Have been cut off from the house of the Lord;
The priests bmourn, who minister to the Lord.
aThe land mourns;
For the grain is ruined,
bThe new wine is dried up,
The oil fails.
Wail, you vinedressers,
For the wheat and the barley;
Because the harvest of the field has perished.
And the fig tree has withered;
The pomegranate tree,
The palm tree also,
And the apple tree—
All the trees of the field are withered;
Surely bjoy has withered away from the sons of men.
Mourning for the Land
Wail, you who minister before the altar;
Come, lie all night in sackcloth,
You who minister to my God;
For the grain offering and the drink offering
Are withheld from the house of your God.
Call ba sacred assembly;
Gather the elders
And call the inhabitants of the land
Into the house of the Lord your God,
And cry out to the Lord.
For bthe day of the Lord is at hand;
It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
Joel
JOEL (meaning "one to whom Jehovah is God," that is, worshipper of Jehovah) seems to have belonged to Judah, as no reference occurs to Israel; whereas he speaks of Jerusalem, the temple, the priests, and the ceremonies, as if he were intimately familiar with them (compare Joel 1:14; Joel 2:1, Joel 2:15, Joel 2:32; Joel 3:1-2, Joel 3:6, Joel 3:16-17, Joel 3:20-21). His predictions were probably delivered in the early days of Joash 870-865 BC; for no reference is made in them to the Babylonian, Assyrian, or even the Syrian invasion; and the only enemies mentioned are the Philistines, Phœnicians, Edomites, and Egyptians (Joel 3:4, Joel 3:19). Had he lived after Joash, he would doubtless have mentioned the Syrians among the enemies whom he enumerates since they took Jerusalem and carried off immense spoil to Damascus (II Chronicles 24:23-24). No idolatry is mentioned; and the temple services, the priesthood, and other institutions of the theocracy, are represented as flourishing. This all answers to the state of things under the high priesthood of Jehoiada, through whom Joash had been placed on the throne and who lived in the early years of Joash (II Kings 11:17-18; II Kings 12:2-16; II Chronicles 24:4-14). He was the son of Pethuel.
The first chapter describes the desolation caused by an inroad of locusts—one of the instruments of divine judgment mentioned by Moses (Deuteronomy 28:38-39) and by Solomon (I Kings 8:37). The second chapter (Joel 2:1-11): the appearance of them, under images of a hostile army suggesting that the locusts were symbols and forerunners of a more terrible scourge, namely, foreign enemies who would consume all before them. (The absence of mention of personal injury to the inhabitants is not a just objection to the figurative interpretation; for the figure is consistent throughout in attributing to the locusts only injury to vegetation, thereby injuring indirectly man and beast). Joel 2:12-17 : exhortation to repentance, the result of which will be: God will deliver His people, the former and latter rains shall return to fertilize their desolated lands, and these shall be the pledge of the spiritual outpouring of grace beginning with Judah, and thence extending to "all flesh." Joel 2:18-3:21 : God's judgments on Judah's enemies, whereas Judah shall be established for ever.
Joel's style is pre-eminently pure. It is characterized by smoothness and fluency in the rhythms, roundness in the sentences, and regularity in the parallelisms. With the strength of Micah it combines the tenderness of Jeremiah, the vividness of Nahum, and the sublimity of Isaiah. As a specimen of his style take the second chapter wherein the terrible aspect of the locusts, their rapidity, irresistible progress, noisy din, and instinct-taught power of marshalling their forces for their career of devastation, are painted with graphic reality.
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