son of Pethuel (who is otherwise unknown).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Joe 1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

Joe 1:1 Comments – The Dates of Joel’s Ministry – Adam Clarke tell us that Joel is supposed to have prophesied between 697 and 660 B.C., during the reign of Manasseh, king of Judah. [6]

[6] Adam Clarke, Joel, in Adam Clarke’s Commentary, Electronic Database (Seattle, WA: Hendrickson Publishers Inc., 1996), in P.C. Study Bible, v. 3.1 [CD-ROM] (Seattle, WA: Biblesoft Inc., 1993-2000), notes on Joel 1:1.

Comments The Manner in which Divine Oracles were Delivered unto the Prophets – God spoke through the Old Testament prophets in various ways, as the author of the epistle of Hebrews says, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets” (Heb 1:1). The Lord spoke divine oracles ( ) through the Old Testament prophets in three general ways, as recorded in the book of Hosea, “I have also spoken by the prophets, and have multiplied visions; I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets.” (Hos 12:10) ( NKJV) In other words, the prophets spoke to Israel through the words they received, they described divine visions to the people, and they acted out as divine drama an oracle from the Lord.

(1) The Word of the Lord Came to the Prophets – God gave the prophets divine pronouncements to deliver to the people, as with Hos 1:1. The opening verses of a number of prophetic books say, “the word of the Lord came to the prophet” Thus, these prophets received a divine utterance from the Lord.

(2) The Prophets Received Divine Visions – God gave the prophets divine visions ( ), so they prophesied what they saw ( ) (to see). Thus, these two Hebrew words are found in Isa 1:1, Oba 1:1, Nah 1:1, and Hab 1:1. Ezekiel saw visions ( ) of God.

(3) God Told the Prophets to Deliver Visual Aids as Symbols of Divine Oracles – God asked the prophets to demonstrate divine oracles to the people through symbolic language. For example, Isaiah walked naked for three years as a symbol of Assyria’s dominion over Egypt and Ethiopia (Isa 20:1-6). Ezekiel demonstrated the siege of Jerusalem using clay tiles (Eze 4:1-3), then he laid on his left side for many days, then on his right side, to demonstrate that God will require Israel to bear its iniquities.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

A Description of the Calamity

v. 1. The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel, the superscription assuring us that we are not getting Joel’s own ideas, but the inspired words of Jehovah.

v. 2. Hear this, ye old men, whose memory reached back through generations of men, and give ear, in yielding a most willing and careful attention, all ye inhabitants of the land. It is a spirited challenge to all the people of Judah to mark the lesson of the great calamity which has befallen them. Hath this been in your days or even in the days of your fathers? A visitation of this kind, and grievous to this extent, had never yet been seen in Palestine.

v. 3. Tell ye your children of it and let your children tell their children and their children another generation, passing it on from father to son, all of them accepting this tradition with awe, fear, and trembling, as being an unparalleled manifestation of God’s anger against men on account of their sins.

v. 4. That which the palmer-worm, literally, “the gnawer-off,”. hath left hath the locust eaten, the swarming or multiplying locust of the Orient; and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm, the devouring grasshopper, eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten, that is, the consuming locust. All four names describe the devastation wrought by the great Oriental locust, which apparently came into the land in successive swarms at that time, gnawing off first the tender shoots of the orchards and vineyards, then the vegetables and field fruits, and finally the foliage of the trees and every spear of green that was in sight. The desolation wrought by the plague of the locusts is described in the most graphic manner, one feature after another being depicted in a way to arouse the people to a realization of the seriousness of the situation.

v. 5. Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, since the supply of grapes and therefore of the liquor made from them was not available; for it is cut off from your mouth. This appeal is introduced to describe, with poetical power, the complete devastation of the country.

v. 6. For a nation is come up upon My land, a great and mighty army of fierce warriors, strong and without number, in swarms of countless myriads, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek-teeth of a great lion, the jaw-teeth of a lioness protecting or avenging her young, grinding to pieces everything that came in their path.

v. 7. He hath laid My vine waste, by consuming its foliage, and barked My fig-tree, gnawing off the bark and laying bare stem and branches, so that they were ruined; he hath made it clean bare and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white, by the complete removal of the bark. This being the condition in which the land was left after the visit of the locusts, the prophet now urges his countrymen to mourn.

v. 8. Lament like a virgin, girded with sackcloth, the dress of mourning, for the husband of her youth, whom, after their betrothal, death took away. The grief of a bereaved virgin and bride is represented also in other passages as deep and overwhelming. Cf Isa 54:6.

v. 9. The meat-offering and the drink-offering, the sacrifices in the worship of Jehovah, is cut off from the house of the Lord, because it was impossible to procure the necessary materials, since everything was destroyed; the priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn, on account of the decay resulting from the devastation, which was followed also by a dearth of the animals used for sacrificial purposes.

v. 10. The field is wasted, made desolate; the land mourneth, both the uncultivated and the cultivated sections of the land suffering in the same measure; for the corn is wasted, the grain completely consumed; the new wine is dried up, the grapes being spoiled for want of foliage on the vines; the oil languisheth, because the olive-trees produced no fruit.

v. 11. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen, bearing the shame of disappointed hopes after working hard for a crop; howl, O ye vine-dressers, these two representing the agricultural classes of the land, for the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished, this being the cause of the farmers’ lament.

v. 12. The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth, so that gardener and horticulturist likewise had reasons for mourning; the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, the date-palm, which ordinarily escaped the onslaughts of the locust, and the apple-tree, or the quince, even all the trees of the field, are withered; because joy is withered away from the sons of men, so that there could be no rejoicing over a bountiful harvest, as usual. Cf Psa 4:7; Isa 9:3. The description of the swarming grasshoppers and the desolation following in their wake is one of the most powerful in all literature, and the picture is rightly regarded as one which ought to call all men to repentance.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

Joe 1:1

The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. The name Joel signifies “Jehovah is God,” or “whose God is Jehovah.” We read in Scripture of several of the same name, but the prophet is distinguished as “the son of Pethuel,” a name signifying “the sincerity of God,” or “godly simplicity.” We are not certain of the exact period at which Joel prophesied, but he is generally believed to have been the earliest prophetic writer of the southern kingdom, and one of the earliest of the twelve minor prophets, while Jonah is generally thought to have been the earliest prophetic writer whose book has found a place in the sacred canon. It is at least certain that Joel preceded Amos, who begins his prophecy with a passage from Joel (comp. Joe 3:16 with Amo 1:2). and borrows from Joel another towards the close (comp. Joe 3:18 with Amo 9:13). Besides, Joel speaks, in the second chapter, of the plague of locusts as yet future; while Amos, in the fourth chapter of his prophecy, refers to it as past. He likewise prophesied before Isaiah, who also borrows, in Isa 13:6, a sentence which occurs in Joe 1:15.

Joe 1:2-7,

These verses describe the invasion of the locusts, with an exhortation to reflect on and lament for the calamity.

Joe 1:2

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?

Joe 1:3

Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. The prophet thus draws attention to the event which be is about to relate, or rather predict, a8 a calamity unknown in the memory of living men, unheard of in the days of their fathers, unparalleled in the past experience of their nation, and one affecting all the inhabitants of the land. He challenges the old men whose memory went furthest back, and whose experience had been longest and largest, to confirm his statements; he calls on the inhabitants of the land to consider an event in which they were all concerned, and to recognize the hand of God in a disaster in which all would be involved. But, though the visitation with which they are threatened had had no precedent or parallel among the generation then present, or that which preceded it, or for many long years before, it was not to remain without memorial or record in the time to come. To this end the prophet commands his countrymen of Judah to relate it to their children, to their grandchildren, and even to their great-grand-children. The expression reminds us of Virgil’s

“Yea, sons of sons, and those who shall from them be born.”

It reads like a reminiscence of what is recorded of one of the plaguesthe plague of locustsin Egypt, of which we read in Exo 10:6, “Which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day they were upon the earth unto this day;” while the direction to have it transmitted by tradition seems an echo of what we read in the second verse of the same chapter: “That thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son’s son, what things I have wrought in Egypt.” Similarly, it is written in Psa 78:5, Psa 78:6, “He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children.” The solemn manner in which the prophet draws attention to this by “Hear,” “Give ear,” and the earnestness with which he insists on the record of it being handed on from generation to generation, are intended to impress on the people the work of God in this visitation, its severity, the sin that caused it, and the call to repentance conveyed by it.

Joe 1:4

That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. Some interpreters consider, and rightly, we think, that the prophet enumerates in this verse four different species of locusts. The common or general name is arbeh, from rabhah, to be many; the gazam, or palmer-worm, is the gnawer, or biter, from a root (guzam) which signifies “to gnaw, bite, or cut off;” the yeleq, or canker-worm, is the licker, from yalaqlaqaq, to lick, or lick off; the chasil, or caterpillar, is the devourer, from chasal, to cut off. Thus we have the locust, or multitudinous one, the gnawer, the licker, and the devourer, either as

(1) four different species of locust; or

(2) the gnawer, licker, and devourer are poetical epithets of the locust, or multitudinous one.

These names do not denote the locust

(1) at different stages, according to Credner. Nor

(2) can we with propriety understand them allegorically, with Jerome, Cyril, and Theodoret, of the enemies of the Jews, whether

(a) the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Chaldeans,

(b) Medes and Persians,

(c) Macedonians and successors of Alexander, especially Antiochus, and

(d) the Romans;

or the hostile kings,

(a) Shahnaneser,

(b) Nebuchadnezzar,

(c) Antiochus, and

(d) the Romans;

or those other kings,

(a) Tiglath-Pileser,

(b) Shalma-neser,

(c) Sennacherib, and

(d) Nebuchadnezzar.

The most celebrated Hebrew commentators understand the passage of locusts in the proper and literal sense. Thus Rashi says, “The palmer-worm locust, cankerworm, and caterpillar are species of locusts; and the prophet prophesies about them that they will come; and they came in those days, and they devoured all the fruit of the trees and every herb of the field.” Abon Ezra says, “This the prophet prophesied in reference to the locust which should come to destroy the land. In the days of Moses there was one kind of locust alone, but now, with the arbeh, there are the gazam and yeleq and chasil, and these three kinds are joined.” He also quotes Japhet as saying “that gazam is equivalent to gozez, cutting, and the mere is like mere in chinmam reykam; and yeleq, that which licks (yiloq) with its tongue and chasil of some signification (yachsele–nenu) as shall consume it.” In like manner Kimohi gives the derivation of the words as follows: “Some say that gazam is so called because it cuts (gozez) the increase; and arbeh, because it is numerous in species; and yeleq, because it licks and depastures by licking the herb; and chasil, became it cuts the whole, from ‘And the locust shall consume it’ (Deu 28:38).” When, however, Kimchi distributes the comings of the locusts into four separate and successive years, we must reject his interpretation in that respect. He says, “What the gazam left in the first year, the locust ate in the second year; for the four kinds did not come in one year, but one after another in four years; and he says, ‘ I will restore to you the years the locust hath eaten.'”

Joe 1:5

Three classes are called on to lamentthe winebibbers, the husbandmen, and the priests. The verses before us (Joe 1:5-7) contain the prophet’s appeal to the drunkards. Their sin had not alarmed them; the danger with which their soul was imperilled bad not aroused them; now, however, the heavy visitation that awaited them would affect them more vehemently, touching them more nearly. Deprived of the means of their favourite indulgence, they are urged to awake from their stupid slumber and perilous day-dream. They are summoned to weep, shedding silent but bitter tears, and howl, venting their so,row and disappointment in loud and long lamentation: Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine! He backs this exhortation by a most cogent and unanswerable reasonbecause of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. The word asis is explained by Kimchi thus: “Wine is called , and so every kind of drink that goes out (is pressed out) by bruising and treading is called , according to the meaning of the root in Mal 3:1-18 :21.

Joe 1:6

For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number. The loss of the wine and of the sweet juice of the grape would be a source of genuine sorrow to the drinkers of wine; that loss would be occasioned by the destruction of the vines. In this and the following verse the prophet explains the instrumentality by which that destruction would be brought about. The prophet, fully identifying himself with his countrymen, speaking in their name and as their representative, says “my land.” Kimchi understands the suffix to “land,” like “my vine” and “my fig tree” in the next verse, as referring either to the prophet himself or to the people of the land; while some refer it to Jehovah, the great Proprietor, who had given the land to his people for their inheritance while they observed his covenant and obeyed his commandments. The locusts ore called a nation, just as the “ants are a people not strong,” and the “conies are” said to be “but a feeble folk.” Kimchi lays that “every collection of living things is called a nation (qoy); accordingly the prophet applies ‘ nation’ to the locust.” Nor deem the weed “nation” thus applied support the allegorical sense any more than the Homeric

“Even as go the swarms [literally nations] of closely thronging bees.”

This army of locusts is characterized by the two qualities of strength and number. The preterite , though past, really refers to the future, to express the certain occurrence of what is predicted; so with in the following verse, of which Kimchi says, “The past is in place of the future;” and Aben Ezra more fully, “A thing that is decreed to take place is spoken of in the past.” This army has peculiar weapons, yet nothing the less powerful. Whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek-teeth of a great lion; or, lioness. Different descriptive terms are applied to lionsthe lion’s whelp is ; the young lion, which, though young, is no longer a whelp, is ; also the lion, from its hoarseness at a certain age, is called ; the lion, from its cry, is called by onomatopoeia, ; the lion, from its strength, is called ; while the common name of a lion, derived probably from , to pluck or tear, is . Having compared the invading locusts to an army powerful and countless, the prophet proceeds to speak of the weapons wielded by these warlike and hostile invaders. They are their teeth. While the common name for locust respects their multitude, the other names are of the nature of epithets, and all, as we have seen, derived from the vigour and voracity with which they use their teeth. Those teeth, so destructive, are compared to those of a lion and the molars or grinders of a great, stout, old lion or lioness, for the word has been translated in each of these ways.

Joe 1:7

He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree (margin, laid my fig tree for a barking): he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. We have here a detailed description of the destruction and devastation caused by this locust-army in its invasion of the land of Judah. The most valuable and most valued production of that land, the vine and fig tree, are ruined. The vine is laid waste, so that the vineyard becomes a wilderness:

(1) “he has barked the fig tree”; or rather,

(2) “he has broken the branches.” The word denotes a fragment or something broken, branches broken off, and so the LXX; “hath utterly broken ( );” while

(3) Aben Ezra explains it, “Like foam on the face of the water, in which there is nothing;” i.e. a thing of nought. The locusts, by gnawing, had stripped off the bark, or by their excessive weight had broken off the branches. The next clause, which speaks of making it clean bare, is explained by the Chaldee of peeling off the bark, but that, according to the first rendering, has been already expressed. It is rather more than thisit is stripping off the leaves and fruits or flowers; the barked or broken branches and twigs of vine and fig tree are then cast away or down to the ground. And all that is left are the whitened branches from which the bark has been stripped off. The casting away or down to the earth may refer to the bark; thus Kimchi: “He removes the bark; and so Jonathan explains, ‘He quite removes the bark and casts it away;’ and the explanation is that he casts the bark to the earth when he eats the juicy parts between the bark and the wood; or the explanation may be that he eats the rind and casts the vine blossom to the earth, and, lo, it is bared.” Some, again, understand it of what is uneatable, and others of the vine itself.

Joe 1:8-13

The consequence of such ruin and havoc is great and general lamentation. The drunkards were first called on in the preceding verses to mourn, for the distress came first and nearest to them. But now the priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn; things inanimate, by a touching personification, join in the lamentationthe land mourneth; the husbandmen that till the ground mourn.

Joe 1:8

Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
1. The verb here, which is an , is

(1) imperative feminine; the subject must, of course, correspond. That subject has been variously supplied:

(a) the ground, according to Aben Ezra;

(b) naphshi, my soul, i.e. the prophet’s address to himself;

(c) the daughter of Zion, or virgin daughter of Zion; but

(d) the congregation or people of Judah, as suggested in the Chaldee, is the real subject.

(2) The LXX. has , evidently combining two readings, or rather two punctuations, of the same word, viz. hsilgnE:egaugnaL}, to me, and , lament.

2. The mourning is of the deepest, bitterest kind, like that of a virgin for the husband of her youth. It is either the case of a maiden betrothed to a youthful bridegroom, whom she sincerely loves, but he dies before they are married, and thus, instead of the wedding dress, she puts on the garment of mourning, the sackcloth of rough hair; or she has been married, and her husband, still in youth, is snatched away from her by death, and she is clothed in widow’s weedsin her case real weeds of woe, and outward tokens of sincere, not simulated, sorrow. The expression reminds us of Isaiah’s “wife of youth,” and of the Homeric expression frequently translated “virgin or youthful spouse,” though more correctly “wedded wife.” Such is the lamentation to which the people of Judah are called.

Joe 1:9

The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn. While all the inhabitants of the land are called to lament, and have abundant cause for lamentation, different classes of society are specified, and the grounds of their sorrow particularized.

1. The meat offering and drink offering accompanied the morning and evening sacrifice, and that sacrifice, with its accompaniments, being an expression of gratitude to God by a daily presentation to him of the firstfruits of his own mercies, was a visible memorial of Jehovah’s covenant with his people; while the fact of its being cut off implied the cessation or suspension of that covenant and the people’s exclusion from the covenanted mercies of God.

2. But the ministering priests in particular had cause of mourning, indeed a twofold cause:

(1) their occupation was gone when there were no materials at hand wherewith to minister; their office could no longer last, as they wanted the appointed means for the discharge of its prescribed functions;

(2) their livelihood depended largely on those offerings in which they were allowed to have a share, but, when these ceased through failure of the means of supply, the support of the priests of necessity ceased also, or was so curtailed as to threaten the entire want of the means of subsistence.

Joe 1:10

The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. This verse is closely connected with the preceding, for the failure of the meat offerings and drink offerings was owing to the devastation of the country and the destruction of its crops by the locust-plague. The field was laid waste by them, nor was it a field here and there, or a solitary district; it was the whole land without exception or exemption that had cause to grieve, “if aught inanimate e’er grieves.” This is expressed by one of those paronomasias of which the Hebrews were so fond, thus, shuddad sadheh, abhelah adhamah, equivalent to “field falls, ground grieves;” or “field fruitless, land laments.” The oblation, or meat offering, consisted of flour mingled with oil; the libation, or drink offering, consisted of wine. There were also firstfruits of corn and wine and oil; while all the produce of the land was tithabla. Now, however, the corn was wasted and the oil languished; and therefore the meat offering had partially failed or entirely ceased; the new wine was dried up, and therefore the drink offering must needs have been given up. The mention of corn and wine and oil in particular is owing to their connection with the temple service, for the firstfruits, tithes, oblations, and libations depended largely upon them.

Joe 1:11, Joe 1:12

Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen. The verb from (formed from ), to be or feel ashamed, or turn pale with shame; is “to blush or turn red with shame.” It is written defectively, to distinguish it from , which occurs in the tenth verse and again in the twelfth, and which is the Hiph. of , to be parched or dried up. Their hope was disappointed through the destruction of their wheat and barleytheir most serviceable and valuable cereals; while disappointment of hope causes shame; hence we read of a “hope that maketh not ashamed, because it never disappoints as empty hopes do. Howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the harley; because the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth. There is a transposition here which is a species of the figure chiasmus, so called from the form of the Greek letter chi (). The husbandmen are put to shame on account of the destruction of the wheat and barleythe entire failure of their field crops and ruin of their harvest; while the vinedressers have reason to howl because of the loss of their vines and the languishing of their fig trees. The prophet, after particularizing the vine and fig tree, proceeds with the enumeration of other important fruit trees that had perished by the teeth of the locusts. The pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered. The pomegranate, though abundant in that region, had shared the fate of the fig and vine; even the palm tree, the date palm, though a vigorous tree and little subject to injury, having no juice in the leaves or fresh greenness in the rind, ceased to flourish; and the apple treethe medicinal apple, as Virgil terms itsuffered in like manner. Nor was it the fruit trees only that were injured; the hardier forest or timber treesall the trees of the fieldshared in the calamity. Thus Jerome represents the prophet as asking, “Why should I speak of the corn, wine, oil, and barley? when even the fruits of the trees have been dried up, the fig trees have languished, with the pomegranate and palm and apple; and all trees, whether fruit-bearing or not, are consumed by the devastating locusts.” Because joy is withered away from the sons of men. This clause is connected by” because” with “howl,” the intermediate words being treated parenthetically or passed over. Joy here is either

(1) literal; while “withered” is figurative, and signifies “has ceased or been taken away;” or

(2) “joy” is figurative, denoting the means of joy, and” withered” may then be understood literally. The min, from, is a pregnant construction, that is, “is withered from” being equivalent to “is withered and taken away from” the sons of men. Thus Kimchi: “Because joy is witheredis withered, as if he said, ‘it has ceased because the products and the fruits are the joy of the sons of men,’ and so Jonathan explains it, ‘because joy has ceased;’ or the meaning of ‘withered’ may be by way of figure.”

