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The LORD’s word that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
Verse 1. Planted. Septuagint “Bathuel.” He was born in the tribe of Gad, at Bethaven, the town which Herod styles Livias Joshua 13:27. Calmet.
When rendered in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, “LORD” or “GOD” is the translation of God’s Proper Name (Hebrew “יהוה”, usually pronounced Yahweh).
Hear this, you elders, and listen, all you inhabitants of the land! Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
Verse 2. Men. Magistrates, and all who have children. Bible. He speaks to Juda, as the kingdom of Israel was ruined. Calmet. 3:2. His principal object is to describe the ravages of locusts, and to exhort the people to repent, promising them better times after the captivity, and under the Messias. Calmet. 2:28 and 3:20. Calmet.
Tell your children about it, and have your children tell their children, and their children, another generation.
Verse 3. Generation. Prophecies relate to all future times, that people may see their accomplishment, ( Worthington.) and believe. Bible.
What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten.
Verse 4. Left, and so forth Some understand this literally of the desolation of the land by these insects: others understand it of the different invasions of the Chaldeans, or other enemies. Challoner.—Jerusalem was four times plundered by the Babylonians, and every time worse than before, as these four sorts of destructive things shew. But we shall not enlarge upon these points, nor pursue the mystical sense of the prophets, which may be found in the fathers and Ribera. Worthington.—Others suppose that the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Greeks, (particularly Epiphanes) and Romans, are meant. We explain it simply of the devastation by insects. Calmet.—Four different species of locusts are denoted. Bochart, p. 2. b. iv. 1.—Mildew. Hebrew chasil, ( Bible.) is often rendered “a locust,” by Septuagint (Calmet. 2:25. and so forth) and most suppose this is here the sense. The mildew destroys corn chiefly in low damp situations. Calmet.
Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.
Verse 5. Sweet. Hebrew “wine, because of the sweet wine,” ( Bible.) or liquors extracted from fruit. The things which you have abused, are now taken away.
For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.
Verse 6. Nations. Some understand the Assyrians or Chaldeans. But locusts are here styled a nation. Proverbs 30:25.—Lion. Such locusts are described. Revelation 9:8. Calmet.—“In India they are said to be three feet long, and their legs and thighs are used for saws when dried.” Pliny xi. 29.—They were attacked by regular troops in Syria. Ib.
He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.
Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!
Verse 8. Youth, whom she espoused first. Such are more tenderly loved, particularly where polygamy prevails. Calmet.—So Dido speaks of Sichæus, Virg. Æn. iv.:
Ille meos primus qui se mihi junxit amores
Abstulit, ille habeat secum servetque sepulchro.
The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the LORD’s house. The priests, the LORD’s ministers, mourn.
Verse 9. Lord. No harvest being reaped, the fruits could not be paid. Yet it is thought that what was requisite for sacrifice, would be procured from other countries. Calmet.—When Jerusalem was destroyed, sacrifices ceased. Worthington.
The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes.
Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers, for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished.
The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered— the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men.
Verse 12. Withered. The bite of locusts corrupts the juice of plants.
Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house.
Verse 13. Go in to the temple, or sleep on sackcloth. Judith 4:9. Calmet.
The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “אֱלֹהִ֑ים” (Elohim).
Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD, your God, and cry to the LORD.
Verse 14. Sanctify. Appoint ( Bible.) or proclaim a general fast, as was usual in such emergencies. 3 Kennicott. 21:9 and 2 Chronicles 20:3. Fasting and other good works are calculated to appease God’s wrath. Worthington.
Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
Verse 15. Day. Hebrew ahah layom: ( Bible.) “Ah, what a day!”—Mighty. Septuagint “destruction.” They have read in a different manner. God is about to give sentence, ( Calmet.) and to send Nabuchodonosor, (Saint Jerome) or to destroy by famine. verse 17.
Isn’t the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
Verse 16. God. None can bring the first-fruits. All appear in mourning.
The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.
Verse 17. Dung. Horse-dung dried for bedding, was used in the East instead of straw, (Busb. 3.) as it is still by the Arabs. Darvieux. 11.—Hebrew “the seeds are rotten under their clods,” ( Bible.) finding no moisture. Septuagint “the cows have stamped in their stalls;” or Syr. “remain without food in their cribs.” Chal. “the pitchers of wine have been corrupted under their covers,” as there was no new wine. Calmet.—Houses. Hebrew mammeguroth. Prot. “barns, ( Bible.) or country houses;” which means cabins erected for the season, (Ruth 2:7) the Magaria ( Calmet.) or Mopalia of the Africans. Saint Jerome pref. Amos.—Septuagint “the wine presses.” Wine and corn were preserved in pits carefully covered over. Agg. 2:20. These fell to decay, as there was no use for them.
How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
LORD, I cry to you, for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.
Verse 19. Places. Hebrew “dwellings,” or shepherds’ huts.—Wilderness, denoting all pasture land unploughed.
Yes, the animals of the field pant to you, for the water brooks have dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
Verse 20. Up, as if to pray for rain. Jeremiah 14:6. Calmet.—Hebrew “cry,” ( Bible.) or “pant.”—As … rain is not in Hebrew or Septuagint Calmet.