Yoel 1:2-14

2 Hear this, ye zekenim, and give ear, all ye yoshvei ha’aretz (inhabitants of the land). Hath anything like this been in your days, or even in the days of your avot (fathers)?

3 Tell ye your banim (children) of it, and let your banim tell their banim, and their banim to the next generation.

4 That which the locust swarm hath left hath the arbeh (great locust) eaten; and that which the arbeh hath left hath the crawling locust eaten; and that which the crawling locust hath left hath the other locust eaten.

5 Awake, ye shikkorim (drunkards), and weep; and wail, all ye drinkers of yayin, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

6 For a Goy is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of an aryeh (lion), and he hath the fangs of a lioness.

7 He hath laid my gefen (vine) waste, and barked my teenah (fig tree); he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

8 Lament like a betulah girded with sackcloth for the ba’al (husband) of her youth.

9 The minchah and the nesekh is cut off from the Beis Hashem; the kohanim, the mesharetim (ministers) of Hashem, mourn.

10 The sadeh (field) is wasted, the adamah (land) mourneth; for the grain is wasted; the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

11 Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen [i.e., farmers]; wail, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the katzir (harvest) of the sadeh is perished.

12 The gefen is dried up, and the teenah languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the sadeh, are withered; because sasson (joy) is withered away from the bnei Adam.

13 Gird yourselves, and lament, ye kohanim; howl, ye mesharetim of the Mizbe’ach; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye mesharetim of my G-d; for the minchah and the nesekh is withheld from the Beis of your G-d [i.e., the Beis Hamikdash].

14 Sanctify ye a tzom (fast), call an atzarah (solemn assembly), gather the zekenim and all the yoshvei ha’aretz into the Beis Hashem Eloheichem, and cry unto Hashem,

Yoel 1:2-14 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOEL

In some Hebrew Bibles this prophecy is called "Sepher Joel", the Book of Joel; in the Vulgate Latin version, the Prophecy of Joel; and in the Syriac version, the Prophecy of the Prophet Joel; and the Arabic version, the Prophet Joel; and so the Apostle Peter quotes him, Ac 2:16. His name, according to Hillerus {a}, signifies "the Lord is God"; but others derive it from lay, which in "Hiphil" is lyawh, and signifies "he willed, acquiesced, or is well pleased, so Abarbinei; and hence Schmidt thinks it answers to Desiderius or Erasmus. According to Isidorus {b}, he was born at Bethoron, in the tribe of Reuben, and died and was buried there; and so says Pseudo-Epiphanius {c}. In what age he lived is not easy to say. Aben Ezra expressly affirms there is no way to know it; and so R. David Ganz {d} says, his time we know not; and likewise Abarbinel. Some think he prophesied about the same time Hoses did, after whom he is next placed; and so Mr. Whiston {e} and, Mr. Bedford {f} make him to prophesy much about the same time with Isaiah and Hoses, about eight hundred years before Christ; but, in the Septuagint version, this book is in the fourth order, and not Hoses, but Amos and Micah, are placed before him; and so the author of Juchasin {g} puts the prophets in this order, first Hoses, then Amos, next Isaiah, then Micah, and after him Joel. Some of the Jewish writers, as Jarchi, Kimchi, and Abendana relate, make Joel contemporary with Elisha, and say he prophesied in the, lays of Jehoram the son of Ahab, when the seven years' famine called for came upon the land, 2Ki 8:1. Both in Seder Olam Rabba and Zuta {h} he is placed in the reign of Manasseh; and so in Hilchot Gedolot, as Jarchi observes. And it seems indeed as if he prophesied after the ten tribes were carried captive, which was in the sixth year of Hezekiah's reign, since no mention is made of Israel but with respect to future times, only of Judah and Jerusalem, But, be it when it will that he prophesied, there is no doubt to be made of the authenticity of this book, which is confirmed by the quotations of two apostles out of two: Peter and Paul, Ac 2:16, Ro 10:13.

{a} Onomast. Sacr. p. 856. {b} De Vita & Mart. Sanct. c. 4. {c} De Vita Proph. c. 14. {d} Tzemach David, par. 1. fol. 14. 2. {e} Chronological Tables, cent. 7. and 8. {f} Scripture Chronology, B. 6. c. 2. p. 646. {g} Fol. 12. 1, 2. {h} P. 55, 105. Ed. Meyer.

\\INTRODUCTION TO JOEL 1\\

This chapter describes a dreadful calamity upon the people of the Jews, by locusts and, caterpillars, and drought. After the title of the book, Joe 1:1; old men are called upon to observe this sore judgment to their children, that it might be transmitted to the latest posterity, as that the like to which had not been seen and heard of, Joe 1:2-4; and drunkards to awake and weep, because the vines were destroyed, and no wine could be made for them, Joe 1:5-7; and not only husbandmen and vinedressers, but the priests of the Lord, are called to mourn, because such destruction, was made in the fields and vineyards, that there were no meat nor drink offering brought into the house of the Lord, Joe 1:8-13; wherefore a general and solemn fast is required throughout the land, because of the distress of man and beast, Joe 1:14-18; and the chapter is concluded with the resolution of the prophet to cry unto the Lord, on account of this calamity, Joe 1:19,20.