Joe 1:13

Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God. The invitation, or rather exhortation, here is to something more than lamentation and mourning; for, however natural in the circumstances, affliction itself could not avert or remove the calamity. They are urged, therefore, to repentance as well as lamentation. They were to assume the outward signs of the inward grace: they were to gird themselves with sackcloth, the outward symbol of their inward sorrow; next they were to enter the temple or house of God; they were to spend the night there in the attitude and garb of mourners; night and day they were to bewail their sins with humble, penitent, and contrite hearts. The priests are the persons first addressed, and that not only because, in discharge of their priestly functions as ministers of Jehovah and ministering at the altar, they had been specially touched by the present distress; but also because of their official position they were to present an example to the people whose leaders they were and on whose behalf they ministered. Kimchi gives a correct exposition of this verse: “Gird, that is to say, gird on sackcloth, and he explains afterwards, pass the night in sackcloth, because even by night ye shall not remove the sackcloth from off you; perhaps Jehovah will have mercy upon you. And he says, ‘ministers of the altar,’ and adds, ‘ministers of my God,’ because the ministry was as the altar to God; and he connects the ministry to Godto the altar, as wherein they minister to Jehovah.” For the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God. This is the reason assigned for the urgent call to repentance; and it is much the same with that in the beginning of the ninth verse.

Joe 1:14-20

After urging the priests to lead the way in the matter, he proceeds to summon all classes of the people, and particularly the elders, to engage in penitence, fasting, and solemn supplications, in order to avert the calamities that were impending, or to escape from them if they had already begun.

Joe 1:14

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. The command is addressed to the priests as the representatives and rulers of the people in all matters of religion; they communicated to the people the commands of Jehovah. This verse directs attention to three thingsthe duty commanded; the persons called upon to discharge it; and the place of its performance.

1. The duty required was a fast and a solemn assembly; and the priests are strictly enjoined to see to it that both these shall be duly announced and rightly observed. The fast was abstention from food in token of sorrow for sin; it was intended to be the external evidence of penitential sorrow for sin. The solemn assembly, or “day of restraint,” as it stands in the margin, was a public meeting of the people for the purpose of solemn supplication that the Almighty might be entreated to deliver them from the sore calamity with which he had seen fit to visit them. It was a season during which they were restrained from all servile work, and attention given exclusively to humiliation and prayer.
2. The persons summoned for this purpose were the elders, those who were so both by age and officethe magistrates as examples to others, and as having been implicated in the sins from which they now suffered. With the word “elders” are joined all the inhabitants of the landthe whole of the people, poor ann rich alike; all had had their share in the national sin, all were sharers in the national suffering, and it therefore behoved all to repent of their sins and seek the Lord.
3. The place of assembly was the house of the Lord; that is, the temple, or that portion of it called “the court of the Israelites.” Nor were they to assemble there without an errand; the purpose of their assembling in that sacred place was to supplicate the Lord to alleviate their distress, or rather remove it altogether. They were directed to cry mightily to the Lord; to cry unto him with vehement earnestness and importunate perseverance till he would be pleased to send relief. The proclamation of a fast was a common expedient, to which people, Jewish and Gentile, according to their respective light, resorted in the day of their difficulty and distress. We read of it on many occasions; for example, by King Jehoshaphat in prospect of a hostile attack by the allied armies of Moab, Ammon, and Edom; again in the reign of Jehoiakim; also by Ezra in the day of danger; and by the people of Nineveh in consequence of the preaching of Jonah.

Joe 1:15

Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Some understand these words as suggested by the prophet to the people, that they might use them in their solemn and sorrowful appeal to the Almighty. This is favoured by the Syriac, which adds, “and say,” as if the prophet prescribed to them the substance of their address. We prefer taking them as the prophet’s own words, which he era-ploys to justify the urgency of the appeal contained in the two preceding verses to the ministers of religion, the priests, to the magistrates, the elders, and to all the mere-bets of the community, even all the inhabitants of the land. The day referred to is the time of the judgment that was coming on the land through the locusts. The day of the Lord, first mentioned, it is said, by Joel, is the day when he inflicts judgments on sinners, as in the present instance; it may be a presage of that judgment that brought ruin on their city, temple, and nation. It may be an emblem of that judgment that wound up their nation by the destruction of their capital, or even of the final judgment when God shall destroy impenitent sinners and deliver his saints. This day of the Lord comes suddenly, secretly, and irresistibly; and, when it comes, it is a destruction from the Almighty, or, according to the Hebrew paronomasia, keshod misshaddai, equivalent to “ruin from the Resistless.” The day of God’s anger against Judah is a presage of that day when, as Judge of all, Jew and Gentile, he will take vengeance on his enemies. Joel’s prophetic glance reached onward and forward, not only to the close of the Jewish, but to the conclusion of the Christian, dispensation.

Joe 1:16-18

These verses contain manifest proofs that the day of the Lord was coming, and coming as a destruction from the Almighty. Is not the meat cut off before our eyes? The food for daily sustenance, and the food for Divine servicethe corn and wine and oil, as mentioned in Joe 1:10had vanished while they beheld the process of destruction, but could not binder it. “These locusts,” says Thomson, in ‘The Land and the Book,’ “at once strip the vines of every leaf and cluster of grapes, and of every green twig. I also saw many large fig orchards ‘clean bare,’ not a leaf remaining; and, as the bark of the fig tree is of a silvery whiteness, the whole orchards, thus rifled of their green veils, spread abroad their branches ‘made white’ in melancholy nakedness to the burning sun.” He then refers to the exclamation in Joe 1:15, and to that in the words before us, “Is not the meat cut off before our eyes?” and then proceeds,” This is most emphatically true. I saw under my own eye not only a large vineyard loaded with young grapes, but whole fields of corn, disappear as if by magic, and the hope of the husbandman vanish like smoke.” Yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God. Not only had the food necessary for the support of daily life perished”The food of the sinners,” says Jerome, “perishes before their eyes, since the crops they looked for are snatched away from their hands, and the locust anticipates the reaper,”but the offerings used in Divine worship had ceased. Owing to the destruction of the crops, the firstfruits, as a matter of course, failed; the thank offerings could not be procured. Consequently, the joy that usually accompanied the presentation of these and other offerings was also cut off. When the Hebrews of old brought their burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, heave offerings, vows, free-will offerings, and firstlings of herds and flocks, it was a joyful season, a time of rejoicing before the Lord, as we learn from Deu 12:7, “There ye shall eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households.” All this joy and gladness, so graciously associated with the worship of Jehovah, were now things of the past. The seed (margin, grains)is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. This was a fearful aggravation of their calamity. Their present distress thus prolonged itself into the future, as there was no prospect of a crop in the following year to cheer them. The rotting of the seed that had been sown and carefully covered in the earth was occasioned by the drought. The visitation of locusts, as Stanley says, “came, like all such visitations, in the season of’ unusual droughta drought which passed over the country like flames of fire.” The rotting of the seed, and the withering of the corn, if the mouldering seed germinated and put forth a blade at all, rendered barns useless, and granaries, or the larger storehouses, unnecessary. The barns were left to decay and tumble down; and the granaries were desolate, and so there was no further use for them. Several difficult expressions occur in this verse, Perudoth is from parad, to scatter about, or to sow broadcast, and hence signifies “scattered things,”seed or grain sown. is to dry up, moulder, wither; and is said of seeds that lose their germinating power Megraphoth are clods of earth, the root being garaph, to wash away (Jdg 5:21); the noun, therefore, denotes a clod of earth rolled together by water and swept away. Otsaroth were the storehouses, but these were allowed to moulder away, as there was no reasonable prospect of a harvest or of grain to store in them. The mam-megurah or megurah, viz. the barns, had now become a useless appendage of the farmstead. How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. The drought that preceded and accompanied the plague of locusts destroyed the pasture-grounds, and thus the herds of cattle were bewildered, being deprived of pasture and water; they were perplexed to know where to find food to satisfy the cravings of hunger, and water to quench their thirst; in their perplexity they sought both, but found neither. The flocks of sheep, too, that are more easily satisfied and accustomed to browse on grass shorter and sparser, were desolate for want of nourishment, or, as the word ashem may be translated, “expiate the sin of man,” inasmuch as they suffered from its consequences. This also was true to the life, as Thomson assures us. After quoting this verse (Deu 12:18) he adds, “This is poetic, but true. A field over which this flood of desolation [the locusts] has rolled shows not a blade for even a goat to nip.” What with the locusts devouring what appeared above ground, and the drought destroying the seeds sown under the surface, the havoc was complete; famine and distress afflicted both man and beast. In tile progress of this visitation the cerealscorn, and wheat, and barley, and other grainswere ruined; the fruit treesvine, and olive, and fig, and pomegranate. and apple, and palmwere destroyed. But not only were the herbs for the service of man eaten up, but the grass for the cattle perished. Stanley refers to it in the following eloquent words: “The purple vine, the green fig tree, the grey olive, the scarlet pomegranate, the golden corn, the waving palm, the fragrant citron, vanished before them; end the trunks and branches were left bare and white by their devouring teeth. What had been but a few moments before like the garden of Eden was turned into a desolate wilderness. The herds of cattle and flocks of sheep so dear to the shepherds of Judah, the husbandmen so dear to King Uzziah, were reduced to starvation. The flour and oil for the ‘meat offerings’ failed; even the temple lost its accustomed sacrifices.” The remarks of Kimchi on some of the difficult or unusual words of this verse deserve attention. On he observes, “It is equivalent in meaning to , for the beth and the pe belong to the same organ.” In his note on perudoth he says, “They are the grains of seed that are under the earth; and he says another curse will be that the seed will be destroyed and rotten under the earth, and shall not bud; and what shall bud, the locusts shall eat it. Or the grains of seed shall rot because of the rains which do not descend upon them, for there shall also be in like manner a great drought [literally, ‘ restraint of rain’] in those years.” On the garners (otsaroth) being laid desolate, and the barns (mammeguroth) broken down, he observes on the former, “The garners for the produce are laid desolate, for there was nothing to bring into them, and, lo! they are laid desolate. In reference to the latter he says, “He (the prophets) repeats the matter in different words; for mammeguroth is the same as otsaroth, and so ‘is the seed yet in the barn, megurah’ (Hos 2:20), gives proof of this.” And he accounts for their being broken down either

(1) because they brought nothing into them, or

(2) they were broken down because they had no caretaker to repair them after the custom from year to year, and so they fell and were destroyed.” Of the perplexity of the herds he gives the following explanation: “He speaks collectively (i.e. the verb is singular, agreeing with the noun), and afterwards individually (the verb being plural); perplexed has the meaning of confusion, as a man who is confused in his knowledge, and does not know what to do, and so they (the herds) are confused in the land,” in other words, they wandered up and down, and knew not where to go for drink or pasture. He (Kimchi) adds, in his further explanation. “that the flecks of sheep sometimes find pasture where the oxen do not find it, because that they (sheep) go up upon the mountains and upon the hillsa thing which the oxen do not in general do.”

Joe 1:19, Joe 1:20

O Lord, to thee will I cry. In consideration of man and beastcreatures rational and irrational being subject to so much hardship and sufferingthe prophet appeals in intense earnestness of spirit to God, and all the more so because of the encouragement of his own Word, as it is written, “Lord, thou preservest man and beast.” For the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. The fire and flame here referred to denote the fiery heat of the drought which burnt up the meadows and scorched the trees. Some seem to understand the terms literally, as applied to setting on fire the heath, or even the trees, in order to check the progress of the locusts or turn them aside by smoke and flame. This, however, is refuted by the following verse, which mentions the rivers of water being dried up: 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. In like manner we read in Jer 14:4-6, “Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the ploughmen were ashamed, they covered their heads. Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass. And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.” The various animals suffering from hunger and thirst express their distress in loud and lamentable, though inarticulate, cries. The Hebrew words which respectively denote the cries of the different animals are, according to Rashi, the following: expresses the cry of deer; (also ), to roar like lions; , to low as oxen; , to neigh like horses; (rather , fulfil), to twitter or chirp as birds. Further, the subject is plural, but the verb is singular, for the purpose of individualizing.

HOMILETICS

Joe 1:1

The value of the Divine Word.

The prophet gives us no intimation of the time when he wrote, nor of the tribe to which he belonged, nor of the family of which he was a member; he merely mentions the name of his father, probably for sake of distinguishing himself from others of the same name.

1. He is mainly occupied with the solemnity of the message which he had received, and the source whence it came; nor yet does he inform us of the mode in which the message reached himwhether by an audible voice, or vision by day or dream by night. Information of this kind might gratify curiosity, but would not tend to edification. Certain he was that the word came from God, and he hastens to assure those whom he addressed of the same.

2. God speaks to us in many ways.

Joe 1:2-4

A retrospect and a prospect.

The former was sufficiently gloomy, the latter might prove salutary in its tendency. The oldest are challenged to look back on the past and recall all the years that had been, and then say if they could find any parallel for the disasters of the calamitous time through which they had just passed or were passing. The prophet did not need to name or specify the calamity; somewhat indefinitely or abruptly he asks, “Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?” He knew well that the thought then uppermost in every heart was the calamity that had pressed so sorely, or was probably still pressing upon them.

I. THE DUTY OF COMMEMORATION IS TAUGHT US HERE. Why should a tale so doleful be put upon record and transmitted to children and children’s children, that is, grand-children (for which there is no corresponding word in Hebrew), and onward still to great-grandchildren, and from them yet forward to another generation? We car easily understand why the memory of God’s mercies should be kept up; but why keep a record of miseries so crushing and cruel? Obviously not for the purpose of distressing posterity. The object, there can be no reason to doubt, was to perpetuate a standing memorial of those great and grievous calamities, in order by such memorial to set up a solemn warning against the great and heinous sins that had entailed those calamities.

II. THE DESPICABLE THINGS THAT PROVIDENCE MAY MAKE THE MEANS OF DESTRUCTION. These locusts”gnawer,” “licker,” “devourer”whether different species of locusts, or different stages of their development, or merely poetical epithets rhetorically to characterize the destructive processes or modes of operation, were weak and mean instrumentalities by themselves and in their individual capacity.

Joe 1:5-8

The lessons taught by this calamity.

The lessons which God intended to teach his people by the calamitous events here recorded are solemn as salutary. Among them may be reckoned the ends for which they were sent, the alarming extent of them, and the effects produced.

I. THE ENDS OF THE CRUSHING CALAMITY THEN PRESSING ON THE PEOPLE OF JUDAH.

1. It was designed to rouse them out of their sinful slumber. Previous intimations of Divine displeasure had failed. Now God speaks to them in a way which they could no longer mistake or withstand.

2. He had spoken to them by the word of his prophets, now he speaks to them by the rod of his wrath.

3. The nature of their sufferings remind them of the nature of their sins, filling them with remorse, not so much, if at all, because of their sins, but because they are debarred the indulgence of those sins. Their regretfulness arises from their besetting sins becoming impossible to them.

II. THE EXTENT OF THE CALAMITY.

III. THE EFFECTS ARE PARTICULARIZED. The effects as here detailed prove the extremity of the distress. Every green thing perished before this terrible locust army of invasion; every succulent herb was devoured by them; then the trees were attackedtheir fruitage, their sheltering leafage, their branches, their bark. No wonder they are again called on, both in their individual and national capacity, to mourn, and lamentation behoved to be of the most sincere and sorrowful kind. When God’s judgments are abroad in the earth men learn righteousness.

Joe 1:9-13

The calamity has fallen upon all, and therefore the wail of woe proceeds from all.

All classes are summoned to this sorrowful work; no office in the state is exempt; things animate and inanimate; priests and peoplethe Lord’s priests who ministered at the altar, and the people to whom they ministered; the whole land and the fields into which it was partitioned; the tillers of the soil and the dressers of the vine.

I. POVERTY TENDS TO THE DECAY OF PIETY. As a rule neither the depth of penury nor the height of prosperity is favourable to religion; in the one case corroding cares, in the other worldly pleasures, interpose between the soul and God.

II. THE BLIGHT IS BROUGHT BY SIN. The blessing of God makes rich, the smile of God makes all things joyful.

III. THE UNCERTAINTY OF WORLDLY PLEASURES SHOULD LEAD MEN TO SEEK SPIRITUAL ENJOYMENT. On the kindly fruits of the earth rich and poor were, as they still are, alike dependent. While the rich could afford the finest of the wheat, and the poor had to content themselves with such bread as barley yielded, both alike derived their support from the bounteous earth. They had looked forward for their supply from the harvest of the earth as usual without any dread or apprehension.

1. The pleasantest period of the year became the most painful.

2. The joy of harvest may be withheld, and all joy of an earthly kind or from an earthly source may be withered from the sons of men; but there are spiritual joys which no accidents, as men call them, can touch.

3. The children of God are independent of worldly pleasures.

IV. DUTIES ENJOINED. In times of emergency the duties of humiliation, fasting, and prayer are properly enjoined, and should be rightly observed.

1. The persons that are called on to lead the way in discharging such duties are the ministers of religion; as sharers in the common calamity, as having had a share in the sins that occasioned it, above all because of their prominent position as teachers and guides of the people in sacred things, they are bound to take a principal and prominent part in public humiliation, penitence, and prayer.

2. The first duty at such times is confession of sin; to this duty they are to address themselves at once, girding themselves for it.

3. With this full confession of sin with the lips, there must be real contrition of heart; of this the outward sign and symbol, as usual, in the East was clothing the body in sackcloth. While contrition without confession is defective, confession without contrition is hypocritical.

4. Nor is this grief for sin confined to the daytime; it extends into the night-watches.

Joe 1:14-20

Calamity removed.

I. THE DISCHARGE OF THE DUTIES ENJOINED IN A RIGHT WAY. After the prophet had summoned the ministers of religion to realize their responsibility and humble themselves under a due sense of sinits sinfulness in God’s sighthe further intimates its calamitous consequences to a country, to a community both in a temporal and spiritual sense; he then proceeds to point out the proper method of going about repentance and reform, urging the work with suitable motives.

1. There was to be a fast in all the homesteads of Judah, and by all the people of the land, with due preparation for its observance. “Sanctify ye a fast.”

2. Then a proclamation of a solemn assembly was to follow.

3. The persons to be convened are specified. They were the public office-bearers and persons of influence, and along with them the whole peoplehigh and low, rich and poor, young and old, alike. Thus a very promiscuous multitude, consisting of the whole body of the people with their rulers, was summoned to this great convocation.

4. The place of meeting was the house of God; for if we would worship God acceptably, we must follow the method he has prescribed.

5. And when all this preparation had been duly madethe proclamation made, the persons assembled, the place of convocation throngedthere was prayer, solemn, public, earnest, energizing prayer, to be engaged ina simultaneous uplifting of heart and voice to the Lord, a crying unto the Lord their God.

II. CERTAIN WEIGHTY MOTIVES ARE ADDED.

APPLICATION.

1. We see in all this the sad effects and ruinous consequences of sin. Under its blighting influence the fairest spot on earth becomes a wilderness, the most fruitful land becomes a desert, and the richest region is turned into a barren waste by the iniquity of them that dwell therein.

2. The only way of relief is by returning to God. “Whither should we go with our cries but to him from whom the judgment we dread comes? There is no flying from him but by flying to him; no escaping 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.”

3. The prophet stimulates those that are backward to engage in this duty by his own example. “O Lord,” he says, “to thee will I cry;’ as though he said, “As for others, let them do what they please; as for myself, I will do that which conscience and God’s own Word tell me to be the right thing to do, and the right as well as only safe course to take.”

4. Our dependence on God both for daily bread and spiritual nourishment.

HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON

Joe 1:2, Joe 1:3

Tradition.

The generations of mankind succeed one another upon the face of the earth; but they are not disconnected, isolated, independent. Each receives from those who have gone before, and communicates to those who shall come after. Hence the continuity of human history; hence the life of humanity.

I. TRADITION ALONE IS AN INSUFFICIENT BASIS FOE RELIGION. It is well known that oral tradition is liable to corruption. Inaccuracy creeps in, and the truth is distorted, by the weakness of memory, the liveliness of imagination, the power of prejudice. Hence the importance of a “book-revelation,” which has been often but unjustly reviled. The Scriptures are a standard by which correctness of belief may be tested, by which ignorance may be instructed, and errors avoided. There were traditions in the apostolic age which originated in misunderstanding, and which were corrected by the evangelists.

II. TRADITION HAS, HOWEVER, A VALUABLE PLACE IN RELIGION.

1. Memories of Divine goodness and interposition are thus preserved. The Passover may be adduced as an example. The children of a Hebrew family asked, when partaking of the Paschal meal, “What mean ye by this feast?” and an opportunity was thus given for the father to relate the story of Israel’s emancipation from the bondage of Egypt.

2. Instances of Divine displeasure and wrath following upon human sin were thus handed down. Joel alluded especially in this passage to such purposes as these: Calamities came upon the land; the people were sorely chastened; and the prophet enjoins upon the old to communicate, to their posterityto their children’s childrenthe awful events by which Jehovah signalized his indignation with national unfaithfulness and disobedience.

3. Piety was thus promoted. One generation would learn from another what are the Divine laws, what the principles and methods of the Divine government. In this manner the fear of the Lord, and confidence in his faithfulness, would evidently be promoted and perpetuated.T.

Joe 1:5

Awake!

This solemn appeal to those who are designated and denounced as drunkards is fraught with implicit lessons of wisdom and faithfulness for all devout readers of God’s Word.

I. IT IMPLIES THE PREVALENCE OF SPIRITUAL SLUMBER. Such is the state of those who are immersed in the cares and the enjoyments of this earthly life, who are deaf to the thunder of the Law and to the promises of the gospel, who are blind to the visions of judgment or of grace that are passing before their closed eyes.

II. IT DENOUNCES SPIRITUAL SLUMBER AS SIN AND FOLLY. The body needs sleep and repose; but the soul should never be insensible and indifferent to Divine and eternal realities. Such a state is one of indifference to the presence and to the revelation of him who has the first claim upon the hearts he has framed. Slumber such as this is fast deepening into death.

