Joel 1:6-12

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

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Joel 1:8-13

The judgment is here described as very lamentable, and such as all sorts of people should share in; it shall not only rob the drunkards of their pleasure (if that were the worst of it, it might be the better borne), but it shall deprive others of their necessary subsistence, who are therefore called to lament (Joel 1:8), as a virgin laments the death of her lover to whom she was espoused, but not completely married, yet so that he was in effect her husband, or as a young woman lately married,... 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

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 1:8

Lament like a virgin ,.... This is not the continuation of the prophet's speech to the drunkards; but, as Aben Ezra observes, he either speaks to himself, or to the land the Targum supplies it, O congregation of Israel; the more religious and godly part of the people are here addressed; who were concerned for the pure worship of God, and were as a chaste virgin espoused to Christ, though not yet come, and for whom they were waiting; these are called upon to lament the calamities of the times... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 1:9

The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord ,.... The meat offering was made of fine flour, oil, and frankincense; and the drink offering was of wine; and, because of the want of corn and wine, these were not brought to the temple as usual; and which was matter of great grief to religious persons, and especially to the priests, as follows: the priests, the Lord's ministers, mourn ; partly because they had no work to do, and could not answer to their... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 1:10

The field is wasted ,.... By the locust, that eat up all green things, the grass and herbs, the fruit and leaves of trees; and also by the Chaldeans trampling on it with their horses, and the increase of which became fodder for them: the land mourneth ; being destitute, nothing growing upon it, and so looked dismally, and of a horrid aspect; or the inhabitants of it, for want of provision: for the corn is wasted ; by the locusts, and so by the Assyrian or Chaldean army, before it... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 1:11

Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen ,.... Tillers of the land, who have took a great deal of pains in cultivating the earth, dunging, ploughing, and sowing it; confusion may cover you, because of your disappointment, the increase not answering to your expectations and labours: howl, O ye vinedressers ; that worked in the vineyards, set the vines, watered and pruned them, and, when they had done all they could to them, were dried up with the drought, or devoured by the locusts, as they were... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 1:12

The vine is dried up ,.... Withered away, stripped of its leaves and fruits, and its sap and moisture gone: or, "is ashamed" F20 הובישה "confusa est", V. L. "pudefacta est", Cocceius; "pudet", Drusius. ; to see itself in this condition, and not answer the expectation of its proprietor and dresser: and the fig tree languisheth ; sickens and dies, through the bite of the locusts: the pomegranate tree : whose fruit is delicious, and of which wine was made: the palm tree also;... 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

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