Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joel 2:19
Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen:
19. Jehovah’s favourable answer: He will no longer suffer His people to be deprived by the locusts of the fruits of the earth, nor give occasion for the heathen to reproach them.
will send ] am sending, the ptcp., as often, of the immediate future. the corn, and the must, and the fresh oil ] which they were in need of (Joe 1:10).
and ye shall be satisfied therewith ] They should have it in abundance.
a reproach among the nations ] Joe 2:17 b.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I will send you corn … – This is the beginning of the reversal of the threatened judgments. It is clear from this, and still more from what follows, that the chastisements actually came, so that the repentance described, was the consequence, not of the exhortations to repentance, but of the chastisement. What was removed was the chastisement which had burst upon them, not when it was ready to burst. What was given, was what before had been taken away. So it ever was with the Jews; so it is mostly with the portions of the Christian Church or with individuals now. Seldom do they take warning of coming woe; when it has begun to burst, or has burst, then they repent and God gives them back upon repentance what He had withdrawn or a portion of it. So the prophet seems here to exhibit to us a law and a course of Gods judgments and mercies upon mans sin. He takes away both temporal and spiritual blessings symbolized here by the grain and wine and oil; upon repentance He restores them. : Over and against the wasting of the land, he sets its richness; against hunger, fullness; against reproach, unperiled glory; against the cruelty and incursion of enemies, their destruction and putrefaction; against barrenness of fruits and aridity of trees, their fresh shoots and richness; against the hunger of the word and thirst for doctrine, he brings in the fountain of life, and the Teacher of righteousness; against sadness, joy; against confusion, solace; against reproaches, glory; against death, life; against ashes, a crown.
O fruitful and manly penitence! O noble maiden, most faithful intercessor for sins! A plank after shipwreck! Refuge of the poor, help of the miserable, hope of exiles, cherisher of the weak, light of the blind, solace of the fatherless, scourge of the petulant, axe of vices, garner of virtues. Thou who alone bindest the Judge, pleadest with the Creator, conquerest the Almighty. While overcome, thou overcomest; while tortured, thou torturest; while wounding, thou healest; while healthfully succumbing, thou triumphest gloriously. Thou alone, while others keep silence, mountest boldly the throne of grace. David thou leadest by the hand and reconcilest; Peter thou restorest; Paul thou enlightenest; the Publican, taken from the receipt of custom, thou boldly insertest in the choir of the Apostles; Mary, from a harlot, thou bearest aloft and joinest to Christ; the robber nailed to the cross, yet fresh from blood, thou introducest into Paradise. What more? At thy disposal is the court of heaven.
And I will no more make you a reproach – All the promises of God are conditional. They presuppose mans faithfulness. Gods pardon is complete. He will not, He says, for these offences, or for any like offences, give them over to the pagan. So after the captivity He no more made them a reproach unto the pagan, until they finally apostatized, and leaving their Redeemer, owned no king but Caesar. They first gave themselves up; they chose Caesar rather than Christ, and to be servants of Caesar, rather than that He should not be crucified; and so God left them in his hands, whom they had chosen.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 19. Yea, the Lord will answer] It is not a peradventure; it will surely be done; if ye seek God as commanded, ye will find him as promised.
I will send you corn and wine] He will either prevent the total ravaging of the land, or so bless it with extraordinary vegetable strength, that ye shall have plentiful crops.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Yea, or And, Heb.
The Lord will answer; before it was he would pity, Joe 2:18; not as men many times pity and profess to have compassion for the miserable who cry to them, yet do nothing; but God will pity their case and hear their request, nay, grant their request and relieve them.
And say; speak to and work for his people.
Unto his people; his covenant, praying, repenting, and reforming people.
Behold; what he doth for such a people shall be visible, remarkable, and such as they may observe.
I will send you corn, and wine, and oil: fruitful seasons shall come when God sends them, his command to the heavens to pour down their sweet and fruitful influences shall certainly be obeyed; these must hear God, and then the earth shall hear the corn, and wine, and oil, as Hos 2:21,22.