III. IT CALLS FOR REPENTANCE AND NEWNESS OF LIFE. There is implied a power to respond to the Divine summons. And certainly the first thing for the sinner to do is to shake off sloth and indifference, to look about him, to listen to the voice that speaks from heaven, to catch the welcome accents of the gospel, which is the message of God to the souls of men. Blessed be God, this is the appeal: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light!”T.

Joe 1:9

Religious privation.

The old covenant was one especially characterized by human ministrations and external observances and solemnities. Apart from priests and sacrifices its purposes could not have been accomplished, and its witness to the world would have been unintelligible and vain. No wonder that to the Hebrew mind no prospect was more terrible than the cessation of public worship, of public offerings, of sacerdotal services. In the spiritual economy under which we live, the case is somewhat different. Yet no enlightened mind can contemplate without concern, without dismay, a state of society in which religious offices should be suppressed and religious ministrations silenced.

I. THE SUSPENSION OF THE OFFICES OF RELIGION WOULD INVOLVE THE SUSPENSION OF THE PUBLIC COMMUNICATION OF GOD‘S WILL TO MAN.

II. IT WOULD INVOLVE THE DISCONTINUANCE OF HUMAN FELLOWSHIP IN THE LOFTIEST RELATIONS AND THE MOST BENEFICIAL EXERCISES.

III. IT WOULD INVOLVE THE CESSATION OF A UNITED AND PUBLIC PRESENTATION OF THE SACRIFICES DUE FROM MAN TO GOD.T.

Joe 1:12

The withering of joy.

The description given by the prophet of the devastation and misery caused by the horrible plague of locusts is so graphic and so frightful, that the very strong language in which the effect produced upon the inhabitants of the land is portrayed cannot be deemed exaggerated. The husbandmen are covered with shame, and joy is withered in all hearts.

I. JOY IS NATURAL TO MAN, AND IS THE APPOINTMENT OF A BENEVOLENT CREATOR. It is occasioned by the plentiful produce of the earth, by the possession of health and by circumstances of comfort, by the solace of human affection. Joy is a motive to activity, and diffuses itself from heart to heart, and raises the tone of society. A joyless life man was not designed to leach

II. THE VISITATION OF CALAMITY MAY WITHER JOY. It is a plant of great beauty, but also of great delicacy. Exposed to the fierce winds of adversity, this fair plant withers and decays. Such is the constitution of the world, and such the changeable. ness of life, that this event does sometimes occur, as in the circumstances described in this passage by the Prophet Joel.

III. EVEN THE WITHERING OF JOY MAY BE SANCTIFIED AND OVERRULED FOR GOOD BY TRUE RELIGION. It may lead the afflicted to seek consolation and happiness in a higher than any earthly source. Especially does the gospel of Christ, by revealing unto us as our Saviour “a Man of sorrows,” teach us that there are joys of benevolence and self-sacrifice which are preferable to all delights of sense, to all enrichments of worldly prosperity.T.

Joe 1:14

A fast.

The afflictions which befell Judah are represented as producing a deep impression upon the whole nation, and as justifying the calling of a general fast.

I. THOSE WHO FAST. This is an exercise which cannot be performed vicariously.

1. All the inhabitants of the land take part in it.

2. The elders of the people, as representatives and leaders, are especially summoned to attend.

II. THE TOKENS OF FASTING. Mere abstinence from food or from delicacies is not religious fasting. Humiliation and contrition are the essentials. Yet these may express themselves in renunciation of ordinary pursuits, refusal of ordinary pleasures, the assumption of mourning garments, the refusal of wonted repose and comfort.

III. THE RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF FASTING. There must be acknowledgment of sin before God, with confession and contrition. The Lord’s house must be sought. The confession must be general and public. The cry of prayer must be heard in the sanctuary. Such a fast will not be observed in vain. It will prepare the way for the day of reconciliation, and for the feast of gladness.T.

Joe 1:15

The day of the Lord.

This phrase is peculiarly Joel’s, and it is apparently used by him in different senses. Of these we notice three.

I. THE DAY OF THE LORD IS A DAY OF CALAMITY AND RETRIBUTION. This is plain from its further designation as a day of destruction, and from the prefatory exclamation “Alas]” with which it is introduced. Superstition, no doubt, has often misinterpreted the calamities of human life; yet it would be insensibility and spiritual blindness not to recognize the presence of God in the day of adversity. Such a day is the Lord’s, as reminding us of the Lord’s Kingship over creation, and as summoning us to sincere repentance towards God.

II. THE DAY OF THE LORD IS A DAY OF JUDGMENT. The retribution of the present is an earnest of the day of recompense to all mankind, when the Judge of all shall summon all nations to his bar.

III. THE DAY OF THE LORD IS TO HIS PEOPLE THE DAY OF SPIRITUAL AND IMPERISHABLE BLESSING. SO the Apostle Peter interprets the language of the Prophet Joel. The outpouring of spiritual blessing, the effecting of spiritual deliverance, the fulfilling of the purposes of infinite mercy, shall all come about in that promised and expected day.T.

Joe 1:17,Joe 1:18

The desolation of the land.

Whether actually and literally by a plague of locusts, or by a hostile incursion such as a plague of this kind might well typify, Judah was overrun, afflicted, and cursed. The picture is one of unrelieved gloom and misery.

I. THE PUNITIVE JUDGMENTS OF GOD REACH MEN THROUGH THE CROPS OF THE FIELD, AND THE HERDS AND FLOCKS OF THE PASTURE. The necessaries of life, the constituents of wealth, are in the hand of God. He rules not only in heaven but upon earth. It may be doubted whether we are at liberty confidently to attribute to Divine displeasure the sufferings which befall nations in the way of disaster and famine; but in this passage this interpretation is given upon prophetic authority.

II. SUCH JUDGMENTS ARE INTENDED TO SUMMON THOSE AFFLICTED WITH THEM TO CONTRITION AND REPENTANCE. It may be that only by some such means can the hard heart be broken, and brought to true humiliation and penitence.

III. SUCH JUDGMENTS SHOULD LEAD MEN TO SEEK THEIR HIGHEST GOOD, NOT IN PERISHABLE POSSESSIONS, BUT IN SPIRITUAL ENRICHMENT. To many men poverty, losses, worldly ruin, have been the means of the highest happiness. Well is it if, losing the gifts, we find the Giver; losing the streams, we find the Fountain. The soul may learn to cry, “Thou art my Portion, O my God!”T.

Joe 1:19, Joe 1:20

Trouble leads to prayer.

When Scripture depicts human misery and destitution, it does not leave the matter, as though there were nothing further to say. Always a way of escape is pointed out; always a gleam of light is let in upon the darkness; always a remedy is offered for the disease whose symptoms are described.

I. THE CRY TO WHICH TROUBLE LEADS IS A CRY OF CONFESSION. God has not afflicted the greatest sufferer beyond his deserts. The distressed soul gives utterance to the acknowledgment, Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.

II. THE CRY WHICH TROUBLE PROMPTS IS A CRY OF HELPLESSNESS. The soul may have called upon others, and in vain. There is no answer, no deliverance, when help is sought from man. Perhaps the soul addresses itself last to the Helper who should have been sought first, before all

III. THE CRY WHICH TROUBLE PROMPTS IS A CRY OF FAITH. God has said, “Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee.” The promise is remembered, acted upon, and pleaded. Believing the Divine assurance, the afflicted lifts up his eyes unto the hills whence cometh help.

IV. THE CRY WHICH TROUBLE PROMPTS IS A CRY WHICH IS HEARD AND ANSWERED. God delights to hear the suppliant’s entreaty, the sinner’s confession, the earnest petition of interceding friends. Such cries come up into the ear of God. The sacrifice is accepted; the sin is forgiven; the grace is accorded; the chastisement is removed; the blessing is bestowed.T.

HOMILIES BY A. ROWLAND

Joe 1:1

The life-work of an obscure prophet.

The literary style of this book deserves the consideration of every student of Scripture. With the exception of Isaiah and (as some think) of Habakkuk, Joel surpasses all his brethren in sublimity. His pictures of the disasters following upon sin are marvellously vivid, and his promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit was still living in the memory of the Jews when Peter, on the day of Pentecost, declared that its fulfilment had come. The first half of the book describes the Divine judgments which were at hand, and the second half (beginning with the eighteenth verse of Joe 2:1-32.) unfolds the promise of Divine favour. Its readers pass from darkness to light, from grief to joy, from estrangement to reconciliation; and in this book, as in experience, the transition hinges on the penitential prayer to which it was the prophet’s mission to summon the people. We know scarcely more of Joel than the fact that he was the son of Pethuel. But the meaning of his name”Jehovah is God”was suggestive; for it was none other than the cry of the people on Carmel, when fire came down from heaven in answer to Elijah’s prayer, and would therefore serve as a reminder to his auditors of their solemn acknowledgment of Jehovah’s supremacy and claims.

I. THE PREPARATION WHICH JOEL RECEIVED FOR WORK is described in the single phrase, “The word of the Lord came to Joel.” This was the one fact necessary to authenticate his message. If God was speaking through him, thenwhoever he might bethe world was bound to listen to him; his word was a declaration from the Unseen. There is now a general forgetfulness of the possibility of such revelation. It is accepted by some as an axiom that the God who created the world and set it going cannot interfere further with his own handiwork; that if he exists at all, he lives at an infinite remove from mundane affairs, as did the god of Epicurus. If we speak of works done which cannot at present be accounted for by the laws we have deduced from observed ordinary phenomena, and urge that men have had glimpses of an outlying sphere of energy which surrounds what is visible, we are regarded as credulous enthusiasts. But in an earlier age there were men whom scientists would be the first to condemn, who, having never seen a comet blazing in the sky, nor heard of such a phenomenon, would have laughed to scorn its possibility. Yet the world now not only believes in the existence of comets, but has found out the law of their return, and has assigned them their own places in the planetary system with which once they appeared to have nothing in common. Is it not possible that the same process will take place in regard to what we now call supernatural? There are psychical phenomena still awaiting explanation which have convinced us that we have influence over each other, apart from physical contact; and if one human spirit can affect another, surely it is not incredible that the Father of spirits was able to touch the springs of thought and feeling in those ancient prophets. Indeed, this was not peculiar to them; it is an experience of to-day among the devout and prayerful, who obey the command of their Lord, “What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light.”

II. THE OBSCURITY OF WORK with which Joel was content. His was the spirit of John the Baptist, who was willing to remain only the “voice” of God. The world little thinks how much it owes to its silent workers in literature, in politics, and in religion. Many are living in quiet homes, or in poor lodgings, whose names are never heard, whose duties are not suspected, who by their pens are leading the nation in ways of righteousness. God’s most faithful servants are sometimes personally obscure. Some are patiently plodding away at monotonous work, and bear in the spirit of their Master many an injustice and cruel slight. Others in business stretch out the helping hand to weaker brethren who, but for such timely aid, would sink in a vortex of ruin. And ministering angels still venture into haunts of vice to seek and to save those who are lost. The Father who seeth in secret will hereafter bestow some of the highest places in his kingdom on those who all their life long have been without honour or applause.

III. THE INFLUENCE OF JOEL‘S WORK it would not be easy to over-estimate. Several of the later prophets were indebted to him for suggestive thoughts and phrases. Peter quotes his prophecy about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; and John, in his Book of the Revelation, makes use of his image of the locusts. It is thus that God builds the temple of truth. We see its stately proportions and exclaim, “Behold what manner of stones and what buildings are here!” but how often we forget the quarries from which the stones were dug. and the workmen who did the first rough work of shaping them for the Master’s use! It is not so with God. We often admire the hero who, in advocacy of the truth, compels the world to listen; but the germs of his character may be traced to the nurture of a gentle mother, whose character and teaching, with God’s blessing, made her son what he is. He is the living witness of the issues flowing from her obscure work.

IV. THE COURAGE AND HOPEFULNESS which Joel showed in his work. All was dark around him, and he knew things would be darker still before the sunshine came. He was living in a kingdom which, after the revolt of the ten tribes, was about equal in area to the county of Suffolk, and even with the addition of the district belonging to Benjamin was not so large as Yorkshire. Yet he boldly looks forward to a time when that kingdom would be the centre of light to the world. We talk of the “materialism of the old dispensation;” but here is faith in spiritual force which may put us all to shame. We ought not to be unduly discouraged by statistics which compare the numbers of Christians with the numbers of heathens. We should reflect that on the side of Christ are the leading nations of the worldnot those falling into decay, but those which are planting the future empires which will rule the future. Yet, with all our thankfulness for this, our confidence must be not in it, but in him who can and will work through these peoples till all the kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms of our God.A.R.

Joe 1:14

Religious reformation.

In this chapter the prophet gives a graphic description of the devastation of the land of Judah by swarms of locusts. After eating all the green leaves and succulent parts of the trees, they destroyed even the bark (Joe 1:7), so that the effects of this awful visitation would last, not for a single season, but for years. God sent this pest, as he sends other troubles, in order to arouse the sensuous and careless people to thought and to contrition. The withdrawal of earthly blessings often tends to turn men’s thoughts to those that are heavenly. Losses and griefs of every kind may bring a man or a nation to penitence, and this is one of their designs, But while this chapter primarily refers to a physical plague, any one who reads between the lines can see here suggestions of spiritual desolation, symbolized by the visitation of locusts. The vine was a well-known emblem of God’s people, and as such was used by our Lord (Joh 15:1-27.); and the desolation of it, caused by locusts, fitly sets forth that condition of the Church which is brought about by its numberless enemies. When fruit-bearing has ceased, and life is enfeebled, and God’s paradise becomes a wilderness, there is need for the penitential prayer called for in our text, Ecclesiastical history reveals to us periods when the Church seemed thus to lie under a curse; and in our own day there is enough of spiritual barrenness to call for heart-searching and earnest supplication. It only needs that God should send showers of blessing, and then even the wilderness shall rejoice and blossom like the rose. The subject suggested by our text is religious reformation, and some of its characteristics which are here hinted at demand consideration.

I. THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF GOD‘S CLAIMS. The priests were to take the lead in this act of national repentance. Insensibility to the presence and the power of the Most High was being removed by signs and wonders which even the most carnally minded would understand. Now they were summoned to a true turning to him in prayer. They were not called upon merely to “appoint” a fast, but to “sanctify” a fast. In other words, they were to hallow their abstinence by an acknowledgment of God; they were to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance. Fasting is never acceptable in itself, but only when it is employed as a sacrifice unto God. Depriving one’s self of food or of pleasures may be practised for the good of one’s health or for the sake of winning notoriety, and when it is so there is no moral or religious worth about it.

II. THE PRACTICE OF SELF–RESTRAINT. “Fasting” is a word which ought to have given to it the widest signification. Generally used to denote abstinence from food, it may be as fairly applied to any refusal of indulgence to animal appetite, however innocent such indulgence, under other circumstances, may be. The keeping of a fast in mere deference to a social custom or to ecclesiastical ordinance is of no great value. But true fasting is inculcated by our Lord himself, though he personally refused to keep the ecclesiastical fasts of his own day. The restraint of appetite, the curbing of the animal nature, is essential to the doing of great works for him. Of the lunatic boy Jesus said to his disciples, “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” This has its application to indulgence in strong drink. Total abstinence has a part to play as well as prayer in driving out the demon of drunkenness. Such fasting would do much to remove a curse which is as terrible as was the devastation of the land of Judah by locusts.

III. THE CULTIVATION OF RELIGIOUS FELLOWSHIP. The “solemn assembly” which was to be summoned was a religious gathering of the people. Their national unity was greatly fostered by the annual feasts, which brought the nation together in one place. The sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, was thisthat he erected calves at Bethel and Dan, not only leading the people to idolatry, but breaking up their national unity. It was largely a political manaeuvre on his part, fur he could not have established a separate kingdom of Israel if all continued to go up to the same temple at Jerusalem. Under the Christian dispensation we are exhorted not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. When we meet for worship, the faith and prayer of one raise the faith and prayer of another. Separate embers die out, but gathered together they blaze. Public worship will be wonderfully revived in a real religious reformation.

IV. THE RECOGNITION OF SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY. “The elders” were to be summoned. Through them Moses first made his appeal to the enslaved Israelites. They were the witnesses of the first flowing of water from the rock. Their offerings represented the dedication of the whole congregation of the people. Longer experience and official status gave them privileges, with accompanying responsibilities. Leaders of men now in society, in literature, in political life, have peculiar responsibilities, and are summoned by true prophets to lead the people to repentance and to righteousness. The Elector Frederick understood this in Luther’s day, but he needed a lowly born Luther to inspire him first. Here we may fairly appeal to the eldest in a family, to the captain of the school, to the leading merchants, to influential writers, etc; to be the first to return to the Lord, and henceforth to lead others in his service.

V. THE GENERAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SIN. “All the inhabitants of the land” were called upon to repent. They could not serve God by proxy. The service of the elders and of the priests would not relieve them of responsibility. Each had to repent of his own sin and, for himself, return to the Lord. No better meeting-place can be found for all classes and conditions of men than the Church. There the rich and the poor meet together, remembering that the Lord is the Maker of them all. The recognition of the Divine Fatherhood must precede the realization of the human brotherhood.

VI. THE PRESENTATION OF EARNEST PRAYER. Those who “cry unto the Lord” are not satisfied with listless and formal petitions. Sobs and sighs are sometimes the sweetest music to the Hearer of prayer. These precede the blessedness of pardon in the history of each believer. The Church, too, must know what it is to present strong supplications, with crying and tears, and then she shall be endued with power from on high. The prayer of Pentecost must precede the benediction of Pentecost.A.R.

HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS

Joe 1:1-4

National calamity.

“The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Hear this,” etc. These verses lead us to look upon some aspects of that terrible national calamity which was the great burden of the prophet’s ministry. We learn from the passage

I. THAT THIS CALAMITY WAS DIVINELY REVEALED AT FIRST TO THE HIND OF ONE MAN. “The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethueh” No one knew at first what a sad calamity was coming on the country but Jehovah himself. No sage, seer, or priest knew anything of it. The Eternal selects one man to whom to impart the intelligence, and that one man seems to have been so undistinguished and obscure, that history takes scarcely any notice of him. Such a fact as this suggests:

1. The distinguishing faculty of man. Of all the creatures on earth, man alone can receive communications kern heaven. Man alone can take in a “word” from the Lord. We know not how the word came unto him. The great Father of spirits has many ways of striking his thoughts into the souls of his children. Sometimes by awakening a train of suggestions, sometimes by articulate utterances, sometimes by dreams at night and visions in the day. He has divers ways. Souls are ever accessible to him.

2. The manifest sovereignty of God. Why did he select Joel more than any other man? There is no proof that he was greater or holier than many others in his country. No reason can be assigned for the selection but the grand reason that explains the creation of the universe. It was after the counsel of his own willaccording to his good pleasure.

II. THAT THIS CALAMITY WAS UNPRECEDENTED IN HISTORY. “Hear ye this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the clays of your fathers? ‘ He means to say that such a disastrous event the oldest man amongst them had never seen, nor had they learnt from the histories of the past of anything equal to its terrific character. Terrible judgments had fallen on Judah before; but this, according to Joel, was the greatest of all. Observe:

1. That no Divine judgments have been so great as to preclude the possibility of greater. The penal resources of the righteous Judge are unbounded. The most tremendous thunderbolts that he has thrown upon the world are only as atoms compared with the massive mountains he might hurl. Great as your afflictions have been, they can be greater.

2. That the greater the sins of a people, the greater the judgments to be expected. It is probable that Judah’s sins were greater at this time than they had ever been before, and that, consequently, severer penalties were to come. Eternal justice requires that the sufferings of individuals and communities should be in proportion to the number and aggravation of their sins. Take care, sinner; in every sin you commit you are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath.

III. THAT THIS CALAMITY WAS SO TREMENDOUS AS TO COMMAND THE ATTENTION OF ALL GENERATIONS. “Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.” The terrible events of God’s judicial providence have a bearing beyond the men in whose history they occur. These that occur in one age and land demand the study of men in all ages and lands. They are not confined to individuals, they have a bearing on the race; not confined to men, they embrace humanity even to remotest times. Hence the importance of history. Truthful history is the Bible written by Providence to the world. But why should such an event as this be transmitted to posterity?

1. Because it shows that God rules the world. It is not controlled by chance or necessity; it is under the control of One who is not only All-mighty and All-wise, but All-just, who will not at all clear the guilty.

2. Because it shows that God takes cognizance of the world‘s sin, and abhors it. These facts will be of interest and importance to the generations that are unborn, even to the end of time.

IV. THAT THIS CALAMITY WAS INFLICTED BY THE MOST INSIGNIFICANT OF GOD‘S CREATURES. “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 cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.” There is no authority for the opinion that the creatures here mentioned were symbols of hostile armies who were about to invade Judah. The locust belongs to the genus of insects known amongst entomologists as gryllii, which include the different species, from the common grasshopper to the devouring locusts of the East. The creatures, therefore, mentioned in the verse seem to be from different species of locusts rather than from different kinds of insects. And the words may be paraphrased, “That which one swarm of locusts hath left, a second swarm hath eaten; and that which the second swarm hath left, a third swarm hath eaten; and that which the third left, a fourth swarm hath eaten.” To punish sinners, God does not require to hurl thunderbolts from his throne, or flash lightnings, or despatch Gabriels from his heavens. No; he can make insects do it. He can kill men by a moth. He can smite a nation by a gust of wind. He can perform his purposes by an army of locusts as easily as by a hierarchy of angels.D.T.

