Joel 1:6

6 An army of locusts has attacked our land; ¹ they are powerful and too many to count; their teeth are as sharp as those of a lion.

Joel 1:6 Meaning and Commentary

Joel 1:6

For a nation is come up upon my land
A nation of locusts, so called from their great numbers, and coming from foreign parts; just as the ants are called a "people", and the conies a "folk", ( Proverbs 30:25 Proverbs 30:26 ) ; and which were an emblem of the nation of the Chaldeans, which came up from Babylon, and invaded the land of Judea; called by the Lord "my land", because he had chosen it for the habitation of his people; here he himself had long dwelt, and had been served and worshipped in it: though Kimchi thinks these are the words of the inhabitants of the land, or of the prophet; but if it can be thought they are any other than the words of God, they rather seem to be expressed by the drunkards in particular, howling for want of wine, and observing the reason of it: strong, and without number;
this description seems better to agree with the Assyrians or Chaldeans, who were a mighty and powerful people, as well as numerous; though locusts, notwithstanding they are weak, singly taken, yet, coming in large bodies, carry all before them, and there is no stopping them: whose teeth [are] the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a
great lion;
or "the grinders" ^F13 of such an one; being hard, strong, and sharp, to bite off the tops, boughs, and branches of trees: Pliny

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FOOTNOTES:

F14 says, locusts will gnaw with their teeth the doors of houses; so the teeth of locusts are described in ( Revelation 9:8 ) ; this may denote the strength, cruelty, and voraciousness of the Chaldean army.
F13 (tweltm) "molares", Pagninus, Mercerus, Burkius.
F14 Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 29.

Joel 1:6 In-Context

4 Swarm after swarm of locusts settled on the crops; what one swarm left, the next swarm devoured.

5 Wake up and weep, you drunkards; cry, you wine-drinkers; the grapes for making new wine have been destroyed.

6 An army of locusts has attacked our land; they are powerful and too many to count; their teeth are as sharp as those of a lion.

7 They have destroyed our grapevines and chewed up our fig trees. They have stripped off the bark, till the branches are white.

8 Cry, you people, like a young woman who mourns the death of the man she was going to marry.

Cross References

• 1. 1.6Revelation 9.8.