Joel 1

Joel 1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. 2 Hear this, you elders, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? 3 Tell your children about it, let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. 4 What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; and what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.

Moses gave the word of God beforehand concerning those who “diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today.”(Deut 28:1) And at verse 15, the lesson changes: “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.” etc “You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity. Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land.” (Deut 28:38-41)

Notice the captivity of the people also, which answers, first, to the Babylonian captivity. But there is a greater captivity for a future, unknown generation— thus the admonition: “‘Tell your children about it, let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.’ (Joel 1:3) It had an immediate and compelling relevance to the first generation that received it and is no less pertinent and relevant to our own times.” (Coffman Commentary) It was never supposed to be a ritualistic telling. They were to try to get at the meaning of the story.

“What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; and what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.” (Joel 1:4) “The fourth verse we render in a way our own, leaving the words of the destroying insects untranslated. ‘What the Gazam left, the Arbeh hath devoured; And what the Arbeh left, the Jelek hath devoured; And what the Jelek left, the Chasel hath devoured.’” (Arno Gaebelein) “These four words show the completeness of the destroying agencies.” (E.W. Bullinger) The picture drawn of “unheard-of woe and judgment.” (Albert Barnes)

Burton Coffman questions about whether “this was a literal infestation.” (Burton Coffman) What is portrayed spiritually is the future complete destruction of the land. The disobedient will be exclude from life in the land. “The number enumerated, four, draws attention to the 'four sore judgments' with which Ezekiel was instructed to threaten Jerusalem, and to the four foreign invasions by the Assyrians, Chaldæans, Macedonians, and Romans.” (C. J. Ellicott)

“The locust plague which laid Israel’s land bare was a judgment from the Lord. It was one of the judgments the Lord sent upon Egypt, and Moses had prophetically announced that the Lord would use them to punish his people (see Deuteronomy 28:38 ; Deuteronomy 28:42 ). But these literal locusts, which fell literally upon the land and destroyed in a short time all vegetation, are symbolic of other agencies which were to be used later in Israel’s history to bring judgment upon the land and the people. They are typical of Gentile armies, as stated in the second chapter, where the Lord calls them ‘My great army’ [perhaps spiritually speaking]. Here is unquestionably a prophetic forecast as to the future of the land. From Daniel’s prophecy we learn twice that four world powers should subjugate Israel and prey upon the land: Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Graeco-Macedonia and Rome. Zechariah, also, in one of his night visions, beheld four horns, and these four horns scattered Judah and Jerusalem. We see, therefore, in the locusts, first, the literal locusts which destroyed everything in vegetation at the time Joel lived, and these locusts are symbolical of future judgments executed upon the land and the nations by the prophetically announced world powers. At the close of the ‘times of the Gentiles,’ during which Jerusalem is trodden down, the final invasion of the land takes place; it is this which is described in the second chapter.” (Arno Gaebelein)

“The judgments of God (namely the locust) are linked together by an invisible chain, each drawing on the other; yet, at each link of the lengthening chain, allowing space and time for repentance to break it through. So in the plagues of Egypt, God, ‘executing His judgments upon them by little and little, gave them time for repentance’ (Wisd. 12:10); yet, when Pharaoh hardened his heart, each followed on the other, until he perished in the Red Sea. In like way God said, ‘him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay; and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay’ 1 Kings 19:17. So, in the Revelation, the ‘trumpets’ are sounded Revelation 8:1-13; Revelation 9:0; Revelation 11:15, and ‘the vials of the wrath of God are poured out upon the earth, one after the other’ Revelation 16:0…” ( Albert Barnes)

Joel 1:5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth. 6 For a nation has come up against My land, strong, and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a fierce lion. 7 He has laid waste My vine, and ruined My fig tree; he has stripped it bare and thrown it away; its branches are made white.