Joe 1:5

A call to drunkards.

“Awake, ye drunkards, and weep I and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine! for it is cut off from your mouth.” The words imply that the wine used in Judah was of an intoxicating character, that men in that country used it to an inebriating extent, and that such men should humble themselves in deep penitence on account of the great calamity that was coming upon the land. A more contemptible character, a more injurious member of the human family, exists not upon earth than a drunkard. Drunkenness is the chief curse of England to-day. Despite the earnest and praiseworthy efforts of temperance reformers, establishments for creating and supplying the intoxicating beverage are increasing in size and multiplying in number on all hands. The beer-house has become one of the most influential estates of the realm. A few years ago there were only three estatesthe throne, Parliament, and the Church. Not long since journalism was added to the number, and now we must add the beer-house. This beer-house bids fair to control the House of Commons, sport with Cabinets, and even to govern the nation. The prophet here thunders in the ears of the drunkards of his country. Why should these drunkards now weep?

I. BECAUSE THEY WERE TO BE DEPRIVED OF THE BLESSING THEY PRIZED THE MOST. What does the drunkard value most? The intoxicating cup. For this he will sell his country, his self-respect, his health, his wife, his children, his all. By the intoxicating cup you can buy him over to any cause. But these drunkards in Judah were to lose that. Joel says, “For it is cut off from your mouth.” The locusts were to destroy the vine, and there would be no grapes, and therefore no wine. God will sooner or later take from every sinner that which he values most, that which he esteems his greatest pleasure or enjoyment. He will take power from the ambitious, wealth from the miser, pleasure from the voluptuary, the intoxicating cup from the drunkard.

II. BECAUSE THEY WERE TO LOSE THE BLESSING THEY HAD ABUSED, God will not have his gifts abused. He who abuses his blessings shall inevitably lose them. He dried up the vine now in Judah because men had abused it. And! am disposed to think it would be a blessed thing for England, ay, and a blessed thing for drunkards, were all the spirit-distilleries, all the breweries, all the beer-houses, dried up as this vine now was. I scarcely know which is the worse, the drunkard or the drunkard-makers.

CONCLUSION. “Awake, ye drunkards!” Awake from your sottish stupidity! Reflect upon what you are, and what a self-ruinous course you are pursuing. Awake! You are sleeping on the bosom of a volcanic hill about to burst and engulf you. “And weep.” Because of the blessings you have abused, because of the injuries you have inflicted upon your own natures as well as others; weep because of the sins you have committed against yourself, society, and God. “Howl, all ye drinkers of wine!” Ah! if you were aware of your true situation, you would howl indeedhowl out your soul in confession and prayer.

“O thou invisible spirit of wine,
If thou hast no name to be known by, let
Us call thee devil.”

(Shakespeare.)

D.T.

Joe 1:19, Joe 1:20

The influence of national calamities on the minds of the good.

“O Lord, to thee will I cry,” etc. In the verses extending from the sixth to the eighteenth, the prophet described with great vividness and force the attributes of these “locusts” and the terrible devastations they would effect, and he called upon various members of the community to attend to the calamity. The old men and the young people, the drunkards and the farmers, the priests and the laity, all are summoned to reflection, penitence, and reform. Here he cries out to the Lord himself on account of the calamity, which he describes with remarkable force. “The fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.” It is a question whether the fire and flame are to be taken literally as burning the grass, which often happens in extreme heat, or whether they are used figuratively. The reference, I think, is to the burning heat in drought which consumes the meadows, scorches the trees, and dries up the water-brooks. Our subject is the influence of national calamities on the minds of the good. The effect on Joel was to excite him to prayer, to compel him to lay the case before the Lord. Having called the attention of all classes of the community to the terrible judgements, he turns his soul in a devout supplication to Almighty God.

I. THIS WAS RIGHT. “In everything by prayer and supplication we should make known our wants to God.” Prayer is right:

1. God requires it. “For all these things will I be inquired of;” “Ask, and ye shall receive,” etc.

2. Christ engaged in it. He prayed, prayed often, prayed earnestly, prayed “without ceasing.” He is our Example.

II. THIS WAS WISE. Who else could remove the calamity and restore the ruin? None. All men were utterly helpless. When all earthly resources fail, where else can we go but to him who originates all that is good, and controls all that is evil? True prayer is always wise, because

(1) it seeks the highest good;

(2) by the best means.

III. THIS WAS NATURAL. “The beasts of the field cry also unto thee.” “The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.” “What better,” says an old author, “are they than beasts, who never cry to God but for corn and wine, and complain of nothing but the wants of sense?”

CONCLUSION. It is well when our trials lead us in prayer to God. The greatest calamities are termed the greatest blessings when they act thus. Hail the tempests, if they drive our bark into the quiet haven of prayer. “There’s a power which man can wield, When mortal aid is vain, That eye, that arm, that love, to reach, That listening ear to gain: That power is prayer, which sears on high, And feeds on bliss beyond the sky.” D.T.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

THE PROPHET JOEL
_______
PART FIRST
THE JUDGMENT AND CALL TO REPENTANCE

Joe 1:1 to Joe 2:17

_______
SECTION I

Complaint of the Desolation of Judah by Locusts and Drought

Joel 1

1 The word of Jehovah which came to1 Joel, the son of Pethuel.

2 Hear this, ye2 old men,

And give ear3 all ye inhabitants of the land!

Hath such4 a thing been in your days,

Or even in the days of your fathers?

3 Tell it5 to your children,

And your children to their children,
And their children to another generation.

4 What the palmer worm6 hath left, the locust hath eaten,

And what the locust hath left, the beetle hath eaten,
And what the beetle hath left, the caterpillar hath eaten.

5 Awake7 ye drunkards,8 and weep,

And cry out9 all ye drinkers of wine

On account of the new wine (or must),10

For it is cut off (removed) from your mouth.

6 For11 a people12 hath invaded13 my land,14

Mighty and numberless;
Their teeth are the teeth of a lion,
And they have the jaw teeth of a lioness.

7 They have laid waste my vine,15

And barked (or broken) my fig trees;
They have made it quite bare,16 and cast it away;

Its branches are made white.

8 Lament17 like a bride18

Girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

9 Cut off is the meat offering and the drink offering from the house of Jehovah;

The priests mourn
The ministers19 of Jehovah.

10 The field is wasted,20

The land mourneth,21

For the corn is destroyed,
The new wine is dried up,
The oil22 fails.

11 Be ashamed ye husbandmen,

Howl ye vine-dressers,
For the wheat and for the barley23;

Because the harvest of the field hath perished.

12 The vine is dried up,

And the fig tree faileth,
The pomegranate, also the palm, and the apple tree (quince),
All the trees of the field are withered,
So that joy is dried up24 from the sons of men.

13 Gird yourselves and lament, ye priests,

Cry out ye ministers of the altar;
Come, lie all night in sackcloth
Ye ministers of my God,
For the meat offering and the drink offering
Are withheld from the house of your God.

14 Sanctify a fast,

Appoint a solemn assembly,
Gather the elders,
And all the inhabitants of the land
In the house of Jehovah your God;
And cry unto Jehovah.

15 Alas for the day!

Because the day of Jehovah is at hand;
It will come like25 a tempest from the Almighty (Shaddai).26

16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes?

Joy and gladness from the house of our God?

17 The grains27 (seeds) are rotten27 under their clods,27

The garners are destroyed,
The barns27 are broken down,

Because the corn is withered.

18 How the beasts groan!

The herds of cattle are perplexed,
Because they have no pasture;
Even the flocks of sheep perish.

19 Unto Thee, O Jehovah, will I cry,

For the fire hath devoured all the pastures of the plain,
And the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.

20 Even28 the beasts of the field29 cry nnto Thee

For the streams of water are dried up,
And the fire hath devoured the pastures of the plain (wilderness).

EXEGETICAL

Joe 1:2-4. (Hear this ye old men,) the caterpillar hath eaten. A call is made upon the inhabitants of Judah, and especially the old men, to testify that an unheard-of thing had happened,an event to be told to their posterity, namely, the complete desolation of the land by successive swarms of locusts.

Joe 1:2. (Old men.) They are named because their memory goes back the farthest. The calamity might well be deemed extraordinary if they could recall nothing like it. Inhabitants of the land, i. e., of Judah, as is evident from what follows Joe 1:14; Joe 2:1. refers to what is stated in Joe 1:4. In Joe 1:2-3 there is an allusion to Exo 10:2-6, where the plague of locusts in Egypt is spoken of.

Joe 1:4. Swarms of locusts come, each one devouring what its predecessor had left. This, however, is not described in a dry, prosaic way. As the locusts appear four times, they bear four distinct names. Their proper name is , the others are poetic ones. These names are not used simply to denote the changes which the locusts undergo, nor their invasion of the land during successive years, as this would not consist with the statement that what one kind had left, another had eaten. The preterite is to be taken in its proper sense. The whole chapter speaks of something that has actually happened. The desolation is described in detail, one feature of it after another being depicted in such a way as to arouse those affected by it to earnest prayer.

Joe 1:5-7. Awake ye drunkards.Its branches are made white. The drunkards are called upon to mourn, to show poetically how complete is the desolation of the vineyards. At the same time, this is to be regarded as a punishment for the sins of the people, who are summoned to repent, though this last idea is not yet explicitly expressed.

Joe 1:6. The locusts are represented under the figure of a hostile army. They are not to be regarded as a type of such an army, as if the passage was simply allegorical. Yet the idea of enmity to Israel implied in the word a heathen people,must not be lost sight of, for these locusts actually ravage the land of Israel. Hence there is no ground for taking otherwise than as a preterite, nearly in the sense of a future, as predicting something to come. is the land of the prophet as speaking in the name of the people. Jehovah himself does not speak directly, comp. Joel 5:13. The arms of these invaders are their teeth, which grind like those of a lion. The jaw-teeth of the lioness protecting or avenging her young are added by way of climax.

Joe 1:7. The vine and fig tree. These are added because they are among the most valuable of fruit trees, comp. Hos 2:14. is properly that which is broken off, i. e., a fragment of wood, splinter, chip. , made bare, by barking or paring, so as to peel off. The bark is thrown away; and the whole vine is made white or blanched by the barking of it.

Joe 1:8-10. (Lament like a bride,the oil fails.) The lamentation of the drunkards is simply a prelude to what follows. It would be a mistake to suppose that sensual pleasures and enjoyments alone are meant. The thing at stake was so much greater than these, that the whole land had cause to mourn.

Joe 1:8. Judah is here regarded as a wife, and hence the fitness of comparing this lamentation to that of a young bride mourning the husband of her youth. Certainly no judgment could be more severe than one that made it impossible to present the meat and drink offerings. Hence the priests had reason to mourn; and Judah, in danger of losing the visible emblems of the presence of his God, is fitly compared to the young wife who had lost her husband. These offerings could not be presented because everything was destroyed. [The corn, wine, and oil were essential ingredients of these offerings, and every sacrifice would be imperfect without them. The locusts and the drought combined must also have caused a great dearth of the animals used in sacrifice.F.]

Joe 1:11-12. Be ashamed, ye husbandmen,from the sons of men. The husbandmen and vine-dressers are next addressed. The worst feature of the desolation, already mentioned, is not again noticed until we come to Joe 1:13. In Joe 1:11, , are imperfects. , from (perhaps to distinguish it from the Hiphil of , here without the which precedes and follows it), to be ashamed, to grow pale. Going into their fields and finding nothing there, they are ashamed.

Joe 1:12 adds the reason for their lamentation. Besides the vine and the fig, other noble trees are mentioned which may have been under the special care of the vine-dresser; as well as the trees of the field generally. here also the Hiph. of , to grow paler. Joy becomes, as it were, ashamed; she withdraws herself, and is no more seen.

Joe 1:13-17. Gird yourselves and lament ye Priests,the corn is withered. The discourse returns to what had been complained of in Joe 1:9, as the worst feature of the calamity, namely, the inability to offer sacrifices. Here (Joe 1:13) the priests are again called upon to lament the want of materials for the temple service. Gird yourselves, i. e., with sackcloth or hair-cloth Pass the night, i. e., even in the night-time their lamentations on this account should continue. [They should weep between the court and the altar. See 1Ki 21:27. There was nothing strange in this direction, for there was no intermission in the temple service by day or night. See Psa 134:1.F.] Ministers of my God, the God whose prophet I am. [The suffix of the first person shows that the prophet, on the one hand, stood apart from the priests, and on the other, stood in a very near relation to God as his organ, and therefore elevated far above all other ranks and conditions of men.Wnsche.30 F.] The phrase your God, is immediately afterward used, and repeated in Joe 1:14, hence it must not be supposed that the prophet intended, or was obliged to separate himself wholly from the priests. There must be fasting as well as lamentation. This was to be observed not by the priests alone; on the contrary, the whole people must be assembled in the temple, and there in the midst of these masses the priests should cry unto the Lord. Sanctify a fast, because fasting was held to be, in the popular estimation, a holy, religious service. . The word ordinarily denotes a religious assembly, one to observe a great festival. Frst thinks that it comes from , to fix, to settle, i. e., a fixed time,31 hence to proclaim a fast day. The old men,not the elders in the official sense of the term, as one might perhaps infer from the E. V.who had been called upon (Joe 1:2) to testify that no such calamity had ever before happened, must be present in this assembly, as well as those who are to hear their testimony, , to cry out as an expression of want, or distress. The substance of this cry, or complaint, is presented in the verses that immediately follow. This complaint probably extends as far as Joe 1:17, in which the desolation of the land is set forth as the ground of the lamentation. Joe 1:18 seems to begin a new section, in which the cries of the lower animals are represented as mingled with the complaints of men.

Joe 1:15. Alas for the day, i. e., the present time of desolation. This cry of distress is caused by the nearness of the day of the Lord. The character of this day may be learned from its results. It is close at hand; it is coming as a desolating scourge from the Almighty, and its effect will be such as to show that it could come only from Him. That this terrible state of things had already begun is evident from Joe 1:16. The meat is cut off; the voice of joy and gladness is no longer heard in the temple. Why? Because it is not possible to present there the usual thank-offerings. Besides the invasion of the locusts which had eaten up every green thing, there was an unusual drought (Joe 1:18) which had greatly intensified the calamity that had befallen Judah. In consequence of these things the granaries were empty, the barns had gone to ruin, for the corn had failed. The question arises, how is the passage from Joe 1:13 and onwards to be viewed. It is commonly taken to be a new section, the subject of which is the call to repentance. Keil thus explains its connection with the preceding context: Lamentation and mourning alone will not bring release from the calamity: with these must be conjoined repentance and prayer to Jehovah, who can avert every evil. But though this view seems to be favored by Joe 1:14-15, it really mistakes the prophets train of thought. The call to repentance does not come formally into view until Joe 2:12, though the way had been prepared for it, Joe 2:1. Now the description of the day of the Lord in Joe 2:2 has a relation to what is said in Joe 1:15, so that the call to repentance may be said to have its root and nothing more, in this earlier section. The special design of Joel 1 is to lay a foundation for what is to follow, by exhibiting the magnitude of Judahs distress, and the special reason for repentance. The intensity of the mourning showed the magnitude of the judgment. The priests (Joe 1:13) and the people at large (Joe 1:15) are alike called upon to recognize the judgment, and to return to God who had sent it. This passage and Joe 2:15 seem to be exactly alike in purport, but there are differences between them which should not be overlooked. They differ in regard to the motive and the object of the proposed fasting and humiliation. In Joe 2:15 the priests are charged to call a solemn assembly, because in this way they might hope for Gods mercy. In Joe 1:14 the ground of lamentation is the suspension of sacrifices, which not only affected the public worship of God in the temple as conducted by the priesthood, but also the immediate interests of the people themselves. They also differ in the object proposed. In Joe 2:15 the priests in the peoples name and behalf beseech the mercy of the Lord. In Joe 1:14-15 they cry to Him, Alas. They bring their complaint before the Lord, because this great calamity bears upon their relation to Him as his ministers, depriving them of the means for carrying on divine service, and hence they cry out, the day of the Lord is near. So thorough is the desolation that one may well say the day of the Lord is at hand. Things have this look. But as yet there is no word about repentance, confession of sin, and return to God. The calamity, in its unequaled magnitude, and far-reaching effects, just now fills the prophets mind. He naturally regards it as coming from Gods hand, but he here says nothing about the cause of it. The reason for deeming it a divine infliction is only implied in the connection between the devastation and what the day of the Lord would bring.

Joe 1:17-18 show that the prophet is not yet exhorting the people, but is still describing the great calamity. It would be strange, therefore, for him to introduce in Joe 1:13 a topic so entirely new, as repentance. Nor do we find in these verses the proper motives for such an exercise. Logically, then, these two passages are quite distinct, the one being a call to lamentation, and the other a call to repentance. When the prophet, in Joe 1:14 and Joe 2:15, exhorts the priests to appoint a fast and call a solemn assembly, he does not mean that this should be done twice, at two different times. The one call is simply a repetition of the other, but in a different sense. He wishes the people to fast, and to meet in the temple, to mourn there with the priests, and that they should also manifest their penitence by prayer for mercy offered by the priests as their representatives.

Joe 1:18-20. How do the beasts groan,the pastures of the wilderness. The beasts of the field must suffer equally with men. This fact is used to illustrate the magnitude of the calamity. But as these dumb animals cannot describe their sufferings, the prophet himself becomes their interpreter, and as if sharing their distress, exclaims, To Thee, O Jehovah, do I cryfor help. That this appeal is in the name of the beasts of the field is evident from Joe 1:19. The flame, the fire, Joe 1:19-20 = the fierce heats that produced the drought. The beasts include domestic and wild animals.

THEOLOGICAL

1. We may here discuss the question whether the visitation of the locusts is to be regarded as an allegorical prediction of an invasion of the land by a hostile people, as most of the older expositors, and more recently Hengstenberg and Havernick take it to be. They think that the prophecy of the desolation of the land begins in chap. 1. If this be so, as there is no formal mention of the future, we must suppose that the prophet sees the approach of the calamity so vividly, that he pictures the future as a present reality. While this view may be admissible, it is not natural. On its face, the text describes not a future, but a present fact, and there is no exegetical necessity for assigning to it any other sense. We may also remark that the call to the old men to testify whether such a thing had happened in their day, and to the people generally to transmit the account of it to their children, would have no significance, if the event were a future one. Chap. 1 certainly describes a devastation that had actually happened, and as no foreign foe had as yet invaded the land, it must have been caused by locusts and drought. It needs no proof that the word people (Joe 1:6) does not necessarily denote a real nation. Again, the devastation caused by locusts would be an inadequate type of an invasion of the land, since one of the essential features of the latter would be wanting, namely, the shedding of blood. The picture of the calamity in no way suggests the terrors caused by an inroad of foreign foes. The chapter simply treats of the damage done to the products of the earth, and the complaints of men in consequence of it.But as regards chap. 2, the question whether the visitation of locusts is to be taken in an allegorical sense, is not so easily settled. Here the coming of the day of the Lord is for the first time distinctly announced, and in this connection there is a renewed mention of the destruction caused by locusts and drought. That this latter event should be made the theme of a prophetic discourse, is no way surprising, because Holy Scripture teaches us that all public calamities are divine dispensations designed to awaken men to a sense of their sins, and to bring them to repentance. What more natural, then, than that the prophets should, in Gods name, threaten such calamities, and when they did come, interpret and apply them so as to arouse the people to penitence, so that they might escape still heavier judgments? A clear illustration of this is found in Amo 6:6, and as he closely follows Joel, we may regard it as settled that the latter prophet had these calamities before his mind. But the prophet is a poet as well as a preacher of repentance; and so he presents a most vivid poetic picture of the great misfortune which had befallen Judah. In its surpassing magnitude, Gods chastising hand was all the more manifestly displayed, and his voice was all the more distinctly heard calling his people to repent.

2. The memory of extraordinary events should be preserved in the popular mind. They thus become a tradition, or a history. Thus only can there be a continuous life in the case of individuals, of families, and of nations. This basis of history, namely, the remembrance of the experience of former generations, in the case of Israel is essentially a religious one. Here, events are manifestations of God,of his mercy, or his judgment. As such they should never be forgotten, in order that the revelation of God to the consciousness of a nation may be maintained in an ever-living freshness.
3. Terrible as is the scourge which strikes at the means of subsistence in a land, in the prophets eye this is not its worst result. In this case, for example, the greatest evil produced by it was the loss of the sacrifices in the house of God. The Temple was the visible sign and pledge of Gods dwelling in the midst of Israel as his people. But it was such only while divine worship was kept up in it, according to the due order, by the priests as the representatives of the people. The daily morning and evening sacrifice formed an essential part of this service; and on its continuance depended the continuance of Gods covenant relation to his people [i. e, not really, but visibly.F.]. The suspension of the one suspended the other. Hence no greater misfortune could happen to Israel than the inability, caused by famine, to supply the Temple with the materials for these sacrifices. Joel, realizing fully the necessity of these offerings for the purpose before named, turns to the priests, here and in chap, 2, entreating them to call upon God themselves and to endeavor to bring the people to repentance. Such, in any case, was their present duty. How it might be in the future will be disclosed in chap. 3. Meanwhile it is manifest that no merely formal service would meet the exigency. Only true repentance would avail.