Ye shall be satisfied therewith; you shall have abundance to fill and satisfy you, that you may rejoice in your habitations and know no want.
I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen; your heathen neighbours shall no more insult over you ny people, nor over The your God. Obey my prophet, turn from your sins, and I will do you all this good I promise, or you need and ask.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19. corn . . . wine . . .oilrather, as Hebrew, “the corn . . . thewine . . . the oil,” namely, which the locusts havedestroyed [HENDERSON].MAURER not so wellexplains, “the corn, c., necessary for your sustenance.””The Lord will answer,” namely, the prayers of Hispeople, priests, and prophets. Compare in the case of Sennacherib,2Ki 19:20 2Ki 19:21.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people,…. By his prophets, as Kimchi: or, “the Lord answered and said” a; while they were praying and weeping, or as soon as they cried unto him; or, however, praying to him, they might assure themselves that he heard them, and would answer them both by words and deeds:
behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil; that is, cause the earth to bring forth corn, as wheat and barley, and the vines and olive trees to bring forth grapes and olives, from which wine and oil might be made: this is, according to some interpreters, to be understood of an abundance of spiritual blessings:
and ye shall be satisfied therewith; or, “with it”; with each and every of the above things, corn, wine, and oil; they should not only have them, but have enough of them, even to satiety:
and I will no more make you a reproach among the Heathen; for want of food, and as if forsaken of God. The Targum is,
“and I will not give you any more the reproaches of famine among the people;”
see Joe 2:17.
a “et respondit”, Piscator, Drusius, Burkius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The promise runs as follows. Joe 2:19. “ Behold, I send you the corn, and the new wine, and the oil, that ye may become satisfied therewith; and will no more make you a reproach among the nations. Joe 2:20. And I will remove the northern one far away from you, and drive him into the land of drought and desert; its van into the front sea, and its rear into the hinder sea: and its stink will ascend, and its corruption ascend, for it has done great things.” The Lord promises, first of all, a compensation for the injury done by the devastation, and then the destruction of the devastation itself, so that it may do no further damage. Joe 2:19 stands related to Joe 1:11. Shalach , to send: the corn is said to be sent instead of given (Hos 2:10), because God sends the rain which causes the corn to grow. Israel shall no longer be a reproach among the nations, “as a poor people, whose God is unable to assist it, or has evidently forsaken it” (Ros.). Marck and Schmieder have already observed that this promise is related to the prayer, that He would not give up His inheritance to the reproach of the scoffings of the heathen (Joe 1:17: see the comm. on this verse). , the northern one, as an epithet applied to the swarm of locusts, furnishes no decisive argument in favour of the allegorical interpretation of the plague of locusts. For even if locusts generally come to Palestine from the south, out of the Arabian desert, the remark out of the Arabian desert, the remark made by Jerome, to the effect that “the swarms of locusts are more generally brought by the south wind than by the north,” shows that the rule is not without its exceptions. “Locusts come and go with all winds” (Oedmann, ii. p. 97). In Arabia, Niebuhr ( Beschreib. p. 169) saw swarms of locusts come from south, west, north, and east. Their home is not confined to the desert of Arabia, but they are found in all the sandy deserts, which form the southern boundaries of the lands that were, and to some extent still are, the seat of cultivation, viz., in the Sahara, the Libyan desert, Arabia, and Irak (Credner, p. 285); and Niebuhr ( l.c.) saw a large tract of land, on the road from Mosul to Nisibis, completely covered with young locusts. They are also met with in the Syrian desert, from which swarms could easily be driven to Palestine by a north-east wind, without having to fly across the mountains of Lebanon. Such a swarm as this might be called the ts e phon , i.e., the northern one, or northerner, even if the north was not its true home. For it cannot be philologically proved that ts e phon can only denote one whose home is in the north. Such explanations as the Typhonian, the barbarian, and