Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joel 1:20
The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
20. Yea, the beasts of the field pant (R.V.) unto thee ] lit. ascend, mount up (viz. with longing and desire). The verb occurs in Heb. only here and Psa 42:1 (twice). In Ethiopic it is the regular word for to go up, and it has the same meaning also in Arabic: in Heb. it is used only metaphorically in the sense explained above [34] . Cry of A.V. is based upon the interpretation of the Rabbis, who, in their ignorance of the real etymological affinities of the word, conjectured a meaning that would agree fairly with the context.
[34] The derivative ‘argh occurs in the sense of a raised flower-bed, Eze 17:7; Eze 17:10; Son 5:13; Son 6:2.
rivers ] channels (Isa 8:7; Psa 18:15), not a very common word, used most frequently by Ezekiel (Eze 6:3, Eze 31:12 al.).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The beasts of the field cry also unto Thee – o: There is an order in these distresses. First he points out the insensate things wasted; then those afflicted, which have sense only; then those endowed with reason; so that to the order of calamity there may be consorted an order of pity, sparing first the creature, then the things sentient, then things rational. The Creator spares the creature; the Ordainer, things sentient; the Saviour, the rational. Irrational creatures joined with the prophet in his cry. The beasts of the field cry to God, though they know it not; it is a cry to God, who compassionates all which suffers. God makes them, in act, a picture of dependence upon His Providence, seeking to It for a removal of their sufferings, and supply of their needs. So He saith, the young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God Psa 104:21, and, He giveth to the beast his food and to the young ravens that cry Psa 147:9, and, Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God Job 38:41. If the people would not take instruction from him, he bids them learn from the beasts of the field how to behave amid these calamities, that they should cry aloud to God to remove them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 20. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee] Even the cattle, wild and tame, are represented as supplicating God to have mercy upon them, and send them provender! There is a similar affecting description of the effects of a drought in Jeremiah, Jer 14:6.
The rivers of waters are dried up] There must have been a drought as well as a host of locusts; as some of these expressions seem to apply to the effects of intense heat.
For hammidbar, “the wilderness,” one of my oldest MSS. reads midbar, “wilderness” simply, as in Joe 1:19. Eight or ten of Dr. Kennicott’s have the same reading.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The beasts: see Joe 1:18.
Cry; the wilder sort, that rove about many miles seeking their livelihood, find no sustenance, they look up to God, and cry to him: these creatures, that can better shift for themselves, yet can make no good shift; they utter their complaints in their sad tones, they have a voice to cry, as well as an eye to look to God.
Unto thee, who only canst open thy hand, and fill them. Learn, ye brutish among men, look and cry to God. And again, Have pity, O God, many of thy sinless creatures perish without relief; hear them, though thou shouldst not hear men.
The rivers are dried up; most extreme and tedious drought, which hath dried up the rivers themselves; there is no drink for the cattle, they must perish without help, unless thou, O God, send a plentiful and fruitful rain.
The fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness: see this explained above, Joe 1:19.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. beasts . . . cry . . . untotheethat is, look up to heaven with heads lifted up, as iftheir only expectation was from God (Job 38:41;Psa 104:21; Psa 145:15;Psa 147:9; compare Ps42:1). They tacitly reprove the deadness of the Jews for not evennow invoking God.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The beasts of the field cry also unto thee,…. As well as the prophet, in their way; which may be mentioned, both as a rebuke to such who had no sense of the judgments upon them, and called not on the Lord; and to express the greatness of the calamity, of which the brute creatures were sensible, and made piteous moans, as for food, so for drink; panting thorough excessive heat and vehement thirst, as the hart, after the water brooks, of which this word is only used,
Ps 42:1; but in vain:
for the rivers of waters are dried up; not only springs, and rivulets and brooks of water, but rivers, places where were large deep waters, as Aben Ezra explains it; either by the Assyrian army, the like Sennacherib boasts Isa 37:25; and is said to be done by the army of Xerxes, wherever it came; or rather by the excessive heat and scorching beams of the sun, by which such effects are produced:
and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness;
[See comments on Joe 1:19]; and whereas the word rendered pastures signifies both “them” and “habitations” also; and, being repeated, it may be taken in one of the senses in Joe 1:19; and in the other here: and so Kimchi who interprets it before of “tents”, here explains it of grassy places in the wilderness, dried up, as if the sun had consumed them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He afterwards adds The beasts of the field will also cry (for the verb is in the plural number;) the beasts then will cry. The Prophet expresses here more clearly what he had said before that though the brute animals were void of reasons they yet felt God’s judgment, so that they constrained men by their example to feel ashamed, for they cried to God: the beasts then of the field cry. He ascribes crying to them, as it is elsewhere ascribed to the young ravens. The young ravens, properly speaking, do not indeed call on God; and yet the Psalmist says so, and that, because they confess, by raising up their bills, that there is no supply for their want except God supports them. So also the Prophet mentions here the beasts as crying to God. It is indeed a figure of speech, called personification; for this could not be properly said of beasts. But when the beasts made a noise under the pressure of famine, was it not such a calling on God as their nature admitted? As much then as the nature of brute animals allows, they may be said to seek their food from the Lord, when they send forth lamentable cries and noises, and show that they are oppressed with famine and want. When, therefore, the Prophet attributes crying to beasts, he at the same time reproaches the Jews with their stupidity, that they did not call on God. “What do you mean,” he says. “See the brute animals; they show to you what ought to be done; it is at least a teaching that ought to have effect on you. If I and the other prophets have lost all our labor, if God has in vain performed the office of a teacher among you, let the very oxen at least be your teachers; to whom indeed it is a shame to be disciples, but it is a greater shame not to attend to what they teach you; for the oxen by their example lead you to God.”
