Introduction to Joel

The prophet Joel relates nothing of himself. He gives no hints as to himself, except the one fact which was necessary to authenticate his prophecy, that the word of the Lord came to him, and that the book to which that statement is prefixed is that "word of the Lord." "The word of the Lord, which came to Joel, son of Pethuel." Like Hosea, he distinguished himself from others of the same name, by the mention of the name of his unknown father. But his whole book bears evidence, that he was a prophet of Jerusalem. He was living in the center of the public worship of God: he speaks to the priests as though present, "Come ye, lie all night in sackcloth" Joel 1:13-14; he was, where the "solemn assembly Joel 2:15-17, which he bids them "proclaim," would be held; "the house of the Lord Joel 1:9, from which "meat-offering and drink-offering" were "cut off," was before his eyes. Whether for alarm Joel 2:1, or for prayer Joel 2:15, he bids, "blow ye the trumpet in Zion. The city Joel 2:9, which he sees the enemy approaching to beleaguer and enter, is Jerusalem. He adresses the "children of Zion" Joel 2:23; he reproaches Tyre, Zidon, and Philistia, with selling to the Greeks the "children of Zion and Jerusalem" Joel 3:4, Joel 3:6.

God promises by him to "bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem Joel 3:1. Of Israel, in its separated existence, he takes no more notice, than if it were not. They may be included in the three places in which he uses the name; "Ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel; I will plead for My people and My heritage, Israel; the Lord will be the strength of Israel Joel 2:27; Joel 3:2, Joel 3:16; but, (as the context shows) only as included, together with Judah, in the one people of God. The promises to Judah, Jerusalem, Zion, with which he closes his book, being simply prophetic, must, so far, remain the same, whomsoever he addressed. He foretells that those blessings were to issue from Zion, and that the Church was to be founded there. Yet the absence of any direct promise of the extension of those blessings to the ten tribes, (such as occur in Hosea and Amos) implies that he had no office in regard to them.

Although a prophet of Jerusalem, and calling, in the name of God, to a solemn and strict fast and supplication, he was no priest. He mentions the priests as a class to which he did not belong Joel 1:9, Joel 1:12; Joel 2:17, the priests, the Lord's ministers; ye priests; ye ministers of the altar; ye ministers of my God; let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, the place where they officiated. He calls upon them to proclaim the fast, which he enjoined in the name of God. "Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly Joel 1:14, he says to those, whom be had just called to mourn, "ye priests, ye ministers of the altar." As entrusted with a revelation from God, he had an authority superior to that of the priests. While using this, he interfered not with their own special office.

Joel must have completed his prophecy in its present form, before Amos collected his prophecies into one whole. For Amos takes as the key-note of his prophecy, words with which Joel almost closes his; "The Lord shall roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem" Joel 3:16. Nor only so, but Amos inserts at the end of his own prophecy some of Joel's closing words of promise. Amos thus identified his own prophecy with that of Joel. In the threatening with which he opens it, he retains each word of Joel, in the self-same order, although the words admit equally of several different collocations, each of which would have had an emphasis of its own. The symbolic blessing, which Amos takes from Joel at the close of his prophecy "the mountains shall drop with new wine, is found in these two prophets alone; and the language is the bolder and more peculiar, because the word "drop" is used of dropping from above, not of flowing down.

It seems as if the picture were, that the mountains of Judaea, "the" mountains, instead of mist or vapor, should "distill" that which is the symbol of joy, "wine which maketh glad the heart of man" Psalm 104:15. The reason why Amos, in this marked way, joined on his own book of prophecy to the book of Joel, must remain uncertain, since he did not explain it. It may have been, that, being called in an unusual way to the prophetic office, he would in this way identify himself with the rest of those whom God called to it. A prophet, out of Judah but for Israel, Amos identified himself with the one prophet of Judah, whose prophecy was committed to writing. Certainly those first words of Amos, "The Lord shall roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem," pointed out to the ten tribes, that Zion and Jerusalem were the place "which God had chosen to place His Name there," the visible center of His government, whence proceeded His judgments and His revelation. Others have supposed that bad men thought that the evil which Joel had foretold would not come, and that the good may have looked anxiously for the fulfillment of God's promises; and that on that ground, Amos renewed, by way of allusion, both God's threats and promises, thereby impressing on men's minds, what Habakkuk says in plain terms, Habakkuk 2:3, "The vision is for the appointed time, and it hasteth to the end : though it tarry, wait for it, for it will come, it will not tarry, or be behindhand .

However this may have been, such marked renewal of threatenings and promises of Joel by Amos, attests two things:

(1) that Joel's prophecy must, at the time when Amos wrote, have become part of Holy Scripture, and its authority must have been acknowledged;

(2) that its authority must have been acknowledged by, and it must have been in circulation among, those to whom Amos prophesied; otherwise he would not have prefixed to his book those words of Joel.

For the whole force of the words, as employed by Amos, depends upon their being recognized by his hearers, as a renewal of the prophecy of Joel. Certainly bad men jeered at Amos, as though his threatenings would not be fulfilled Amos 5:18; Amos 6:3; Amos 9:10.

Since, then, Amos prophesied during the time, when Azariah and Jeroboam II reigned together, the book of Joel must have been at that time written, and known in Israel also. Beyond this, the brief, although full, prophecy of Joel affords no clue as to its own date. Yet probably it was not far removed from that of Amos. For Amos, as well as Joel, speaks of the sin of Tyre and Zidon and of the Philistines in selling the children of Judah into captivity Joel 3:4-6; Amos 1:6, Amos 1:9. And since Amos speaks of this, as the crowning sin of both, it is perhaps likely that some signal instance of it had taken place, to which both prophets refer. To this, the fact that both prophets speak of the scourge of locusts and drought , (if this were so) would not add any further evidence. For Joel was prophesying to Judah; Amos, to Israel. The prophecy of Joel may indeed subordinately, although very subordinately at the most, "include" real locusts; and such locusts, if he meant to include them, could have been no local plague, and so could hardly have passed over Israel. But Amos does not speak of the ravages of the locusts, by which, in addition to drought, mildew, pestilence, God had, when he prophesied, recently chastened Israel, as distinguished above others which God had sent upon this land. There is nothing therefore to identify the locusts spoken of by Amos with those which Joel speaks of as an image of the terrible, successive, judgments of God. Rather Amos enumerates, one after the other, God's ordinary plagues in those countries, and says that all had failed in the object for which God sent them, the turning of His people to Himself.

Nor, again, does anything in Joel's own prophecy suggest any particular date, beyond what is already assigned through the relation which the book of Amos bears to his book. On the contrary, in correspondence, perhaps, with the wide extent of his prophecy, Joel says next to nothing of what was temporary or local. He mentions, incidentally, in one place the "drunkards" Joel 1:5 of his people; yet in this case too, he speaks of the sin as especially affected and touched by the chastisement, not of the chastisement, as brought upon the sinner or upon the sinful people by that sin. Beyond this one case, the prophet names neither sins nor sinners among his own people. He foretells chastisement, and exhorts to repentance as the means of averting it, but does not specify any sins. His prophecy is one declaration of the displeasure of God against all sin, and of His judgments consequent thereon, one promise of pardon upon earnest repentance; and so, perhaps, what is individual has, for the most part been purposely suppressed.