others, which we meet with in Hitzig, Ewald, and Meier, and which are obtained by alterations of the text or far-fetched etymologies, must be rejected as arbitrary. That which came from the north shall also be driven away by the north wind, viz., the great mass into the dry and desert land, i.e., the desert of Arabia, the van into the front (or eastern) sea, i.e., the Dead Sea (Eze 47:18; Zec 14:8), the rear into the hinder (or western) sea, i.e., the Mediterranean (cf. Deu 11:24). This is, of course, not to be understood as signifying that the dispersion was to take place in all these three directions at one and the same moment, in which case three different winds would blow at the same time; but it is a rhetorical picture of rapid and total destruction, which is founded upon the idea that the wind rises in the north-west, then turns to the north, and finally to the north-east, so that the van of the swarm is driven into the eastern sea, the great mass into the southern desert, and the rear into the western sea. The explanation given by Hitzig and others – namely, that panm signifies the eastern border, and soph the western border of the swarm, which covered the entire breadth of the land, and was driven from north to south – cannot be sustained. Joel mentions both the van and the rear after the main body, simply because they both meet with the same fate, both falling into the sea and perishing there; whereupon the dead bodies are thrown up by the waves upon the shore, where their putrefaction fills the air with stench. The perishing of locusts in seas and lakes is attested by many authorities.
(Note: Even Pliny says (h. n. xi. 29), Gregatim sublato vento in maria aut stagna decidunt; and Jerome has the following remarks on this verse: “Even in our own times we have seen the land of Judaea covered by swarms of locusts, which, as soon as the wind rose, were precipitated into the first and latest seas, i.e., the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean. And when the shores of both seas were filled with heaps of dead locusts, which the waters had thrown up, their corruption and stench became so noxious, that even the atmosphere was corrupted, and both man and beasts suffered from the consequent pestilence.”)
For , compare Isa 34:3 and Amo 4:10. is . . ; but the meaning corruption is sustained partly by the parallelism, and partly by the Syriac verb, which means to be dirty. The army of locusts had deserved this destruction, because it had done great things. , to do great things, is affirmed of men or other creatures, with the subordinate idea of haughtiness; so that it not only means he has done a mighty thing, accomplished a mighty devastation, but is used in the same sense as the German grosstun , via. to brag or be proud of one strength. It does not follow from this, however, that the locusts are simply figurative, and represent hostile nations. For however true it may be that sin and punishment presuppose accountability (Hengst., Hvernick), and conclusion drawn from this – namely, that they cannot be imputed to irrational creatures – is incorrect. The very opposite is taught by the Mosaic law, according to which God will punish every act of violence done by beasts upon man (Gen 9:5), whilst the ox which killed a man was commanded to be stoned (Exo 21:28-32).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
He afterwards says, God has answered (8) and said to his people, Behold, I will send to you corn, wine, and oil. The Prophet does not here recite what had been done, but, on the contrary, declares, that God in future would be reconciled to them; as though he said, “I have hitherto been a herald of war, and bidden all to prepare themselves for the coming evil: but now I am a messenger to proclaim peace to you; if only you are resolved to turn to God, and to turn unfeignedly, I do now testify to you that God will be propitious to you; and as to your prayers know that they are already heard; that is, know that as soon as they were conceived, they were heard by the Lord.” Hence he says, He has answered; that is “If, moved by my exhortation, ye return with sincerity to God, he will meet you, nay, he has already met you; he waits not until ye have done all that ye ought to do; but when he bids you to come to his temple and to weep, he at the same time wipes off your tears, he removes every cause of sorrow and anxiety.” God, then, has answered; that is, “I am to you a certain and sufficient witness, that your prayers have been already accepted before God, though, as I have before reminded you, ye have not offered them.”