We now perceive how much vehemence there is in the Prophet’s words, when he says, Even the beasts of the field will cry to God; for the streams of waters have dried up, and the fire has consumed the dwellings, or the pastures of the wilderness. He again teaches what I have lately stated, that sterility proceeded from the evident judgment of God, and that it ought to have struck dread into men, for it was a sort of miracle. When, therefore the courses of waters dried up on the mountains, how could it be deemed natural? אפיקים aphikim mean courses of waters or valleys through which the waters run. The Prophet here refers, no doubt, to those regions which, through the abundance of water, always retain their fertility. When, therefore, the very valleys were burnt up, they ought surely to own that something wonderful had happened. On this account, he ascribes crying to herds and brute animals, and not any sort of crying, but that by which they called on God. What remains we shall defer till to-morrow.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(20) The beasts of the field cry also unto thee.The prophet has cried to God; the very beasts echo that cry, looking up to Him. As yet, man seems dumb.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Joe 1:20. The beasts, &c.the pastures Every one of the beasts cries, &c.the pleasant places.
REFLECTIONS.1st, The prophet opens his discourse,
1. With an address to all the inhabitants of Judea, old and young, whose attention he demands to the message that he was about to deliver: a message of judgment, such as the oldest could not remember, nor the tradition of former ages produce; and which ought to be handed down to the latest posterity, that, warned by the sufferings of their forefathers, they may avoid their sins.
2. The judgment itself is an invasion from a terrible enemy; and is by many applied to the Assyrians, who ravaged and desolated the country; but may literally be better referred to the armies of locusts and other insects, which, in swarms succeeding each other, devoured all the fruits of the earth, and left the whole land barren as the scorched desert. Despicable as they might seem apart, their multitudes made them formidable: not the ravages of the lions from the forest could be more fatal: not only the vine-leaves are eaten up, but the very fig-trees are barked and destroyed by them. Note; God never wants instruments of vengeance: the most insignificant insect can in his hand be made the severest scourge; and a locust terrible as a lion.
3. The drunkards are admonished to lament the judgment which their sins had provoked, and by which they would be particularly affected, because the new wine is cut off from their mouths. And justly does God punish those who abuse his favours, by depriving them of their good things, and leaving them in want and wretchedness to lament their baseness.
2nd, The whole nation, deeply affected with the calamity, is called upon to mourn in sackcloth, as a virgin who is robbed of her betrothed spouse, on whom her warmest affections were fixed, and whose loss fills her heart with bitterest anguish. Note; They who are wedded to worldly comforts find it death to part from them.
The corn, wine, and oil, are perished; the trees stripped of leaves and fruit, and withered away; the very earth looks dark, and mourneth over the desolations; because joy is withered away from the sons of men; the songs of harvest and the shouting of the vintage are silent, and nothing is heard but howling and groans. Particularly,
1. The husbandmen and vine-dressers are called to bewail the dreadful devastations: their labours are ruined, their hopes disappointed, themselves and families left to pine in want, and perish by famine.
2. The priests of the sanctuary are commanded to join the general cry, and mourn over the deserted altars, where no sacrifice smoked, no oblation was presented. They are called ministers of the altar, as bound to a constant attendance there; and ministers of my God, this being their distinguished honour; and the motive to their indefatigable labour. They would now be peculiar sufferers, and be destitute of that maintenance with which the altar used to supply them; but a nobler concern must fill their minds, and grief to see God’s worship neglected must swallow up every other concern which is merely their own. Note; A true minister of the Gospel has God’s glory more at heart than every other consideration: compared with this, he counts not even his own life dear unto himself.
3rdly, To avert the heavy wrath upon them, the prophet points out to them the properest means to be pursued. As their sufferings came from God’s displeasure, to remove this must be their first concern.
