Joel 1:11-12

11, 12. Call to the plowmen and to the vinedressers. They too have ground for lamentation, since their prospects are completely ruined. It is better to regard Joel 1:11 as an appeal and not as a declaratory sentence. The special appeal in Joel 1:5 advances to the general in Joel 1:8, then returns to the special in Joel 1:11.

Be ye ashamed The Hebrew verb is used also in the sense of “to be disappointed” (Isaiah 1:29; Isaiah 20:5); it expresses intense disappointment, which manifests itself in the terrified look, the change of color; we might render, with Keil, “turn pale.” The cause for terror is stated in the latter part of the verse, “for the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished.” The locusts have devastated everything.

Howl, O ye vinedressers Since the destruction of various trees (Joel 1:12) seems to be the cause for the lamentation of the “vinedressers,” it is necessary to seek a more comprehensive term; kerem means “vineyard,” but also “garden” or “orchard” (Judges 15:5); the korem is therefore the keeper of the orchard, the gardener as well as the vinedresser.

The fig tree Native in Western Asia; very plentiful in Palestine. It was highly prized, and is often mentioned along with the vine (Deuteronomy 8:8; Jeremiah 5:17). To “sit under one’s vine and fig tree” is a symbol of prosperity and security (1 Kings 4:25; Micah 4:4). Figs were dried and pressed into cakes, and they formed a staple article of food (1 Samuel 25:18); they were used also as a poultice (2 Kings 20:7; Isaiah 38:21). Grapes and figs are called by Josephus ( Wars, iii, 10:8) “the principal fruits of the land”; and it is said by travelers that “many houses are entirely covered with vines and are hidden almost entirely behind fig trees.”

Pomegranate tree The Scripture references to the pomegranate are very numerous (Numbers 13:23; Numbers 20:5; Deu 8:8 ; 1 Samuel 14:2; Song of Solomon 4:3; Song of Solomon 4:13). It is a shrub or low tree, from ten to fifteen feet high, with small dark green foliage; the fruit is about the size of an orange, with a hard rind, yellowish or brownish, with a blush of red; it is filled with numerous seeds, each enveloped in bright red pulp, whence the Latin and English names grained apple. The fruit is of two varieties, the sweet and the acid. The pulp is most refreshing to the taste; the juice of the acid kind is sweetened as a beverage (Song of Solomon 8:2), and is also used in salads. The name “ Gath-rimmon” (Joshua 21:25) signifies winepress of the pomegranate, and implies that the wine-presses of the city were used for the making of pomegranate wine. The rind and bark and outer part of the root are valued for the tannin which they contain. The pomegranate is highly prized and extensively cultivated even now. (See Van Lennep, Bible Lands, 140f.; Thomson, The Land and the Book, 2: 392).

Palm tree The palm tree has existed “since prehistoric times over a vast area in the dry warm zone which extends from Senegal to the basin of the Indus, chiefly between the fifteenth to thirtieth degrees of latitude.” It is uncertain where it was cultivated first, but there is sufficient evidence to show that it was cultivated very early in Babylonia, Egypt, and Arabia. In Syria, including Palestine, the tree seems to have been common; the name Phoenicia is thought by some to be connected with its Greek name. The coin struck at Rome to commemorate the capture of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. represented a weeping woman, the symbol of the country, sitting under a palm tree, with the inscription Judaea capta. At present palm trees are not found in great numbers in Syria except in the plain of Philistia, in the neighborhood of Beirut, and near Jericho. Tamar, the word used here, is the name of the date palm, a tree consisting of a single stem or trunk fifty to sixty feet high, without a branch, and “crowned at the summit by a cluster or tuft of leaves that droop and shape themselves somewhat in the form of an umbrella.” The uses of the palm are numerous. The leaves are useful for covering the roofs and sides of houses, for fences, mats, and baskets. The palm yields “an excellent kind of honey, not much inferior in sweetness to other honey” (Josephus, Wars, iv, 8:3). The fruit grows in large clusters which hang from the trunk, and it constitutes an important article of food. Even the stony seeds are ground and yield nourishment for the camels. Old Testament references to the palm trees are frequent. (See Van Lennep, Bible Lands, 146ff.; Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, 378ff.)

The apple tree Heb, tappuah. Opinions vary as to the tree designated by this name. It has been identified with the quince, the citron, the orange, the apricot, and the apple. To decide the question we must examine the references to the tree in the Old Testament, that we may see which one meets all the conditions. According to Song of Solomon 2:3, it must be a majestic tree suitable to sit under; according to Song of Solomon 8:5, its branches must expand sufficiently to overshadow a tent or a house; according to Song of Solomon 2:3, its fruit must be pleasant to the taste; according to Song of Solomon 7:8, its smell must be desirable; according to Song of Solomon 2:5, it must refresh the weary. Tristram (pp. 334ff.) declares that it cannot be the apple, “for though that fruit is cultivated with success in the higher parts of Lebanon, out of the boundaries of the Holy Land, yet it barely exists in the country itself.…

The climate is far too hot for the apple tree. There is one fruit, however, that meets all the requirements of the context, and the only one which does so the apricot.” Nevertheless, it is doubtful if the apricot would be mentioned as a fruit of special fragrance; nor is it used above others to refresh the weary. The quince cannot be meant, for its fruit is sour, never sweet. The citron was introduced into Palestine probably later than Old Testament times; so also the orange. Notwithstanding Tristram’s statement, there seems no serious objection to identifying the tappuah with the apple, for, as G.E. Post says, “The apple fulfills all the conditions perfectly; it is a fruit tree which often attains a large size, is planted in orchards and near houses, and is a special favorite of the people in Palestine and Syria. It is true that the fruit of the Syrian apple is far inferior to that of Europe, and especially to that of America; nevertheless it is a favorite with all the people, and in a few places fine varieties have been introduced and thriven well.… They have the aroma of the better kinds, and it is for this quality that they are most prized. It is very common, when visiting a friend, to have an apple handed to you just to smell” (article “Apple,” Hastings’s Dictionary of the Bible; Thomson, The Land and the Book, 2: 328, 329). The trees mentioned by name are the most precious, but they are not the only ones that have suffered; all the trees of the field are withered The verb might be used of the devastation by the locusts; so Jerome, “All trees, whether fruit-bearing or not, are consumed by the destructive locusts”; but, as Credner first suggested, it may have reference to the effects of a drought accompanying the plague of locusts (Joel 1:17-20).

The last clause of Joel 1:12 is rendered better, “yea, joy is vanished from the sons of men.” It emphasizes at once the effect of the general destruction and the cause of the universal lamentation. The joy is the rejoicing in anticipation of the harvest and of the vintage, and at those seasons of the year (Hosea 9:1). There will be neither harvest nor vintage.

Is withered Or, is vanished. The same verb is translated in Joel 1:10, “dried up”; in Joel 1:11, “be ashamed”; in Joel 1:12, “dried up”: a play upon words throughout. Literally, showeth shame. As a person whose nature it is to be running over with gladness is ashamed of his hilarity in the presence of grief and withdraws, so rejoicing, out of place in the midst of this calamity, vanishes.