And, at the same time, he speaks of the effect, Behold, I will send to you corn, wine, and oil; and ye shall be satisfied. Here, by the effects, he proves that God would be propitious; for want of food was the first evidence of God’s displeasure, to be followed by the destruction which the Prophet had threatened. What does he say now? God will restore to you abundance of corn, wine, and oil; and he says further, I will not give you to the Gentiles for a reproach that they may rule over you
We now then apprehend the meaning of the Prophet; for he not only promises that God would be placable but also declares that he was already placable; and this he confirms by external tokens; for God would immediately remove the sins of his wrath, and turn them into blessings. Hence he says, ‘He will give you abundance of corn, wine, and oil, so as fully to satisfy you.’ As they had perceived that God was angry with them by the sterility of the land, and also by its produce being consumed by chafers, by locusts, and other animals or insects; so now the Lord would testify his love to them by the abounding fruitfulness of every thing. And then he joins another sentence, I will not give you any more for a reproach to the Gentiles. When he says, “any more,” he intimates that they had been before exposed to reproach; and we indeed know that they were then suffering many evils; but there remained that destruction of which we have heard. God does then here promise, that they should no more be subject to the reproaches of the Gentiles provided they repented; for the Prophet ever speaks conditionally. It now follows —
(8) There is no reason for rendering this in the past tense: it is in the same predicament with the verb, “will be jealous,” in the former verse, and ought to be rendered like it in the future time, “will answer.” The comment founded on this rendering, though true in itself, is yet too refined, and suits not this place. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(19) I will no more make you.The reply of the Lord is directed to remove the fear that by reason of the destruction of the fruits of the land the people would be at the mercy of the invading nations.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
19. The jealousy and pity bring about a change in the purpose of God, which change is indicated in the reply to the petitions. The things needed immediately will be restored at once.
I will send Heb, hinneh with the participle, “I am about to send” (G.-K., 116p.).
Corn [“grain”] [“new”] wine oil The very things that the locusts had destroyed (Joe 1:10); they were needed for the daily sacrifice (Joe 1:9), and for daily life (Joe 1:11-12). These products will be given not in a scant measure but in abundance, so that the people will be satisfied. The new prosperity will remove the reproach (Joe 2:17) that Israel is a poor people whose God is unable or unwilling to assist it; the surrounding nations will recognize once more the presence of Jehovah. The very fact that the removal of the reproach is connected with the new fertility makes it probable that the danger of becoming a reproach was due to the absence of fertility, not to the invasion of a foreign foe.
The contents of the promise do not seem to be enumerated in the chronological order in which they will actually be realized. The blessings of Joe 2:19 follow, they do not precede, the destruction of the locusts announced in Joe 2:20.
From you Literally, from upon you. Two prepositions in Hebrew; the locusts had been resting upon the land as a burden (Amo 5:23; Exo 10:17).
The northern army Literally, the northern one (see above, p. 144). The context requires that we regard the expression as an epithet of the swarm of locusts. True, ordinarily they do not come from the north, but it cannot be proved that they never come from there. All that Jerome was willing to say is that “the swarms of locusts are more generally brought by the south wind than by the north.” Niebuhr tells of a tract of land, on the road from Nisibis to Mosul, completely covered with young locusts. Locusts are also found in the Syrian and Palmyrene desert, whence they might easily be carried by a northeast wind into Palestine toward Jerusalem; in such case the designation “the northern” would be perfectly appropriate. While this is a legitimate interpretation, it is more likely (see above, p. 145) that the term is used here not in a literal but in an apocalyptic sense, derived from passages such as Jer 1:14; Eze 38:6; Eze 38:15. A similar change from an historical to an apocalyptic conception may be seen in the corresponding Arabic word (Wellhausen). The army which came from the north will be carried away by a north wind into a land barren and desolate Not only the desert shores of the Dead Sea (Credner), but the great Arabian Desert south and southeast of Palestine. There the main body will go. The following clause would better be rendered, with R.V., “its forepart into the eastern sea, and its hinder part into the western sea.”
Face R.V., “forepart”; that which is in front, the van.