The notices in the book of Joel, which have been employed to fix more precisely the date of the prophet, relate:

(1) to the proclamation of the solemn assembly, which, it is supposed, would be enjoined thus authoritatively in a time when that injunction would be obeyed;

(2) to the mention of certain nations, and the supposed omission of certain other nations, as enemies of Judah.

Both arguments have been overstated and misstated.

(1) the call to public humiliation implies, so far, times in which the king would not interfere to prevent it. But ordinarily, in Judah, even bad and irreligious kings did not interfere with extraordinary fasts in times of public distress. Jehoiakim did not; the king, who hesitated not to cut in shreds the roll of Jeremiah's prophecies when three or four columns or chapters Jeremiah 36:23 had been read before him, and burned it on the hearth by which he was sitting. The fast-day, upon which that roll had been read in the ears of all the people, was an extraordinary "fast before the Lord, proclaimed to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem" Jeremiah 36:9. This fasting day was not their annual fast, the day of atonement. For the day of atonement was in the seventh month; this Jeremiah tells us, "was in the ninth month" Jeremiah 36:9.

When such a king as Jehoiakim tolerated the appointment of an extraordinary fast, not for Jerusalem only, but for "all the people who came from the cities of Judah," we may well think that no king of ordinary impiety would, in a time of such distress as Joel foretells, have interfered to hinder it. There were at most, after Athaliah's death, two periods only of decided antagonism to God. The first was at the close of the reign of Joash, after the death of Johoiada, when Joash with the princes gave himself to the idolatry of Ashtaroth and put to death Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, upon whom "the Spirit of God came" and he foretold their destruction; "Because ye have forsaken the Lord, He had also forsaken you" 2 Chronicles 24:17-21. The period after the murder of Zechariah was very short. "As the year came round," the Syrians came against them; and "when they departed, his own servants slew him" 2 Chronicles 24:23, 2 Chronicles 24:25. The only space, left uncertain, is the length of time, during which the idolatry lasted, before the murder of Zechariah. The second period, that in which Amaziah fell away to the idolatry of the Edomites, silenced the prophet of God, and was abandoned by him to his destruction 2 Chronicles 25:14-16, 2 Chronicles 25:23, was also brief, lasting probably some 16 years.

(2) the argument from the prophet's of some enemies of God's people and the supposed omission of other later enemies, rests partly on a wrong conception of prophecy, partly on wrong interpretation of the prophet. On the assumption that the prophets did not speak of nations, as instruments of God's chastisements on His people, until they had risen above the political horizon of Judah, it has been inferred that Joel 54ed before the time when Assyria became an object of dread, because, mentioning other enemies of God's people, he does not mention Assyria. The assumption, which originated in unbelief, is untrue in fact. Balaam prophesied the captivity through Assyria Numbers 24:22, when Israel was entering on the promised land; he foretold also the destruction of Assyria or the great empire of the East through a power who should come from Europe Numbers 24:24. The prophet Ahijah foretold to Jeroboam I that the Lord would "root up Israel out of the good land which He gave to their fathers, and would scatter them beyond the river 1 Kings 14:15. Neither in temporal nor spiritual prophecy can we discern the rules, by which, "at sundry times and in diver's manners, God" revealed Himself "through the prophets," so that we should be able to reduce to one strict method "the manifold wisdom" of God, and infer the age of a prophet from the tenor of the prophecy which God put into his mouth.

It is plain, moreover, from the text of Joel himself, that God had revealed to him, that other more formidable enemies than had yet invaded Judah would hereafter come against it, and that those enemies whom he speaks of, he mentions only, as specimens of hatred against God's people and of its punishment. There can really be no question, that by "the Northern Joel 2:20 army, he means the Assyrian. God foretells also by him the capture of Jerusalem, and the punishment of those who "scattered Israel, My heritage, among the pagan, and divided My land" Joel 3:2. Such words can only be understood of an entire removal of Judah, whereby others could come and take possession of his land. In connection with these great powers occurs the mention of Tyre, Sidon and Philistia, petty yet vexatious enemies, contrasted with the more powerful. The very formula with which that mention is introduced, shows that they are named only incidentally and as instances of a class. "And also, what are ye to Me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Philistia?" The mighty nations were to come as lions, to lay waste; these, like jackals, made their own petty merchants gain. The mighty divided the land; these were plunderers and men-stealers. In both together, he declares that nothing, either great or small, should escape the righteous judgments of God. Neither shall might save the mighty, nor shall the petty malice of the lesser enemies of God be too small to be requited. But not only is there no proof that Joel means to enumerate all the nations who had hitherto infested Judah, but there is proof that he did not.

One only has been found to place Joel so early as the reign of Jehoshaphat. But in his reign, after the death of Ahab, (897 b.c.) "Moab and Ammon and with them others, a great multitude 2 Chronicles 20:1-2, invaded Judah. Since then it is tacitly admitted, that the absence of the mention of Moab and Ammon does not imply that Joel prophesied before their invasion (897 b.c.) neither is the non-mention of the invasion of the Syrians any argument that he lived before the end of the reign of Jehoash (840 b.c.). Further, not the mere invasion of Judah, but the motives of the invasion or cruelty evinced in it, drew down the judgments of God. The invasion of Hazael was directed not against Judah, but "against Gath." 2 Kings 12:17. But "a small company of men" 2 Chronicles 24:24 went up against Jerusalem; "and the Lord delivered a very great company into their hand, because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers. They executed," we are told, "judgment against Joash." Nor does it appear, that they, like the Assyrians, exceeded the commission for which God employed them (2 Chronicles 24:23; add 17, 18). "They destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people," the princes who had seduced Joash to idolatry and were the authors of the murder of Zechariah 2 Chronicles Zechariah 24:21. "They conspired against him, and stoned him (Zechariah) with stones at the commandment of the king." Amos mentions, as the last ground of God's sentence against Damascus, not this incursion, but the cruelty of Hazael to Gilead Joel 1:3. The religious aspect of the single invasion of Judah by this band of Syrians was very different from the perpetual hostility of the Philistines, or the malicious cupidity of the Phoenicians.

Still less intelligible is the assertion, that Joel would not have foretold any punishment of Edom, had he lived after the time when Amaziah smote 20,000 of them "in the valley of salt, and took Selah 2 Kings 14:7; 2 Chronicles 25:11, or Petra 838 b.c. For Amos confessedly prophesied in the reign of Azariah, the son of Amaziah. Azariah recovered Elath also from Edom; 2 Kings 14:22; 2 Chronicles 26:2 yet Amos, in his time, foretells the utter destruction of Bozra and Teman Joel 1:12. The victory of Amaziah did not humble Edom. They remained the same embittered foe. In the time of Ahaz, they again invaded Judah and "smote" it and "carried away a captivity" 2 Chronicles 28:17. Prophecy does not regard these little variations of conquest or defeat. They do not exhaust its meaning. It pronounces God's judgment against the abiding character of the nation; and while that continues unchanged, the sentence remains. Its fulfillment seems often to linger, but in the end, it does not fail nor remain behind God's appointed time. Egypt and Edom moreover, in Joel, stand also as symbols of nations or people like themselves. They stand for the people themselves, but they represent also others of the same character, as long as the struggle between "the city of God" and "the city of the devil" shall last, i. e., to the end of time.

