Joel 1:8 NLT

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 1:8

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

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Joel 1:8

Lament like a virgin - for the husband of her youth - Virgin is a very improper version here. The original is בתולה bethulah , which signifies a young woman or bride not a virgin, the proper Hebrew for which is עלמה almah . See the notes on Isaiah 7:14 ; (note), and Matthew 1:23 ; (note). read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Joel 1:8

Verse 8 The Prophet now addresses the whole land. Lament, he says; not in an ordinary way, but like a widow, whose husband is dead, whom she had married when young. The love, we know, of a young man towards a young woman, and so of a young woman towards a young man, is more tender than when a person in years marries an elderly woman. This is the reason that the Prophet here mentions the husband of her youth; he wished to set forth the heaviest lamentation, and hence he says “The Jews ought not... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 1:5-8

The lessons taught by this calamity. The lessons which God intended to teach his people by the calamitous events here recorded are solemn as salutary. Among them may be reckoned the ends for which they were sent, the alarming extent of them, and the effects produced. I. THE ENDS OF THE CRUSHING CALAMITY THEN PRESSING ON THE PEOPLE OF JUDAH . 1 . It was designed to rouse them out of their sinful slumber. Previous intimations of Divine displeasure had... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 1:8

Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. 1. The verb here, which is an ἅπαξ λεγόμενον , is (a) the ground, according to Aben Ezra; (b) naphshi , my soul, i.e. the prophet's address to himself; (c) the daughter of Zion, or virgin daughter of Zion; but (d) the congregation or people of Judah, as suggested in the Chaldee, is the real subject. 2. The mourning is of the deepest, bitterest kind, like that of a virgin for the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 1:8-13

The consequence of such ruin and havoc is great and general lamentation. The drunkards were first called on in the preceding verses to mourn, for the distress came first and nearest to them. But now the priests, the Lord's ministers, mourn; things inanimate, by a touching personification, join in the lamentation—the land mourneth; the husbandmen that till the ground mourn. read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Joel 1:8

Lament like a virgin - The prophet addresses the congregation of Israel, as one espoused to God ; “‘Lament thou,’ daughter of Zion,” or the like. He bids her lament, with the bitterest of sorrows, as one who, in her virgin years, was just knit into one with the husband of her youth, and then at once was, by God’s judgment, on the very day of her espousal, ere yet she ceased to be a virgin, parted by death. The mourning which God commands is not one of conventional or becoming mourning, but that... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Joel 1:8

Joel 1:8. Lament, &c. The prophet here calls upon the inhabitants of Judea to deprecate this grievous judgment, by humiliation and unfeigned sorrow for their sins; like a virgin for the husband of her youth That is, bitterly, and from the very heart; for the grief of a woman is generally very poignant and sincere for the loss of her first husband, to whom she was married in her youth. The expression is still stronger, if we suppose it spoken of a virgin betrothed to a man she loves,... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Joel 1:1-20

1:1-2:11 THE GREAT LOCUST PLAGUEEffects of the plague (1:1-20)So devastating is the current locust plague, that even the oldest people cannot remember anything like it. The whole countryside has been stripped bare. Joel tells the people to pass the story of the plague on to their children and grandchildren, so that it will not be forgotten (1:1-4). Those who have greedily lived for their own pleasure are punished. They will no longer get drunk with wine, because the locusts have destroyed the... read more

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

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

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Joel 1:8

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Joel 1:8

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 1:5-8

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 1:8

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 1:8-13

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Joel 1:8

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Joel 1:8

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Joel 1:1-20

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