HOMILETICAL

Joe 1:1-2. [Henry: The greatness of the judgment is expressed here in two things: (1.) It was such as could not be paralleled in the ages that were past; in history, or the memory of any living. 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. We ought to transmit to posterity the memorial of Gods judgments as well as of his mercies.F.]

Joe 1:3. How necessary it is that our children should be taught the will of God, and what his purpose is when He chastises us, so that the fear of his holy name may be deepened in our hearts.

Ver 4. Here we learn the omnipotence of God, and how vainly human power is arrayed against Him, since He can employ the smallest and meanest insect to do his will.

Joe 1:5. Ye drunkards who consume Gods kindly gifts in intemperance and sin, know that your sin carries a curse with it, and that God can easily cut off the wine from your mouths, and punish you with years of famine.

[Pusey: All sin stupefies the sinner. All intoxicate the mind, bribe and pervert the judgment, dull the conscience, blind the soul, and make it insensible to its own ills. God arouses those who will be aroused by withdrawing from them the pleasures wherein they offended Him. Weeping for things temporal may awaken the fear of losing things eternal.F.].

Joe 1:6-8. The Christian Church is Gods vineyard. If at any time it yields not good fruit, but only wild grapes, it shall be laid waste.

[Robinson: Prevailing sins are often visited with corresponding judgments. The Lord in his righteous dealings withholds those gifts of his providence which have been abused. He takes from an ungodly people the means of gratifying their lusts, and leads them to repentance by afflictions which are not capriciously ordered, but with exactest wisdom are suited to their character. Be assured, the prosperity of the Church depends not on a grand ceremonial, or crowds of admiring devotees, or the countenance of the state, however desirable these things may be, but only on the favor of God, whose blessing, and whose Spirit will I be withdrawn, if we defile his sanctuary with superstitious rites.F.]

Joe 1:9. No greater sorrow can befall the teachers and hearers of the Word, than the cessation of divine worship. Want of the means of livelihood must exert a very prejudicial influence on the public service of God. Under the old economy there would be, of necessity, a failure of tithes and offerings. So now, when people have a hard and constant struggle for the bare means of subsistence, they will be far behind others in knowledge of the truth, in the proper training of children, and in mutual love.

Joe 1:10. How quickly the Lord can turn all human joy into sorrow! How comes it then, O sinner, that thou cleavest so closely to temporal things which may be taken away at any moment? What reason have we to praise the goodness of the Lord, who gives us fruitful seasons, and fills our hearts with gladness?

Joe 1:11. Husbandmen are too apt to desire the blessings of the field through avarice, or for the sake of their own carnal enjoyment. Therefore God sometimes sends them a sad instead of a joyful harvest-time.

Joe 1:9-12. [Scott: We are so dependent upon God in everything, that no human wisdom or power can provide plenty when He pleases to send scarcity; without his rain, the seed even must perish, the trees of the field must wither, and all our temporal joys must sicken and die, and such judgments are emblems of the great day of retribution. How stupid then are sinners who are insensible under such judgments, or only mourn with a rebellious and unhumbled sorrow.

Pusey: The vine is the richness of divine knowledge, the fig the sweetness of contemplation and the joyousness in things eternal. Well is the life of the righteous likened to a palm, in that the palm below is rough to the touch, and in a manner enveloped in a dry bark, but above it is adorned with fruit, fair even to the eye; below it is compressed by the enfoldings of its bark, above it is spread out in amplitude of beautiful greenness. For so is the life of the elect,despised below, beautiful above.F.]

Joe 1:13-14. Who shall blame Gods ministers when they complain of the declension of religion? Who would not weep when he thinks of the miserable condition of many churches.

Fasting is one of the ways of deepening and manifesting repentance, sanctioned by Holy Scripture. When properly observed, the result will be to stimulate us to cry more earnestly to God. Under great calamities, men should be taught to look to God, not only in a general way, but they should be told to seek Him in special and appropriate exercises of penitence and prayer.
[Henry: They that are employed in holy things are therein Gods ministers, and on Him they attend. A people may be filling up the measure of their iniquity apace, and yet may keep up a course of external performances in religion. As far as any public trouble is an obstruction to the course of religion, it is to be on that account more than any other, sadly lamented, especially by the Lords ministers.

Pusey: The fast which the Lord approveth is that which lifteth up to Him hands full of almsdeeds, which is passed with brotherly love, which is seasoned with piety. What thou subtractest from thyself, bestow on another, that thy needy neighbors flesh may be recruited.F.]

Joe 1:15-18. When God punishes, He seeks our improvement; but if this does not follow, He will utterly destroy.The sufferings of the lower animals are caused by the sin of man.

[Henry. Though it is common for the heart not to rue what the eye sees not, yet that heart is hard indeed which does not humble itself when Gods judgments are before the eyes. If when Gods hand is lifted up, men will not see, when his hand is laid on they shall see.The house of our God is the proper place for 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 Gods house, either by corruption of holy things, or the persecution of holy persons, when serious godliness decays, and love waxes cold, then it is time to cry to the Lord, time to cry Alas!F.]

Joe 1:19-20. It is one of the special duties of a teacher of the Word to be constant in prayer to God.God hears the cries even of dumb animals. Then, O my soul, trust Him in all thy troubles, and know that He will listen to thy cries as much more readily than to theirs, as thou art of more value than they. The prophet, in his appeal to God, is not ashamed to be found in fellowship with the beasts of the field. So the Divine Spirit, by way of arousing our faith, points us to the fact that God feeds the young ravens, and gives the cattle their food. Yet how readily can God turn all our joys into deepest griefs ! How unexpectedly can He do this, and by what feeble mean! How preposterous, then, for any to regard their earthly possessions as secure, and to boast of them! How plainly God shows us that we live only in and through his blessing, that everything we possess is his gift. How thankful we should be when He permits us to enjoy fully what He has bestowed upon us!

[Henry: The prophet stirs them up to cry to God.

(1) By his own example. 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 Gods 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 must themselves be much in prayer. In times 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 always to be directed

(2) By the example of the inferior creatures. The beasts of the field do not only groan, but they cry unto Thee. 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 some dependence upon God by natural instinct. Much more will He put a favorable construction on the groanings of his own children, though sometimes so feeble, that they cannot be uttered.

Scott: God will hear the united prayers of the remnant of his servants, and often for their sakes will rescue a guilty nation from impending destruction.

Pusey: O Lord, to Thee will I cry. This is the only hope left, and contains all hopes. From the Lord was the infliction; in Him is the healing. The prophet appeals to God by his own Name, the faithful Fulfiller of his promises, Him who Is, and who had promised to hear all who call upon Him. Let others call to their idols, if they would, or remain stupid, the prophet would call unto God, and that earnestly.F.]

Footnotes:

[1]Joe 1:1.The preposition indicates direction, and like the Arab. includes ordinarily the terminus oulquem. Sept. .

[2]Joe 1:2.. The Heb., unlike the Arab., has no proper vocative, and hence the simple noun with or with out the article takes its place.

[3]Joe 1:2., denom. verb from : it is stronger than , but is only used in poetry.

[4]Joe 1:2.The dagesh in the second is the dag. forte conj.

[5]Joe 1:3.. The fem. suffix, which according to a peculiar Heb. idiom stands for the neut., has for its antecedent . The prep. denotes the object of the discourse; it is used like the lat. super, and Gr. .

[6]Joe 1:4.There is little difference of opinion in regard to the etymology of the names of the insects mentioned in this verse. from the same root = to cut off. , the most common name for locust, from , to multiply. from the same root, to lick up. from , to consume. Expositors are, however, very much divided as to whether these terms are names of the locust at different stages of its growth, or of different species of insect. Bp. Newcome renders them, the grasshopper; the locust, the devouring locust; the consuming locust. Hitzig, Keil, and others regard them as simply poetical epithets of one and the same species of locust. It is hardly possible to give their exact equivalents in English.

[7]Joe 1:5. from , to cut off, to separate, then to arouse, or awaken; the opposite of the onomatopoetic word to snore, to sleep heavily.

[8]Joe 1:5., from , a strong drink made of honey, raisins, dates, and other fruits. Hence the word=notorious drunkards.

[9]Joe 1:5., from the onomatopoetic , to howl, complain.

[10]Joe 1:5. is the fresh sweet juice of the grape, and other kinds of fruit, as the pomegranate, Son 8:3, and is to be distinguished from , new wine, strictly so called. The former must have been a favorite drink of the old Hebrews.

[11]Joe 1:6. makes the connection between this and the preceding verse.

[12]Joe 1:6. denotes a heathen, hostile people, and differs from , though the distinction between the two words is not always observed. See Text. notes on Obadiah, Joe 1:1.

[13]Joe 1:6. , lit. gone up, upon, perhaps with reference to the fact that Palestine is higher than the countries around it; but the word is often used in the more general sense: to approach, to enter, etc., where the region is a level one.

[14]Joe 1:6.My land. i. e., not the land of Jehovah, nor simply the native land of Joel, but the land with which he was allied as the prophet of the Lord.

[15]Joe 1:7. my vine,not the vine of the Lord, but of the Prophet speaking in his name

[16]Joe 1:7. lit., peeling it have peeled it, i. e., completely.

[17]Joe 1:8., imper. fem. of , and . ., like the Chald. and Syr. The more usual form is . Many expositors, without reason, take it as a denom. from God.

[18]Joe 1:8.The proper Heb. word for virgin is The word here used denotes a bride, i. e., a young woman espoused. See Isa 7:14; Mat 1:23.

[19]Ver 9.. Ministers, from , to serve. It denotes free and honorable service, e. g., of the temple, in contrast with which denotes the enforced service of slaves.

[20]Joe 1:10. . A paronomasia. The root has in Kal first the intrans. sense to be strong, next the trans, sense, to use strength, i. e., to waste, to desolate. denotes specially wheat or barley fields, then woodland, field is where cattle folder; , farmland generally.

[21]Joe 1:10., the Sept. and Arab. versions take this as an imper., and render it Mourn! O land.

[22]Joe 1:10., from the root , to be clear, i. e., the oil newly pressed and clarified; as distinguished from , fat.

[23]Joe 1:11.. The prep. , as in Joe 1:5; Joe 1:7, marks the cause. and are the two kinds of ; the one kind of grain being used as food by men, the other chiefly by cattle, though the very poor used both.

[24]Joe 1:12.. We have here what is called constructio pregnans = , joy has withered and fled away.

[25]Joe 1:15.. The expression is regarded by some as a sort of proverbial one. is not pleonastic, nor the so-called veritatis, but indicates likeness in quality or degree.

[26]Joe 1:15.From Shaddaithe Almighty. The Rabbins, Raschi, Abarbanel, and Maimonides see in this name a profound mystery, because it is a noun compounded of the insep pronoun, , with pattach notat, and , or to hold. The rendering of the Sept., , is wholly inadmissible.

[27]Joe 1:17.The three . words in this verse, render it both as to etymology and grammar, one of the most difficult in the whole book. , according to Aben Ezra and Kimchi, means rotted; perished, New come; dried up, Pusey, Wnsche. Some light is cast on the sense of , by the Syr. seed, corn and the Chald. , grain. In form the word is the Pal participle of . The third word, , is probably from the root found only in Jdg 5:21,which in all the dialects has the sense of to bear or carry away The Arab. denotes the breaking up of the soil by the plough. , therefore, may be a lump of soil, a clod, such as is thrown up by the plough. So the old Jewish expositors have understood it. In we have another .yet there can be little doubt as to its meaning. The local is prefixed. Newcome renders it store-houses. Tregelles, granaries, or cells for keeping grain.

[28]Joe 1:20. here as in Joe 1:13, marks an increase of the general calamity.

[29]Joe 1:20.The construction of the fem sing. with the plur. noun is common in poetry, and is proper here because is used in a collective sense. This term denotes domestic cattle.F.]

[30][Wnsche thinks that this circumstance shows that Joel could not have belonged to the priestly order. But this would be overstraining the sense of my.F.]

[31][The etymology of the word is right, but the sense which Furst suggests is an arbitrary one. and does not accord with its evident meaning in the many passages in which it occurs. It has the same sense here as in Lev 23:3-6; Num 29:35; Deu 16:8; 2Ch 7:9; Neh 8:18F.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS.

The Prophecy begins with an account of a dreadful affliction to be accomplished on Judea. The Prophet exhorts the people to repentance, and appointeth a fast.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The prophecy opens in a very striking manner. It is the Lord’s word, and therefore demands man’s attention. And all ranks and orders are appealed unto to regard the man of God’s commission; young men and maidens, old men and children; for the subject is not to be equalled. Yea, even the drunkards are called upon to listen to it, for the awfulness of the judgment coming upon the land is so great, that it is enough to awaken them into soberness. Reader! have you never met with any instances in life, where the extremity of affliction hath induced the most astonishing effects; such things are spoken of, where the hair hath become grey, and where such effects have followed as instantly to remove the powers of intoxication?

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The Message of the Book of Joel

Joe 1:1

The book of Joel, as we have it, consists of two parts.

I. A violent plague of locusts had visited the land, and from this destruction the Prophet saw nothing to save the people but repentance. In his call to repentance we notice four suggestions.

a. He discovers to the people the condition of affairs. He challenges them to say whether, in the memory of anyone living, a crisis of such importance had arisen.

b. He bids them wait for the desolation that covers the land. He calls in the nation to weep as a virgin mourning for the spouse of her youth.

c. He warns them that all that has happened is but the prelude of more awful judgments.

d. But having described to them the greatness of their danger, the Prophet goes on to tell them that from this danger they can only escape by genuine contrition and sincere repentance.

II. The Prophet’s call to repentance had not been in vain, and to the humble and penitent nation Joel was sent to declare the Divine promise. In this we notice that it was:

a. A promise of Restoration. Very shortly after refreshing showers had fallen, and the country, bare, barren, and desolate, was once more showing signs of life.

b. A promise of Refreshment. Upon the nation penitent and restored, the gift of God’s spirit was to fall, bringing with it a new revelation of God, and a new power to serve Him in the world.

c. A promise of Deliverance. The day of the Lord, which was certainly coming, was to be a day of salvation to the Lord’s people by being a day of destruction to their enemies.

d. A promise of Rest. No more famine, no more scarcity, no more barrenness, no more conflict; but rest and peace and joy in favour of the Lord.

III. The story of the book of Joel is a story with a national bearing. The language of this book had a clear and definite meaning for those to whom it was spoken, and no doubt much in the book has been already fulfilled. But the fulfilment of the book as a whole belongs to the time of the millennial glory when Israel shall have received and enthroned as King her long rejected Messiah.

IV. But let us not lose sight of its individual bearing. It is a call to contrition and repentance. God bids us recognize, and that speedily, the sinfulness of our present lives, and bids us humble ourselves before Him because of that.

G. H. C. Macgergor, Messages of the Old Testament, p. 167.

References. II. 1. J. Keble, Sermons for Sundays After Trinity, part ii. p. 342. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, pp. 163, 272.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Prophet of Judgment

Joe 1

Joel wrote his prophecy eight hundred years before Jesus Christ came into the world. It is a prophecy of judgment. If we liken ourselves to travellers through this Bible land we shall feel that we have come suddenly upon a volcano. “Joel” is a word which means, The Lord is God; “Pethuel” is a word which means, Persuaded of God. Names were characters in the olden time; now they are mere lines in a directory. Men were souls in Bible times; to-day they are “hands.” We know nothing of Joel. He comes as suddenly and tearingly into the history as did Elijah. His father’s name is given, but there was no need to give it, for nobody ever heard of it; it is an unknown name, and therefore it stands for nothing in the history. It is well for a man now and then to come who has no father, no mother, no ancestry, no relations that can be traced in so many genealogical lines; a man who stands out in his own personality, and is all or is nothing according to what he himself can be and say and do. Such a man is Joel; he has lips of fire, he has jaws of iron, he has a throat of brass; a fearless, resolute, denunciatory man, with a gift of righteous damnation.

“The word of the Lord that came to Joel” ( Joe 1:1 ).

Not the word that came to Hosea or to Amos, but the word that came to Joel, intimating that there is a word that comes to every man. “The gospel according to Matthew,” not the gospel according to John. Matthew could not write with John’s pen; John probably scarcely had patience to read what Matthew had written. They were men of a different spiritual genius, their gifts were contrastive; yet each man told what he saw of the Life, the Truth, the Way. It was the gospel according to then must be filled in all that is personal, temperamental, educational, experimental, so that every man shall tell his own tale, preach his own gospel. The apostle was not ashamed to say “my gospel,” old, yet new; coming from eternity, yet accepting the accent of individuality. Each man has his own view of God, his own kingdom of heaven, his own way of telling what God has done for him; and the mischief is that we expect every man to speak in the same tone, to deliver the same words, and to subject himself to the same literary yoke or spiritual discipline. The Bible sets itself against all this monotony. Every man must speak the word that God has given to him through the instrumentality of his own characteristics. But we have judges who say they know what they hear. They are not judges of themselves. We cannot hear all the truth until we have heard all the truth-speakers; we cannot know man until we know humanity; we must know the all before we can know the part. So the Bible is not to be read in patches and portions, but is to be read in its entirety, until part allies itself to part, and Strain follows strain, the whole constituting one massive structure, or, changing the figure, one noble song.

A man cannot say what word has to come to him. A man cannot be both the message carrier and the message originator. We are errand-runners; we have to receive our message and repeat it; we have not first to create it, then to modify it, then to deliver it. The prophets assumed the position of being instruments, mediums for communications which the Lord wished to make with his children near and far, and with the world at large and through all time. Many of the prophets could not have chosen to say what they did; their message burned their lips, their tongues were scorched with the hard hot words the Lord gave them to utter; but they could not forbear, they must be faithful; every word that was told them in secret they had to proclaim on the housetop of history. A man cannot say he will sing his gospel; the Lord has only sent a certain number of singers, and we cannot increase the multitude. No man can say, I will go forth and thunder the word of the Lord in the ear of the age; the Lord hath not given his thunder to that tongue; it was meant to speak peacefully, soothingly, kindly, and when it tries to thunder creation would smile at the feebleness of the effort and the palpableness of the irony. So we have in the Bible all kinds of ministry. There are thunders and judgments in the book, and there are voices like lutes; there are whispers which you can only hear when you incline your ear with all the intensity of attention. There are words that roll down the mountains like splintered rocks, granites that have been ripped in two by the lightning; and there are words that fall from another mountain as flowers, beatitudes, tender speeches: “Ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire; ye are come unto Mount Zion,” the green mount, the pastoral hill, where God’s beauty smiles in God’s own sunlight But do not let one prophet criticise another, and declare that he is not in the prophetic office, because he does not speak in this man’s tone. Criticism is folly and injustice when it would make all men talk alike and be alike; let the Lord have some space in his own universe, let him have some rights in his own household. We have no voice in our own official election. One man cannot be like another man, though he may desire very much to be like some other teacher. When Joel hears David sing, would he not gladly throw away his judgment burden and ask the old minstrel for a harp, that he might accompany him in the utterance of his pleading, pleasing, grateful strain of thanksgiving and of joy? But men cannot change places.

The Lord hath need of all kinds of men; he wants the fire and the whirlwind and the tempest, and the dew, and the still small voice all are God’s ministry, God’s husbandry. When will the blue morning dawn, day of justice and of peace and love, when one man shall recognise another man’s divers gifts as being as certainly in the prophetic office as himself? When that day dawns prophecy will have expired, for there will be nothing to predict; the millennium will have dawned, and heaven and earth blended in one harmonic identity. There are others who are sent into the world to upbraid it. It is presumably providential that there should be some upbraiding voices; perhaps it is presumably providential that some of us have an intense dislike for the ministry of upbraiding. When Christ upbraids there is justice and not spitefulness in his noble accusations; when other men upbraid they are apt, under the tone of upbraiding, subtly to conceal somewhat of their own excellence, as who should say, I never could have done it; such an action could by no possibility have been done by these fingers why did you do it? I told you how it would be. How did you come to run your neck into that noose? How was it that you went contrary to my advice? Did I not tell you? Oh, cruel tongue! That will never help a man; you never won a man by scourging him so. Do not remind him of what you, magnificent nobody, told him, it was not worth remembering; if the thing itself was good it was borrowed, and being borrowed, it was spoiled in the delivery. If you can say anything to encourage the man, to give him a new view of his circumstances, to inspire him to call up all his fading strength, say it. An upbraiding tongue will turn a palace into a hovel; an upbraiding tongue can never sing God’s music; an upbraiding ministry that is not instantly followed with healing, encouragement, inspiration, and ennobling assurance, is the worst of cruelty, because it adds to its own venom the hypocrisy of counterfeited religion. We need ministries of denunciation; we have too few such ministries. Society is an organised hypocrisy. The denouncer speaks inwardly, swallowing his own denunciations, and trying to look benignant where he ought to look like a thundercloud. Society was never so corrupt as at this day. Joel knew nothing about corruptness. Eight hundred years before Christ it was impossible for men to be as bad as they could be after the Cross had been set up; from the date of Calvary all things changed their relations: that which was formerly venial became henceforth iniquitous, double-dyed in all evil; that which before appeared to be great afterwards appeared to be comparatively small: so all relations underwent modification. No man can be so bad as a good man; no heart can be so cruel as the gentlest heart when it is turned in a wrong direction, poisoned and soured and stung into unwonted animosities. A Christian not faithful to his Christianity is worse than any pagan ever had it in his power to be. What can stand before the blasphemy of trampling under foot the blood of the everlasting covenant? It lies within the power of men who live in Christian days to be the worst men that ever lived.

“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?” (Joe 1:2 .)