There being then no internal indication of the date of Joel, we cannot do better than acquiesce in the tradition, by which his book is placed next to that of Hosea, and regard Joel as the prophet of Judah, during the earlier part of Hosea's office toward Israel, and rather earlier than Isaiah. At least, Isaiah, although he too was called to the prophetic office in the days of Uzziah, appears to have embodied in his prophecy, words of Joel, as well of Micah, bearing witness to the unity of prophecy, and, amid the richness and fullness of his own prophetic store, purposely borrowing from those, of whose ministry God did not will that such large fruit should remain. The remarkable words Isaiah 13:6, "Near is the Day of the Lord, like destruction from the Almighty shall it come," Isaiah inserted, word for word from Joel, Joel 1:15, including the remarkable alliteration, משׁשׁדי סשׁד seshod mishshadday, "like a 'mighty' destruction from the 'Almighty. '"

The prophecy of Joel is altogether one. It extends from his own day to the end of time. He gives the key to it in a saying, which he casts into the form of a proverb, that judgment shall follow after judgment Joel 1:4. Then he describes that first desolation, as if present, and calls to repentance Joel 1:5,ff.; yet withal he says expressly, that the day of the Lord is not come, but is at hand Joel 1:15. This he repeats at the beginning of the second chapter Joel 2:1, in which he describes the coming judgment more fully, speaks of it, as coming Joel 2:2-10, and, when, he has pictured it as just ready to break upon them, and God, as giving the command to the great camp assembled to fulfill His word Joel 2:11, he calls them, in God's name, yet more earnestly to repentance Joel 2:12-17, and promises, upon that repentance, plenary forgiveness and the restoration of everything which God had withdrawn from them Joel 2:18-27. These promises culminate in the first Coming of Christ, the outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh, and the enlarged gift of prophecy at the same time among the sons and daughters of Judah Joel 2:28-29. Upon these mercies to His own people, follow the judgments upon His and their enemies, reaching on to the second Coming of our Lord.

An attempt has been made to sever the prophecy into two discourses, of which the first is to end at Joel 2:17, the second is to comprise the remainder of the book . That scheme severs what is closely united, God's call to prayer and His promise that He will answer it. According to this severance of the prophecy, the first portion is to contain the exhortation on the part of God, without any promise; the second is to contain an historical relation that God answered, without saying what He answered. The notion was grounded on unbelief, that God absolutely foretold, that He would, beyond the way of nature, bring, what He would, upon repentance, as certainly remove. It is rested upon a mere error in grammar . The grammatical form was probably chosen, in order to express how instantaneously God would hearken to real repentance, "that the Lord is jealous for His land." The words of prayer should not yet have escaped their lips, when God answered. As He says, "And it shall be, before they shall call, I will answer; while they are yet speaking, I will hear" Isaiah 65:24. Man has to make up his mind on a petition; with God, hearing and answering are one.

The judgments upon God's people, described in the two first chapters of Joel, cannot be limited to a season of drought and a visitation of locusts, whether one or more.

I. The prophet includes all which he foretells, in one statement, which, both from its form and its preternatural character, has the appearance of a proverbial saying Joel 1:4. It does stand, as a summary. For he draws the attention of all to "this" Joel 1:2; "Hear" this, "ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days? etc." He appeals to the aged, whether they had heard the like, and bids all transmit it to their posterity Joel 1:3. The summary is given in a very measured form, in three divisions, each consisting of four words, and the four words standing, in each, in the same order. The first and third words of the four are the same in each; and the fourth of the first and second four become the second of the second and third four, respectively. Next to Hebrew, its force can best be seen in Latin:

Residuum erucae comedit loeusta; Residuumque locustae comedit bruchus; Residuumque bruchi comedit exesor. The structure of the words resembles God's words to Elijah 1 Kings 19:17, whose measured rhythm and precise order of words may again be best, because most concisely, exhibited in Latin. Each division contains five words in the same order; and here, the first, second, and fourth words of each five remain the same, and the proper name which is the fifth in the first five becomes the third in the second five.

Profugum gladii Hazaelis occidet Jehu; Profugumque gladii Jehu occidet Elisha. In this case, we see that the form is proverbial, because the slaying by Elisha is different in kind from the slaying by Jehu and Hazael, and is the same of which God speaks by Hosea, "I hewed them by the prophets; I slew them by the words of my mouth" Hosea 6:5. But so also is it with regard to the locust. Except by miracle, what the prophet here describes, would not happen. He foretells, not only that a scourge should come, unknown in degree and number, before or afterward, in Palestine, but that four sorts of locusts should come successively, the latter destroying what the former left. Now this is not God's ordinary way in bringing this scourge. In His ordinary Providence different sorts of locusts do not succeed one another. Nor would it be any increase of the infliction, anything to record or forewarn of. At times, by a very rare chastisement, God has brought successive flights of the same insect from the same common birthplace; and generally, where the female locusts deposit their eggs and die, unless a moist winter or man's forethought destroy the eggs, the brood which issues from them in the next spring, being as voracious as the full grown locusts, but crawling through the land, does, in that immediate neighborhood, destroy the produce of the second year, more fatally than the parent had that of the preceding. This however is, at most, the ravage of two stages of the same insect, not four successive scourges, the three last destroying what the former had spared. What the prophet predicted, if taken literally, was altogether out of the order of nature, and yet its literal fulfillment has not the character of a miracle, for it adds nothing to the intensity of what is predicted. The form of his prediction is proverbial; and this coincides with the other indications that the prophet did not intend to speak of mere locusts.

(1) In order to bring down this summary of the prophet to the level of an ordinary event in God's ordinary Providence, a theory has been invented, that he is not here speaking of different sorts of locusts, but of the same locust in different stages of its growth, from the time when it leaves the egg, until it attains its full development and its wings. According to the inventor of this theory , the first, the גזם gâzâm (the "palmer-worm" of our version) was to be the migratory locust, which visits Palestine (it was said) chiefly in Autumn; the second, ארבה 'arbeh," (the ordinary name of the locust) was to stand for the young locust, as it first creeps out of the shell; the ילק yeleq (translated "cankerworm") was to be the locust, in what was supposed to be the third stage of development; the חסיל châsı̂yl (translated "caterpillar") was to be the full-grown locust.