1. Let a solemn fast be proclaimed, a day of deep humiliation sanctified and set apart; that with united supplications they might surround the throne of grace; and while by a strict abstinence from meat and drink they acknowledged themselves unworthy of every mercy, and, prostrate in the courts of the Lord’s house, confessed the justice of the judgments that he had inflicted, they might with prayers and tears cry unto a pardoning God, that sin, the cause of their calamity, being forgiven, their sufferings, the dire effects thereof, might be removed, Note; (1.) National judgments call for national humiliation. (2.) When we are found in God’s appointed ways, we may humbly hope that he will meet us in mercy. (3.) Affliction then answers the end for which it was sent, when it brings us to our knees, and raises the cry of fervent importunate prayer.
2. Abundant reason there is for this humiliation.
[1.] What they suffered already was grievous. If they looked into their garners, they were empty; if to God’s house, no sacrifice or oblation was seen; if to the country, desolate it mourned, the seed under the clod is rotten, and the very beasts groan, perplexed for want of food, and pining away. Note; (1.) How terrible is famine: how thankful ought we to be for the great plenty that we in general enjoy; and how should we fear to provoke God, by our abuse of his mercies to withhold them! (2.) The very earth mourns, the very beasts groan under men’s sins; and shall we ourselves be the only insensible beings in the whole creation?
[2.] What they feared was yet more terrible: for the day of the Lord is at hand. What they felt was but the beginning of sorrows, and a foretaste of the greater evil approaching; as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come; which may refer to the ruin of the nation at first by the Chaldeans, or afterwards by the Romans, sent to punish them for their iniquities by Jehovah, whose arm of omnipotence is irresistible. And, more generally, this may be applied to every sinner, whose judgment advances, whose damnation slumbereth not, whose everlasting destruction is at the door; unless he repent without delay, he perishes eternally. Well, therefore, may we cry, Alas for the day!
3. The prophet urges them hereunto by the examples before them.
[1.] His own. O Lord, to thee will I cry: as deeply affected with their sins and their sufferings, he earnestly addresses his prayer to God; to him who wounds, and alone is able to heal; the fire of whose wrath, whatever instruments were employed, had almost consumed them; and He only, who had kindled, could quench it. Note; They who call others to fasting and prayer, must themselves lead the way.
[2.] Of the beasts. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee; with sounds inarticulate indeed, but which the Lord can hear and pity. They are parched with thirst and famished with hunger; for the rivers of water are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, scorched up with the excessive drought. Note; The very lowing of the oxen, yea, the ravens’ cries, shall rise up in judgment to reproach the stupidity of the sinner who restrains prayer before God.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
READER! mark in the instance of this Prophet to what all-the other Prophets of God bear equal testimony; the process of grace in all ages is the same. Sin brings forth sorrow, and godly sorrow through grace leads to Christ for salvation. From, the first transgressor in the garden of Eden, to the last fallen son or daughter of Adam to the end of the world, divine teachings invariably produce the same effect. The fathers to the children may therefore make known the Lord’s truth, and the Lord’s praise. Reader! it is most blessed to see, and yet more blessed to experience, our own personal interest in those divine teachings. I the Lord teacheth, thee to profit, may be discerned and read by every enlightened eye as the title page of the whole of inspiration. And when, in the corrections and visitations of the Lord, by the Lord’s great army, we plainly discover the Lord’s hand; when in the locusts and palmer worms of the earth, we both hear the rod and who hath appointed it; when the fatherly reproofs of a gracious God in Christ are sanctified to bring the heart to Christ: oh! how blessed are the awakening judgments of our God, in rousing his people from the sottish stupidity and indolence in which the world and its pursuits have intoxicated the soul, and calling home the heart to Jesus and his salvation. Lord! I pray thee put a cry in every heart of thy redeemed! Especially stir up the ministers of my God in the present awful hour of Zion’s languishing, to cry aloud and spare not, for the Lord’s deliverance of his people. Oh! for the Lord to be very jealous for his Zion, and make her yet the praise and perfection of the whole earth. Amen.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Joe 1:20 The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
Ver. 20. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee ] Glocitant, a term taken from deer; they cry as they can, they cry by implication, imploring thine help, each for himself. See Psa 149:9 Job 39:3 Psa 104:27 ; and should men be silent?
For the rivers of the waters are dried up
And the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
rivers = waters of the Aphikim. See note on “channels”, 2Sa 22:16.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
cry: Job 38:41, Psa 104:21, Psa 145:15, Psa 147:9
the rivers: 1Ki 17:7, 1Ki 18:5
Reciprocal: Psa 107:33 – turneth Jer 14:3 – pits Jer 14:4 – the ground Joe 1:18 – General Joe 2:3 – fire
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Joe 1:20, The beast could not intelligently cry unto God, but their cry would be caused by His visitation of judgment upon the land as a chastisement for the unfaithfulness of its inhabitants
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1:20 The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the {k} fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
(k) That is, drought.