Joel 1:19

O Lord, to thee will I cry,.... Or pray, as the Targum; with great vehemency and earnestness, commiserating the case of man and beast: these are the words of the prophet, resolving to use his

O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. O Lord, to thee will I cry. Joel here interposes.

O Lord, Maker and Preserver of these poor famished cattle, to thee will I cry: either it is the prophet’ s prayer he maketh, or a form prescribed for the priests. The fire; the immoderate heats, or else the scorching and blasting flashes of fire in the air, which in those hot countries are more frequent and more precious than in colder climates. Hath devoured the pastures; the fruitful and pleasant places where shepherds pitched their tents, and were used to feed their sheep, all are parched and dried as if burned with fire. Of the wilderness; either because the shepherds chose to pitch their tents far from cities and towns; or else because in those vast wildernesses there were some fruitful pastures scattered up and down, some lower places of springs and water-courses. The flame, the flashes of fire from the clouds, or in the air, without thunder, or else lightnings with thunder, hath burnt all the trees, that they neither afford their fruit, their shade, or their green boughs for browse for the relief of man or beast. This extreme desolation should affect them all; it doth shame the sinfully Senseless among them; and it is a good argument to use with God, whose creatures they are as well as man.

Joe 1:19 O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.Ver. 19. O Lord, to thee will I cry] I will, though others will not. I have called upon others to cry mightily unto thee, and to meet thee by repentance; but they, tanquam monstra marina, as so many sea monsters, pass by my words with a deaf ear, they refuse to return. "Thy hand is lifted up" in threatening, and will fall down in punishing, but "they will not see," Isaiah 26:11, they will not search, they will not have their eyes (like the windows in Solomon’ s temple) broad inward, 1 Kings 6:4; the eyes of their minds are as ill set (for this matter) as the eyes of their bodies, they see not what is within. But whatever they do, "my soul shall weep in secret for their pride, and mine eyes shall weep sore," &c., Jeremiah 13:17, for their insensibleness of their misery. For the fire hath devoured the pastures] That is, the immoderate scorching heat of the season. See Psalms 83:14 Jeremiah 17:6. Or the blasting wind, as Lyra expounds it; or the locusts, as Drusius, or God (who is a consuming fire), by any, or all these instruments of his wrath, as Tarnovius. And the flame hath burnt all the trees of the field] This was dreadful, but yet nothing to that conflagratio mundi, spoken of by St Peter, 2 Peter 3:12, "when the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements melt with fervent heat" on the heads of the wicked; who shall give a terrible account, with the world all on a light fire about their ears.

(19) The fire hath devoured.—This may be explained as produced by the scorching heat bringing about spontaneous combustion, or by the efforts of the people to exterminate the locusts by burning the trees, or by the mark, as of fire, left upon all vegetation after the locusts had finished their work of devastation.

Verse 19. O Lord, to thee will I cry] Let this calamity come as it may, we have sinned, and should humble ourselves before God; and it is such a calamity as God alone can remove, therefore unto him must we cry. The fire hath devoured the pastures] This may either refer to a drought, or to the effects of the locusts; as the ground, after they have passed over it, everywhere appears as if a sheet of flame had not only scorched, but consumed every thing.

19. Unto thee, O Jehovah, do I cry] the prophet, speaking (as Joe 1:6-7; Joe 1:13) in the nation’s name, turns for help to Jehovah, who “saveth men and cattle” (Psalms 36:6). fire] either fig. of the intense heat of the sun, or (comp. on Amos 7:4) of the conflagrations kindled among the parched herbage during a drought. The words might, however, be simply a poetical description of the ravages of the locusts themselves (cf. Joe 2:3 a). the pastures of the wilderness] Joe 1:20, Joe 2:22; Jeremiah 9:10; Jeremiah 23:10; Psalms 65:12. “Wilderness” does not mean the desert: midbâr (properly, a place for driving cattle) denotes land which is unenclosed, and uncultivated, especially a broad prairie or steppe, but not land which is destitute of pasturage.

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.

15-20. Not a petition which the prophet puts into the mouths of the priests, but the prophet’s own words, explaining the seriousness of the calamity and thus presenting the reason for the appeal in 13, 14.