According to this form of the theory, the גזם gâzâm was to be the same as the חסיל châsı̂yl, the first as the last; and two of the most special names of the locust, גזם gâzâm and חסיל châsı̂yl, were, without any distinction, to be ascribed to the full-grown locust, of one and the same species. For, according to the theory, the גזם gâzâm was to be the full-grown locust which arrived by flight and deposited its eggs; the ארבה 'arbeh, ילק yeleq, חסיל châsı̂yl," were to be three chief stages of development of the locusts which left those eggs. So that the חסיל châsı̂yl, although not the same individual, was to be exactly the same insect as the גזם gâzâm, and at the same stage of existence, the full-grown locust, the gryllus migratorius with wings. But while these two, more special, names were appropriated to the self-same species of locust, in the same, its full-grown stage (which in itself is unlikely, when they are thus distinguished from each other) one of the two names which remained to describe (as was supposed) the earlier, (so to speak) infantine or childish stages of its development, ארבה 'arbeh, is the most general name of locust. This was much as if, when we wished to speak of a "colt" as such, we were to call it "horse," or were to use the word "cow" to designate a "calf." For, according to this theory, Joel, wishing to mark that he was speaking of the pupa, just emerged from the egg, called it ארבה 'arbeh, the most common name of the locust tribe.

This theory then was tacitly modified tacitly corrects Credner. Maurer, Ewald, Umbreit, follow Gesenius; yet Ewald thinks that the גזם gâzâm, ילק yeleq, חסיל châsı̂yl, need" not belong to the proper locust tribe ארבה 'arbeh, (which is in fact an abandonment of the theory)). In the second form of the theory, which is more likely to be introduced among us, גזם gâzâm was to be the locust in its first stage; ארבה 'arbeh was to be the second, instead of the first; ילק yeleq was to be the last but one; חסיל châsı̂yl was, as before, to be the full-grown locust. This theory escaped one difficulty, that of making the גזם gâzâm and חסיל châsı̂yl full-grown locusts of the same species. It added another. The three moultings which it assumes to be represented by the ארבה 'arbeh, ילק yeleq, and גזם gâzâm, correspond neither with the actual moults of the locust, nor with those which strike the eye. Some observers have noticed four moultings of the locust, after it had left the egg . Some write, as if there were yet more . But of marked changes which the eye of the observer can discern, there are two only, that by which it passes from the larva state into the pupa; and

The word of the Lord that came to Joel - Joel, like Hosea, mentions the name of his father only, and then is silent about his extraction, his tribe, his family. He leaves even the time when he lived, to be guessed at. He would be known only, as the instrument of God. "The word of the Lord came to" him (see the note at Hosea 1:1), and he willed simply to be the voice which uttered it. He was "content to live under the eyes of God, and, as to people, to be known only in what concerned their salvation." But this he declares absolutely, that the Word of God came to him; in order that we may give faith to his prophecy, being well assured that what he predicted, would come to pass. So the Saviour Himself says, ""My words shall not pass away" Matthew 24:35. For truth admits of nothing false, and what God saith, will certainly be. For "He confirmeth the word of His servant, and performeth the counsel of His messengers" Isaiah 44:26. The prophet claimeth belief then, as speaking not out of his own heart, but out of the mouth of the Lord speaking in the Spirit." Joel signifies, "The Lord is God." It owns that God who had revealed Himself, is alone the God. The prophet's name itself, embodied the truth, which, after the miraculous answer to Elijah's prayer, all the people confessed, "The Lord He is the God, The Lord He is the God." Pethuel signifies, "persuaded of God." The addition of his father's name distinguished the prophet from others of that name, as the son of Samuel, of king Uzziah, and others.

Hear this, ye old men - By reason of their age they had known and heard much; they had heard from their fathers, and their father's fathers, much which they had not known themselves. Among the people of the east, memories of past times were handed down from generation to generation, for periods, which to us would seem incredible. Israel was commanded, so to transmit the vivid memories of the miracles of God. The prophet appeals "to the old men, to hear," and, (lest, anything should seem to have escaped them) to the whole people of the land, to give their whole attention to this thing, which he was about to tell them, and then, reviewing all the evils which each had ever heard to have been inflicted by God upon their forefathers, to say whether this thing had happened in their days or in the days of their fathers.

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" Psalm 78:5-7. 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 Deuteronomy 6:6-7; Deuteronomy 11:19). This was the end of the memorial acts of the ritual, that their sons might inquire the meaning of them, the fathers tell them God's wonders Deuteronomy 6:20-24. Now contrariwise, they are, generation to generation, to tell concerning it, this message of unheard-of woe and judgment. The memory of God's deeds of love should have stirred them to gratitude; now He transmits to them memories of woe, that they might entreat God against them, and break off the sins which entail them.

That which the palmerworm hath left, hath the locust eaten - The creatures here spoken of are different kinds of locusts, so named from their number or voracity. We, who are free from this scourge of God, know them only by the generic name of locusts. But the law mentions several sorts of locusts, each after its kind, which might be eaten . In fact, above eighty different kinds of locusts have been observed , some of which are twice as large as that which is the ordinary scourge of God . Slight as they are in themselves, they are mighty in God's Hand; beautiful and gorgeous as they are, floating in the sun's rays , they are a scourge, including other plagues, famine, and often, pestilence.

Of the four kinds, here named by the prophet, that rendered "locust" is so called from its multitude, (from where Jeremiah says "they are more numerous than the locust" See Judges 6:5; Judges 7:12; Psalm 105:34; Nahum 3:15. It is a proverb in Arabic also)), and is, probably, the creature which desolates whole regions of Asia and Africa. The rest are named from their voracity, the "gnawer," "licker," "consumer," but they are, beyond doubt, distinct kinds of that destroyer. And this is the characteristic of the prophet's threatening, that he foretells a succession of destroyers, each more fatal than the preceding; and that, not according to the order of nature. For in all the observations which have been made of the locusts, even when successive flights have desolated the same land, they have always been successive clouds of the same creature.

Over and above the fact, then, that locusts are a heavy chastisement from God, these words of Joel form a sort of sacred proverb. They are the epitome of his whole prophecy. It is "this" which he had called the old men to hear, and to say whether they had known anything like "this;" that scourge came after scourge, judgment after judgment, until man yielded or perished. The visitation of locusts was one of the punishments threatened in the law, "Thou shall carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in, for the locust shall consume it" Deuteronomy 28:38. It was one of God's ordinary punishments for sin, in that country, like famine, or pestilence, or blight, or mildew, or murrain, or (in this) potato disease. Solomon, accordingly, at the dedication of the temple mentions the locust among the other plagues, which he then solemnly entreated God to remove, when individuals or the whole people should spread forth their hands in penitence toward that house 1 Kings 8:37-38.

But the characteristic of "this" prophecy is the successiveness of the judgments, each in itself, desolating, and the later following quick upon the earlier, and completing their destructiveness. The judgments of God 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; Revelation 11:15, and "the vials of the wrath of God are poured out upon the earth, one after the other" Revelation 16. Actual locusts were very likely one of the scourges intended by the prophet. They certainly were not the whole; but pictured others fiercer, more desolating, more overwhelming. The proverbial dress gained and fixed people's attention on the truth, which, if it had been presented to the people nakedly, they might have turned from. Yet as, in God's wisdom, what is said generally, is often fulfilled specially, so here there were four great invaders which in succession wasted Judah; the Assyrian, Chaldaean, Macedonian and Roman.

