Joel 2

Chap. II. Ver. 1—32. An alarm sounded through the country.—The priests are ordered to sound their trumpets on the approach of this aerial army. The locusts are described—They are compared to cavalry; and the noise and din of their approach to the rattling of war-chariots and the crackling of burning stubble. The regularity and rapidity of their march is then stated; and their invincibility, as it respects human weapons. The heavens are clothed in blackness, and the voice of God announces their approach as his army. barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.

delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusa- The nation is then pathetically exhorted to deep and humble repentance; to rend, not their garments only, but their hearts also: as the only means to avert national judgments. In the conclusion, as is common with many of the prophets, the days of the Messiah and the gospel dispensation are adverted to, especially the miraculous effusion of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and the awful indications of divine judgment preceding the destruction of Jerusalem, and the consequent dispersion of the Jews. 3% Chap. I. Ver. 1—15. God’s judgments against several heathen nations.—This chapter denounces judgments against several nations bordering on Palestine, inimical to the Jews.

The same judgments were predicted by other prophets, and had their accomplishment by degrees, at different periods, and by different instruments. The prophecy against the Syrians, whose capital was Damascus, was fulfilled by the king of Assyria. ((2 Kings 16:9).) Those against the Philistines by He- Chap. I. Ver. 1. Tekoa—A city of Judah. Ver. 3. Not turn away, &c.—That is, says Newcome, not rescue it from punishment.— Threshing instruments.—Newcome, “Wains of iron,” 950 j Jordan. (Numbers 33:49). Ver. 21. I will cleanse.—Newcome, “Avenge.” That is, God will cleanse the world from blood-guiltiness, by avenging his people of their enemies. See (Proverbs 18:20).; xix. 2, &c. ON THE BOOK OF JOEL.

to be produced by locusts in the vegetable world, he portrays the more distant calamities to be inflicted by the armies of the Chaldeans in their invasion of Judea. Hence, probably, the studied ambiguity of some of the expressions; while the double destruction to be effected by these fearful insects, and those enemies of which they were the harbingers, is painted with the most expressive force, in terms reciprocally metaphorical, and admirably adapted to the twofold character of the descriptions. These predictions are followed by a more general denunciation of God’s vengeance, delivered with such force and aggravation of circumstances, as to be in some measure descriptive of that final judgment, which some temporal dispensations of Providence may be said to prefigure.

These several declarations are intermingled with earnest exhortations to solemn fasting, repentance, and prayer, and with promises of deliverance and returning prosperity productive of Gospel blessings; in treating of which, he foretels, in the clearest terms, the general effusion of the Holy Spirit, which was to characterize the Gospel dispensation, predicting, in the fullest and plainest manner, the awful consequences of obstinately rejecting the sacred influence, especially to the Jews, the event of which, to this day, fully attests his Divine inspiration. In conclusion, he foretels the righteous judgments of God in the final excision of his enemies, and the glorious state of prosperity to be yet enjoyed by the church; representing its perfections and blessings under the poetic emblems of a golden age.]}—B.

THE BOOK OF AMOS. to renounce their idols and to seek the Lord; declares the judgments of God on the scornful, presumptuous, and hypocritical Israelites, whom God sentences to captivity; denounces the most terrible calamities on the self-indulgent and self-confident Jews and Israelites; averts by prayer the judgments of the grasshoppers and fire, and shows, by a wall and ff 9 the strict justice of God in Israel’s punishment. Being accused to Jeroboam by Amaziah the priest, and forbidden to prophesy in Bethel, he shows how God called him to prophesy, and predicts the ruin of Amaziah and his family; under a vision of a basket of summer-fruit, he shows the speedy ruin of Israel; reproves their oppression and injustice; shows the complete ruin of Israel, and threatens a famine of the word of God; he then declares the certainty of the judgments to be inflicted on Israel, though a remnant shall be preserved, and predicts the blessings of Messiah’s kingdom, and the conversion and restoration of Israel.]|—Bagster.

Several of this Prophet’s images are borrowed from those rural objects with which he was familiar. His sentiments are frequently lofty, and his style beautiful, as well as plain. “The same celestial Spirit, (says Bishop Lowth,) actuated Isaiah and Daniel in the court, and Amos in the sheep-fold;…. occasionally employing the natural eloquence of some, and occasionally making others eloquent.” A Mcr !and the habitations of the shepherds shall zekiah, (2 Kings 18:8); and by Uzziah, (2 Chronicles 26:6).—All Syria was also subdued by Pharaoh-Necho, and again by Nebuchadnezzar, who took Tyre, as did afterwards Alexander. Nebuchadnezzar also subdued the Edomites, (Jeremiah 25:9, 21). and xxvii. 3, 6.. Judas Maccabeus gained fresh victories over them, 1 Mac.

v. 3.; and Hyrcanus brought them under entire subjection. The Ammonites were likewise conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. ((Jeremiah 27:3-6).) which were driven over the corn to thresh it, ((Isaiah 28:27-28).) and which here mark the oppressions which they inflicted on Israel. See (2 Kings 10:32-33).