“’Awake, you drunkards,’ you armchair theologians with no heart for obedience— ‘and weep; and wail, all you drinkers of wine,’ (5a) Speaking of Babylon the great, a false church with false doctrine, an angel from heaven said, “For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.” (Revelation 18:3) Wine was used as a symbol of “blessing and judgement” throughout the Bible. ... Drinking a cup of strong wine to the dregs and getting drunk are sometimes presented as a symbol of God's judgement and wrath, and Jesus alludes this cup of wrath, which He several times says He Himself will drink. “Joel commands the drunks to ‘wake up’ and ‘weep’ (1:5) because the locusts have destroyed the grapes… Most likely, he is addressing those who are oblivious to the consequences of widespread plague. The prophet compares the locusts to a ‘nation’ (1:6), perhaps establishing the connection between a literal military invasion by Judah’s enemies and the destruction of her food source, preparing the reader for the analogy in chapter 2. Not only have the locusts consumed food-producing crops and the grains to sustain cattle; they have stripped the bark from fruit trees, leaving them vulnerable to disease by removing their protection (1:7). Similarly, Judah’s walls are breached and her defenses destroyed by the enemy (whether a reference to the Assyrian crisis or a foreshadowing of the Babylonian invasion and exile, 2:7–9).’”(The Baker Illustrated Bible Comm.) —"because of the new wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth.” (5b) — “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” (Eph 5:18) “Others mocking said, ‘They are full of new wine.’” (Acts 2:13) “They are to howl for the new wine, the fresh sweet juice of the grape, because with the destruction of the vines it is taken away and destroyed from their mouth.” (Keil & Delitzsch)

“‘For a nation has come up against My land,’ This was another plague with which God had punished them when he stirred up the Assyrians against them.” (Geneva Study Bible) — “’strong, and without number;’ (6a) “This confirms the typical application to Gentile nations of the future who would devastate the land. See, furthermore, Numbers 13:33 , Isaiah 40:22 and Jeremiah 51:14 , where the same comparison is made.” (Arno Gaebelein) ——“four powers which have been enemies of the Jews.” (Clarke)— “‘his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a fierce lion.’ That is, they devour all that is in their way; as there is no standing before a lion, no, not before a moth that hath commission to crush a man, Job 4:19.” (Trapp) “God is Yahweh 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.” (Matthew Henry)

“‘He’ that nation of locusts, Joel 1:6, both literally and mystically understood, ‘has laid waste My vine (that is, My people, Israel, whom I brought forth from Egypt, Psalm 80:8);’ made it a desolation, i.e. most desolate, which is more particularly declared in what followeth.— ‘And barked my fig tree;’ peeled off the bark. which is certain destruction to the tree.— ‘Made it clean bare;’ eat off all the rind and green bark, and left the body of both vine and fig tree bare and stripped.— ‘And cast it away;’ as vermin cast out of their mouth the chewings of what they spoil, so here.— ‘The branches thereof,’ all the branches of both vine and fig tree, are by these devouring vermin made white, all their green being eaten off; so miserably desolate will the enemy signified by these locusts make Judah, God’s vine.” (Matthew Poole)

“The catastrophe is attributed to the advance of a mighty nation against the land of Judah. In describing the powerful and innumerable army, the focus is not on the soldiers’ weapons or tactics but on their teeth, compared to the fangs of a lioness. The end result of their conquest is the laying waste of vines, the splintering of fig trees and the stripping of the trees’ bark (presumably by chewing it) so that the branches become white. This suggests the army in view is not a human enemy, but a metaphorical description of the locusts already mentioned in verse 4. The vine and the fig trees appear together as a proverbial image of security and blessing (2 Kgs 18:31; Mic. 4:4) which is here reversed. Three times the first-person singular pronoun appears (my land, my vines, my fig trees). The speaker could be God, but more likely the pronoun refers to the prophet who is identifying himself with his audience and their plight (see the first-person singular in v. 19).” (Tchavdar S. Hadjiev—Joel— Tyndale OT Comm)

Joel 1:8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

“The description of the swarming grasshoppers and the desolation following in their wake is one of the most powerful in all literature, and the picture is rightly regarded as one which ought to call all men to repentance.” (Kretzmann's Commentary) “You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her.”(Deuteronomy 28:30)