East sea Literally, front sea. The Hebrews and other Oriental nations, in fixing the points of the compass, faced eastward; hence front east, behind west.
The “East Sea” is the Dead Sea, which is eastward from Jerusalem (Zec 14:8; Eze 47:18).
Hinder part Literally, end, the rear; Hebrews soph, an Aramaic word (Dan 4:8; Dan 4:29) found only in late Hebrew writings.
Utmost sea Literally, hinder sea; R.V., “western sea,” the Mediterranean (Deu 11:24; Num 34:6-7; Zec 14:8). The expressions are not to be understood as signifying that three winds would blow at one and the same time, one from the north, one from the east or northeast, the third from the west or northwest; they present a rhetorical picture of rapid and total destruction “which is founded upon the idea that the wind rises in the northwest, then turns to the north, and finally to the northeast, so that the van of the swarm is driven into the Dead Sea, the great mass into the southern desert, and the rear into the Mediterranean.” The dead locusts will soon decay, their stench will rise (Isa 34:3; Amo 4:10).
Ill savor The Hebrew word is found only here, but its meaning is determined by the cognate languages and is correctly reproduced by the ancient versions. The Hebrew construction is peculiar. Hence, many commentators think that the two clauses, “and his stink shall come up, and his ill savor shall come up,” are an expansion of one clause. “And his ill savor shall come up” they regard as the original of the two, while they consider the other, “and his stink shall come up,” a later gloss intended to explain the rare word translated “ill savor.” “Even in our own times,” says Jerome, “we have seen the land of Judah covered by swarms of locusts, which as soon as the wind arose were precipitated into the first and the hindermost (Dead and Mediterranean) seas. And when the shores of both seas were filled with heaps of dead locusts, which the waters had thrown up, their corruption and stench became so noxious that even the atmosphere was corrupted, and both man and beast suffered from consequent pestilence.”
Because he hath done great things Literally, he hath shown greatness to do. Affirmed of Jehovah in Joe 2:21. When used of men or other creatures the idea of haughtiness is implied; they have gone beyond their proper bounds (Lam 1:9; Psa 35:26); like the German “grossthun,” to brag, to glory in one’s strength and success. Here, not only “it has accomplished a great devastation,” but, “it has accomplished it and brags about it.” In a strictly literal sense the expression is inapplicable to irrational creatures, but this does by no means prove that the locusts symbolize hostile armies. The prophet is at liberty, in a poetic description, to endow even irrational creatures with rational and moral powers (Isa 44:23). It is interesting to note that Hebrew legislation holds even animals accountable for acts of violence (Gen 9:5; Exo 21:28-32).
Joe 2:19-20 are placed in the mouth of Jehovah; in 21 the prophet steps in once more as the speaker. In the presence of calamity, joy had vanished from the sons of men (Joe 1:12); the promises of 19, 20 mean a complete transformation. In view of the new prospects he calls upon the land (21), the beasts (22), and the children of Zion (23) to be glad and rejoice.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Joe 2:19 Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen:
Ver. 19. Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people ] He will say it in answer to their prayers (see the note on Joe 2:18 ). Fear not, my people, that ye shall be a reproach among the heathen:
Behold, I will send you
Corn, and wine, and oil
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Behold. Figure of speech Astertismos (App-6), to call attention to the “blessing”
mentioned in Joe 2:14. corn, &c. Compare Joe 1:10; Mal 3:11, Mal 3:12, The Article is used with each of these in theHebrew text.
wine. Hebrew. tirosh. App-27.
