Joel 1

Joel 1

Barnes - The teeth of the locust are said to be “harder than stone.” (Morier, second. Journey, p. 99): “They appear to be created for a scourge; since to strength incredible for so small a creature, they add saw-like teeth admirably calculated to “eat up all the herbs in the land.””Some near the Senegal, are described as (Adansson, Voyage au Senegal, p. 88) “quite brown, of the thickness and length of a finger, and armed with two jaws, toothed like a saw, and very powerful.” Joel 1:7 It has made my vine a waste and my fig tree splinters. It has stripped them bare and cast them away; Their branches have become white. It has made my vine a waste: Joe 1:12 Ex 10:15 Ps 105:33 Isa 5:6 24:7 Jer 8:13 Ho 2:12 Hab 3:17 It has made my vine a waste and my fig tree splinters - God ("My vine...My fig tree", cp Isa 5:3 "My vineyard" ~ nation of Israel) owns not only the land but the produce of the land. And here the very items He owns, He allows the locusts to destroy to arrest His people's attention, to bring them to a point of desperation, brokenness and repentance. While the primary sense is the destruction of the grape vines, there may be a double meaning because the “vine” is the well-known symbol of God’s people (Ps 80:8,14; Hosea 10:1; Isaiah 5:1-7; 27:2). Since fruitful vines and fig trees represented the blessing of the Lord on the land (1 Ki 4:25; Mic. 4:4; Zech. 3:10), so here we see a "divine inversion" of the pattern. The "good hand of the LORD" (as with Elijah - 1 Ki 18:46, Ezra - Ezra 7:6, 28, 7:9-note) was being removed from His people. (cf this aspect of the "hand of the LORD" in Ex 9:3 = against Egypt, Dt 2:15, Jdg 2:15-note = against Israel, Ru 1:13-note = Naomi, 1 Sa 7:13 = Philistines, etc) NET Note on "IT" - Throughout Joel 1:6–7 the Hebrew uses singular forms to describe the locust swarm, but the translation uses plural forms because several details of the text make more sense in English as if they are describing the appearance and effects of individual locusts. (Net Notes Joel 1) Patterson - Joel chides the people as those who would mourn the loss of vineyards, for that meant the loss of wine for drinking. In so doing, however, he calls attention not only to the vine but also to the fig tree. Both were well-known symbols of God’s blessing for his covenant people (cf. Hos 2:12; Amos 4:9; Mic 4:4; Hag 2:19; Zech 3:10 see also 1 Kgs 4:25; 2 Kgs 18:31, Ps 105:33; Isa 36:16; Jer 5:17; 8:13). In this, Joel recognized that the unprecedented locust plague was nothing less than the judgment of God upon his wayward people. Joel’s evaluation of his society stands as a warning to ours. That which so easily brings intoxication and personal degradation (Gen 9:21; 19:32; Prov 20:1; Isa 28:7) can easily corrupt one’s thinking, even that of God’s people (Hos 4:11). Far better is it to be free of its influence (Deut 29:6; Jer 35:6) and to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18). While excessive drinking can lead to a degenerate lifestyle, it is not the only besetting sin. Whatever exerts so dominating and controlling an influence on a person’s life that it takes away spiritual vitality and productivity is sin; it needs to be abandoned (Rom 6:1–14; 14:23b; 1 John 5:21). May God help us to be preoccupied with Christ, not with selfish indulgence (Phil 3:7–11).(Cornerstone Bible Commentary) Literally grapes and figs were two of the principle crops of the land of Israel but they are both laid bare! This devastation of these food staples is reminiscent of the prophetic curses that God would send on Israel if she disobeyed the Mosaic covenant. For example we read "You shall plant and cultivate vineyards, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, (WHY?) for the worm shall devour them." (Dt 28:39) The fig tree splinters because the locusts with teeth like a lion gnaw off the outside bark, exposing the inner cambium. God frequently mentions vines and fig trees in the context of judgment Jeremiah 8:13 “I will surely snatch them away,” declares the LORD; “There will be no grapes on the vine And no figs on the fig tree, And the leaf will wither; And what I have given them will pass away.”’” Hosea 2:12 “I will destroy her vines and fig trees, Of which she said, ‘These are my wages Which my lovers have given me.’ And I will make them a forest, And the beasts of the field will devour them. Habakkuk 3:17 Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls, ESV Study Bible - The vine and fig tree are symbols of a prosperous and peaceful life for Israel (2 Kings 18:31; Mic. 4:4), which the Lord sees as His property. Their branches have become white - "Once choice leafy vegetation is no longer available to them, locusts have been known to consume the bark of small tree limbs, leaving them in an exposed and vulnerable condition. It is apparently this whitened condition of limbs that Joel is referring to here." (Net Notes Joel 1) What the Bible Teaches – These two trees are, in Scripture, used to describe a situation of idyllic prosperity as when men would sit under the vine and under the fig tree. Now these trees afford no shade and plenty has been exchanged for poverty. Whiting (see article below), gives a vivid description of the injury which can be inflicted on the fruit trees: "On every leaf dozens would be perched ... When the daintier morsels (fruit and leaves) were gone the bark was eaten off