Joel 1:3

Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? HEAR THIS, YE OLD MEN, AND GIVE EAR, ALL YE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND ... TELL YE YOUR CHILDREN OF IT. A spirited introduction, calling attention. OLD MEN - the best judges in questions concerning the past (; , "Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom"). The people of the East, when books were scarce, and ages before the use of printing, handed down from generation to generation the traditions of the past, by the help of memory alone. HATH THIS BEEN IN YOUR DAYS, OR EVEN IN THE DAYS OF YOUR FATHERS? - i:e., Hath any so grievous a calamity as this ever been before? No such plague of...

He then adds, _Tell it to your children, your children to their children, their children to the next generation. _In this verse the Prophet shows that the matter deserved to be remembered, and was not to be despised by posterity, even for many generations. It appears now quite clear that the Prophet threatens not what was to be, as some interpreters think; it would have been puerile: but, on the contrary, he expostulates here with the Jews, because they were so slothful and tardy in considering God’s judgments; and especially as it was a remarkable instance, when God employed not usual means, but roused, and, as it were, terrified men by prodigies. _Of this _then_tell: _for עליה _olie _means no other thing than ‘tell or declare this thing to your children;’ and further, _your children to their children. _When any thing new happens, it may be, that we are at first moved with some wonder;...

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....

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....

TELL YE YOUR CHILDREN OF IT - In the order of God’s goodness, generation was to declare to generation the wonders of His love. “He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children that they might ... not forget the works of God” Psalms 78:5. This tradition of thankful memories God, as the Psalmist says, enforced in the law; “Take heed to thyself, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, but teach them thy sons and thy sons’ sons” (Deuteronomy 4:9; add...

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

TELL YE YOUR CHILDREN OF IT,.... Give them a particular account of it; describe the creatures and their number as near as you can; say when they begun and how long they continued, and what devastations they made, and what was the cause and reason of such a judgment, your sins and transgressions: AND [LET] YOUR CHILDREN [TELL] THEIR CHILDREN, AND THEIR CHILDREN OTHER GENERATION; or, "to the generation following" l; let it be handed down from one generation to another that it may be a caution to future posterity how they behave and lest they bring down the like awful judgments on them. What this referred to was as follows: l לדור אחר "posteritati sequenti", Vatablus; "generationi posterae", Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Tarnovius....

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)...

JOEL 1:2 TO JOEL 2:17. A DESCRIPTION OF THE PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS, AND A SUMMONS TO AN ASSEMBLY FOR CONFESSION AND INTERCESSION. Joel 1:2. The Unprecedented Character of the Plague. No living Jew has experienced so terrible a plague: it will be talked of in generations yet to come. The locusts have eaten the land absolutely bare. Joel 1:2. ye old men: might also be rendered ye elders, _i.e._ officials; but the words are probably a later insertion. Joel 1:4. palmerworm, locust, cankerworm, caterpillar: neither of the suggestions in _mg._ is probable. The names,

TELL YE YOUR CHILDREN. Ref to Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 4:9; Deuteronomy 6:6; Deuteronomy 6:7; Deuteronomy 11:19). App-92. Compare Psalms 78:3. CHILDREN. sons. Note the Figure of speech _Climax_ (App-6)....