Morally, also, four chief passions desolate successively the human heart. : "For what is designated by the "palmerworm," which creeps with all its body on the ground, except it be lust, which so pollutes the heart which it possesses, that it cannot rise up to the love of heavenly purity? What is expressed by the "locust," which flies by leaps, except vain glory which exalts itself with empty presumptions? What is typified by the "cankerworm," almost the whole of whose body is gathered into its belly, except gluttony in eating? What but anger is indicated by mildew, which burns as it touches? What the "palmerworm" then "hath left the locust heath eaten," because, when the sin of lust has retired from the mind, vain glory often succeeds. For since it is not now subdued by the love of the flesh, it boasts of itself, as if it were holy through its chastity. "And that which the locust hath left, the cankerworm hath eaten," because when vain glory, which came, as it were, from holiness, is resisted, either the appetite, or some ambitious desires are indulged in too immoderately. For the mind which knows not God, is led the more fiercely to any object of ambition, in proportion as it is not restrained by any love of human praise. "That which the cankerworm hath left," the mildew consumes, because when the gluttony of the belly is restrained by abstinence, the impatience of anger holds fiercer sway, which, like mildew, eats up the harvest by burning it, because the flame of impatience withers the fruit of virtue. When then some vices succeed to others, one plague devours the field of the mind, while another leaves it."

Awake, ye drunkards, and weep - All sin stupefies the sinner. All intoxicate the mind, bribe and pervert the judgment, dull the conscience, blind the soul and make it insensible to its own ills. All the passions, anger, vain glory, ambition, avarice and the rest are a spiritual drunkenness, inebriating the soul, as strong drink doth the body. : "They are called drunkards, who, confused with the love of this world, feel not the ills which they suffer. What then is meant by, "Awake, ye drunkards and weep," but, 'shake off the sleep of your insensibility, and oppose by watchful lamentations the many plagues of sins, which succeed one to the other in the devastation of your hearts?'" God arouse those who will be aroused, by withdrawing from them the pleasures wherein they offended Him. Awake, the prophet cries, from the sottish slumber of your drunkenness; awake to weep and howl, at least when your feverish enjoyments are dashed from your lips. Weeping for things temporal may awaken to the fear of losing things eternal.

For a nation is come up upon my land - He calls this scourge of God a "nation," giving them the title most used in Holy Scripture, of pagan nations. The like term, "people, folk," is used of the "ants" and the "conies" Proverbs 30:25-26, for the wisdom with which God teaches them to act. Here it is used, in order to include at once, the irrational invader, guided by a Reason above its own, and the pagan conqueror. This enemy, he says, is "come up" (for the land as being God's land, was exalted in dignity, above other lands,) "upon My land," i. e. "the Lord's land" Hosea 9:3, hitherto owned protected as God's land, a land which, Moses said to them, "the Lord thy God careth for; the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year" Deuteronomy 11:12. Now it was to be bared of God's protection, and to be trampled upon by a pagan foe.

Strong and without number - The figure is still from the locust, whose numbers are wholly countless by man. Travelers sometimes use likenesses to express their number, as clouds darkening the sun (see the note at Joel 2:10) or discharging flakes of snow ; some grave writers give it up, as hopeless. : "Their multitude is incredible, whereby they cover the earth and fill the air; they take away the brightness of the sun. I say again, the thing is incredible to one who has not seen them." "It would not be a thing to be believed, if one had not seen it." "On another day, it was beyond belief: they occupied a space of eight leagues (about 24 English miles). I do not mention the multitude of those without wings, because it is incredible." : "When we were in the Seignory of Abrigima, in a place called Aquate, there came such a multitude of locusts, as cannot be said. They began to arrive one day about terce (nine) and until night they cease not to arrive; and when they arrived, they bestowed themselves. On the next day at the hour of prime they began to depart, and at mid-day there was not one, and there remained not a leaf on the trees. At this instant others began to come, and staved like the others to the next day at the same hour; and these left not a stick with its bark, nor a green herb, and thus did they five days one after another; and the people said that they were the sons, who went to seek their fathers, and they took the road toward the others which had no wings. After they were gone, we knew the breadth which they had occupied, and saw the destruction which they had made, it exceeded three leagues (nine miles) wherein there remained no bark on the trees."

Another writes of South Africa ; "Of the innumerable multitudes of the incomplete insect or larva of the locusts, which at this time infested this part of Africa, no adequate idea could be conceived without having witnessed them. For the space of ten miles on each side of the Sea-Cow river, and eighty or ninety miles in length, an area of 16, or 1800 square miles, the whole surface might literally be said to be covered with them. The water of the river was scarcely visible on account of the dead carcasses which floated on the surface, drowned in the attempt to come at the weeds which grew in it." : "The present year is the third of their continuance, and their increase has far exceeded that of a geometrical progression whose whole ratio is a million." A writer of reputation says of a "column of locusts" in India ; "It extended, we were informed, 500 miles, and so compact was it when on the wing, that, like an eclipse, it completely hid the sun; so that no shadow was cast by any object, and some lofty tombs, not more than 200 yards distant, were rendered quite invisible."

In one single neighborhood, even in Germany, it was once calculated that near 17,000,000 of their eggs were collected and destroyed . Even Volney writes of those in Syria , "the quantity of these insects is a thing incredible to anyone who has not seen it himself; the ground is covered with them for several leagues." "The steppes," says Clarke , an incredulous traveler, "were entirely covered by their bodies, and their numbers falling resembled flakes of snow, carried obliquely by the wind, and spreading thick mists over the sun. Myriads fell over the carriage, the horses, the drivers. The Tartars told us, that persons had been suffocated by a fall of locusts on the "steppes." It was now the season, they added, in which they began to diminish." : "It was incredible, that their breadth was eight leagues."

Strong - The locust is remarkable for its long flights. "Its strength of limbs is amazing; when pressed down by the hand on the table, it has almost power to move the fingers" .

Whose teeth are the teeth of a lion - The teeth of the locust are said to be "harder than stone." : "They appear to be created for a scourge; since to strength incredible for so small a creature, they add saw-like teeth admirably calculated to "eat up all the herbs in the land."" Some near the Senegal, are described as "quite brown, of the thickness and length of a finger, and armed with two jaws, toothed like a saw, and very powerful." The prophet ascribes to them the sharp or prominent eye-teeth of the lion and lioness, combining strength with number. The ideal of this scourge of God is completed by blending numbers, in which creatures so small only could exist together, with the strength of the fiercest. : "Weak and short-lived is man, yet when God is angered against a sinful people, what mighty power does He allow to man against it!" "And what more cruel than those who endeavor to slay souls, turning them from the Infinite and Eternal Good, and so dragging them to the everlasting torments of Hell?"

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, and oranges, bitter hard and corrosive, escaped not their voracity." The effects of this wasting last on for many years .

