Joel 1:7

He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. HE HATH ... BARKED MY FIG TREE. Bochart, with the Septuagint and Syriac, translates from an Arabic root, 'hath broken'-namely, the topmost shoots, which locusts most feed on. Calvin supports the English version. MY VINE ... MY FIG TREE - being in "my land" - i:e., Yahweh's (). As to the vine-abounding nature of ancient MY VINE ... MY FIG TREE - being in "my land" - i:e., Yahweh's (). As to the vine-abounding nature of ancient Palestine, see , "the grapes of Eshcol." HE HATH MADE IT CLEAN BARE, AND CAST IT AWAY - down to...

He afterwards adds, that _his vine had been exposed to desolation and waste, his fig-tree to the stripping of the bark. _God speaks not here of his own vine, as in some other places, in which he designates his Church by this term; but he calls everything on earth his own, as he calls the whole race of Abraham his children: and he thus reproaches the Jews for having reduced themselves to such wretchedness through their own fault; for they would have never been spoiled by their enemies, had not God, who was wont to defend then, previously rejected them; for there was nothing in their land which he did not claim as his own; as he had chosen the people, so he had consecrated the land to himself. Whatsoever, then, enlisted in Judea, was, as it were, sacred to God. Now when both the vines and the fig-trees were exposed to the depredations of the unbelieving, it was certain that God no longer r...

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 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 _paronomasias_ in which this prophet seems to delight....

HE HATH LAID MY VINE WASTE, AND BARKED MY FIG TREE - This describes an extremity of desolation. The locusts at first attack all which is green and succulent; when this has been consumed, then they attack the bark of trees. : “When they have devoured all other vegetables, they attack the trees, consuming first the leaves, then the bark.” : “A day or two after one of these bodies were in motion, others were already hatched to glean after them, gnawing off the young branches and the very bark of such trees as had escaped before with the loss only of their fruit and foliage.” : “They carried desolation wherever they passed. After having consumed herbage, fruit, leaves of trees, they attacked even their young shoots and their bark. Even the reeds, wherewith the huts were thatched, though quite dry, were not spared.” : “Everything in the country was devoured; the bark of figs, pomegranates, an...

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

HE HATH LAID MY VINE WASTE,.... That is, the locust, which spoiled the vines in Judea, the singular being put for the plural, by gnawing the branches, biting the tops of them, and devouring the leaves and the fruit; and so not only left them bare and barren, but destroyed them: this may emblematically represent the Assyrians or Babylonians wasting the land of Judea, the vine and vineyard of the Lord of hosts; see Isaiah 5:1; AND BARKED MY FIG TREE; gnawed off the bark of them; locusts are not only harmful to vines, as is hinted by Theocritus o, but to fig trees also: Pliny p speaks of fig trees in Boeotia gnawn by locusts, which budded again; and mentions it as something wonderful and miraculous that they should: and yet Sanctius observes, that these words cannot be understood properly of the locusts, since fig trees cannot be harmed by the bite or touch of them; which, besides

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)...

THE DISTRESS CAUSED BY THE PLAGUE. Joel 1:5. The wine-bibbers no censure is implied; they are mentioned first because of the contrast between their accustomed merriment and the tears they are bidden to shed are summoned to arouse from their drunken sleep and bemoan the devastation of the vineyards. The many-mouthed host of invaders (for nation _cf._ Proverbs 30:25 f.) has wrought such destruction that it is likened to a ravening lion. Vine and fig-tree are stripped bare, so that the twigs splinter and the branches gleam white. [ JOEL 1:6 B. The comparison with lions-' teeth (Revelation 9:8) is very apt, for in proportion to i

HE. The nation of Joel 1:6. MY VINE... MY FIG TREE. Note this "My", for Jehovah is about to recover His People Israel, as the issue of "the day of the Loan". Compare Psalms 80:8; Psalms 80:14.Isaiah 5:1; Isaiah 27:2.Hosea 10:1. Also for the fig-tree compare Hosea 9:10; Matthew 21:19;...