The Land Laid Waste
And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land!
aHas anything like this happened in your days,
Or even in the days of your fathers?
Let your children tell their children,
And their children another generation.
What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten;
And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.
And wail, all you drinkers of wine,
Because of the new wine,
bFor it has been cut off from your mouth.
Strong, and without number;
bHis teeth are the teeth of a lion,
And he has the fangs of a1 fierce lion.
And1 ruined My fig tree;
He has stripped it bare and thrown it away;
Its branches are made white.
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.
Storehouses are in shambles;
Barns are broken down,
For the grain has withered.
The herds of cattle are restless,
Because they have no pasture;
Even the flocks of sheep1 suffer punishment.
For bfire has devoured the open pastures,
And a flame has burned all the trees of the field.
For bthe water brooks are dried up,
And fire has devoured the1 open pastures.
| << Joel 1:3 | Joel 1:5 >> |
What Does Joel 1:4 Mean?
Joel 1:4-20
The book of Joel is a prophecy divided into three chapters. The prophet begins by describing an event so singularly extreme that it has never happened before, one that demands to be related to succeeding generations, as it will never occur again. It is a warning to the people about the dangers of turning from God.
What Joel describes is an attack by invading swarms of locusts. The assault almost seems coordinated: “What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; and what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten” (verse 4). As he goes on to relate, the devastation has been so complete that nothing is forthcoming: There will be no new wine, no figs, no wheat, no barley, no pomegranates, no dates, no apples—not even anything that could be used to make an offering to God (verse 9).
So, in verse 14, the prophet urges the people to sanctify themselves, fast, and gather together to beseech the Eternal for mercy, for conditions are dire.
Joel captures the depth of the dearth, devastation, and the urgency of the moment. This is what a day of judgment from the Lord looks like: scarcity, destruction, pain, wailing, fire, and drought. Death cannot be far behind. Only a return to God and His subsequent compassion can fix such a dire situation.
Before we move on, we should consider the drought the prophet mentions in verse 20. Droughts do not come and go quickly. It takes time to dry up the rivers and streams. Judea had probably fallen on hard times caused by drought for an extended period before the army of locusts attacked. Indeed, in areas like Africa that are periodically subject to being overrun by locusts, there is invariably at least a year-long drought prior to the land being covered by uncountable millions of locusts. If the drought is part of God's punishment on an apostatizing people, their backsliding had been ongoing for a good while.
To make a nearly impossible agricultural situation even more difficult, Joel announces that a “nation” (Joel 1:6) has come upon his land, and its population is “strong, and without number.” The nation of which he speaks, as we have seen, is not made up of humans but of locusts. God says, “[That nation] has laid watste My vine, and ruined My fig tree. He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; its branches are made white” (verse 7).
Mike Fuhrer
What Is Joel 2 Really About?
Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Joel 1:4:
| << Joel 1:3 | Joel 1:5 >> |
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