Joel 1

1 The word of the Lord is this, that was made to Joel, the son of Pethuel.

2 Eld men, hear ye this, and all dwellers of the land, perceive ye with ears. If this thing was done in your days, either in the days of your fathers. (Old men, hear ye this, and all the inhabitants of the land, listen! Was such a thing as this ever done in your days, or in the days of your forefathers?)

3 Of this thing tell ye to your sons, and your sons tell to their sons, and the sons of them tell to another generation. (Tell ye this thing to your children, and your children tell their children, and their children tell to another generation.)

4 A locust ate the residue of a wortworm, and a bruchus ate the residue of a locust, and rust ate the residue of a bruchus.

5 Drunken men, wake ye, and weep; and yell ye, all that drink wine in sweetness; for it perished from your mouth. (Drunken people, wake ye up, and weep; and yell ye, all who drink wine for its sweetness; for it hath perished from your mouth.)

6 For why a folk strong and unnumberable ascended on my land. The teeth thereof be as the teeth of a lion, and the cheek teeth thereof be as of a whelp of a lion. (For a people, strong and innumerable, came upon my land. Their teeth be like the teeth of a lion; and their molars be like that of a lion's cub.)

7 It setted my vinery into desert, and took away the rind of my fig tree. It made naked and spoiled that vinery, and casted forth; the branches thereof be made white. (They destroyed my vines, and took the rind off my fig trees. They made bare and spoiled that vineyard, and cast it down; its branches were made white.)

8 Wail thou, as a virgin girded with a sackcloth on the husband of her time of marriage. (Wail thou, like a virgin clothed with a sackcloth for her husband, at the time of her marriage.)

9 Sacrifice and moist sacrifice perished from the house of the Lord; and priests, the ministers of the Lord, mourned. (There is no grain or wine to offer in the House of the Lord; and the priests, the ministers of the Lord, mourned.)

10 The country is made bare of people. The earth mourned; for wheat is destroyed. Wine is shamed, and oil was sick, either failed. (The land is made bare of people. The earth mourned, for the corn, or the grain, is destroyed. The wine is dried up, and the oil languished, or failed.)

11 The earth-tillers be shamed, the vine-tillers yelled on wheat and barley; for the ripe corn of the field is perished. (The earth-tillers despaired, the vine-tillers mourned for the wheat and the barley; for the harvest of the field hath perished.)

12 The vinery is shamed; and the fig tree was sick. The pomegranate tree, and the palm tree, and the fir tree, and all the trees of the field dried up; for joy is shamed from the sons of men. (The vines be dried up, and the fig trees languished, or failed. The pomegranate tree, the palm tree, the fir tree, and all the trees of the field have dried up; and joy is gone away from among the people.)

13 Ye priests, gird you(rselves), and wail; ye ministers of the altar, yell. Ministers of my God, enter ye, lie ye in sackcloth; for why sacrifice and moist sacrifice perished from the house of your God (for there is no grain or wine to offer in the House of your God).

14 Hallow ye fasting, call ye the company, gather ye together eld men, and all dwellers of the earth, into the house of your God; and cry ye to the Lord, (Call ye for a fast, call ye the congregation, gather ye together the old men, that is, the elders, and all the people of the land, into the House of your God; and cry ye to the Lord,)

15 A! A! A! to the day; for the day of the Lord is nigh, and shall come as a tempest from the (Al)mighty. (O! O! O! what a day! for the day of the Lord is near, and it shall come like a tempest from the Almighty.)

16 Whether foods perished not before your eyes; gladness and full out joy perished from the house of your God? (All the food hath perished before our eyes; and happiness and rejoicing have departed from the House of our God.)

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.)

Joel 1 Commentary

Chapter 1

From the desolations about to come upon the land of Judah, by the ravages of locusts and other insects, the prophet Joel exhorts the Jews to repentance, fasting, and prayer. He notices the blessings of the gospel, with the final glorious state of the church.

A plague of locusts. (1-7) All sorts of people are called to lament it. (8-13) They are to look to God. (14-20)

Verses 1-7 The most aged could not remember such calamities as were about to take place. Armies of insects were coming upon the land to eat the fruits of it. It is expressed so as to apply also to the destruction of the country by a foreign enemy, and seems to refer to the devastations of the Chaldeans. God is Lord of hosts, has every creature at his command, and, when he pleases, can humble and mortify a proud, rebellious people, by the weakest and most contemptible creatures. It is just with God to take away the comforts which are abused to luxury and excess; and the more men place their happiness in the gratifications of sense, the more severe temporal afflictions are upon them. The more earthly delights we make needful to satisfy us, the more we expose ourselves to trouble.

Verses 8-13 All who labour only for the meat that perishes, will, sooner or later, be ashamed of their labour. Those that place their happiness in the delights of sense, when deprived of them, or disturbed in the enjoyment, lose their joy; whereas spiritual joy then flourishes more than ever. See what perishing, uncertain things our creature-comforts are. See how we need to live in continual dependence upon God and his providence. See what ruinous work sin makes. As far as poverty occasions the decay of piety, and starves the cause of religion among a people, it is a very sore judgment. But how blessed are the awakening judgments of God, in rousing his people and calling home the heart to Christ, and his salvation!

Verses 14-20 The sorrow of the people is turned into repentance and humiliation before God. With all the marks of sorrow and shame, sin must be confessed and bewailed. A day is to be appointed for this purpose; a day in which people must be kept from their common employments, that they may more closely attend God's services; and there is to be abstaining from meat and drink. Every one had added to the national guilt, all shared in the national calamity, therefore every one must join in repentance. When joy and gladness are cut off from God's house, when serious godliness decays, and love waxes cold, then it is time to cry unto the Lord. The prophet describes how grievous the calamity. See even the inferior creatures suffering for our transgression. And what better are they than beasts, who never cry to God but for corn and wine, and complain of the want of the delights of sense? Yet their crying to God in those cases, shames the stupidity of those who cry not to God in any case. Whatever may become of the nations and churches that persist in ungodliness, believers will find the comfort of acceptance with God, when the wicked shall be burned up with his indignation.

Chapter Summary

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.