Joel 2:1-27 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Joel 2:1-11

Here we have God contending with his own professing people for their sins and executing upon them the judgment written in the law (Deut. 28:42), The fruit of thy land shall the locust consume, which was one of those diseases of Egypt that God would bring upon them, Deut. 28:60. I. Here is the war proclaimed (Joel 2:1): Blow the trumpet in Zion, either to call the invading army together, and then the trumpet sounds a charge, or rather to give notice to Judah and Jerusalem of the approach of the... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Joel 2:12-17

We have here an earnest exhortation to repentance, inferred from that desolating judgment described and threatened in the Joel 2:1-11: Therefore now turn you to the Lord. 1. ?Thus you must answer the end and intention of the judgment; for it was sent for this end, to convince you of your sins, to humble you for them, to reduce you to your right minds and to your allegiance.? God brings us into straits, that he may bring us to repentance and so bring us to himself. 2. ?Thus you may stay the... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Joel 2:18-27

See how ready God is to succour and relieve his people, how he waits to be gracious; as soon as ever they humble themselves under this hand, and pray, and seek his face, he immediately meets them with his favours. They prayed that God would spare them, and see here with what good words and comfortable words he answered them; for God's promises are real answers to the prayers of faith, because with him saying and doing are not two things. Now observe, I. Whence this mercy promised shall take... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 2:1

Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain ,.... This is spoken to the priests, whose business it was to blow the trumpets for calling solemn assemblies to meet in Zion, the temple built there, called from thence the holy mountain of God. Here the trumpet is ordered to be blown with a broken quivering voice, a tarantantara, to give notice of approaching danger by the locusts, or those enemies signified by them, and to prepare for it, and return to God by repentance; ... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 2:2

A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness ,.... Alluding to the gloomy and thick darkness caused by the locusts, which sometimes come in prodigious numbers, like thick clouds, and darken the air; so the land of Egypt was darkened by them, Exodus 10:15 ; historians and travellers relate, as Bochart F6 Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 4. c. 5. p. 479. has shown, that these creatures will fly like a cloud, and darken the heavens at noonday, cover the sun, and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 2:3

A fire devoureth before them, and behind them aflame burneth ,.... This is not to be understood of the heat of the sun, or of the great drought that went before and continued after the locusts; but of them themselves, which were like a consuming fire; wherever they came, they devoured all green grass, herbs, and leaves of trees, as fire does stubble; they sucked out the juice and moisture of everything they came at, and what they left behind shrivelled up and withered away, as if it had been... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 2:4

The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses ,.... in their running, as Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it; they came with, as much swiftness and eagerness, with as much fierceness and courage, as horses rush into the battle. Bochart F8 Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 4. c. 5. p. 474, 475. has shown, from various writers, that the head of a locust is in shape like that of a horse; and Theodoret on the text observes, that whoever thoroughly examines the head of a locust will easily... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 2:5

Like the noise of chariots on the tops of that mountains shall they leap ,.... The motion of the locusts is leaping from place to place; for which the locusts have legs peculiarly made, their hindermost being the longest; wherefore Pliny F9 Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 48. observes, that insects which have their hindermost legs long leap locusts; to which agrees the Scripture description of them: "which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth; even those of them ye may eat;... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 2:6

Before their face the people shall be much pained ,.... Or, "at their presence"; at the sight of them they shall be in pain, as a woman in travail; into such distress an army of locusts would throw them, since they might justly fear all the fruits of the earth would be devoured by them, and they should have nothing left to live upon; and a like consternation and pain the army of the Assyrians or Chaldeans upon sight filled them with, as they expected nothing but ruin and destruction from... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 2:7

They shall run like mighty men ,.... Like men of war, in a hostile way, as soldiers run upon their enemy with undaunted courage and bravery. Bochart from Pisidas describes the locusts' manner of fighting, who says, they strike not standing, but running: they shall climb the wall like men of war ; scale the walls of cities as besiegers do; walls and bulwarks cannot keep them out; all places are accessible to them, walled cities, towns, yea, even houses, Exodus 10:6 ; and they shall... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Joel 2:1-11

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Joel 2:12-17

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Joel 2:18-27

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 2:1

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 2:2

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 2:3

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 2:4

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 2:5

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 2:6

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 2:7

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