Joel Chapter 1

From The Open Bible Project

1:1 The Word of [1] Yahweh [See Joel Footnotes 1] that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.

• The Argument - The Prophet Joel first rebukes those of Judah, that being now punished with a great plague of famine, still remain obstinate. Secondly, he threatens greater plagues, because they grow daily to a more hardness of heart and rebellion against God in spite of his punishments. Thirdly, he exhorts them to repentance, showing that it must be earnest, and proceed from the heart, because they had grievously offended God. And in doing this, Joel promises that God will be merciful, and not forget his covenant that he made with their fathers, but will send his Christ, who will gather the scattered sheep, and restore them to life and liberty, even though they seem to be dead.

1:2 Hear this, you elders, And listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

• (a) Signifying the princes, the priests, and the governors.
• (b) He calls the Jews to the consideration of God’s judgments, who had now plagued the fruits of the ground for the space of four years, which was because of their sins, and to call them to repentance.

1:3 Tell your children about it, and have your children tell their children, and their children, another generation.

1:4 What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten.

1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

• (c) Meaning, that the reason for their excess and drunkenness was taken away.

1:6 For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.

• (d) This was another plague with which God had punished them when he stirred up the Assyrians against them.

1:7 He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.

1:8 Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!

• (e) Mourn grievously as a woman who has lost her husband, to whom she has been married in her youth.

1:9 The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh's house. The priests, Yahweh's ministers, mourn.

• (f) The signs of God’s wrath appeared in his temple, in so much that God’s service was discontinued.

1:10 The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes.

• (g) All comfort and substance for nourishment is taken away.

1:11 Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished.

1:12 The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men.

1:13 Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my [2] God [See Joel Footnotes 2], for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God's house.

• (h) He shows that the only means to avoid God’s wrath, and to have all things restored, is true repentance.

1:14 Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Yahweh, your God, and cry to Yahweh.

1:15 Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

• (i) We see by these great plagues that utter destruction is at hand.

1:16 Isn't the food cut off before our eyes; joy and gladness from the house of our God?

1:17 The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.

1:18 How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

1:19 Yahweh, I cry to you, For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.

1:20 Yes, the animals of the field pant to you, for the water brooks have dried up, And the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

• (k) That is, drought.