1 Joel, declaring sundry judgments of God, exhorteth to observe them, 8 and to mourn. 14 He prescribeth a fast for complaint.
Joe 1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel.
Word of the Lord. Joel assures the reader that his message did not originate with himself. His words were those of the Lord. He claims divine inspiration, as did other prophets (Hosea 1:1; Micah 1:1; etc.; cf. 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20, 21).
Joel. The name probably means, “Yahweh is God.” The Bible mentions several who bore this name (1 Sam. 8:2; 1 Chron. 7:3; 11:38; 15:7, 11). The prophet is distinguished as the son of Pethuel. Of Pethuel nothing further is known. The LXX reading, Bathouēl, sheds no light.
Joe 1:2 Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors?
The calamity is something new in the memory of living men. It was unheard of by the fathers, and something to tell future generations about. The plague of locusts God brought upon Egypt through Moses was likewise described as an unprecedented event (Ex. 10:6).
In five generations no other such calamity had been, or would be, known. By this effective device Joel stresses the unusual significance of his message.
Joe 1:3 Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. Compare Ps. 78:4–7.
Joe 1:4 What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten.
In general, two views have been held with regard to this description of the plague of locusts:
(1) The literal view, which holds that Joel is describing a particularly devastating scourge of locusts, and that the prophet makes this disaster the occasion of a call to repentance; the deliverance from the natural scourge is then made an occasion for a discourse on the future day of the Lord, when God’s people will be delivered from all their enemies.
(2) The allegorical view, which holds that the description of the plague was merely a figure of coming judgments. For example, in the time of Jerome the four destructive insects were taken as symbols of (a) the Babylonians and Assyrians, (b) the Medes and Persians, (c) the Macedonians and Antiochus Epiphanes, (d) the Romans.
No serious Bible student accepts this view today. Inasmuch as locust infestations were rather common occurrences in Palestine, it would be difficult to prove that one such plague may not have formed the occasion of Joel’s prophecy.
The arguments that have been presented against this view, such as the fact that the habits of the locust are not accurately described, tend to fall when it is remembered that the language is highly figurative and poetical.
On the other hand, it is impossible to prove that Joel was not employing the description of the insect infestation merely as a figure to represent the invasion of hostile armies (see pp. 937, 938). Whichever interpretation is adopted, the eschatological teachings of the book remain the same.
Joel is focusing on the great day of the Lord, and on Israel’s deliverance in that day, if the nation had fully cooperated with God.
But Israel failed to do so. Inspired writers show how the prophetic messages that failed of fulfillment because of Israel’s unbelief, are to be fulfilled in the Christian age882.
Joe 1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips.
Drunkards. Poetically the winebibbers are called upon to mourn their fate. Deprived of the means of their favorite indulgence, they are urged to arouse from their stupor to shed the tears of disappointment.
Joe 1:6 A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness.
Nation. Heb. goy. Compare Prov. 30:25, 26, where the lower creatures are spoken of as “people” and as “folk” (Heb. ‘am in both cases). This passage in Joel seems to be the only place in the Scriptures where lower creatures are referred to as a nation. It is possible that the reality here breaks through the figure and that the prophet is envisioning a hostile invading army.
Joe 1:7 It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white.
My vines. Compare Ps. 80:8; Isa. 5:1–7; Hosea 9:10; 10:1.
Waste. After the locusts attack all that is green and succulent, they attack the bark of trees.
Barked. Literally, “reduced to a stump.”
Joe 1:8 Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth grieving for the betrothed of her youth.
Husband of her youth. Doubtless one to whom the maiden is betrothed and whom she sincerely loves, but who dies before they are married. Instead of a wedding dress she puts on the rough sackcloth garment of mourning.
Under Mosaic law a betrothal was, in its general aspects, considered to be as binding as a marriage (see on Deut. 22:23; Matt. 1:18–20).
Joe 1:9 Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off from the house of the LORD. The priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD.
Grain offerings. On the nature of this offering see on Lev. 2:1. A share of these offerings was for the livelihood of the priests (Lev. 2:3; 6:16; 10:12–15).
Joe 1:10 The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the olive oil fails.
By the figure of personification the land is presented as mourning its unproductiveness. The Hebrew of this verse displays several interesting alliterations, which cannot be reproduced in the English.
Joe 1:11 Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
Wheat. Wheat, barley, spelt, and millet were the principal cereal crops of Palestine.
Joe 1:12 The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree— all the trees of the field—are dried up. Surely the people’s joy is withered away.
Pomegranate. The enumeration of the effects of the drought (v. 20) on the various plants and trees is doubtless to emphasize its severity. The language of vs. 10–12 also fittingly describes the effects of the fourth of the seven last plagues (Rev. 16:8, 9; cf. GC 628).
Joe 1:13 Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.
Sackcloth, normally a symbol of mourning (see v. 8), here of penitence, which Israel should display (see 1 Kings 21:27).
Minister. From the Heb. sharath, “to serve.” The word is here used synonymously with “priests.” 1
Joe 1:14 Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
Declare. Heb. qadash, “to consecrate,” “to dedicate,” here probably in the sense of consecrating with religious rites or at least with official proclamation.
Sacred assembly. Heb. ‘aṣarah, from the root ‘aṣar, “to detain,” “to restrain,” here in the sense of causing all work to cease for the purpose of calling an assembly.
Joe 1:15 Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.
Day of the Lord.
A common expression with the prophets (Isa. 2:12; 13:6; Eze. 30:3; Amos 5:18; Zeph. 1:14; etc.). For the significance of the expression see on Isa. 13:6.
Primarily, Joel is referring to the impending judgments upon Judah. In principle his predictions apply also to the final day of judgment to come upon the world (see pp. 37, 38).
Almighty. Heb. Shaddai (see Vol. I, p. 171).
Joe 1:16 Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes— joy and gladness from the house of our God?
Food. Heb. ’okel, food of any kind. From the house. Inasmuch as crops were destroyed, no first fruits or thank offerings could be presented in the Temple. When the Hebrews of old brought these and other offerings to the Lord, it was a time of rejoicing (see Deut. 12:5–7).
The plague put an end to this joy.
Joe 1:17 The seeds are shrivelled beneath the clods. The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up.
Joe 1:18 How the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
Cattle moan groan.
The effect of the insect infestation and the drought upon the animal kingdom is here shown.
Joe 1:19 To you, LORD, I call, for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.
Apparently, an outburst by the prophet, owing to the intense hardship and suffering caused by the insect visitation and the drought.
The fire and flame are probably figurative of the scorching heat of the sun.
Joe 1:20 Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.
20. The beasts. See on v. 18.