Joel 1:19

19 Lord, I shall cry to thee, for fire ate the fair things of desert, and flame burnt all the trees of the country. (Lord, I shall cry to thee, for fire ate up the beautiful things of the desert/for fire ate up the pastures of the wilderness, and flames burned down all the trees of the countryside.)

Joel 1:19 Meaning and Commentary

Joel 1:19

O Lord, to thee will I cry
Or pray, as the Targum; with great vehemency and earnestness, commiserating the case of man and beast: these are the words of the prophet, resolving to use his interest at the through of grace in this time of distress, whatever others did: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness;
or, "of the plain" ^F3 though in the wildernesses of Judea, there were pastures for cattle: Kimchi interprets them of the shepherds' tents or cotes, as the word ^F4 is sometimes used; which were will not to be pitched where there were pastures for their flocks: and so the Targum renders it, "the habitations of the wilderness"; these, whether pastures or habitations, or both, were destroyed by fire, the pastures by the locusts, as Kimchi; which, as Pliny ^F5 says, by touching burn the trees, herbs, and fruits of the earth; see ( Joel 2:3 ) ; or by the Assyrians or Chaldeans, who by fire and sword consumed all in their way; or by a dry burning blasting wind, as Lyra; and so the Targum interprets it of a strong east wind like fire: it seems rather to design extreme heat and excessive drought, which burn up all the produce of the earth: and the flame hath burnt all the trees of the field;
which may be understood of flashes of lightning, which are common in times of great heat and drought; see ( Psalms 83:14 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 (rbdm) "non tantum desertum significat sed et campum sativum", Oecolampadius. "A place of pasture for cattle", Ben Melech.
F4 (twan) "caulas", Piscator. So Ben Melech.
F5 Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 29.

Joel 1:19 In-Context

17 Beasts waxed rotten in their drit. Barns be destroyed, cellars be destroyed, for wheat is shamed. (The seed grew rotten in the dirt, or the dry earth. The barns be empty, and the cellars be bare, for the corn, or the grain, is parched, or dried up.)

18 Why wailed a beast? why lowed the flocks of oxen and kine? for no pasture is to them; but also the flocks of sheep perished. (Why do the beasts wail? why do the herds of oxen and cattle bellow? because there is no pasture for them; and the flocks of sheep have also perished.)

19 Lord, I shall cry to thee, for fire ate the fair things of desert, and flame burnt all the trees of the country. (Lord, I shall cry to thee, for fire ate up the beautiful things of the desert/for fire ate up the pastures of the wilderness, and flames burned down all the trees of the countryside.)

20 But also beasts of the field, as a cornfloor thirsting rain, beheld [up] to thee; for the wells of waters be dried up, and fire devoured the fair things of desert. (And the beasts of the field, like a threshing floor thirsting for rain, looked up to thee; for the water wells be dried up, and fire devoured the beautiful things of the desert/and fire devoured the pastures of the wilderness.)