Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

D the [srmelitea that they would (Dent vol 19, 20), and the Apostle Paul aerated the church at Corinth that the spel of Jesus also would (1 Cor. i. l^j.

wine, and the hills overflowing (Joel iii. 18). And Isaiah, n, in his d lion of the coining nt in ch. ariii., had Joel in his mind: and in \vr. 8 he actually borrows a sent from his prophecy J< 1 L 15), which is so peculiar that the agreement cannot be an accidental one. Consequently, Joel prophesied before Amos, L>\ before the twentvseven years of the contemporaneous reigns of Uzziah and Jeroboam II. How lonij before, can only be inferred with any degree of probability from the historical circumstances to which lie refers in his prophecy. The only enemies that he mentions

Igypt and Edom (eli. iii. ID), as those whom the Lord would punish for the hostility they had shown towards the

►pie of I i L, are Tyre and Zidon, and the coasts of Philistia (ch. iii. t): but not the Syrians, who planned an expedition

.1 isli not only the treasures of the temple and palace, but his own life also (2 bongs iii. 18 i [q.; 2 Chron. xxiv. 23 sqq.), on account of which A predicted the destruction of the kingdom of. and the transportation of the people to only i Bingle detachment made a passing raid into Judah on their return." i. but was a dil attack upon the kingdom of Jn lah. to which the city of Oath, that Rehoboam had fortifi 1. may still have belonged (see at B ii. 18, 19)j ind inflicted ■ \ rere defeat upon

Judah. Joel would surely ha 1 the Syrians alone with the oth ■' h, if he fa 1 after

: that the whole ch of Joel'l prophecy points to the times bef< and 1! We d ither meet with any allusion to tin -ins which II sea and Amos condemn on the led the throne c2 Kings xi. 17 sqq.; 2 Chron. xxiii. h) sqq.), is presupposed with all its well-regulated and priestly ceremonial. These circumstances speak very decidedly in favour of the conclusion that the first thirty years of the reign of Joash, during which the king had Jehoiada the high priest for his adviser, are to be regarded as the period of Joel's ministry. No well-founded objection can be brought against this on account of the position which his book occupies among the minor prophets, since there is no ground for the opinion that the writings of the twelve minor prophets are arranged with a strict regard to chronology.

2. The Book of Joel. — The writings of Joel contain a connected prophetic proclamation, which is divided into two equal halves by ch. ii. 18 and 19a. In the first half the prophet depicts a terrible devastation of Judah by locusts and scorching heat; and describing this judgment as the harbinger, or rather as the dawn, of Jehovah's great day of judgment, summons the people of all ranks to a general day of penitence, fasting, and prayer, in the sanctuary upon Zion, that the Lord may have compassion upon His nation (ch. i. 2-ii. 17). In the second half there follows, as the divine answer to the call of the people to repentance, the promise that the Lord will destroy the army of locusts, and bestow a rich harvest blessing upon the land by sending early and latter rain (ch. ii. 19&- xxvii.), and then in the future pour out His Spirit upon all flesh (ch. ii. 28-32), and sit in judgment upon all nations, who have scattered His people and divided His land among them, and reward them according to their deeds; but that He will shelter His people from Zion, and glorify His land by rivers of abundant blessing (ch. iii.). These two halves are connected together by the statement that Jehovah manifests the jealousy of love for His land, and pity towards His people, and answers them (ch. ii. 18, 19a). So far the commentators are all agreed as to the contents of the book. But there are differences of opinion, more especially as to the true interpretation of the first half, — namely, whether the description of the terrible.devastation by locusts is to be understood literally or allegorical ly.1 The decision of this question depends upon the reply that is given to the prior question, whether ch. i. 2-

1 The allegorical exposition is found even in the Chaldee, where the four names of the locusts are rendered literally in ch. i. 4, whereas in ch. ii. 25 we find hostile tribes and kingdoms instead; also in Ephraem Syrus, Cyril of Alex., Theodoret, and Jerome, although Theodoret regards the literal interpretation as also admissible, and in Abarb., Luther, and many other expositors. And lately it has been vigorously defended by Hengstenberg in his Christology (i. p. 302 translation), and by Havernick (Introduction, ii. 2, p. 294 sqq.), who both of them agree with the fathers in regarding the four swarms of locusts as representing the imperial powers of Chaldea, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. On the other hand, Rufinus, Jarchi, Ab. Ezra, Dav. Kimchi, support the literal view that Joel is describing a terrible devastation of the land by locusts; also Bochart, Pococke, J. H. Michaelis, and in the most recent times, Hofmann and Delitzsch.