“‘Lament; like a virgin for the husband of her youth’ — Betrothed, but bereft of her espoused husband before the marriage was consummated.— “‘Of her youth’— when the affections are strongest, and when sorrow at bereavement is consequently keenest. Suggesting the thought of what Zion's grief ought to be for her separation from Yahweh, the betrothed husband of her early days, (Jeremiah 2:2, ‘I remember ... the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals;’ Ezekiel 16:8; Hosea 2:7, ‘My first husband;’ cf. Proverbs 2:17; Jeremiah 3:4, ‘Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me ... thou art the guide of my youth?’)…” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown) “This tells us to whom the prophet directs this part of his sermon, it is to those who amidst the Jews were like chaste and modest virgins, whose heart was fixed on one, her own, her chosen beloved husband… snatched away from her by an untimely death...” (Matthew Poole), even their Messiah.

9 The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests mourn, who minister to the LORD. 10 The field is wasted, the land mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails. 11 Be ashamed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field has perished.

“‘The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the LORD;’ (9) etc.—i.e., all the outward and visible signs of communion with God are cut off. The means are lost through this visitation. There is a total cessation of ‘the creatures of bread and wine.’” (C. J. Elllicott) “The meat offering and drink offering were part of every sacrifice…. The meat and drink offerings were emblems of the materials of the holy eucharist, by which Malachi foretold that, when God had rejected the offering of the Jews, there should be a ‘pure offering’ among the pagan Joel 1:11.…. He forsees and foretells at once, the failure, and the grief of the priests. Nor is it an idle regret which he foretells, but a mourning unto their God.: ‘Both meat offering and drink offering hath perished from the house of God, not in actual substance but as to reverence, because, amid the prevailing iniquity there is scarcely found in the Church, who should duly celebrate, or receive the sacraments.’” (Albert Barnes)

“The field is wasted, the land mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine is dried up, (10)- The necessaries and delights of life are all gone: ‘the wine that maketh glad the heart of man, the oil that makes his face to shine, the bread that strengthened man’s heart’ (Ps 104:15).” (C. J. Ellicott) — “‘the oil fails.’ Oil is the emblem of the abundant graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit, and of the light and devotion of soul given by Him, and spiritual gladness, and overflowing, all-mantling charity.” (Albert Barnes)

“‘Be ashamed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field has perished.’ (11) The prophet dwells on and expands the description of the troubles which he had foretold, setting before their eyes the picture of one universal desolation…. Nothing was exempt. Wheat and barley, widespread as they were (and the barley in those countries, ‘more fertile’ than the wheat,) perished utterly. All these suggest a spiritual meaning. For we know of a spiritual harvest, souls born to God, and a spiritual vineyard, the Church of God; and spiritual farmers and vinedressers, those whom God sends. The trees, with their various fruits were emblems of the faithful, adorned with the various gifts and graces of the Spirit. All well-nigh were dried up. Wasted without, in act and deed, the sap of the Spirit ceased within; the true laborers, those who were jealous for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts were ashamed and grieved: ‘Husbandmen’ and ‘vinedressers,’ are priests and preachers.” (Albert Barnes) And now, the people (harvest) perish for lack of knowledge.

Joel 1:12 The vine has dried up, and the fig tree has withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree— all the trees of the field are withered; surely joy has withered away from the sons of men. 13 Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; wail, you who minister before the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, you who minister to my God; for the grain offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

“‘The vine has dried up, the fig tree has withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree— all the trees of the field are withered;’ (12a) The ravages produced by the locusts and the drought are universal. There seems to be a method in the enumeration of the trees. The vine is the favourite term for the chosen people; the fig-tree has its life prolonged at the intercession of the ‘dresser of the vineyard,’ in our Lord’s parable (Luke 13:8).” (C. J. Ellicott) The pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree speak of the fruit on the garb of the high priest— the works that ought to accompany our proclamation of faith.— “a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe all around. And it shall be upon Aaron when he ministers, and its sound will be heard when he goes into the holy place before the Lord and when he comes out, that he may not die.” Exodus 28:34-35– “‘surely joy has withered away from the sons of men.’ (12b) such as is felt in the (eternal) harvest and the vintage (Psalms 4:7; Isaiah 9:3).” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown)

