Joel 2:2 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

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

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Joel 2:2

A day of darkness, etc - The depredations of the locusts are described from the second to the eleventh verse, and their destruction in the twentieth. Dr. Shaw, who saw locusts in Barbary in 1724 and 1725, thus describes them: - "I never observed the mantes, bald locusts, to be gregarious. But the locusts, properly so called, which are so frequently mentioned by sacred as well as profane writers, are sometimes so beyond expression. Those which I saw in 1724 and 1725 were much bigger than... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Joel 2:2

Verse 2 And then he says, A day of darkness and of thick darkness, a day of clouds and of obscurity, as the dawn which expands over the mountains. By calling it a dark and gloomy day, he wished to show that there would be no hope of deliverance; for, according to the common usage of Scripture, we know that by light is designated a cheerful and happy state, or the hope of deliverance from any affliction: but the Prophet now extinguishes, as it were, every hope in this world, when he declares... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 2:1-3

The purposes for which a trumpet was blown and an alarm sounded. I. THE PARTICULAR PURPOSE ON THIS OCCASION . II. THE PLACE WHERE THE WARNING WAS GIVEN . III. THE PRIESTS WHO WERE TO SOUND THE ALARM . We are informed in Numbers 10:8 that it was the "sons of Aaron, the priests," that were to blow with the trumpets, either in sounding the alarm of war, or convening an assembly of the people, or for the journeying of the camps. Similar is... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 2:1-11

These verses contain a further description of the calamity occasioned by the locusts and the appearance presented by them; the calling of a congregational meeting for penitence and prayer; the reason assigned in the coming of the day of the Lord. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 2:1-11

The ministry of alarm. "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion," etc. Zion was the meeting-place for the people of God, and may be fairly taken as a type of the true Church in all ages. We may take these verses as setting forth one aspect of the Church's ministry, namely, the ministry of alarm. I. IT HAS TO ANNOUNCE A JUDGMENT THAT IS TERRIBLE . How graphically and appallingly does the prophet set forth the tremendousness of the calamity that was about being inflicted on Judah! It... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 2:2

A day of darkness and of glooming, a day of clouds and of thick darkness. It was, indeed, a day of Divine judgment, a day of sore distress. Besides the common terms for "darkness" and "cloud," there are two other terms, אֲפֵלָה , thick and dense darkness, such as ensues after sunset; the root אָפַל , though not used in the Hebrew, is cognate with the Arabic afala , properly, to "set as the sun:" compare naphal , nabhal , abhal ; while עְרָפֶל is blended from the... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Joel 2:2

A day of darkness and of gloominess - o: “A day full of miseries; wherefore he accumulates so many names of terrors. There was inner darkness in the heart, and the darkness of tribulation without. They hid themselves in dark places. There was the cloud between God and them; so that they were not protected nor heard by Him, of which Jeremiah saith, “Thou hast covered Thyself with a cloud, that our prayers should not pass through” Lamentations 3:44. There was the whirlwind of tempest within and... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Joel 2:2

Joel 2:2. A day of darkness and of gloominess A day of great calamity and trouble, which is often expressed in the Scripture by darkness. Or, perhaps, the prophet’s words are to be taken here in the literal sense; for it is certain that, in the eastern countries, locusts will sometimes, on a sudden, cover the sky like a cloud, intercept the light of the sun, and diffuse a darkness on the tract of country over which they are flying. “Solem obumbrant,” They darken the sun, says Pliny, Nat.... read more

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

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

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Joel 2:2

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Joel 2:2

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 2:1-3

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 2:1-11

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 2:1-11

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 2:2

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Joel 2:2

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Joel 2:2

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