Joel 1:18

How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. THE HERDS OF CATTLE ARE PERPLEXED - implying the restless gestures of the dumb beasts in their inability to find food. There is a tacit contrast between the sense of the brute creation and the insensibility of the people. YEA, THE FLOCKS OF SHEEP - even the sheep, which are content with less rich pasturage, cannot find food. ARE MADE DESOLATE - literally, suffer punishment [ ne'ªshaamuw (H816)]. The innocent brute shares the punishment of guilty man. Thus "all the first-born of cattle" were smitten with the same stroke that smote the first-born of man among the Egyptians (Exodus 12:29;...

The Prophet amplifies his reproof, that even oxen as well as other animals felt the judgment of God. There is then here an implied comparison between the feeling of brute animals and the insensibility of the people, as though he said, “There is certainly more intelligence and reason in oxen and other brute animals than in you; for the herds groan, the flocks groan, but ye remain stupid and confounded. What does this mean?” We then see that the Prophet here compares the stupidity of the people with the feeling of animals, to make them more ashamed. _How, _he says, _has the beast groaned? _The question serves to show vehemence; for if he had said in the form of a narrative, that the animals groaned, that the cattle were confounded, and that the flocks perished, the Jews would have been less affected; but when he exclaims and, moved with astonishment, speaks interrogatively, How does the be...

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 cryi...

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 all _domestic cattle_, and those used in _husbandry_. _CATTLE ARE PERPLEXED_] They are looking everywhere, and wandering about to find some grass, and know not which way to run....

HOW DO THE BEASTS GROAN! - There is something very pitiable in the cry of the brute creation, even because they are innocent, yet bear man’s guilt. Their groaning seems to the prophet to be beyond expression. How vehemently do they “groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed,” as though, like man, they were endued with reason, to debate where to find their food. Yea, not these only, but the flocks of sheep, which might find pasture where the herds could not, these too shall bear the punishment of guilt. They suffered by the guilt of man; and yet so stupid was man, that he was not so sensible of his own win for which they suffered, as they of its effect. The beasts cried to God, but even their cries did not awaken His own people. The prophet cries for them;...

EXPOSITION JOEL 1:1 THE WORD OF THE LORD THAT CAME TO JOEL THE SON OF PETHUEL. The name Joel signifies "Jehovah is God," or "whose God is Jehovah." We read in Scripture of several of the same name, but the prophet is distinguished as "the son of Pethuel," a name signifying "the sincerity of God," or "godly simplicity." We are not certain of the exact period at which Joel prophesied, but he is generally believed to have been the earliest prophetic writer of the southern kingdom, and one of the earliest of the twelve minor prophets, while Jonah is generally thought to have been the earliest prophetic writer whose book has found a place in the sacred canon. It is at least certain that Joel preceded Amos, who begins his prophecy with a passage from Joel (comp. Joel 3:16 wi

HOW DO THE BEASTS GROAN?.... For want of fodder, all green grass and herbs being eaten up by the locusts; or devoured, or trampled upon, and destroyed, by the Chaldeans; and also for want of water to quench their thirst: THE HERDS OF CATTLE ARE PERPLEXED, BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO PASTURE; the larger cattle, as oxen; these were in the utmost perplexity, not knowing where to go for food or drink: YEA, THE FLOCKS OF SHEEP ARE MADE DESOLATE; which have shepherds to lead and direct them to pastures, and can feed on commons, where the grass is short, which other cattle cannot; yet even these were in great distress, and wasted away, and were consumed for want of nourishment....

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS I. THE PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS II. THE COMING DAY OF THE LORD: THE RUIN, THE REPENTANCE AND THE RESTORATION III. THE EVENTS OF THE DAY OF THE LORD: ISRAEL'S ENEMIES JUDGED AND THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED I. THE PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS CHAPTER 1 _ 1. The prophet's appeal (Joel 1:1) _ 2. The call to the drunkards (Joel 1:5) 3. The call to the people and the priests (Joel 1:8) 4. The day of the Lord and the suffering land (Joel 1:15) 5. The prayer of the prophet (Joel 1:19)...

A CALL FOR A FAST AND SOLEMN INTERCESSION. The prophet bids the priests, clothed in the garb of mourners, come into the Temple and lament night and day. Let them institute with the appropriate ritual a fast, and summon a solemn gathering of the community. The awful plight of the land suggests the thought that the locusts are but harbingers of the dreaded Day of Yahweh (Amos 5:18). Nothing less can be portended when the joyous sacrifices are interrupted by the blight and drought which have destroyed vegetation, and brought hunger and thirst to the cattle so that even they appeal dumbly to Yahweh. JOEL 1:15. SHADDAI (_ mg._): this rare title for Yahweh is chosen for the sake of assonance with DESTRUCTION (_shodh_); it is perhaps equivalent to the Babylonian Divine title, š adua = my Rock.

THE BEASTS, Compare nos. Joe 4:3...