The prophets will attend to history; they will not have little or narrow views taken of providence. They summon councils of the old and the young and the many-minded, and they say, How stands this fact in the history of the ages? Fixing our minds upon locality, we miss the universe. It is possible for a man to be so devoted a geographer as not to know there is any other world but the earth in all the shining heavens. A man may so belittle himself by his geography as to lose all right to give a judgment on the providence of the universe. We do not understand one age until we have called in all the ages. To-day is the product of all the days. This is the advantage of studying history on large lines; this is the advantage of the true university course, that takes in all points, all influences, all factors; this is the education that attempers the mind, gives it a new judicial quality, enables it to be cool where minds that have not undergone the discipline fly off into little spasms and sparks of anger and retaliation, not knowing how one thing blends with another, and how all things work together in holy edification. So Joel will have a large council, not the young men only, for they can talk but little wisdom; and not any one class, for they only know what belongs to their own relationship; he will have old and young, he will have experience and passion, he will have sobriety and enthusiasm, and he will constitute the whole into judgment.

“Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. [And what is to be told? This:] That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten” ( Joe 1:3-4 ).

God hath many locusts. Only four of them are named here, but they are the greatest devourers that ever fell upon a landscape. They came but an hour ago; they are multitudinous beyond the power of arithmetic to enumerate, and in a few hours not one green thing will be left upon the land. Nay, their jaws are like stones, they will seize the bark upon the trees and tear it off, and none can hear the crunching of that gluttony; and tomorrow what will the fair landscape be like? It will be like a country smitten by sudden winter; the trees that yesterday were green and fair and lovely will be naked, and their whiteness shall resemble the whiteness of snow. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” All the fourfold locust tribe for all mentioned here are locusts belong to the Lord. The great providence of God is responsible for its own acts, Man needs to be severely humbled; it does not always suffice simply to bend him a little; sometimes he must be doubled and thrown down as out of a scornful hand not that he may be destroyed, but that he may be brought to himself. Soldiers with their sabres and bayonets cannot turn back the beetle. The Lord hath made some things so small that no bayonet can strike them; yet how they bite, how they devour, how they consume, how they plague the air, how they kill kings and make nations weak, and turn armies white with panic! It is easy for philosophers who live in highly-rented premises to tell men that all these things are not to be accounted for; whereas if a locust could alight upon the head of one of these wonderful philosophers, all his philosophy would not suffice to reconcile him to the painful event. There are no cowards so blatant, so pitiable, as those who say in sunshine, There is no God, and all things have been as they are from the beginning, and do not disturb. Let some insect fasten upon the face of these patterers of words that have no juice or wine or music in them, and they will run away from their own sermon, and beg to be forgiven for having committed the folly of philosophy. We must deal with facts. Joel knew what he was talking about, and could point to the landscape: The locusts came to this place, devoured these grapes, left their signature of death upon these fair fig-trees. We can all refer to similar events. There are parts of our life we dare not look into more than a moment. There were times when our bread was taken out of our hand whilst yet it was within reach of the lips of hunger. There have been times when our windows have suddenly been darkened: men told us it was dyspepsia, it was an affection of the liver, it was the weather, it was anything but judgment. Blessed are they who can handle all so-called accidents skilfully, and talk of liver and weather and disorder and passing ailments with all the eloquence that is due to such trifles. Blessed still are they, and more, who can believe that nothing happens that has not in it a moral signification, that every touch unfamiliar is a call to attention, because the Lord is going to give testimony to the soul. Rich is that man who finds in his loss a new occasion of praise; great and princely he who recognises in every passing cloud that he is not the master, but the Lord reigneth, and the Lord must manage the affairs of his own household.

“Awake, ye drunkards, and weep” ( Joe 1:5 ).

Why? The reference need not be specifically and exclusively to wine, though that word is mentioned here; the reference is no doubt to wine and to all narcotics and to all the base alternatives of which corrupt men avail themselves in the time of peril and distress; but the eternal lesson of the exhortation is that all sin ends in stupefaction. “Awake.” Are not drunkards always awake? No; they never can be awake in the full sense of the term. Are not all bad men awake, on the qui vive , on the alert? Are they not watchful, keen-eyed, lynx-eyed? No; they may boast of being such, but all bad men are stupefied; there is an alcohol working upon them which takes out the brain force and the nerve power, and leaves them feeble indeed. Though under some vain hallucination they may believe themselves to be sane, when the mocking spirit of judgment has drawn a film across their eyes, and made them see a mirage when they thought they saw a mountain on which was spread a feast of fat things. All evil stupefies, all wrongdoing takes away brain volume, brain force. Every evil thought robs the mind; every cruel passion that surges through the blood steals not the purse, but that without which the purse is empty. “He that sinneth against me,” saith Wisdom, saith the Lord indeed, “wrongeth his own soul.” Suicide is not limited to one act or to one species of madness. A man cannot plot an evil conspiracy without being less a man afterwards than he was before. No brain can bear the action of sin without going down in quality, in fire, in fine delicacy, in gift of prayer. He who sins much prays little; he who gives himself up to the captivity of the devil cares not to look aloft and face the upbraiding stars. All through these grand prophetic books men are called to awake, rouse themselves, shake off their lethargy, and be men in attention and in consecration.

We need a Joel to-day. For his wages we would award him starvation. He would not live in kings’ houses. There is nothing to-day in Church or state that does not need pulling to pieces, cross-examination, analysis, that all that is good therein and there is much good may be brought into new cohesion, and set to new and fuller uses. Men are bribing men, and then going to the Sunday school; many are saying, If you will get this property on these terms through my hands it will be on the understanding that And the all but silent reply is, That will, of course, be understood. And then they go to church! They say, This is public property, and is not like private property; and if I can arrange this for you, the commission will be You understand what I mean; and then they go to some Liberal meeting and shout, “The people for ever!” or to some Tory meeting, and say, “Church and Queen!” If some Joel were to come he would be starved he must be starved. No one ever came to do Messianic work who was not nailed and pierced and crucified. It is in vain to preach peace until we have first preached repentance; it is mischievous to say, Peace, peace, where there is no peace; it is iniquity in the sight of God to daub the wall with untempered mortar. Nothing is settled until it is settled at the foundations. A painted cheek is not a healthy one; the true colour must come up from the heart, and write itself in healthy hue on the face. Having preached repentance, we can then preach peace we ought to preach peace. This was the method of Jesus Christ. He began to preach by saying, “Repent”; after that came all the sweet gospel of offered love, of sacrifice, of pure doctrine, of noble life, and then came the wondrous mystery of the Cross Christ being delivered because of our offences, and raised again because of our justification: the mystery of the Atonement, the mystery of Calvary, the ineffable mystery of the Just dying for the unjust, that men might be saved. But first there must be Joel-like denunciation, criticism, exposure, and afterwards there shall come all that Christ has to say, Peace on earth, goodwill toward men all that Christ can do by way of reconciliation, and until Christ has undertaken the case we undertake it in vain. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchmen cannot keep it; except the Lord build the city, the masons cannot put it up. It is the Lord that doeth all things, but he must have all his ministers at work his denunciators, his prophets that fear no face of clay, his singers that know the subtlety and wizardry of music, and his apostles who come with great gospel speeches to heal broken hearts and dry the tears of repentance. It is in the midst of this mystery that we are set. Blessed is that servant who shall be found waiting, working, watching, when his Lord cometh!

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

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III

THE BOOK OF JOEL

Joe 1:1-3:21

Helps commended: (1) Hengstenberg, (2) Pusey.

Many men of different periods of the history of Israel bore the name Joel. All that we know of Joel, the prophet, is gleaned from the book of his prophecies and that is little indeed. He was the son of Pethuel, a man otherwise unknown to us. From a study of the prophecies of Joel we learn that he was almost certainly an inhabitant of Judah and Jerusalem. He was well acquainted with the services of Jehovah’s Temple. His name means “Jehovah is God” and thus indicates something of the religious convictions of his parents. There is a legend that he was born at Beth-horon, ten miles northwest from Jerusalem, and that he was buried there. We know not the grounds on which this tradition rests and therefore cannot determine these things with any degree of certainty.

Nowhere in the Scriptures are we told just the time when Joel lived and prophesied. The date of his prophecy becomes, therefore, purely a question of literary and historical criticism. Like Obadiah, we find an earlier and a later date assigned to it. The earlier date is 830 B.C., or the reign of Joash; the later date assigned is after the exile. The author prefers the earlier date as being far more consistent with the internal evidence.

The occasion of this prophecy is determined according to the position taken with reference to the interpretation of the “locusts.” Those who believe that the locusts referred to by Joel were real, not symbolical locusts, find the occasion of the book to be the entire desolation of the land of Judah by a plague of locusts, while those who hold to the symbolic meaning of the word “locusts” make the occasion of the book the great sins of Judah in turning away from Jehovah. As the author holds to the symbolical theory of the locusts he sees the occasion of this prophecy to be the decline of Judah which is so evident in the latter part of the reign of Joash (see history of his reign) and which calls forth this great summons of the people by the prophet to repentance or to the judgments that would follow.

The canonicity of this book has never been called in question. It is classical and almost matchless in style. Joel is the prince of prophets as to description. His description of the army of locusts, the battle of Jehoshaphat, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the suffering of brute creation is unequaled in literature. It is impossible to read his prophecies and not be impressed with his culture and literary skill. The Hebrew scholars tell us that his book is a fine specimen of pure classic Hebrew. With the strength of Micah it combines the tenderness of Jeremiah, the vividness of Nahum) and the sublimity of Isaiah.

This prophecy was given to Judah. There is no mention of the Northern Kingdom. The name “Israel” (Joe 2:27 ; Joe 3:2 ; Joe 3:16 ) refers to the whole people, while the author mentions Zion, Judah, and Jerusalem many times.

The analysis of this book consists of the title and three main divisions, as follows:

The title (Joe 1:1 )

I. The coming of the locusts (Joe 1:2-2:27Joe 1:2-2:27Joe 1:2-2:27 )

1. An unusual desolation (Joe 1:2-4 )

2. A call to mourning (Joe 1:5-14 )

3. Forebodings of the “day of Jehovah” (Joe 1:15-20 )

4. The alarm sounded in view of the approaching day (Joe 2:1-3 )

5. A description of the army and their destructive work (Joe 2:4-11 )

6. A promise of forgiveness and blessings upon the condition of repentance (Joe 2:12-17 )

7. Repentance vouchsafed and the blessings assured (Joe 2:18-27 )

II. The coming of the Holy Spirit (Joe 2:28-32 )

1. The spirit poured upon all flesh and the results (Joe 2:28-29 )

2. The perspective of the final judgment day (Joe 2:30-31 )

3. A hope for God’s remnant (Joe 2:32 )

III. The coming of judgments (Joe 3:1-21 )

1. A summons to the battle of judgment and the reason (Joe 3:18-21 )

2. The result of the judgment here and the hope of Israel (Joe 3:14-17 )

3. Judah’s final victory over all and her final cleansing (Joe 3:1-21 )

In the title to this book we have one of the three common formulas of introduction to the prophets:

1. “The word of Jehovah that came to Joel.” This formula is found in Jer 1:2 ; Eze 1:3 ; Hos 1:1 ; and Zec 1:1 .

2. “The vision of [author’s name],” is found in Isa 1:1 ; and Oba 1:1 .

3. “The burden of [author’s name],” is found in Nah 1:1 ; and Mal 1:1 .

Lamentations and Daniel have no formal introduction, the former being an elegy in poetic form and the latter being regarded by the Jews as history rather than prophecy. These formulas are significant of the authority by which the prophet spoke and the point of view from which the prophecy is considered, whether “the word of Jehovah,” “the vision of [the prophet]” or “the burden [or oracle of Jehovah.]”

In the interpretation of the coming of the locusts it must be kept in mind that Joel is an apocalypse and therefore these locusts must be considered apocalyptical. What the author sees is a swarm of locusts and he describes them as such. So the coming of these locusts is not to be understood literally, but allegorically and, therefore, symbolically. The four invasions here are invasions by locusts under four different names, and represent the curses of the four national powers, viz: Syro-Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greco-Macedonian, and Roman. This corresponds to the apocalypse of Daniel in which is set forth the relation of Israel to these same powers. Joel I sets forth the chastisements sent upon the Jews and the reasons therefore. The book is a book of judgments showing the divine order, viz: “Judgment begins at the house of God.” These judgments are in a series of four, one after another, as indicated by the locusts. They begin with the Babylonian captivity and culminate in the destruction of Jerusalem and the taking away of the Jewish nation by the Romans.

The arguments showing that the literal view of the plague of locusts is inconsistent are as follows:

1. They are described as “the northern” scourge and locusts never came to Palestine that way.

2. The priests are directed to pray, “Give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them” (Joe 2:17 ).

3. The scourge is to be destroyed “because he hath done great things,” or literally, “hath magnified to do” (Joe 2:20 ), an expression unsuitable to irrational creatures.

4. The figurative expressions used in connection with the locusts, viz: The fire and the flame and beasts being desired to rejoice in the tree. These expressions are unquestionably figurative; therefore, the whole may be so regarded.

5. The imagery goes beyond the plague of locusts, in that (1) the people are terrified, (2) the air is darkened and (3) they enter the city (Joe 2:6 ; Joe 2:9-10 ).

6. The effects are greater than would be produced by mere locusts, in that (1) the meal offering is destroyed, (2) the fruits of more than one year are destroyed and (3) the plague is described as worse than any that was remembered (Joe 1:2 ; Joe 1:9 ; Joe 2:2 ).

7. Locusts could not have been driven at once into the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean.

8. The day of the Lord is identified with the scourge, and is far beyond the plague of locusts (Joe 2:1 ; Joe 2:11 ).

9. The locust is used elsewhere in the Bible symbolically, to represent a curse (Rev 9:3-11 ).

According to this position the prophet announces a complete desolation of the land, as if locusts had laid it waste. Upon the occasion of this approaching curse he calls for mourning and penitence. Then he gives the foreboding of the “day of Jehovah” and orders the sounding of an alarm and follows that with a masterful description of an invading army and its destructive work. In Joe 2:12-17 the prophet holds out the hope of forgiveness and blessings if they will really repent; at Joe 2:18 he introduces the prediction which stretches across the messianic age to the introduction of the millennium. In Joe 2:23 , we have the promise of “the teacher of righteousness” (marginal reading) as in 2Ki 17:27 ; Job 36:22 ; Pro 5:13 ; Isa 9:15 ; Isa 30:20 ; Hab 2:18 . So the order here seems to be (1) Christ comes, “the teacher of righteousness,” (2) come Pentecost and the Holy Spirit, (3) comes the destruction of Jerusalem which is the climax of the “day of the Lord” on the Jewish people.

In Joe 2:28-32 we have the first distinct prediction of the advent of the Holy Spirit, fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, following which is the far distant judgment day, adumbrated by the destruction of Jerusalem from which destruction escapes a remnant who are specially called of Jehovah (see Isa 1:9 ; and Rom 11:5 ).

In Joe 3:1-21 we have a forecast of the judgments on the anti-Christian nations. First, there is a summons to the battle of judgments in which God pours out his wrath upon these nations because of their treatment of his people, Israel. This accords with Isa 66:5-6 ; Dan 11:36-45 ; Zec 14:1-15 ; and Rev 19:11-21 , in which is described the great battle of Jehoshaphat at which the Jews are to be converted, a result of the interposition of God, as described here in Joe 3:14-17 . This ushers in the millennium in which Judah (or the prince of Judah) will win the victory over the world in bringing in the Messiah’s kingdom and disseminating the knowledge of him to the ends of the earth.

There appears in this book for the first time the expression, “The day of the Lord,” which refers to the time of God’s judgments and has partial fulfilment in the destruction of Jerusalem, then another in God’s judgments on the ungodly nations above described, and then finds its final and complete fulfilment at the last great judgment.

There appears also, for the first time in this book, the idea of the fountain. This idea expands as we follow it through the Bible to its fulfilment. Here it is briefly stated, showing its source and its objective; the valley of Shittim with no interpretation given. In Eze 47:1-12 we have the idea very much enlarged, showing this fountain developed into a great river which symbolizes the river of life presented in Rev 22:1-2 . Then in Zec 13:1 we have an additional idea presented, viz: that it is “for sin and uncleanness” from which we derive the beautiful hymn, “There is a fountain filled with blood.” The fulfilment of this idea is found in Christ’s teaching in John (4-7), where he refers to the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation and in life.

There are two other ideas that appear in this book for the first time which have already been explained, viz: The coming of the Holy Spirit and the battle of Jehoshaphat and the conversion of the Jews.

Some of the most important lessons of this book are as follows:

1. God’s retribution for disobedience. This is plain from the calls to repentance and the threatened judgments in the book.

2. God’s long forbearance toward a gainsaying and disobedient people, showing that his “mercy endureth forever.”

3. God’s blessings of the Holy Spirit. They are for all people in all ages. Though he selected and elected one nation as his own peculiar people, yet “whosoever calleth on the Lord shall be saved.”

4. God’s blessing of final victory for his cause and people. Evil may triumph and Jerusalem be trodden down for a time but the promises of God are sure and the Jew, though rejecting his Messiah and scattered to the ends of the earth, shall eventually accept this Messiah and become a mighty factor in the spread of his kingdom.

QUESTIONS

1. Who was Joel?

2. What was the date of this prophecy?

3. What was the occasion of this prophecy?

4. What of the canonicity of this book?

5. What of the style and character of the book?

6. To whom was this prophecy given and how do you explain the use of the name “Israel” in Joe 2:27 ; Joe 3:2 ; Joe 3:16 ?

7. What were the essential points in the analysis of this book?

8. What formula of introduction found in the title to this book and what the three formulas found in the introductions to the prophets?

9. What are the interpretation of the coming of the locusts?

10. What were the arguments showing that the literal view of the plague of locusts is inconsistent?

11. According to this position, then how interpret Joe 1:2-2:27 ?

12. What promise in Joe 2:28-32 and where do we find the fulfilment?

13. What are the judgments of Joe 3:1-21 and when their fulfilment?

14. What ideas appear for the first time in Joel and what their application?

15. What are the most important lessons of this book?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Joe 1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

Ver. 1. The word of the Lord that came, &c. ] See the note on Hos 1:1 , with whom Jerome and some other interpreters make this prophet a contemporary, for the likeness of argument; and that common canon of the Jewish doctors, 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 only after Hosea, but also after Amos and Micah: and the ancient Hebrew Chronicle, called Sedar Olam, affirmeth that Joel prophesied together with Nahum and Habakkuk, the days of King Manasseh; which Drusius would prove out of Joe 3:5 . Others, with more show of reason, out of 2Ki 21:10 ; 2Ki 23:26 . Joel might very well be one of those prophets that denounced God’s heavy judgments against Judah, for the sins 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, 2Ch 33:10 yet the rod might set the word to work afterwards; for Manasseh, when he was in affliction, besought the Lord, and humbled himself greatly, 2Ch 33:12 and Joel might very well be to him a son of Pethuel, or of God’s persuasion: God, by his ministry, might speak to his heart, Hos 2:14 , set before him an open door (another Etymology of the name Pethuel, ostium Dei mouth of God), Rev 3:8 , minister unto him an entrance farther and farther into Christ’s everlasting kingdom, 2Pe 1:11 . If any think it more likely that Joel prophesied under Josiah, king of Judah, when that great famine occured which is described in like terms by Jeremiah, Jer 14:1-2 cf. 2Ki 23:26 , I shall not strive with him. But that this Joel was the son of Samuel (here called Pethuel, a persuader 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, but a corrupt judge, 1Sa 8:1-5 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Joe 1:1-3

1The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

2Hear this, O elders,

And listen, all inhabitants of the land.

Has anything like this happened in your days

Or in your fathers’ days?

3Tell your sons about it,

And let your sons tell their sons,

And their sons the next generation.

Joe 1:1 The word of the LORD that came This shows that the prophecy did not come from the prophet, but from God. This is a common prophetic introduction (i.e., Jer 1:2; Eze 1:3; Hos 1:1).

to Joel His name means Whose God is YHWH or YHWH is God. See Special Topic: NAMES FOR DEITY . This is a very similar name in meaning to Elijah. Joel is a common name in the OT. See Introduction I. C.

son of Pethuel The Septuagint and the Peshita have Bethuel (a name found in Gen 22:22-23; Gen 24:15; Gen 24:24; Gen 24:47; Gen 24:50; Gen 25:20; Gen 28:2; Gen 28:5).

Joe 1:2 Hear. . .listen These two IMPERATIVES (BDB 1033, KB 1570, Qal IMPERATIVES and BDB 24, KB 27, Hiphil IMPERATIVE) are often used together (cf. Gen 4:23; Num 23:18; Isa 1:2; Isa 32:9). They imply a hearing that results in action. Truth demands a response!

O elders The King James has old men. This may, however, refer to the tribal leaders (BDB 278) known as elders. It is parallel to all inhabitants of the land. The meaning is, everyone listen!

Tell your sons This IMPERATIVE (BDB 707, KB 765, Piel IMPERATIVE) is used to magnify the unique thing YHWH is about to do (i.e., bring locusts). There had been many locust invasions throughout Israel’s history, but this one was very severe and was symbolic of a devastating military invasion!