that they spare neither the juicy hark of woody plants, nor t\u> roots belon the ground; that their cloud-like swarma darken the air, and render the sun and even men at ■ little di tanc • off invisible; that their innumerable and closely compact army advances in military array in a straight course, most obstinately maintained; that it cann< I be turned back or dispersed, either by natural ol or human force; that on its approach a loud roaring noise is heard like the rushing of a ton-out, n waterfall, or a strong wind; that they no sooner settle t i i than you hear on all sides the grating sound of their mandio and, as Yolnoy ex; it, might fancy that vou heard the foraging of an invisible army; — if we compare these and other natural observations with the statements of.Joel, we shall find everywhere the most faithful picture, and nowhere any hyperbole requiring for its justification and explanation that the army of locusts should he paraphrased into an army of men; more especially as the devastation of a country by an army of locusts is far more terrible than that of an ordinary army; and there is no allusion, either expressed or hinted at, to a massacre among the people. And if we consider, still further, that the migratory locusts (Acridium migratorium, in Oken, AlUj. Naturgesch. v. 3, p. 1514 sqq.) find their grave sometimes in dry and barren steppes, and sometimes in lakes and seas, it is impossible to comprehend how the promise in ch. ii. 20 — one part of the armv now devastating Judah shall be hurled into the southern desert, the van into the Dead Sea, and the rear into the Mediterranean— can harmonize with the allegorical view" (Delitzsch).1 The only thing that appears to favour the idea that the locusts are used figuratively to represent hostile armies, is the circumstance that Joel discerns in the devastation of the locusts as depicted by him, the drawing near or coming of the day of the Lord (ch. i. 15, ii. 1), connected with the fact that Isaiah speaks of the judgment upon Baal, wdiich was accomplished by

1 Proofs of this have been collected in great numbers by Sam. Bochart (Hieroz.), and both Oedmann (Vermischle Sammlungen, ii. 76 sqq. and vi. 74 sqq.) and Credner (appendix to his Commentary on Joel) have contributed abundant gleanings gathered from the reports of travellers.

a hostile army, in the words of Joel (ch. i. 15; see Isa. xiii. 6). But on closer examination, this appearance does not rise into reality. It is true that by the " day of Jehovah " we cannot understand a different judgment from the devastation of the locusts, since such a supposition would be irreconcilable with ch. ii. 1 sqq. lint the expression, "for the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty does it come," shows that the prophet did not so completely identify the day of the Lord with the plague of locusts, as that it was exhausted by it, but that he merely Ba* in this the approach of the great day of judgment, i>. merely one element, of the judgment, which falls in the course of ages upon the ungodly, and will be completed in the last judgment. One factor in the universal judgment is the judgment pronounced upon Babylon, and carried out by the Medes; so that it by no means follows from the occurrence of the words of Joel in the prophecy of Isaiah, that the latter put an allegorical interpretation upon.Joel's de-

[ption of the devastation by the Locusts. Bui even it" there are no com 1 indications or hints, that can be adduced in support of the allegorical infc itlOD, it cannot he denied, on the ether hand, that the description, as a whole, contain! something khan a poetical painting of one particular insl the devastation of Judah by a more terrible swarm of Locnstfl than had ever been known before; that is to Bay, that it 1 an ideal character surpassing the iind nothing more in the account than the description of a very remarkable plague. The introduction, "Hear this, ye old men; and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land: hath this been in your days, or in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children the following generation" (ch. i. 2, 3)j and the lamentation in ver. 9, that the meat-offering and drink-offering have been destroyed from the house of Jehovah; and still more, the picture of the day of the Lord as a day of darkness and of gloominess like the morning red spread over the mountains; a great people and a strong, such as has not been from all eternity, and after which there will be none like it for ever and ever (ch. ii. 2), — unquestionably show that Joel not only regarded the plague of locusts that came upon Judah in the light of divine revelation, and as a sign, but described it as the breaking of the Lord's great day of judgment, or that in the advance of the locusts he saw the army of God, at whose head Jehovah marched as captain, and caused His voice, the terrible voice of the Judge of the universe, to be heard in the thunder (ch. ii. 11), and that he predicted this coming of the Lord, before which the earth trembles, the heavens shake, and sun, moon, and stars lose their brightness (ch. ii. 10), as His coming to judge the world. This proclamation, however, was no production of mere poetical exaggeration, but had its source in the inspiration of the Spirit of God, which enlightened the prophet; so that in the terrible devastation that had fallen upon Judah he discerned one feature of the day of judgment of the Lord, and on the ground of the judgment of God that had been thus experienced, proclaimed that the coming of the Lord to judgment upon the whole world was near at hand. The medium through which this was conveyed to his mind was meditation upon the history of the olden time, more especially upon the judgments through which Jehovah had effected the redemption of His people out of Egypt, in connection with the punishment with which Moses threatened the transgressors of the law (Deut. xxviii. 38, 39, 42), — namely, that locusts should devour their seed, their plants, their fields, and their fruits. Hengstenberg has correctly observed, that the words of Joel in ch. ii. 10, " There have not been ever the like," are borrowed from Ex. x. 14; but it is not in these words alone that the prophet points to the Egyptian plague of locusts. In the very introduction to his prophecy (ch. i. 2, 3), viz. the question whether such a thing has occurred, and the charge, Tell it to your children, etc., there is an unmistakeable allusion to Ex. x. 2, where the Lord charges Moses to tell Pharaoh that He will do signs, in order that Pharaoh may relate it to his son and his son's son, and then announces the plague of locusts in these words: u that thy fathers and thy fathers' fathers have not seen such things since their existence upon the earth" (Ex. x. 6). As the basis of this judgment of God which fell upon Egypt in the olden time, and by virtue of a higher illumination, Joel discerned in the similar judgment that had burst upon Judah in his own time, a type of the coming of Jehovah's great day of judgment, and made it the substratum of his prophecy of the judgment of

