THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JOEL _Chronological Notes relative to the commencement of Joel's_ _prophesying, upon the supposition that this event took place_ _about_ six hundred and ninety _years before the commencement of_ _the Christian era._ -Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher,... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joel 1:2. _YE OLD MEN_] Instead of הזקנים _hazzekenim, old men_, a few MSS. have הכהנים _haccohanim, ye priests_, but improperly. _HATH THIS BEEN IN YOUR DAYS_] He begins very abruptly; and before he proposes his _subject_, excites attention and alarm by intimating that he is about to announc... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joel 1:3. _TELL YE YOUR CHILDREN OF IT_] To heighten the effect, he still conceals the subject, and informs them that it is such as should be handed down from father to son through all generations.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 4. _THAT WHICH THE PALMERWORM HATH LEFT_] Here he begins to open his message, and the words he chooses show that he is going to announce a devastation of the land by _locusts_, and a _famine_ consequent on their depredations. What the different _insects_ may be which he specifies is not easy t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 5. _AWAKE, YE DRUNKARDS_] The general destruction of vegetation by these devouring creatures has totally prevented both _harvest_ and _vintage_; so that there shall not be _wine_ even for _necessary_ uses, much less for the purposes of _debauchery_. It is well known that the ruin among the vin... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 6. _A NATION IS COME UP UPON MY LAND_] That real _locusts_ are intended there can be little doubt; but it is thought that this may be a _double prophecy_, and that the destruction by the _Chaldeans_ may also be intended, and that the _four_ kinds of _locusts_ mentioned above may mean the _four... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 7. _HE HATH LAID MY VINE WASTE_] The locusts have eaten off both _leaves_ and _bark_. חשף חשפה chasoph chasaphah, he hath _made it clean bare_; שדד שדה suddad sadeh, the field is laid _waste_, Joel 1:10; and כשד משדי _kesod mishshaddai_, a _destruction from the Almighty_, Joel 1:15; are all _p... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 8. _LAMENT LIKE A VIRGIN - FOR THE HUSBAND OF HER YOUTH._] _Virgin_ is a very improper _version_ here. The original is בתולה _bethulah_, which signifies a _young woman_ or _bride_ not a _virgin,_ the proper Hebrew for which is עלמה _almah_. Isaiah 7:14, and _"_Matthew 1:23_"_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 9. _THE MEAT-OFFERING AND THE DRINK-OFFERING IS CUT OFF_] The crops and the vines being destroyed by the locusts, the total devastation in plants, trees, corn, c., is referred to and described with a striking variety of expression in this and the following verses.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 12. _THE VINE IS DRIED UP_] Dr. _Shaw_ observes that in Barbary, in the month of June, the locusts collect themselves into compact bodies a furlong or more square, and march on, eating up every thing that is green or juicy, and letting nothing escape them, whether vegetables or _trees_. They... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 14. _CALL A SOLEMN ASSEMBLY_] עצרה _atsarah_ signifies a time of _restraint_, as the _margin_ has it. The clause should be translated-_consecrate a fast, proclaim a time of restraint_; that is, of total abstinence from _food_, and from all _secular_ _employment_. All the elders of the land and... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 15. _ALAS FOR THE DAY!_] The _Syriac repeats_ this, the _Vulgate, Septuagint_, and _Arabic_, thrice: "Alas, alas, alas, for the day!" _AS A DESTRUCTION FROM THE ALMIGHTY_] The destruction that is now coming is no ordinary calamity; it is as a signal judgment immediately inflicted by the Almig... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 17. _THE SEED IS ROTTEN UNDER THEIR CLODS_] When the sprout was cut off as low as possible by the locusts, there was no farther germination. The seed rotted away.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joel 1:18. _HOW DO THE BEASTS GROAN!_] I really think that the _neighing_ of horses, or _braying_ of asses, is wonderfully expressed by the sound of the original: מה נאנחה בהמה _mah NEENCHAH_ _behemah_, how do the horses _neigh_! how do the asses _bray_! בהמה behemah is a collective name for a... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joel 1:19. _O LORD, TO THEE WILL I CRY_] Let this calamity come as it may, _we have sinned_, and should humble ourselves before God; and it is such a calamity as God alone can remove, therefore unto him must we cry. _THE FIRE HATH DEVOURED THE PASTURES_] This may either refer to a _drought_,... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Joel 1:20. _THE BEASTS OF THE FIELD CRY ALSO UNTO THEE_] Even the cattle, wild and tame, are represented as supplicating God to have mercy upon them, and send them provender! There is a similar affecting description of the effects of a drought in Jeremiah, Jeremiah 14:6. _THE RIVERS OF WATERS... [ Continue Reading ]