He hath made it clean bare - o: "It is sufficient, if these terrible columns stop half an hour on a spot, for everything growing on it, vines, olive trees, and grain, to be entirely destroyed. After they have passed, nothing remains but the large branches, and the roots which, being under ground, have escaped their voracity." : "After eating up the corn, they fell upon the vines, the pulse, the willows and even the hemp, notwithstanding its great bitterness." : "They are particularly injurious to the palm trees; these they strip of every leaf and green particle, the trees remaining like skeletons with bare branches." : "The bushes were eaten quite bare, though the animals could not have been long on the spot. They sat by hundreds on a bush gnawing the rind and the woody fibres."

The branches thereof are made white - o: "The country did not seem to be burnt, but to be much covered with snow, through the whiteness of the trees and the dryness of the herbs. It pleased God that the fresh crops were already gathered in."

The "vine" is the well-known symbol of God's people Psalm 80:8, Psalm 80:14; Sol 2:13, Sol 2:15; Hosea 10:1; Isaiah 5:1-7; Isaiah 27:2; the fig too, by reason of its sweetness, is an emblem of His Church and of each soul in her, bringing forth the fruit of grace Hosea 9:10; Matthew 21:19; Luke 13:6-7. When then God says, "he hath laid My vine waste," He suggests to us, that He is not speaking chiefly of the visible tree, but of that which it represents. The locusts, accordingly, are not chiefly the insects, which bark the actual trees, but every enemy which wastes the heritage of God, which He calls by those names. His vineyard, the Jewish people, was outwardly and repeatedly desolated by the Chaldaens, Antiochus Epiphanes, and afterward by the Romans. The vineyard, which the Jews had, was, (as Jesus foretold,) let out to other farmers when they had killed Him; and, thenceforth, is the Christian Church, and, subordinately each soul in her. : "Pagan and heretical Emperors and heresiarchs wasted often the Church of Christ. antichrist shall waste it. They who have wasted her are countless. For the Psalmist says, "They who hate me without a cause are more than the hair's of my head" Psalm 69:4.

: "The nation which cometh up against the soul, are the princes of this world and of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, of whom the Apostle Peter saith, "Our adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour" 1 Peter 5:8. If we give way to this nation, so that they should come up in us, immediately they will make our vineyard where we were accustomed to make "wine to gladden the heart of man" Psalm 104:15, a desert, and bark or break our fig tree, that we should no more have in us those most sweet gifts of the Holy Spirit. Nor is it enough for that nation to destroy the vineyard and break the fig tree, unless it also destroy whatever there is of life in it, so that, its whole freshness being consumed. the switches remain white and dead, and that be fulfilled in us, "If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" Luke 23:31. : "The Church, at least apart of it, is turned into a desert, deprived of spiritual goods, when the faithful are led, by consent to sin, to forsake God. "The fig tree is barked," when the soul which once abounded with sweetest goods and fruits of the Holy Spirit, hath those goods lessened or cut off. Such are they who, having "begun in the Spirit" Galatians 3:3, are perfected by the flesh."

" By spirits lying in wait, the vineyard of God is made a desert, when the soul, replenished with fruits, is wasted with longing for the praise of people. That "people barks" the "fig tree" of God, in that, carrying away the misguided soul to a thirst for applause, in proportion as it draws her on to ostentation, it strips her of the covering of humility. "Making it clean bare, it despoils it," in that, so long as it lies hidden in its goodness, it is, as it were, clothed with a covering of its own, which protects it. But when the mind longs that which it has done should be seen by others, it is as though "the fig tree despoiled" had lost the bark that covered it. And so, as it follows, "The branches thereof are made white;" in that his works, displayed to the eyes of people, have a bright show; a name for sanctity is gotten, when good actions are published. But as, upon the bark being removed, the branches of the fig tree wither, so observe that the deeds of the arrogant, paraded before human eyes, wither through the very act of socking to please. Therefore the mind which is betrayed through boastfulness is rightly called a fig tree barked, in that it is at once fair to the eye, as being seen, and within a little of withering, as being bared of the covering of the bark. Within, then, must our deeds be laid up, if we look to a reward of our deeds from Him who seeth within."

Lament like a virgin - The prophet addresses the congregation of Israel, as one espoused to God ; "'Lament thou,' daughter of Zion," or the like. He bids her lament, with the bitterest of sorrows, as one who, in her virgin years, was just knit into one with the husband of her youth, and then at once was, by God's judgment, on the very day of her espousal, ere yet she ceased to be a virgin, parted by death. The mourning which God commands is not one of conventional or becoming mourning, but that of one who has put away all joy from her, and takes the rough garment of penitence, girding the haircloth upon her, enveloping and embracing, and therewith, wearing the whole frame. The haircloth was a coarse, rough, formless, garment, girt close round the waist, afflictive to the flesh, while it expressed the sorrow of the soul. God regarded as a virgin, the people which He had made holy to Himself Jeremiah 2:2.

He so regards the soul which He has regenerated and sanctified. The people, by their idolatry, lost Him who was a Husband to them; the soul, by inordinate affections, is parted from its God. : "God Almighty was the Husband of the synagogue, having espoused it to Himself in the patriarchs and at the giving of the law. So long as she did not, through idolatry and other heavy sins, depart from God, she was a spouse in the integrity of mind, in knowledge, in love and worship of the true God." : "The Church is a Virgin; Christ her Husband. By prevailing sins, the order, condition, splendor, worship of the Church, are, through negligence, concupiscence, avarice, irreverence, worsened, deformed, obscured." "The soul is a virgin by its creation in nature; a virgin by privilege of grace; a virgin also by hope of glory. Inordinate desire maketh the soul a harlot; manly penitence restoreth to her chastity; wise innocence, virginity. For the soul recovereth a sort of chastity, when through thirst for righteousness, she undertakes the pain and fear of penitence; still she is not as yet raised to the eminence of innocence. - In the first state she is exposed to concupiscence; in the second, she doth works of repentance; in the third, bewailing her Husband, she is filled with the longing for righteousness; in the fourth, she is gladdened by virgin embraces and the kiss of Wisdom. For Christ is the Husband of her youth, the Betrother of her virginity. But since she parted from Him to evil concupiscence, she is monished to return to Him by sorrow and the works and garb of repentance." : "So should every Christian weep who has lost Baptismal grace, or has fallen back after repentance, and, deprived of the pure embrace of the heavenly Bridegroom, embraced instead these earthly things which are as dunghills Lamentations 4:5, having been brought up in scarlet, and being in honor, had no understanding Psalm 49:12, Psalm 49:20. Whence it is written, "let tears run down like a river day and night; give thyself no rest" Lamentations 2:18. Such was he who said; rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not Thy law" Psalm 119:136.

The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off - The meat offering and drink offering were part of every sacrifice. If the materials for these, the grain and wine, ceased, through locusts or drought or the wastings of war, the sacrifice must become mangled and imperfect. The priests were to mourn for the defects of the sacrifice; they lost also their own subsistence, since the altar was, to them, in place of all other inheritance. 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. When then holy communions become rare, the meat and drink offering are literally cut off from the house of the Lord, and those who are indeed priests, the ministers of the Lord, should mourn. Joel foretells that, however love should wax cold, there should ever be such. 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."