. and partly upon the hostile pon the world, but thai ply announces the judgment of more minutely or even sting the particular facts in which ii will be historically realized. In this respect, the ideality of his prophecy is maintained throughout; and the only tlity given to it is, that in the first half the judgment upon the n:mt people is proclaimed, and in th rod the judgment nponthe heathen nations: the former as tin* groundwork i call to repentance; the latfc the I'm ration been the church of the Lord and its opponents. And this enant nation when it is unfaithful to its divine calling, when away from ft Q I, and that not to destroy and annihilate it, hut to lead it hack by means of chastiseim the

Lord its God. If it hearken to the voice of its God, who speaks to it in judgments, the Lord repents of the evil, and turns tin- calamity into salvation and blessing. It was Joel g mission to proclaim this truth in Judah, and turn the sinful nation to its God. To this end he proclaimed to the people, that the Lord was coming to judgment in the devastation that, the locusts had spread over the land, and by depicting the great and terrible day of the Lord, called upon them to turn to their God with all their heart. This call to repentance i not without effect. The Lord was jealous for His land, and spared His people (ch. ii. 18), and sent His prophets to proclaim the removal of the judgment and the bestowal of a bountiful earthly and spiritual blessing: viz., for the time immediately ensuing the destruction of the army of locusts, the sending of the teacher for righteousness, and a plentiful fall of rain for the fruitful supply of the fruits of the ground (ch. ii. 19, 27); and in the more remote future, the pouring out of His Spirit upon the whole congregation, and on the day of the judgment upon all nations the deliverance and preservation of His faithful worshippers; and finally, after the judgment, the transformation and eternal glory of Zion (ch. ii. 28-iii. 21). Here, again, the ideality of the prophetic announcement is maintained throughout, although a distinction is made between the inferior blessing in the immediate future, and the higher benediction of the church of God at a more distant period. The outpouring of the Spirit of God upon all flesh is followed, without any intervening link, by the announcement of the coming of the terrible day of the Lord, as a day of judgment upon all nations, including those who have shown themselves hostile to Judah, cither in.Tori's own time OT a little while before. The nations are gathered together in the valley >f Jehoshaphat, ami there judged by Jehovah through His mighty heroes: but the Bona of I my. rod and sheltered by their God,

Here, again, all the judgments, which fall upon the nations of th <; d, during the many upon earth, aro Bummed up in one grand judicial art on the day of Jehovah, through which the ration i< complel

: id annihilated, ami the kingdom of G I: but without the 5l hint, that both the judgH dre • hich aro not I I the historical remark in oh. ii. L8, L9a, but which.Maud in the do ther, their content loc t the ju God and in the temple foi pray, r; and the second not till after the priests had appointed a the Lord to IT aJdr to writing just as he delivered them to the tion, and merely linked them I r into one single work by introducing the historical remark that unites them, or whether he merely inserted in his written work the essential contents of.'. addresses delivered after this divine judgment, and worked them up into one connected prophecy, it is impossible to decide with certainty. But there is no doubt whatever as to the composition of the written work by the prophet himself. — For the different commentaries upon the book of Joel, see my Introduction to the Old Testament.

earnest call to all classes of the nation to offer prayer to the Lord in the temple, together with fasting, mourning, and weeping, that lie might avert the judgment. In the first chapter, the lamentation has reference chiefly to the ruin of the land (ch. i. 2-20); in the second, the judgment is depicted as a foretype and harbinger of the approaching day of the Lord, which the congregation is to anticipate by a day of public fasting, repentance, and prayer (ch. ii. 1-17); so that ch. i. describes rather the magnitude of the judgment, and ch. ii. 1-17 its siiiniiicance in relation to the covenant nation.

locusts, which has fallen upon the land (vers. 2-4), the prophet summons the following to utter lamentation over this calamity: first the drunkards, who are to awake (vers. 5-7); then the congregation generally, which is to mourn with penitence (vers. 8-12); and then the priests, who are to appoint a service of repentance (vers. 13-18). For each of these appeals he gives, as a reason, a further description of the horrible calamity, corresponding to the particular appeal; and finally, he sums up his lamentation in a prayer for the deliverance of the land from destruction (vers. 19, 20).