“‘Gird yourselves and lament, you priests;’ The outward affliction is an expression of the inward grief, and itself excites to further grief.“ (Albert Barnes) —“‘wail, you who minister before the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth,’ There is no sacrifice in Israel. “This reference to priests in this section contrasts with the opening reference to drunkards (Joel 1:5-7), from the most ungodly to the most godly (ideally). This merism has the effect of including all the citizens of Judah in Joel’s call.“ (Dr. Thomas B. Constable) “The priests are exhorted to commence preparations for a national humiliation, beginning with themselves; for the visitation touches them in a vital part.” (C. J. Ellicott) — “‘you who minister to my God;’— the God whose prophet I am. [The suffix of the first person shows that the prophet, on the one hand, stood apart from the priests, and on the other, stood in a very near relation to God as his organ, and therefore elevated far above all other ranks and conditions of men.— “‘for the grain offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.’ (13) “This is the reason assigned for the urgent call to repentance; and it is much the same with that in the beginning of the ninth verse.” (Pulpit Commentaries) The phrase ‘your God,’ is immediately afterward used, and repeated in Joel 1:14, hence it must not be supposed that the prophet intended, or was obliged to separate himself wholly from the priests.” (Lange’s Commentary)

Joel 1:14 Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.

Joel 1:15 Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as destruction from the Almighty. 16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? 17 The seed shrivels under the clods, storehouses are in shambles, barns are broken down, for the grain has withered. 18 How the animals groan! The herds of cattle are restless, because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheepsuffer punishment. 19 O Lord, to You I cry out; for fire has devoured the open pastures, and a flame has burned all the trees of the field. 20 The beasts of the field also cry out to You, for the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the open pastures.

“‘Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand!’ etc. (15a) The destruction of the day would hasten to be eternal destruction. (2 Thess 1:9) “The awful plight of the land suggests the thought that the locusts are but harbingers of the dreaded Day of Yahweh… 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.” (Arthur Peake) — “‘it shall come as destruction from the Almighty.’ (15b) The locust plague had destroyed (Heb. shadad) the fields and fruits of Judah, but Joel announced that things would get worse. Another day of destruction (Heb. shod) would come from the Lord, the Almighty (Heb. shadday). A locust plague was not only an evidence of God’s judgment (cf. Deut 28), but it had been a harbinger of future worse destruction in the past. [As an example to that generation and ours:] A locust plague had preceded the plagues of darkness and death in Egypt (cf. Exo 10-11). Thus, rather than seeing the locust plague as the end of the people’s troubles, Joel saw it as a prelude to something worse. The day of the Lord is a term that appears frequently in the Old Testament, especially in the Prophets. It refers to a day in which the Lord is working obviously, in contrast to other days, the day of man, in which man works without any apparent divine intervention. Specifically, it is a day in which the Lord intervenes to judge His enemies….The eschatological day of the Lord that the prophets anticipated includes both judgment (in the Tribulation [and general Judgment of mankind]) and blessing (in [the Bema seat Judgement and] the Millennium and beyond). Here Joel spoke of an imminent day of the Lord; it was coming on Judah relatively soon (cf. Isaiah 13:6; Ezekiel 30:2-3; Amos 5:18-20; Zephaniah 1:7-13).” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable)

“‘As destruction from the Almighty shall it come.’ From this it is plain that the ‘day of the LORD’ never referred to a benign and peaceful event, but to ‘destruction.’ This is what it meant for the antediluvian world which was destroyed from the face of the earth because of their wickedness; and that is what it invariably meant in all the other instances of it which have been cited. Furthermore, this is what it will ultimately mean at the Final Judgment at the Second Coming of Christ. That will be the occasion when the primeval sentence imposed upon the progenitors of the human race for their rebellion in the Garden of Eden will be finally and irrevocably executed upon them in the person of their total posterity, the unique exceptions to the universal destruction of that Day being only those who have been redeemed through the blood of Christ. Thus, when one of the ancient prophets referred to ‘the day of Jehovah,’ it always referred, not merely to the Final Arraignment and Punishment of mankind, but to any lesser judgment that might be imposed upon specific sectors of humanity (or even upon all of it) in the period intervening before that Final Day.”” (Coffman Commentary)