The field is wasted, the land mourneth - As, when God pours out His blessings of nature, all nature seems to smile and be glad, and as the Psalmist says, "to shout for joy and sing" Psalm 65:13, so when He withholds them, it seems to mourn, and, by its mourning, to reproach the insensibility of man. 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.

Be ye ashamed, O ye farmers - The prophet dwells on and expands the description of the troubles which he had foretold, setting before their eyes the picture of one universal dessolation. For the details of sorrow most touch the heart, and he wished to move them to repentance. He pictures them to themselves; some standing aghast and ashamed of the fruitlessness of their toil others giving way to bursts of sorrow, and all things around waste and dried. Nothing was exempt. Wheat and barley, widespread as they were (and the barley in those countries, "more fertile" than the wheat,) perished utterly. The rich juice of the vine, the luscious sweetness of the fig the succulence of the ever-green pomegranate, the majesty of the palm tree, the fragrance of the eastern apple, exempted them not. All, fruitbearing or barren, were dried up, for joy itself, and every source of joy was dried up from the sons of men.

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; "farmers" as instructors in morals, "vinedressers" for that joy in things eternal, which they infuse into the minds of the bearers. "Husbandmen," as instructing the soul to deeds of righteousness; vinedressers, as exciting the minds of hearers to the love of wisdom. Or, "farmers," in that by their doctrine they uproot earthly deeds and desires; "vinedressers," as holding forth spiritual gifts." "The vine is the richness of divine knowledge; the fig the sweetness of contemplation and the joyousness in things eternal." The pomegranate, with its manifold grains contained under its one bark, may designate the variety and harmony of graces, disposed in their beautiful order. "The palm, rising above the world." : "Well is the life of the righteous likened to a palm, in that the palm below is rough to the touch, and in a manner enveloped in dry bark, but above it is adorned with fruit, fair even to the eye; below it is compressed by the enfoldings of its bark; above, it is spread nut in amplitude of beautiful greenness. For so is the life of the elect, despised below, beautiful above. Down below, it is, as it were, enfolded in many barks, in that it is straitened by innumerable afflictions. But on high it is expanded into a foliage, as it were, of beautiful greenness by the amplitude of the rewarding."

Because joy is withered away - o: "There are four sorts of joy, a joy in iniquity, a joy in vanity, a joy of charity, a joy of felicity. Of the first we read, "Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the forwardness of the wicked Proverbs 2:14. Of the second, "They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ" Job 21:12. Of the third, "Let the saints be joyful in glory" Psalm 149:5. Of the fourth, "Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house; they will be still praising Thee" Psalm 84:4. The joy of charity and the joy of felicity "wither from the sons of men," when the virtues aforesaid failing, there being neither knowledge of the truth nor love of virtue, no reward succeedeth, either in this life or that to come."

Having thus pictured the coming woe, he calls all to repentance and mourning, and those first, who were to call others. God Himself appointed these afflictive means, and here He "gives to the priest a model for penitence and a way of entreating mercy." : "He invites the priests first to repentance through whose negligence chiefly the practice of holiness, the strictness of discipline, the form of doctrine, the whole aspect of the Church was sunk in irreverence. Whence the people also perished, hurrying along the various haunts of sin. Whence Jeremiah says, "The kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem. For the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, they have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood Lamentations 4:13-14.

Gird yourselves - that is, with haircloth, as is elsewhere expressed Isaiah 22:12; Jeremiah 4:8; Jeremiah 6:26. The outward affliction is an expression of the inward grief, and itself excites to further grief. This their garment of affliction and penitence, they were not to put off day and night. Their wonted duty was to "offer up sacrifice for their own sins and the sins of the people" Hebrews 7:27, and to entreat God for them. This their office the prophet calls them to discharge day and night; to "come" into the court of the temple, and there, where God showed Himself in majesty and mercy, "lie all night" prostrate before God, not at ease, but in sackcloth. He calls to them in the Name of his God, "Ye ministers of my God;" of Him, to whom, whosoever forsook Him, he himself was faithful. : "The prophets called the God of all, their own God, being united to Him by singular love and reverential obedience, so that they could say, "God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" Psalm 73:26. He calls Him, further, "their" God, (your God) in order to remind them of His special favor to them, and their duty to Him who allowed them to call Him "their" God.

Sanctify ye a fast - He does not say only, "proclaim," or "appoint a fast," but "sanctify it." Hallow the act of abstinence, seasoning it with devotion and with acts meet for repentance. For fasting is not accepted by God, unless done in charity and obedience to His commands. : "Sanctify" it, i. e., make it an offering to God, and as it were a sacrifice, a holy and blameless fast." : "To sanctify a fast is to exhibit abstinence of the flesh, meet toward God, with other good. Let anger cease, strife be lulled. For in vain is the flesh worn, if the mind is not held in from evil passions, inasmuch as the Lord saith by the prophet, "Lo! in the day of your fast you find your pleasures" Isaiah 58:3. The fast which the Lord approveth, is that which lifteth up to Him hands full of almsdeeds, which is passed with brotherly love, which is seasoned by piety. What thou substractest from thyself, bestow on another, that thy needy neighbor's flesh may be recruited by means of that which thou deniest to thine own."

Call a solemn assembly - Fasting without devotion is an image of famine. At other times "the solemn assembly" was for festival-joy. Such was the last day of the feast of the Passover Deuteronomy 16:8 and of tabernacles Leviticus 23:36; Numbers 29:35; 2 Chronicles 7:9; Nehemiah 8:18. No servile work was to be done thereon. It was then to be consecrated to thanksgving, but now to sorrow and supplication. : "The prophet commands that all should be called and gathered into the Temple, that so the prayer might be the rather heard, the more they were who offered it. Wherefore the Apostle besought his disciples to pray for him, that so what was asked might be obtained the more readily through the intercession of many."

Gather the elders - Age was, by God's appointment Leviticus 19:32, held in great reverence among the Hebrews. When first God sent Moses and Aaron to His people in Egypt, He bade them collect the elders of the people (Exodus 3:16; Exodus 4:29, compare Deuteronomy 31:28) to declare to them their own mission from God; through them He conveyed the ordinance of the Passover to the whole congregation Exodus 12:3, Exodus 12:21; in their presence was the first miracle of bringing water from the rock performed (Exodus 17:5, add Exodus 18:12); then He commanded Moses to choose seventy of them, to appear before Him before He gave the law Exodus 24:1, Exodus 24:9; then to bear Moses' own burden in hearing the causes of the people, bestowing His spirit upon them (Numbers 11:16 ff). The elders of each city were clothed with judicial authority Deuteronomy 19:12; Deuteronomy 22:15; Deuteronomy 25:7. In the expiation of an uncertain murder, the elders of the city represented the whole city Deuteronomy 21:3-6; in the offerings for the congregation, the elders of the congregation represented the whole Leviticus 4:15; Leviticus 9:1.

