Joel 1:4 - Exposition

That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. Some interpreters consider, and rightly, we think, that the prophet enumerates in this verse four different species of locusts. The common or general name is arbeh , from rabhah , to be many; the gazam , or palmer-worm, is the gnawer , or biter, from a root ( guzam ) which signifies "to gnaw, bite, or cut off;" the yeleq , or canker-worm, is the licker , from yalaqlaqaq , to lick, or lick off; the chasil , or caterpillar, is the devourer, from chasal , to cut off. Thus we have the locust, or multitudinous one, the gnawer, the licker, and the devourer, either as

These names do not denote the locust

(a) the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Chaldeans,

(b) Medes and Persians,

(c) Macedonians and successors of Alexander, especially Antiochus, and

(d) the Romans;

or the hostile kings,

(a) Shahnaneser,

(b) Nebuchadnezzar,

(c) Antiochus, and

(d) the Romans;

or those other kings,

(a) Tiglath-Pileser,

(b) Shalma-neser,

(c) Sennacherib, and

(d) Nebuchadnezzar.

The most celebrated Hebrew commentators understand the passage of locusts in the proper and literal sense. Thus Rashi says, "The palmer-worm locust, cankerworm, and caterpillar are species of locusts; and the prophet prophesies about them that they will come; and they came in those days, and they devoured all the fruit of the trees and every herb of the field." Abon Ezra says, "This the prophet prophesied in reference to the locust which should come to destroy the land. In the days of Moses there was one kind of locust alone, but now, with the arbeh , there are the gazam and yeleq and chasil , and these three kinds are joined." He also quotes Japhet as saying "that gazam is equivalent to gozez , cutting, and the mere is like mere in chinmam reykam ; and yeleq , that which licks ( yiloq ) with its tongue … and chasil of some signification ( yachsele - nenu ) as shall consume it." In like manner Kimohi gives the derivation of the words as follows: "Some say that gazam is so called because it cuts ( gozez ) the increase; and arbeh , because it is numerous in species; and yeleq , because it licks and depastures by licking the herb; and chasil , became it cuts the whole, from 'And the locust shall consume it' ( Deuteronomy 28:38 )." When, however, Kimchi distributes the comings of the locusts into four separate and successive years, we must reject his interpretation in that respect. He says, "What the gazam left in the first year, the locust ate in the second year; for the four kinds did not come in one year, but one after another in four years; and he says, ' I will restore to you the years the locust hath eaten.'"