“‘The day of the LORD’ first mentioned, it is said, by Joel, is the day when God inflicts punishment upon sinners, as in the present instances; it may be a presage of that judgment that brought ruin to their city, temple, and nation. It may be an emblem of that judgment that wound up their nation by the destruction of their capital, or even of the final judgment when God shall destroy the impenitent sinners and deliver his saints.” [W. J Dean]

“’Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?’ (16) Joy which prevailed at the annual feasts, as also in the ordinary sacrificial offerings, of which the offerers ate before the Lord with gladness and thanksgivings (Deuteronomy 12:6; 12:7; 12:12; 16:11; 16:14; 16:15).” (Robert Jamieson)

Crops eaten by lotus will grow back but fire is a symbol of the reduction of all things to the base element of dust forever. “‘The seed shrivels under the clods, storehouses are in shambles, barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.’(17) Not only was all to be cut off for the present, but, with it, all hope for the future. The scattered seed, as it lay, each under its clod known to God, was dried up, and so decayed.” (Albert Barnes)

“'How the animals groan! The herds of cattle are restless, because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheepsuffer punishment.' (18) 'For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope.' (Rom 8:22a) This must refer to the Fall and the Curse of God. The ground was cursed for Adam’s sake. It would reap crops; but, according to Yahweh, it would also bring forth thorns and thistles. (Gen 3:17-19) Harvesting would therefore involve toil and sweat... and therefore, we look for a better country-- to the consummation and redemption found in Messiah Jesus. He will redeem it, along with us, from its bondage of decay. All animal will be part of it, but individuals must seek Him while they yet live.— “‘For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.’.. (Rom 8:22b) Paul introduces in this paragraph the concept of ‘groaning’ ). Here Paul refers to the ‘groaning’ of the creation. In verse 23 he speaks of the ‘groaning’ of the Christian. And finally in verse 26 he speaks of the intercessory ‘groanings’ of the Holy Spirit…. What is groaning? Groaning is a deep, inward response to suffering. It is both personal and intense, an agony so deep it cannot be put into words. Groaning is a universal language. Groaning will be swallowed up by the glory of the sons of God which is yet to come. For the Christian, groaning directs our hope heavenward to that which is not yet seen. …Creation has been in the process of deterioration since the fall of man. Our own bodies bear testimony to the process of corruption. My body is on the downhill slope of its existence—my hair falls out—my stomach sticks out—my brain blanks out more of the time. Creation groans because of the irreversible process of deterioration and decay... like men, the earth is dying.” (Robert L. Deffinbaugh)

“‘O Lord, to You I cry out; for fire has devoured the open pastures, and a flame has burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field also cry out to You, for the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the open pastures.'— “Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” (Romans 8:23)

“Reader! it is most blessed to see, and yet more blessed to experience, our own personal interest in those divine teachings. I the Lord teacheth, thee to profit, may be discerned and read by every enlightened eye as the title page of the whole of inspiration. And when, in the corrections and visitations of the Lord, by the Lord's great army, we plainly discover the Lord's hand; when in the locusts and palmer worms of the earth, we both hear the rod and who hath appointed it; when the fatherly reproofs of a gracious God in Christ are sanctified to bring the heart to Christ: oh! how blessed are the awakening judgments of our God, in rousing his people from the sottish stupidity and indolence in which the world and its pursuits have intoxicated the soul, and calling home the heart to Jesus and his salvation. Lord! I pray thee put a cry in every heart of thy redeemed! Especially stir up the ministers of my God in the present awful hour of Zion's languishing, to cry aloud and spare not, for the Lord's deliverance of his people. Oh! for the Lord to be very jealous for his Zion, and make her yet the praise and perfection of the whole earth. Amen.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)