YHWH’s coming judgment was to be retold and retold by succeeding generations as

1. covenant violations on the part of God’s people

2. God’s mercy to restore those who repent

3. a type of God’s judgment on all unbelieving nations (like Obadiah)

The spiritual education of Israel’s children is mandated in Deuteronomy (cf. Deu 4:9-10; Deu 6:7; Deu 6:20-25; Deu 11:19; Deu 31:13; Deu 32:46; also note Exo 10:2; Exo 12:26; Exo 13:8; Exo 13:14). This mandate is continued in later Judaism by a time of special training in the Torah (Genesis – Deuteronomy) and its interpretation (i.e., Talmud). For boys it was bar mitzvahi at age 13 and for girls, bat mitzvah at age 12. This knowledge of God’s will becomes the basis of covenant rewards and punishments in the person’s life. Knowledge brings responsibility!

Faith runs through families (cf. Deu 5:10; Deu 7:9)!

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

TITLE. The word of the LORD. Therefore not Joel’s. This is the Divine key to the book Joel’s pen, but not Joel’s words, Compare Act 1:16 for a similar fact concerning David.

the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.

Joel = Jehovah [is] GOD.

the son of Pethuel. This does not imply that Pethuel was a prophet. It merely distinguishes this Joel from others of the same name.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Shall we turn in our Bibles to the book of Joel.

Joel is a prophet of which we have no light of his background except what he gives to us. He is the son of Pethuel, but who Pethuel is, we don’t know. So it really doesn’t help us that much. Joel was a prophet to Judah; that is, the Southern Kingdom. He probably was familiar with Elijah and no doubt was well acquainted with Elisha, because the time of his prophecy pretty much corresponds to the time that Elisha was prophesying to Israel, the Northern Kingdom. Joel was prophesying in Judah, the Southern Kingdom. And in those days they did have schools for the prophets where the prophets would gather together in these schools. Elisha conducted a school for the prophets, and so Joel was no doubt acquainted with Elisha. But of his background, nothing is really known.

Now in chapter 1 he speaks of a plague of locusts, and in the text we read, “the palmerworm, the locust, the cankerworm and the caterpillar.” Actually, these words have been translated from the Hebrew words, and rather than being different insects, in the Hebrew they… all of them relate to the different aspects of the locust in its developing stages. When it is first born, eating the small little things, and then as it grows and develops, finally consuming everything that is in the land. So, they had probably had one of the terrible plagues of locusts that in history oftentimes afflicted that land. And after this terrible affliction of the locust, Joel speaks and he takes and likens it unto the coming judgment of God that will be coming upon the land.

So in chapter 1 there is an immediate reference to an experience of desolation of the land has just experienced as the result of this plague of locusts. There are spiritual analogies that are made to it, and then he uses that as the springboard to go in to tell of the desolation that is going to come to the land in the last days, as there will be armies that will be coming covering the earth like locusts cover the earth and just desolating the land. So this is,

The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. 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? ( Joe 1:1-2 )

Do you ever remember anything quite like this? Do you ever remember such a desolation?

Tell to our children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation ( Joe 1:3 ).

Now in those days, of course, most of the history was passed by word of mouth. And the fathers would relate to their children and then the grandfathers would relate to their grandchildren and then the grandchildren would say, “Well, my grandfather told me,” you know. And thus the oral traditions and the oral history that was passed down. And much of the history was preserved through this oral tradition as they would pass from one generation to another the knowledge of the things that had transpired. Now, it was the purpose of God that there be the transmission of knowledge within the families. Oftentimes there were things that were established as memorials. The feasts that God had ordered, all of them were there for the purpose of remembering their history, to remember the work of God.

And so the Feast of Tabernacles, they were reminded of how their forefathers were preserved through the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. So they would build these little booths and move out of their houses into theses little makeshift lean-tos next to their house. And as they were building them, of course, the children would participate. They would go out and gather the palm branches and come dragging the palm branches with their dad. “Daddy, what are we doing with this palm branch? Why are we making this little house here?” And, of course, the kids would always be excited about making a house to move into. You know how children are on things like that. But the father would say, “Well, there was a time when our forefathers first were coming to the land. As they came out of Egypt, they spent forty years out in the wilderness. But the whole time they were in the wilderness God fed them, God cared for them, God watched over them.” And it gave the fathers a chance to talk to their children about how God had so moved in the history of those people.

The Passover, the same thing, and even at the Passover they developed the traditional question. The child would say, “Daddy, what makes this night different from all other nights?” And then the father rehearses the history of their deliverance out of Egypt. And the purpose was to transmit the faith and the trust in God from one generation to another generation. And God looked at the home as the place for the transmitting of this information down the line. And surely the home should be the place for the children to learn and to understand of the things of God. And you should be rehearsing and relating to your children that work of God that went in your own life, that work of God that you have seen.

One beautiful thing about my mother was she was a good storyteller. And she was always telling us the stories of how God answered prayer, how God had worked in her life and in the family history, the work of God. And she would rehearse it for us and it was imbedded in our hearts that learning to trust in God. If we were sick then she would tell us of how God had healed us in the time past. When I, you know, had a terrible fever and my brother had asthma, things of this nature, and she’d rehearse to us the work of God in the past. And thus, it is implanted in the heart and in the mind of the child and then, of course, they carry on. So I rehearse to my children many of the stories that my mother rehearsed to me of the work of God in our own family in times past.

When the children of Israel came through the Jordan River, God stopped the Jordan River at flood season and they were able to pass over the Jordan River without getting wet and without going into the water. For God stopped the flow of the Jordan River in the flood season. Now, as they came through, they had men from each of the tribes take stones from the bottom of the Jordan River and put a pile of stones on the bank of the river. When they came up out of the river they laid up this pile of stones. And the purpose was, in the future as you’re coming with your children, you’re walking along this way and they see the strange pile of stones and your children say, “Daddy, what is that pile of stones there?” Then the daddies had the opportunity to tell their children how God worked a miracle in bringing them into the land. For the Jordan River that they saw then flowing by was stopped and the people came through on dry land because God stopped the flow to bring them into the land. And they were able to rehearse for their children the things of God. And it is God’s purpose that this transmitting of knowledge, the knowledge of Him, should be within the family from generation to generation.

So it is our obligation to transmit it to the next generation. And it then becomes their obligation to transmit it to the next generation, and on down the line, this oral tradition and the transmitting of knowledge within the families. Unfortunately, with the advent of radio, much of this transmission was lost. And in my days, the kids were listening to Lux Radio Theater and Gangbusters and all of these radio serials, Little Orphan Annie and Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy. And the tradition of conversation began to suffer with the advent of radio. And, of course, TV almost has devastated the tradition of oral transmission of knowledge. And now the children are entertained by the TV and there’s very little just conversation within the family where you spend a whole evening just sitting and talking, sitting and telling stories. Sitting and that… and something vital, I feel, has been lost from the family unit by the invasion in our homes of radio and of television and of these other things that have taken away from the real honest relating heart-to-heart to people and that oral communication and all. And I think that a part of the breakdown of our society is surely traceable to the advent of entertainment in the home by way of radio and television.

But Joel encourages this oral transmission of knowledge. Now he begins to tell about this terrible plague.

That which the palmerworm hath left the locust has eaten; and that which the locust has left the cankerworm has eaten; and that which the cankerworm has left the caterpillar has eaten ( Joe 1:4 ).

As I said, these Hebrew words are devour and chewer and all, and they are referring to the stages of the development of the locust.

So awake, ye drunkards, weep; and howl, all of you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth ( Joe 1:5 ).

So, the first people to be affected. Evidently the plague began in the fall. Now the last harvest gathered is the grape harvest in the land. It’s the last crop to be harvested. So the plague began at the time of the grape harvest and devoured all of the grapes so that there was no new wine.

Drinking had become a very great problem in Israel. It is referred to by many of the prophets. The drunkenness of the people had become a severe problem. They were the first that were going to suffer as the result of this plague. The other crops had already been harvested but the grapes. But in the spring the new infestation. You see, all of the eggs were left and in the spring even a new and greater infestation that absolutely destroyed everything come springtime.

We don’t yet know what is going to happen in California come springtime when the larvae of these Medflies begin to hatch. There are many who are predicting an infestation far worse than we experienced this last summer. Because of the larvae that is in the ground already of the Medflies and it… There are dire prophecies being made by many of the scientists of even a worse infestation this next spring and summer. And it makes things look even worse for our governor. I saw a bumper sticker a while back that I found very amusing. It said, “The fruits got him in and flies will get him out.”

Now the Lord immediately likened this plague to:

A nation that is coming upon the land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are like the teeth of a lion, and the jaw teeth like a great lion. [And God cried out,] He hath laid my vine waste ( Joe 1:6-7 ),

God oftentimes likened Israel unto a vine. Isaiah the sixth chapter, a whole chapter devoted to God’s vineyard. The vine that He planted, hedged about, put a winepress in and all, and how it failed to bring forth fruit. Jesus said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches. Every branch in Me that bringeth forth fruit,” and so this likeness of God’s people to the vine. But there is also a likeness of Israel to the fig tree. And in the prophecy of Hosea, he likens them to the first ripe of the fig tree in the ninth chapter, the tenth verse. In the book of Jeremiah, God likens Israel to a basket of figs so rotten that they’re good for nothing; they have to be thrown out.

Here again God cries:

they have barked my fig tree ( Joe 1:7 ):

I believe that when Jesus, in talking to His disciples about the end times and the signs of His return, when He said to them, “Now learn a parable of the fig tree,” that He is making reference to the nation of Israel, which God has likened unto a fig tree. And thus, I believe that that parable that Jesus made of the fig tree has tremendous significance in this day in which we live, as He said that the sign of the budding of the fig tree would be one of the final signs of the nearness of His return, happening within the generation that sees it bud. So that the birth of the nation Israel is surely a remarkable sign that we need to be watching that signals the nearness of the Lord’s return.

“They barked My fig tree.” That is, they’ve eaten the bark.

they’ve made it clean bare; the branches thereof are made white ( Joe 1:7 ).

All of the bark has been chewed off and, of course, just that white under branch is visible.

Lament like a virgin that is girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth ( Joe 1:8 ).

That is, the old maid who never got married, she is lamenting over her plight.

The meal offerings and the drink offerings are cut out from the house of the LORD; and the priests, and the LORD’S ministers, do mourn ( Joe 1:9 ).

Now the meal offering was where you brought the fine flour, which of course came from the wheat. But the locusts have devoured the wheat fields so there’s no flour to bring an offering unto the Lord. There’s no wine to bring an offering to the Lord from the vine. So the priests are to mourn.

The field is wasted, the land mourns; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen [you farmers, actually]; howl, you vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field has perished. The vine has dried up, the fig tree languishes; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men. Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, and lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withheld from the house of your God. 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 ( Joe 1:10-14 ).

And so they are calling for a fast among the people. Crying out unto God for help from this great calamity that has befallen them.

Alas for the day! the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come ( Joe 1:15 ).

So he takes that plague and now he moves prophetically to another day in which the land is to be devastated through the judgment of God, the great day of the Lord and the day of God’s judgment. “Alas for the day! The day of the Lord is at hand, and as for the destruction from the Almighty it shall come.”

There is coming God’s judgment upon the earth known in the scripture as the time of the indignation of God in the Old Testament or in the New Testament is called the time of Great Tribulation. When God is going to judge the earth, when God is going to send plagues upon the earth, when again God is going to devastate the crops, the food supplies and the famine will persist throughout the entire earth. The book of Revelation describes the black horse of the famine, the scales and a measure of wheat; that is, about of a quart of wheat, for a day’s wage. A man will work all day and his pay will be half a pound of flour for a whole day’s wage. So the terrible devastation that is coming from the Lord.

Now, that is something that you need to note, this Great Tribulation as destruction from the Almighty. There are people who have confused the whole prophetic issue as they have made the church Israel. And thus, they place the church on the earth during the Great Tribulation. And they use such scriptures as Jesus warning His disciples that they would have tribulation. But there is a vast difference between the tribulation that we experience as God’s people and the Great Tribulation that is coming upon the earth. The basic difference is the origin. The tribulation that you experience as a child of God has its origin in your enemy, Satan. He is the one that brings tribulation upon you in your endeavor to serve the Lord. The Great Tribulation that is coming comes direct from God.

Now, that I am attacked by the enemy I can well understand; I can accept. But I thank God that even in those attacks from the enemy, I have the power and the strength of the Holy Spirit within me so that I can overcome through the power of the Spirit within me. However, I cannot accept that God would attack me. Inasmuch as He is my Father, He loves me, I love Him, and “There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus” ( Rom 8:1 ). So, the fact that the Great Tribulation emanates from God precludes the church being a part of the Great Tribulation period. It comes as destruction from the Almighty.

Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seed has rotted under the clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. How do the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all of the trees of the field. 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 ( Joe 1:16-20 ).

And so we see a land in a very desolate condition. No pasture for the cattle, no crops; they’ve been destroyed.

“

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Joe 1:1-3

THE EXCLAIMER OF REPENTANCE-

GODS PROPHET

TEXT: Joe 1:1-3

The event Joel is about to interpret is so unprecedented it is to be used to teach many future generations of the judgment of God.

Joe 1:1 THE WORD OF JEHOVAH THAT CAME TO JOEL THE SON OF PETHUEL; Joel unequivocally claims his message to have been revealed from Jehovah. He did not get it from other prophets or from other sources. His interpretation of the locust plague and drought came directly from God. Of Pethuel we know nothing other than this. Undoubtedly he is mentioned only to distinguish this Joel from another well-known Joel of that day.

Zerr: Joe 1:1. There were a great many men bearing the name of Joel in the Old Testament time, hence it was proper for the writer of our book to designate which one was meant. The statement that the word of the Lord came to Joel is equivalent to saying that the book is inspired of the Lord.

Joe 1:2 HEAR THIS . . . HATH THIS BEEN IN YOUR DAYS . . . OR YOUR FATHERS? This locust plague, coupled with the drought, brought such unexampled devastation to the land of Judah that the most ancient man of the nation could not remember any time to equal it for its terribleness. Using historical events for didactic purposes was a principle established by the Law of Moses (cf. Deu 6:4-9; Deu 32:7, etc.). Joels record of this calamity has served hundreds of generations of God-fearing people for over 2500 years, as a warning and a source of strength.

Zerr: Joe 1:2. The idea of this verse is that the condition about to be described was without a likeness, either in the present or the following days.

Joe 1:3 TELL YOUR CHILDREN . . . THEIR CHILDREN . . . AND . . . ANOTHER GENERATION; This same principle, using historical events for teaching the nature of God, is just as valid today as it was then, inasmuch as we have divine revelation by which we may apply and interpret these events. We shall deal with this more specifically later.

Zerr: Joe 1:3. Tell ye your children is a general instruction to spread the information to ali generations both present and future.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Joel was especially a prophet to Judah. The burden of his message was the Day of the Lord. It seems to be one remarkable utterance rather than notes of a ministry covering a long period. A terrible locust plague which had devastated the entire country was the occasion of its deliverance. Joel spoke of things which were evident to those whom he addressed, then predicted an immediate judgment, and finally looked far on to the ultimate Day of the Lord.

In the first division are two sections. The prophet interpreted the meaning of the actual locust plague, and said it was the sign of yet severer judgment that was imminent. In dealing with the actual plague he uttered a call to contemplation, and to humiliation.

The call to contemplation was addressed, in the first place, to the old men, and then to all the inhabitants. In his description of the desolation the names, “palmer-worm,” ‘locust,” “canker-worm,” “caterpillar,” all refer to locusts. The reference may be to different stages in the development of the locust, or to different varieties of the same family. The thought in the prophet’s mind was of the complete destruction by the pest. Singling out the drunkards, the worshipers, the husbandmen, and the vinedressers, he reminded them of the completeness of the devastation, showing how it had affected all classes.

In the call to humiliation he began with the priests, calling them to penitence in the presence of the depletion of the house of God. Then addressing the people, he summoned them to sanctify a fast, and charged them to cry to Jehovah, declaring as his reason the truth which had been the burden of his message, “The day of the Lord is at hand.” Finally, he voiced the cry of the people in penitence, “Oh Lord, to Thee do I cry.”

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

a Summons to Penitence

Joe 1:1-20; Joe 2:1-11

We know nothing of Joel beyond this book. He was content to be Gods mouthpiece and remain unknown. His message was one of unparalleled woe. The memory of Gods loving kindness ought to have kept His people faithful and loyal, but since grace and love had failed to affect them awful judgments were announced. A small insect, the locust, was to prostrate mans boasted power. The four kinds of locusts here described and which doubtless devastated the country, were also symbols of the four world-empires, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, and Rome, which were to lay waste the Holy Land. Such judgments call for acts of repentance, such as fasting, humiliation, and intercession. There are days in national experience when it becomes us to gird ourselves and lament. The ministers and elders of the Church should lead the way. Where there has been infidelity to the great Lover of souls, when the visible Church or the individual member has turned from Christ to the wanton world, then joy withers away, Joe 1:12, spiritual worship ceases, Joe 1:9, and there can be neither peace nor safety until there has been repentance and return.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Notes on the Prophecy of Joel

Introduction

Of Joel the son of Pethuel we know nothing, save what little we can glean from the three chapters forming his message to Israel. Jewish tradition places him in the days of Uzziah; but authoritative proof there is none. His name means, Jehovah is God; and his fathers name, Vision, or, Wisdom of God, according to some; or, Be ye enlarged (or persuaded), according to another.

The immediate circumstances of his testimony seem to be these. The land of Israel had been visited by a terrible plague of locusts, which had devoured every green thing, leaving barrenness and famine in their wake. Joel is inspired of God to press home upon the consciences of the nation of Judah (for it is in and to the southern kingdom he prophesies) the fact that this visitation was from the Lord, because of the sin of His people.

Then, by the Spirit, he is carried on to the last days, and he beholds in the dire calamity by which they were afflicted a picture of the time of Jacobs trouble, to take place ere Messiah receives the kingdom. Thus the then present desolation becomes the text of a solemn prophetic discourse that is far-reaching in character. This emphasizes what has already been noticed in our study of Hosea, that while prophecy is in many parts, and may have many applications, it is never limited to local matters, but all has its end and complete fulfilment in the day of the Lord yet to come.

Another principle of grave moment is likewise brought to our attention by the manner in which the prophet seeks to use the calamity the people were suffering under at the time, to exercise them as to their own state of soul. God would ever have His children recognize His hand in all such visitations. For the believer, there are no second causes. The Lord has said, I Jehovah create peace, and create evil. And He asks the question, Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? (Isa 45:7; Amo 3:6). Evil, in both these passages, is, of course, calamity-the opposite of a peaceful, quiet condition. If I am called to pass through such experiences, it is because God has seen a need in my soul for just such disciplinary dealings. He has my best interests at heart. Be it mine then to recognize His actings and to be exercised thereby. This is the lesson of Hebrews 12, and is emphasized in the use Joel makes of Judahs afflictions in this brief but pungent prophecy.

Further remarks will be necessitated on this line as we pursue our study; so we turn at once to consider the teachings of the three stirring chapters of the book itself. May He who alone gives the eye-salve of the Spirit anoint our eyes that we may see wondrous things in His Word now before us!

Chapter 1

The Locust Plague

The ancients of Judah are first addressed, and called upon to declare if, in all their recollection, or in all the days of which their fathers had told them, there had ever been so grievous a visitation as that which the land and the people were groaning under at the time when Joel was sent to press home upon their consciences the serious lessons God would have them to learn (vers. 1-3).

That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten (ver. 4). Thus the destruction of every green thing had been complete, so that famine and utter ruin stared them in the face. The various forms of insect-life here spoken of are not generally supposed to be diverse, unrelated creatures, but are probably the various stages assumed by the locust as it advances from the larvae form to that of maturity.17 This much-dreaded plague had therefore cut off all the sources of food-supply, and left an appalling scene of desolation behind. And what was so intensely solemn was the fact that it was Gods voice, and there was grave likelihood that the people might be occupied only with the rod, and fail to hear Him who had appointed it.

Nothing is more natural for us than this. In place of godly exercise, we may give way to self-pity, or hard, stony indifference; thus either fainting under the discipline of the Lord on the one hand, or despising it on the other. Blessing results from being exercised thereby. This was what Judah was in danger of missing, as with many others before and since.

The pleasure-loving drunkards, who delighted in their wine, were called upon to awake to the realization of their true condition-Gods stroke upon them; and to learn the lesson He intended for them. His great army, like a nation of foe-men, strong and without number, had blasted the vine and barked the fig tree, so that the source of their carnal enjoyment was gone (vers. 5-7).

Like a virgin girded with sackcloth, lamenting the untimely death of her betrothed husband, they were called upon to mourn over the sins that had drawn down the judgment of God upon them. His house too was affected; for there that judgment must begin. The meat, or meal-offering, and the drink-offering were cut off, and the priests were left to mourn. When Gods people are in a famished condition, there is no real appreciation of Christ; hence the oblations cease to be offered. The meal-offering sets forth the manhood of the Lord Jesus. The drink-offering portrays His pouring out His soul unto death. But a spiritual famine dulls the perception and sensibilities of those indebted to His one offering for all their blessing; so the gifts of a worshiping people cease (vers. 8, 9).

The desolate condition of the land is vividly described in verses 10 to 12. All the fruits of the field were gone, and the trees had withered away; even as joy had departed from the sons of men. Therefore the solemn admonition to those whose place it was to minister for them in things pertaining to God: 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 (ver. 13). Insensibility at such a time!-how obnoxious to God, who wished to see a true appreciation of His dealings with His people.