Ver. 1 contains the heading to the book, and has already been noticed in the introduction. Ver. 2. " Hear this, ye old men; and attend, all ye inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing

— th" prophet comn with the question addi to the old men, whose memory went the farthest back, and to all the inhabitants of Judah, whether they had ever exj tny- and with the command t<> relate it to their children, and gran 1- children, and •_;• indchildrenJ inhal the ing from the gdzdm, ch equival I Iner). 1 explanation ii

1. whenever they i » anything anu ag to the ordinary com I. hiefa

.- and prossed mure heavily than usual, he admonishes then ry their memory back to the fan

dayi a whether anything of the kind erer happened naturally

and if no example can be found, the prophet'l advice i.s, that they should recognise this as the hand of God from heaven." — Tai::

horny, wing-sheath of the young locusts, and cannot be sustained from the i;: the language. It is impossible to point out any difference in usage between gdzdm and chdsil^ or between these two words and 'arbeh. The word gdzdm, from ///, to cut off (in Ajrabic, Ethiopic, and the Rabb.), occurs only in this pal. in eh. ii. 25, and in AlDOS iv. 9, where it is ^<J applied to a swarm of fiying locusts, whieh leave the vine, i ' \ tree, and olive, perfectly hare, as it is well known that all locusts do, when, as in Amos, the vegetables and field fruits have be n already destroyed. 'Arbehj from rdbhdh, to he many, is the common name of the locust, and indeed in all probability of the migratory locust, because this always appears in innumerable swarms. Cluhll, from chased, to eat off, designates the locust (liaavbcli), according to Deut. xxviii. 38, by its habit of eating off the field crops and tree fruits, and is therefore used in 1 Kings viii. 37, 2 Chron. vi. 28, Ps. 1 xxviii. 4G, as synonymous with haarbeli, and in Isa. xxxiii. 4 in its stead. Yeleq, from ydlaq = Idqaq, to lick, to lick off, occurs in Ps. cv. 34 as equivalent to 'arbeh, and in Nahum as synonymous with it; and indeed it there refers expressly to the Egyptian plague of locusts, so that young locusts without wings cannot possibly be thought of. Haggdzdm the gnawer, hayyeleq the licker, hechds'd the devourer, are therefore simply poetical epithets applied to the 'arbeh, which never occur in simple plain prose, but are confined to the loftier (rhetorical and poetical) style. Moreover, the assumption that Joel is speaking of swarms of locusts of two successive years, is neither required by ch. ii. 25 (see the comm. on this verse), nor reconcilable with the contents of the verse itself. If the 'arbeh eats what the gdzdm has left, and the yeleq what is left by the 'arbeli, we cannot possibly think of the field and garden fruits of two successive years, because the fruits of the second year are not the leavings of the previous year, but have grown afresh in the year itself.1 The

1 Bochart (Hieroz. iii. p. 290, ed. Ros.) has already expressed the same opinion. " If," he says, " the different species had been assigned to so nation, but occurs in Zeph. ii. 9 by the side of ' an epithet applied t<> the pa bovah (t.. Israel: aee also Gen. \ii.

which grinds in pie© ffectnally as the teeth of the lion <>r the bite of the lioi at Job xxix. 17). The suffix attached to 'V~X.!, hovah, but to the prophet, who speaks in the name of the people, so that it is the land of the people of God. And this also applies to the suflixes in Stt and 'Hpsn in ver. 7. In the description -of the devastation caused by the army of locusts, the vine and fig-tree arc mentioned as the noblest productions of the land, which the Lord has given to His people for their inheritai e at IIos. ii.

14). n7iyp?, efc K\aafji6i>, literally, for crushing. The suffix in ch&tdpkdh refers, no doubt, simply to the vine as the principal object, the fig-tree being mentioned casually in connection with it. ChdsajJi, to strip, might be understood as referring simply to the leaves of the vine (cf. Vs. xxix. 9); but what follows shows that the gnawing or eating away of the bark is also included. IJishlUh, to throw away not merely what is uneatable, uthat which is not green and contains no sap" (Hitzig), but the vine itself, wdiich the locusts have broken when eating off its leaves and bark. The branches of the vine have become white through the eating off of the bark (sdrlgim. Gen. xl. 10).1