So then, here also, they are summoned, chief of all, that "the authority and example of their grey hairs might move the young to repentance." : "Their age, near to death and ripened in grace, makes them more apt for the fear and worship of God." All however, "priests, elders," and the "inhabitants," or "people of the land" Jeremiah 1:18, were to form one band, and were, with one heart and voice, to cry unto God; and that "in the house of God." For so Solomon had prayed, that God would "in heaven His dwelling place, hear whatever prayer and supplication" might there be "made by any man or by all His people Israel" 1 Kings 8:39; and God had promised in turn, "I have hallowed this house which thou hast built, to put My name there for ever, and Mine eyes and Mine heart shall be there perpetually" 1 Kings 9:3. God has given to united prayer a power over Himself, and "prayer overcometh God" . The prophet calls God "your" God, showing how ready He was to hear; but he adds, "cry unto the Lord;" for it is not a listless prayer, but a loud earnest cry, which reacheth to the throne of God.

Alas for the day! for the Day of the Lord is at hand - The judgment of God, then, which they were to deprecate, was still to come. : "All times and all days are God's. Yet they are said to be our days, in which God leaves us to our own freedom, to do as we will," and which we may use to repent and turn to Him. "Whence Christ saith, 'O Jerusalem - if thou hadst known in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace' Luke 19:42. That time, on the contrary, is said to be God's Day, in which He doth any new, rare, or special thing, such as is the Day of Judgment or vengeance." All judgment in time is an image of the Judgment for eternity. "The Day of the Lord" is, then, each "day of vengeance in which God doth to man according to His will and just judgment, inflicting the punishment which he deserves, as man did to Him in his day, manifoldly dishonoring Him, according to his own perverse will." That Day "is at hand;" suddenly to come. Speed then must be used to prevent it. Prevented it may be by speedy repentance before it comes; but when it does come, there will be no avoiding it, for

As a destruction from the Almighty shall it come - The name "the Almighty" or "God Almighty" is but seldom used in Holy Scripture. God revealed Himself by this Name to Abraham, when renewing to him the promise which was beyond nature, that he should be a father of many nations, when he and Sarah were old and well stricken in age. He said, I am God Almighty; walk before Me and be thou perfect Genesis 17:1-6, Genesis 17:16-21; Genesis 18:10-14; Romans 4:17-21. God Almighty uses it again of Himself in renewing the blessing to Jacob Genesis 35:11; and Isaac and Jacob use it in blessing in His Name Genesis 28:3; Genesis 43:14; Genesis 48:3; Genesis 49:25. It is not used as a mere name of God, but always in reference to His might, as in the book of Job which treats chiefly of His power . In His days of judgment God manifests Himself as the All-mighty and All-just. Hence, in the New Testament, it occurs almost exclusively in the Revelations, which reveal His judgments to come . Here the words form a sort of terrible proverb, from where they are adopted from Joel by the prophet Isaiah Isa 13:6. The word "destruction, שׁד shôd," is formed from the same root as "Almighty, שׁדי shadday. It shall come as might from the Mighty." Only, the word "might" is always used of "might" put forth to destroy, a "mighty destruction." He says then, in fact, that that Day shall come, like might put forth by the Almighty Himself; to destroy His enemies, irresistible, inevitable, unendurable, overwhelming the sinner.

Is not the meat cut off before our eyes? - The prophet exhibits the immediate judgment, as if it were already fullilled in act. He sets it in detail before their eyes. "When the fruits of the earth were now ripe, the grain now calling for the reaper, and the grapes fully ripe and desiring to be pressed out, they were taken away, when set before their eyes for them to enjoy." Yea, "joy and gladness from the house of our God." The joy in the abundance of the harvest was expressed in one universal thanksgiving to God, by fathers of families, sons, daughters, menservants, maidservants, with the priest and Levite. All this was to be cut off together. The courts of God's house were to be desolate and silent, or joy and gladness were to be turned into sorrow and wailing.

: "So it befell those who rejected and insulted Christ. "The Bread of life Which came down from heaven and gave life to the world John 6:48, John 6:51, the grain of wheat, which fell into the ground and died, and brought forth much fruit" John 12:24, that spiritual "wine" which knoweth how to "gladden the heart of man," was already in a manner before their eyes. But when they ceased not to insult Him in unbelief, He, as it were, disappeared from their eyes, and they lost all spiritual sustenance. All share in all good is gone from them. "Joy and gladness" have also gone "from the House" which they had. For they are given up to desolation, and "abide without king or prince or sacrifice" Hosea 3:4. Again, the Lord said, "Man, shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which cometh forth out of the Mouth of God" Matthew 4:4. The word of God then is food. This hath been taken away from the Jews, for they understood not the writings of Moses, but "to this day the veil is upon their heart" 2 Corinthians 3:15. For they hate the oracles of Christ. All spiritual food is perished, not in itself but to "them." To them, it is as though it were not. But the Lord Himself imparts to these who believe in Him a right to all exuberance of joy in the good tilings from above. For it is written, "The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish; but He thrusts away the desire of the wicked" Proverbs 10:3.

The seed is rotten under the clods - 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. The garners lay desolate, nay, were allowed to go to ruin, in hopelessness of any future harvest.

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;

O Lord, to Thee will I cry - This is the only hope left, and contains all hopes. From the Lord was the infliction; in Him is the healing. The prophet appeals to God by His own Name, the faithful Fulfiller of His promises, Him who Is, and who had promised to hear all who call upon Him. Let others call to their idols, if they would, or remain stupid and forgetful, the prophet would cry unto God, and that earnestly.

For the fire hath devoured the pastures - The gnawing of locusts leaves things, as though scorched by fire (see the note at Joel 2:3); the sun and the east wind scorch up all green things, as though it had been the actual contact of fire. Spontaneous combustion frequently follows. The Chaldees wasted all before them with fire and sword. All these and the like calamities are included under "the fire," whose desolating is without remedy. What has been scorched by fire never recovers . "The famine," it is said of Mosul, "was generally caused by fire spreading in dry weather over pastures, grass lands, and grain lands, many miles in extent. It burnt night and day often for a week and sometimes embraced the whole horizon."

The beasts of the field cry also unto Thee - o: "There is an order in these distresses. First he points out the insensate things wasted; then those afflicted, which have sense only; then those endowed with reason; so that to the order of calamity there may be consorted an order of pity, sparing first the creature, then the things sentient, then things rational. The Creator spares the creature; the Ordainer, things sentient; the Saviour, the rational." Irrational creatures joined with the prophet in his cry. The beasts of the field cry to God, though they know it not; it is a cry to God, who compassionates all which suffers. God makes them, in act, a picture of dependence upon His Providence, "seeking to It for a removal of their sufferings, and supply of their needs." So He saith, "the young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God" Psalm 104:21, and, "He giveth to the beast his food and to the young ravens that cry" Psalm 147:9, and, "Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God" Job 38:41. If the people would not take instruction from him, he "bids them learn from the beasts of the field how to behave amid these calamities, that they should cry aloud to God to remove them."