make you a reproach. See note on “rule”, Joe 2:17.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I will send: Joe 2:24, Joe 1:10, Isa 62:8, Isa 62:9, Isa 65:21-24, Hos 2:15, Amo 9:13, Amo 9:14, Hag 2:16-19, Mal 3:10-12, Mat 6:33
and ye: Joe 2:26
and I: Eze 34:29, Eze 36:15, Eze 39:29
Reciprocal: Gen 27:28 – plenty Lev 26:5 – eat your Deu 11:15 – eat and be full 1Sa 17:26 – reproach 2Sa 21:14 – God Psa 39:8 – make Nah 1:12 – I will
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Joe 2:19. The Lord was to make these provisions for his people by re-luming them from the captivity so they could reap the products of the home land. It was a great reproach upon the nation of Israel to be held captive in a heathen land, but that was to be reversed and never again be repeated.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2. The Lord’s promise of blessing 2:19-27
Having given His essential response to the people’s repentance, the Lord now explained what He would do in more detail. This section is chiastic with the focus of emphasis on Joe 2:21-24. Joe 2:19; Joe 2:26-27 promise a restoration of crops and a cessation of shame. Joe 2:20; Joe 2:25 promise the elimination of enemies, and Joe 2:21-24 urge courage and encourage rejoicing.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Joel had interpreted the Lord’s response (Joe 2:18), and now he relayed His instructions (Joe 2:19-27). Yahweh would restore all that the locusts had eaten: grain, wine, and oil (cf. Joe 1:10). The people would enjoy plenty of these products in the future (cf. Deu 6:10-11; Deu 8:7-10; Deu 11:13-15). Yahweh would also never again allow the nations to disparage His people, assuming that they would not apostatize again (cf. Joe 2:26-27). Another view, less acceptable from my viewpoint, is that this promise is unconditional and refers to Israel’s eschatological future. The problem with this view is that the Jews will experience some antagonism at the very end of the Millennium (Rev 20:7-10).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. THE RETURN OF PROSPERITY
Joe 2:19-27
“And Jehovah answered and said to His people: Lo, I will send you corn and wine and oil, And your fill shall ye have of them; And I will not again make you a reproach among the heathen. And the Northern Foe: will I remove far from you; And I will push him into a land barren and waste, His van to the eastern sea and his rear to the western, Till the stench of him rises, Because he hath done greatly.”
Locusts disappear with the same suddenness as they arrive. A wind springs up and they are gone. {Nah 3:17 Exo 10:19} Dead Sea and Mediterranean are at the extremes of the compass, but there is no reason to suppose that the prophet has abandoned the realism which has hitherto distinguished his treatment of the locusts. The plague covered the whole land, on whose high watershed the winds suddenly veer and change. The dispersion of the locusts upon the deserts and the opposite seas was therefore possible at one and the same time. Jerome vouches for an instance in his own day. The other detail is also true to life. Jerome says that the beaches of the two seas were strewn with putrefying locusts, and Augustine quotes heathen writers in evidence of large masses of locusts, driven from Africa upon the sea, and then cast up on the shore, which gave rise to a pestilence. “The south and east winds,” says Volney of Syria, “drive the clouds of locusts with violence into the Mediterranean, and drown them in such quantities that when their dead are cast on the shore they infect the air to a great distance.” The prophet continues, celebrating this destruction of the locusts as if it were already realized-“the Lord hath done greatly,” Joe 2:21. That among the blessings he mentions a full supply of rain proves that we were right in interpreting him to have spoken of drought as accompanying the locusts.
“Fear not, O Land! Rejoice and he glad, For Jehovah hath done greatly. Fear not, O beasts of the field! For the pastures of the steppes are springing with new grass, The trees bear their fruit, Fig-tree and vine yield their substance. O sons of Zion, be glad, And rejoice in Jehovah your God: For He hath given you the early rain in normal measure, And poured on you winter rain and latter rain as before. And the threshing-floors shall be full of wheat, And the vats stream over with new wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years which the Swarmer has eaten, The Lapper, the Devourer and the Shearer, My great army whom I sent among you. And ye shall eat your food and be full, And praise the Name of Jehovah your God, Who hath dealt so wondrously with you; And My people shall be abashed nevermore. Ye shall know I am in the midst of Israel, That I am Jehovah your God and none else; And nevermore shall My people be abashed.”