Joel 1:4-7

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Joel 1:1-7

It is a foolish fancy which some of the Jews have, that this Joel the prophet was the same with that Joel who was the son of Samuel (1 Sam. 8:2); yet one of their rabbin very gravely undertakes to show why Samuel is here called Pethuel. This Joel was long after that. He here speaks of a sad and sore judgment which was now brought, or to be brought, upon Judah, for their sins. Observe, I. The greatness of the judgment, expressed here in two things:?1. It was such as could not be paralleled in... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 1:4

That which the palmer worm hath left hath the locust eaten ,.... These, with the two following, are four kinds of, locusts as Jarchi observes; though it is difficult to fix the particular species designed; they seem to have their names from some peculiar properties belonging to them; as the first of these from their sheering or cropping off the fruits and leaves of trees; and the second from the vast increase of them, the multitude they bring forth and the large numbers they appear in: ... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 1:5

Awake, ye drunkards, and weep: and howl, all ye drinkers of wine ,.... Who are used to neither, either to awake or to howl, being very prone to drowsiness upon their drinking bouts, and to mirth and jollity in them; but now should be awake, and sober enough, not as being a virtue in them, but through want of wine; and for the same reason should howl, as follows: because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth ; the locusts having spoiled the vines and eaten the grapes, no new... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 1:6

For a nation is come up upon my land ,.... A nation of locusts, so called from their great numbers, and coming from foreign parts; just as the ants are called a "people", and the conies a "folk", Proverbs 30:25 ; and which were an emblem of the nation of the Chaldeans, which came up from Babylon, and invaded the land of Judea; called by the Lord "my land", because he had chosen it for the habitation of his people; here he himself had long dwelt, and had been served and worshipped in it:... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 1:7

He hath laid my vine waste ,.... That is, the locust, which spoiled the vines in Judea, the singular being put for the plural, by gnawing the branches, biting the tops of them, and devouring the leaves and the fruit; and so not only left them bare and barren, but destroyed them: this may emblematically represent the Assyrians or Babylonians wasting the land of Judea, the vine and vineyard of the Lord of hosts; see Isaiah 5:1 ; and barked my fig tree ; gnawed off the bark of them;... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Joel 1:4

That which the palmerworm hath left - Here he begins to open his message, and the words he chooses show that he is going to announce a devastation of the land by locusts, and a famine consequent on their depredations. What the different insects may be which he specifies is not easy to determine. I shall give the words of the original, with their etymology. The palmerworm, גזם gazam , from the same root, to cut short; probably the caterpillar, or some such blight, from its cutting the... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Joel 1:5

Awake, ye drunkards - The general destruction of vegetation by these devouring creatures has totally prevented both harvest and vintage; so that there shall not be wine even for necessary uses, much less for the purposes of debauchery. It is well known that the ruin among the vines by locusts prevents the vintage for several years after. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Joel 1:6

A nation is come up upon my land - That real locusts are intended there can be little doubt; but it is thought that this may be a double prophecy, and that the destruction by the Chaldeans may also be intended, and that the four kinds of locusts mentioned above may mean the four several attacks made on Judea by them. The first in the last year of Nabonassar, (father of Nebuchadnezzar), which was the third of Jehoiakim; the second when Jehoiakim was taken prisoner in the eleventh year of his... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Joel 1:7

He hath laid my vine waste - The locusts have eaten off both leaves and bark. חשפה חשף chasoph chasaphah , he hath made it clean bare; שדה שדד suddad sadeh , the field is laid waste, Joel 1:10 ; and משדי כשד kesod mishshaddai , a destruction from the Almighty, Joel 1:15 ; are all paronomasias in which this prophet seems to delight. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Joel 1:4

Verse 4 He adds what that judgment was, — that the hope of food had for many years disappointed them. It often happened, we know, that locusts devoured the standing corn; and then the chafers and the palmer worms did the same: these were ordinary events. But when one devastation happened, and another followed, and there was no end; when there had been four barren years, suddenly produced by insects, which devoured the growth of the earth; — this was certainly unusual. Hence the Prophet says,... read more

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