Notes on the verses

Ver. 19. The pastures of the wilderness—Or desert; and burnt up, &c. See (Joel 2:3). Fires were often made, (though in vain,) to stop the ravages of these insects, by which (fires) the trees and underwood were much injured. _. Chap. II. Ver. 1. Blow ye the trumpet, &c.—The same alarm is given as if they had been invaded by the most powerful enemies. A Jewish writer, mentioning a swarm of locusts which once appeared in Saxony, says, so terrified are the Jews on such occasions, that they immediately sound a trumpet, and proclaim a fast. Ver. 2. A day of darkness and of gloominess.—Dr. Chandler quotes, from a German Chronicle of the ninth century, that “so great a multitude of locusts” passed over that country from the east, that during two months, “they oftentimes obscured the rays of the sun for the space of a whole mile; and when they alighted, in one hour consumed every thing that was green upon 100 acres, or more; and being afterwards driven into the sea by the wind, and thrown back by the waves, they corrupted the air by their stench, and produced no small pestilence.”—["

The quantity of these insects,” says Volney, “is incredible to all who have not themselves witnessed their astonishing numbers; the whole earth is covered with them for the space of several leagues. The noise they make in browsing on the trees and herbage, may be heard at a great distance, and resembles that of an army in secret. The Tartars themselves are a less destructive enemy than these little animals. One would imagine that fire had followed their progress. Wherever their myriads spread, the verdure of the country disappears; trees and plants stripped of their leaves and reduced to their naked boughs and stems, cause the dreary image of winter to succeed in an instant to the rich scenery of spring.

When these clouds of locusts take their flight, to surmount any obstacles, or to traverse more rapidly a desert soil, the heavens may literally be said to be obscured by them.”]—Bagster. Many similar accounts may be found in modern writers, the most authentic. The following is one of the most recent and extraordinary. The narrator being (as we understand it) in the neighbourhood of Gibraltar, saw a dense cloud slowly advancing to the Spanish shore, and darkening the sun as it passed, when, suddenly it burst, and there fell (says he) such a vast multitude of locusts as exceeded the thickest storm of hail or snow that he ever saw. All around me was immediately covered with these crawling creatures, and yet they continued to fall so thick, that with the swing of my cane, I knocked down thousands…..

There was not, in a day or two, the least leaf to be seen on a tree, nor any green thing in a garden.” The close of this account illustrates what is said in ver. 20 of the defeat and destruction of this great northern army, “When, glutton-like, they had devoured every thing around them, they took to ponds, brooks, and pools,” probably from excessive thirst, and drowned themselves; and lay drowned in heaps, like little hills, with a stench so noisome that it gave reason to fear pestilence. See Asiat. Journ. Aug. 1825. Ver. 3. A fire devoureth before them.—They consume like a general conflagration.” Ludolf says, “Wherever they fed, their leavings seem, as it were, parched with fire.” Newcome.

See note on ver. 2 Ver. 4. Like horses, &c.—An Arab, describing them, compared the heads of the locust to those of horses, their breast to that of a lion, their feet to those of a camel, their belly to that of a serpent, their tail to that of a scorpion, and their feelers to female hair. (Compare (Revelation 9:7).) Niebuhr’s Arabia. Ver. 5. Like the noise of chariots,—See (Revelation 9:9). Volney compares the noise they make in browsing to that of an army in secret, marching without music. See note on ver. 2.—Of a flame.—Cyril compares the noise of their teeth to a crackling flame.—In battle array.—Heb. “Arrayed for war.” “Many writers mention the order of locusts in their flight and march; and their manner of proceeding directly forward, whatever obstacles were interposed.” Newcome. Ver.

6. All faces shall gather blackness.—See margin. Tavernier (and other travellers) affirm that, by way of mourning, the Orientals sometimes daub their faces with the black of a kettle. Orient. Lit. No. 1068. Ver. 7. They shall run, &c.—(In their progress, says Dr. Shaw, “they kept their ranks like men of war; climbing over every tree or wall that was in their way. Nay, they entered into our very houses and bed chambers, like so many thieves. Every effort of the inhabitants to stop them was unavailing; the trenches they had dug were quickly filled up, and the fires they had kindled extinguished by infinite swarms succeeding each other.”]—Bagster. Compare verses 2, 4, 5, &c. Ver. 10. The earth shall quake.—This may be taken figuratively, for the great alarm which they shall create; but literally, the heavens are darkened by their flight.

See on ver. 2. Ver. 11. The Lord shall utter his voice—That is, it is by his command that they advance or retire.