So he calls upon the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to sanctify a fast, and call a solemn assembly, that they may unitedly cry unto the Lord, owning before His face their common failure, and judging their evil ways (ver. 14). The approaching day of the Lord is mentioned as an incentive to this. Not that the day of the Lord (which, in its full, prophetic sense, refers to the revelation of Jesus Christ to usher in the kingdom) was really to occur in their time; but as that day will be for the manifestation of all that has been in accordance with the mind of God, they were called upon to act then in the light of the day that was coming (ver. 15). In like manner are Christians exhorted to walk now in view of the day of Christ, when all our works shall be examined at His judgment-seat. The all-displaying light of that hour of manifestation should ever be shining upon our pathway, that all our steps may be ordered in accord therewith.

Throughout the book of Joel this is the standpoint of the prophet. The day of the Lord is coming. It will be the day of reality; when all shams and all hypocrisy will be manifested as what they are. Then, only what is of God will stand. Therefore the prime importance of ordering all their behavior so that it will bear the searching test of Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire.

In verses 16 to 18 the desolate condition of the land is again reverted to. All their hopes have been blasted. The blight is upon all for which they have labored. But serious as their temporal condition had become, it was as nothing compared to the spiritual dearth prevailing, of which their utter insensibility was the saddest feature.

Joel speaks as an exercised soul in the closing words of the chapter. He takes his place as one who feels the wretched conditions existing to the full: O Lord, to Thee will I cry! This alone can be his resource when the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Analysis and Annotations

I. THE PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS

II. THE COMING DAY OF THE LORD: THE RUIN, THE REPENTANCE AND THE RESTORATION

III. THE EVENTS OF THE DAY OF THE LORD: ISRAELS ENEMIES JUDGED AND THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED

I. THE PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS

CHAPTER 1

1. The prophets appeal (Joe 1:1-4)

2. The call to the drunkards (Joe 1:5-7)

3. The call to the people and the priests (Joe 1:8-14)

4. The day of the Lord and the suffering land (Joe 1:15-18)

5. The prayer of the prophet (Joe 1:19-20)

Joe 1:1-4. The prophet announces that it is the Word of Jehovah he utters, which came to him. (Joe 1:2 and Joe 1:3 are an introduction to the description which follows the great calamity which had befallen the land. It is in the form of an appeal. What had happened to the land is of such a fearful character that it is unprecedented. The visitation of the land by the locust plague is to be related to future generations, because there is a great prophetic meaning as to the future attached to the locusts, which will be pointed out later. The fourth verse (Joe 1:4) we render in a way our own, leaving the words of the destroying insects untranslated.

What the Gazam left, the Arbeh hath devoured;

And what the Arbeh left, the Jelek hath devoured;

And what the Jelek left, the Chasel hath devoured.

We left the Hebrew words untranslated because they do not express insects of different species; they are one insect, the locust, in a fourfold stage. Gazam means to gnaw off, Arbeh is to be many; this is the common name of the locusts on account of their migratory habits. Jelek is to lick off, and Chasel means to devour or consume. The locust passes through a fourfold stage in its development to full growth. First, it is the gnawing locust, when first hatched; then it gets its wings and flies about; after that it starts in its destructive work by licking off whatever it finds, and, finally, it reaches its full growth and devours everything in its path. (Many foolish applications have been made of these locusts. one of the most ridiculous is the one made by a certain woman-healer in her book Lost and Restored.)

The locust plague which laid Israels land bare was a judgment from the Lord. It was one of the judgments the Lord sent upon Egypt, and Moses had prophetically announced that the Lord would use them to punish his people (see Deu 28:38; Deu 28:42) .

But these literal locusts, which fell literally upon the land and destroyed in a short time all vegetation, are symbolic of other agencies which were to be used later in Israels history to bring judgment upon the land and the people. They are typical of Gentile armies, as stated in the second chapter, where the Lord calls them My great army. Here is unquestionably a prophetic forecast as to the future of the land. From Daniels prophecy we learn twice that four world powers should subjugate Israel and prey upon the land: Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Graeco-Macedonia and Rome. Zechariah, also, in one of his night visions, beheld four horns, and these four horns scattered Judah and Jerusalem. We see, therefore, in the locusts, first, the literal locusts which destroyed everything in vegetation at the time Joel lived, and these locusts are symbolical of future judgments executed upon the land and the nations by the prophetically announced world powers. At the close of the times of the Gentiles, during which Jerusalem is trodden down, the final invasion of the land takes place; it is this which is described in the second chapter.

Joe 1:5-7. The first swarm had probably appeared in the fall; only the vineyards had not yet been harvested. They attacked the vineyards and speedily the vines and the grapes disappeared under the onslaught. The drinkers of wine were therefore to suffer first. That there was much drunkenness among the people Israel, especially in the days of their prosperity, may be learned from Amo 6:1-6; Isa 5:11; Isa 24:7-23; Isa 28:7, etc. In Joe 1:6 the locusts are described as a nation, mighty without number, with lions teeth. This confirms the typical application to Gentile nations of the future who would devastate the land. See, furthermore, Num 13:33, Isa 40:22 and Jer 51:14, where the same comparison is made.

Joe 1:8-14. On account of the great disaster the people are called to mourn and put on sackcloth. Lament like a virgin, girded with sackcloth, for the husband of her youth. This is a significant expression. Israel in her relationship to Jehovah is here indicated. We are reminded of Isa 3:26 concerning Jerusalem, And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she, being desolate, shall sit on the ground; and Isa 54:6, For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. So great was the havoc wrought that the meal and drink offering was cut off from the house of the Lord so that the priests mourned, the servants of Jehovah. This is their mournful chant:

Wasted is the field,

Mourning is the land,

For wasted is the corn,

The new vine is dried up,

The oil faileth.

This is followed by the call to lament for the husbandman and vinedressers. The whole harvest was gone, and besides the failure of the vine, the fig tree, the other trees are also mentioned, yea, all the trees of the field are withered. On account of the severity of this visitation joy had left the children of men.

Then comes the definite call to the priests to lament and cry unto Jehovah and to sanctify a fast (Joe 1:13-14). But there is no record of a response. At the close of this chapter the Prophet alone raises his voice to Jehovah. We shall learn in the second chapter of the time of the national repentance of Israel.

Joe 1:15-18. For the first time we meet the day of the Lord (Yom Jehovah), that phrase used so frequently in all the prophetic books. The 15th verse (Joe 1:15) is an exclamation of the Prophet as before his vision that day appears. In the midst of the weird description of the calamity, present in Joels day, he beholds a greater judgment approaching. It is the same day he beholds which the other prophets mention; each time Joel uses this expression it means the coming day of the Lord, still approaching. It may be noticed that the five passages in Joel in which the day of the Lord is mentioned are progressive.

For a comparative study of this important phrase we quote the leading passage of the different prophets.

Isaiah. The phrase in that day is found many times in his book. We mention Isa 2:2-5; Isa 2:10-22; Isa 4:1-6; Isa 13:6-13. The great glory predictions of Isa 54:1-17; Isa 60:1-22; Isa 61:1-11; Isa 62:1-12 are all related to this day.

Jeremiah. He also speaks of that day (Jer 25:30-33; Jer 30:18-24) .

Ezekiel. Chapters 7 and 8. From chapters 37-38 we have the record of great events both of judgment and blessing which will come to pass in connection with that day. While Daniel does not use in his book the phrase day of the Lord nearly all his great prophecies are connected with that day. It is the day in which the stone smites the great image, representing the times of the Gentiles, and demolishes it; the day on which the Son of Man comes in the clouds of heaven to receive the kingdom. Hosea points to that day in chapters 2 and 3, as well as in the closing chapter. Amos witnesses to it in Amo 1:2; Amo 6:3; Amo 9:2; Amo 9:15. Obadiah, who lived about the same time as Joel, speaks of the day in Oba 1:15 of his brief prophecy. Micah in his prophecy refers to it in Mic 5:15. In Nahum the day is described in which the Lord will deal in judgment with the wicked world cities (see Nah 1:1-9). The third chapter of Habakkuk reveals that day. Zephaniah has a great deal more to say about that day than the preceding prophetic books (Zep 1:14-18; Zep 2:1-15; Zep 3:1-20). Haggai bears witness to it in Hag 2:6-7. (Compare with Heb 12:26-29.) Zechariah uses the phrase in that day many times, especially in the last three chapters. Malachi reveals the day in Mal 3:1-3; and Mal 4:1-3).

We learn from all this what a prominent place the day of the Lord occupies in the prophecies. It must be so, for it is the day of manifestation and consummation. Joel beheld here for the first time this day.

Then follows an additional description of the great calamity which had come upon the land in Joels day ((Joe 1:16-18).

Joe 1:19-20. Joel was, like all the other prophets, a man of prayer. No other mention is made by the prophet concerning himself, but this brief word is sufficient to give us a glimpse of his inner life and his trust in the Lord. He cried to Jehovah in the great distress.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

word: Jer 1:2, Eze 1:3, Hos 1:1, 2Pe 1:21

to: Act 2:16

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE PROPHET JOEL

The word of the Lord that came to Joel.

Joe 1:1

There is this value in the study of Joelthat he touches nearly the whole round of the Christian year, or which is the same thing, of Christian experience. Joel is the prophet of the great repentance, of the Pentecostal gift, and of the final conflict of great principles.

He brings a message for Lent, for Whitsuntide, and for Advent. We hear the wordsTurn ye to the Lord. We read of the outpouring of the Spirit, and we shall not be less earnest for missions when we recall that promise given us by JoelI will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. We may mark the multitudes gathered in the valley of decision.

I. Of the man himself and his ago we know practically nothing.The man is little more than a name to us. His father was Pethuelthat is all. What manner of man?in what rank of life?what forces or gifts of frame he possessed?we cannot tell. The date assigned to him has been as early as Joash, and as late as after the Exile. The tendency of recent opinion is towards the later date; but for our purpose he is Joel, the son of Pethuel; and he is nothing more to us.

This is, perhaps, the more strange because he was a successful prophet. He accomplished a remarkable moral revolution; he announced the great illumination of the Holy Spirit; he spoke of the great conflict of history. His words, so far as this goes, did not fall on dull ears. He spoke; the people heard. All classes, ages, and degrees joined in the solemn service; they adopted his words, and prayed as he bade them. His ascendancy was completeI had almost said unique, compared with the broken and doubtful supremacy of other prophets. And yet of this successful prophet we know, as I have said, just nothing.

II. One reflection here is simple enough. What are we compared with the work?The temple of God has to be built: stonesliving stonesconverted and regenerated men and womenare to form the material of that sanctuary. When the temple is built, who asks the names of the workmen who laid the separate stones? Will it not be enough for us, when we see the noble proportions and dazzling beauty of the divinely-royal building, that we have been privileged to place a single stone there? The joy of the true prophet is like that of the Baptist. He (the Lord and Master) must increase. What matter if I decrease, or I be forgotten, so long as their growth in joy is fulfilled?

Where this spirit of self-suppression is, there is power. No dim or uncertain thought mars the concentration of purpose. Feebler or more selfish natures dread to lose self,shrink from sitting in King Arthurs chairbut Sir Galahad saw its meaning and understood its transforming power, and how it gave in seeming to take away, and he sat within the chair where all self died away, saying, If I lose myselfI find myself.

III. Another reflection may arise from our ignorance here.We scarcely know the date in which he lived, but this is not necessary for understanding the direction and drift of his ministry. The spiritual value of many things is independent of chronology. Doubtless if we could settle his era with accuracy we should more clearly understand some of his allusions, and enter with a more minute appreciation into the significance of some of his phrases; but the broad features of his teaching, the force, value, and method of his ministry, are singularly independent of these details.

III. What then is his message?He teaches spiritual principles, not for an age but for all time.

(1) He is a prophet of rebuke and repentance. In this indeed he does not stand alone. Few prophets were otherwise; but Joel calls to the people, and so influences them that they gather to a great day of humiliation.

(2) The prophet gave guidance to peoples thoughts and pointed the significance of the calamity.

Mere trouble does not melt the heart or subdue the will, but startling troubles which come to disturb the monotony of indolently-expected prosperity are nevertheless messengers of the Lord. The day of calamity, if rightly understood, is the day of the Lord. Another prophet speaks the same truth. There were those who imagined that the day of the Lord could only mean prosperous times. The day of the Lord, said Amos, is darkness and not light.

The day of the Lord is described by Joel as a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness.

The calamity broke up two of the accustomed orders of life. The gifts of natures orderthe harvest of corn and wineare snatched away. The usages of religious order are suspended.

It is on this which the prophet fastens. True, the chains which bind the people to their God are broken; the order of natural bounties is disturbed. Heaven no longer gives food, and man deems that he can no longer win the favour of Heaven by gifts since the daily offering is cut off.

May not the suspension of the accustomed order of things be the witness to the existence of the highest orderthe righteous order in which the righteous God rules?

Thus this calamity is indeed the day of the Lord! It calls man to repair the bond which is more precious than the bond of benefits or material gifts and sacrifices.

(3) Here we may pause and consider how hard it is boldly to rebuke vice in such a sort as to lead men to repentance. It is hard to maintain this power of rebuke. It is hard also to maintain the purity of this power. Rebuke of mens sins so easily enlists the assistance of our personal feelings. When once this unholy alliance is permitted we assail men rather than mens vices.

Bishop Boyd Carpenter.

Illustration

Pictorial, dramatic, awe-inspiring is the utterance of this prophets soul. The effect is that of soul-disturbing musicmysterious, tragic, solemnising, yet uplifting. In Joel we have a new and thrilling chapter in the age-long story of mans sense of God. Here is a soul aflame with the vision of Gods nearness to the life of the world. The historic setting of this inspired truth-teller and his word of God may be obscure, but Joels vivid sense of God abides to inspire all who have ears to hear Gods varied messages to man. Be the vision twenty-three hundred or six and twenty hundred years old, the spirit of man can still be touched by its vision of God to reverence, humility, and hope.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

Joe 1:1. There were a great many men bearing the name of Joel in the Old Testament time, hence it was proper for the writer of our book to designate which one was meant. The statement that the word of the Lord came to Joel is equivalent to saying that the book is inspired of the Lord.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

JOEL GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK

Joel was probably the earliest of the prophets whose writings have descended to us. His personal history is unknown further than the bare statement (1:1). His field of labor was presumably Judah rather than Israel, the southern rather than the northern kingdom, because of allusions to the center of public worship which was at Jerusalem (1:9, 13-14; 2:15), and because of non-allusions to Israel distinctively. Such places as 2:27, and 3:16 are thought to mean Israel as inclusive of Judah, i.e., the whole united nation. Although it is assumed that Joel was the earliest of the prophets, the evidence is inferential rather than direct. He is presumably earlier than Amos who is known to have prophesied somewhere about the close of the eighth century B.C., because he seems to be quoted by Amo 5:16-18. He also refers to the same heathen nations as Amo 3:4-6, and to the same physical scourges as prevalent in the land (1:4, 17, 20). (Compare the marginal references to Amos.)

OUTLINE OF JOEL

Joel 1 Introduction (Joe 1:1-3) Announcement of a coming judgment of locusts (Joe 1:4-5) Announcement of the coming judgment from the heathen nations, of which that of the locusts is a type (Joe 1:6-7) A lamentation of sorrow (Joe 1:8-12) A call to repentance (v. 13-20) Joel 2 A recurrence to the same judgments (Joe 2:1-3) A description of their executioners in which there is a blending of the idea of the locusts with that of the warriors. The picture is made vivid by the use of the present tense in the Revised Version (Joe 2:4-11) A call to repentance (Joe 2:12-17) A promise of future blessing (Joe 2:18-32) a. The enemies overthrown (Joe 2:18-20) b. The land blessed (Joe 2:21-27) c. The Holy Spirit poured out (Joe 2:28-32) Joel 3

This chapter returns to the future blessing spoken of in the preceding chapter, for the purpose of amplifying some of its features, a peculiarity of all the prophets, as was indicated in one of our earlier lessons:

The overthrow of the enemy (Joe 3:1-15) The deliverance of Jerusalem (Joe 3:16-17) The blessing on the land (Joe 3:18) The permanency of the restoration (Joe 3:19-20)

QUESTIONS

1. What chronological relation does Joel bear to the other prophets?

2. To which kingdom were his messages sent?

3. What proof is there of this?

4. What future blessings are predicted for Israel?

5. When was the prophecy of 2:28-32 partially fulfilled?

Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary

Joe 1:1-3. Hear this, ye old men Ye that have seen and remember many things. Hath this been in your days, &c. Give attention; and when you have heard and considered, say whether any thing like the calamities which I am about to denounce hath ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers. In this way the prophet shows how great and unparalleled this dearth, which he fore-tels, would be. Tell ye your children Let these prophecies be handed down to distant generations, and also an account of the events; that, the events being compared with the prophecy, it may be seen how exactly they were foretold.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Joe 1:1. Joel, the son of Pethuel. Nothing can be gathered from antiquity of this prophet, but what appears from his writings. His father was either a prophet or a man of note, as may be presumed from the beginning of Amos. The Hebrew canon makes Joel contemporary with Isaiah and Hosea. He lived near the time of a sore famine. Compare Joe 1:4, with 2Ki 8:1, and Jer 14:1-4, The latter famine must be alluded to, if there were not one in the interval. He is supposed to have lived under the long reign of Manasseh, and to have exercised his office for sixty three years. He lived after Jehoshaphat, for he mentions his valley: Joe 3:12. His labours were chiefly directed to Judah and Zion, whom he twice directs to blow the trumpet of humiliation. He nowhere makes mention of the kings of Israel; hence he probably lived when they were in captivity, or much weakened. His style is figurative, expressive, and strong.

Joe 1:4. The palmer-worm, I once saw this insect. It was found in Mr. Freemans garden in Worth, nearly the size of my forefinger. It had twenty streaks of bright yellow shaded with brown, a little inclined from the back towards the posterior. When I came to make a scientific description, alas, it had gone the way of all flesh.

The locust. See a description of these insects in Exo 10:4. They are called a nation: Joe 1:6. A great drought favoured the progress of these insects: Joe 1:17.

Joe 1:6. A nation is come up upon my land. Joel foretold the desolations of the locust, and speaks of the scourge as already come. Elisha did the same. 2 Kings 8.

REFLECTIONS.

When a nation is secure, rioting in pleasure, and forgetful of God, a dark and portentous cloud is sure soon to gather against them; and the Lord is pleased so to diversify his gentler judgments as to do the afflicted good. He would not now dry up the heavens for three years, as in Elijahs time; neither would he suffer the Assyrians nor the Ammonites to defile his sanctuary. The Lord gave a droughty season so as to favour an astonishing encrease of grasshoppers, which depredated the pastures; after the grasshoppers came nations of devouring and consuming locusts, which made the gardens, the vineyards, and the fields a complete desolation. And what could Israel do against the scourge? The well appointed army, the numerous cavalry, and the fortified places, were of no avail. They devoured the gardens, they scaled the walls, they forced the palaces. A whole nation employed in trampling on the foe, apparently neither diminished his number, nor retarded his progress. And if the locusts, the feeblest auxiliary of heaven, be so terrible to the earth, what can the wicked oppose to the thunderbolts of vengeance? Truly the smallest insect is able to humble the proudest enemy of the Lord. Why then should a mortal man boast against his Makers power?

We have the lamentation of the land because of the insects. The drunkard had no wine in his vaults, no smiling cups in his feast, and no joy at his protracted meals. The vine at midsummer had neither leaf nor cluster. The bride or betrothed woman, was girded with sackcloth in her fathers house, because her husband came not to receive her in marriage. He languished with famine, he was dead, or gone to eat bread with hardship in another land. The priests, the ministers of the Lord, mourned also. Neither corn, nor wine, nor oil, nor victim came to the house of the Lord. The husbandmen were amazed and confounded. Their promising crops of wheat and barley were consumed in the moment of hope; yea, all joy was withered from every class of men.

One calamity is seldom alone. The pastures in the desert were set on fire, as is not uncommon in a very droughty season, either by the lightning, or by the carelessness of the shepherds in managing their fires. Perhaps this was done to annoy the insects by the smoke; nor is there any way, under such circumstances, to stop the progress of the fire, but by digging a deep and broad ditch. Thus the cattle joined the people in mourning and complaint.

We have the remedy. Appoint a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord. It is proper under such complicated visitations for a nation to be recollected; to draw a close line of connection between their punishments and their sins; to implore a pardon, and the restoration of covenant mercies. The Lord is merciful and gracious. He often saved Israel from perishing by miracles; he gave them water from the rock, and bread from heaven. Once he affrighted the Assyrians when besieging Samaria, and once he slew them when investing Jerusalem. When adversity urges piercing cries, when the tears of repentance flow, and when prayer besieges heaven by its own arguments, Omnipotence is vanquished by worms; and the angry heavens dropping their sable clouds, smile with lovingkindness on offending man. May the considerations of Gods justice and mercy awe us from dissipation, from riot, and waste; and restrain us from all sin by the ties of fear and love. The passions of guilty nations need the restraints of a powerful hand, with a due mixture of encouraging hope.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Joe 1:1. A Short Superscription.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

I. INTRODUCTION 1:1

Yahweh’s word (message) came to Joel (lit. "Yahweh is God"), the son of Pethuel. ("Elijah" also means "Yahweh is God.") Therefore what follows demands careful attention and appropriate response. We do not know anything about Joel or Pethuel’s personal backgrounds, even when they lived. This title does not tell where they lived either, though references that follow suggest that Joel lived in Judah. Hosea, Micah, and Zephaniah introduced their prophecies similarly.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)