the young topmost branches which, after exposure to the sun, bleached snow white. Then, seemingly out of malice, they would gnaw off small limbs, perhaps to get at the pith within". (What the Bible Teaches – Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah) Barnes on It has made my vine a waste and my fig tree splinters - This describes an extremity of desolation. The locusts at first attack all which is green and succulent; when this has been consumed, then they attack the bark of trees. (Jackson’s Travels to Morocco ap. Kirby): “When they have devoured all other vegetables, they attack the trees, consuming first the leaves, then the bark.” (Shaw’s Travels, p. 257): “A day or two after one of these bodies were in motion, others were already hatched to glean after them, gnawing off the young branches and the very bark of such trees as had escaped before with the loss only of their fruit and foliage.” (Adansson, Ibid.): “They carried desolation wherever they passed. After having consumed herbage, fruit, leaves of trees, they attacked even their young shoots and their bark. Even the reeds, wherewith the huts were thatched, though quite dry, were not spared.” (Chenier, Recherches Historiques sur les Maures, iii. 496. “They destroyed the leaves and bark of the olive.” Dr. Freer, in Russell’s Aleppo, p. 230): “Everything in the country was devoured; the bark of figs, pomegranates, and oranges, bitter hard and corrosive, escaped not their voracity.” The effects of this wasting last on for many years. Barnes on It has stripped them bare and cast them away - (Constitutionnel, May, 1841, of locusts in Spain in that year. K.): “It is sufficient, if these terrible columns stop half an hour on a spot, for everything growing on it, vines, olive trees, and grain, to be entirely destroyed. After they have passed, nothing remains but the large branches, and the roots which, being under ground, have escaped their voracity.” (Philippians Trans. 1686. T. xvi. p. 148): “After eating up the corn, they fell upon the vines, the pulse, the willows and even the hemp, notwithstanding its great bitterness.” (Burekhardt, Notes, ii. 90): “They are particularly injurious to the palm trees; these they strip of every leaf and green particle, the trees remaining like skeletons with bare branches.” (Lichtenstein, Travels in South Africa. c. 46. p. 251): “The bushes were eaten quite bare, though the animals could not have been long on the spot. They sat by hundreds on a bush gnawing the rind and the woody fibres.” Barnes on Their branches have become white - (Alvarez, c. 33):“The country did not seem to be burnt, but to be much covered with snow, through the whiteness of the trees and the dryness of the herbs. It pleased God that the fresh crops were already gathered in.” Joel 1:8 Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth. Wail like a virgin girded with sackclot: Joe 1:13-15 2:12-14 Isa 22:12 24:7-12 32:11 Jer 9:17-19 Jas 4:8,9 Jas 5:1 For the bridegroom of her youth Pr 2:17 Jer 3:4 Mal 2:15 NET Joel 1:8 Wail like a young virgin clothed in sackcloth, lamenting the death of her husband-to-be. BITTER BEREAVEMENT LIKE LOSS OF A BRIDEGROOM Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth (or "like a bride dressed in black" = NLT but Patterson adds 'The NLT’s “husband” should not be taken to indicate that the marriage had been consummated—the young woman may yet have been in her father’s household.") - The subject is not clearly stated. A number of commentators feel since the imperative (wail) is feminine singular that this call is directed at Jerusalem which was often personified as a woman (cf Lam 1:1-2, Jer 31:15). Patterson adds that "Although the Hebrew text does not mention the death of a husband, such is the natural assumption of the virgin’s putting on sackcloth." (Cornerstone Bible Commentary) McComiskey - Israel is to mourn like a young woman whose betrothed dies before the consummation of marriage; a time of anticipation and eagerness ends in frustration, disappointment, and sadness. (The Minor Prophets: An Exegetical and Expository Commentary) The command issued is again a charge to lament like a young woman who has lost her prospective bridegroom and mourns (the Lxx verb threueo can speak of a funeral dirge). The point is the depth of the loss to the young woman is profound, and so too would be the sense of loss to those in Judah at the losses suffered by the locust plague. Wail (0421)(alah) is a verb meaning to lament or wail and is used only in Joel 1:8 in the Bible. Unlike the more general term for weeping found in Joel 1:5 (bakah), the verb alah specifically denotes crying born of deep sorrow. The Lxx supports this idea translatinig alah with the Greek verb thorueo which is derived from threomai which means to shriek out and thus thorueo meant to express oneself in grief’, frequently in sounds and rhythms established by funereal custom in various regions of the ancient world. NET Note - The verb (wail) is feminine singular, raising a question concerning its intended antecedent. A plural verb would be expected here, the idea being that all the inhabitants of the land should grieve. Perhaps Joel is thinking specifically of the city of Jerusalem, albeit in a representative sense. The choice of the feminine singular verb form has probably been influenced to some extent by the allusion to the young widow in the simile of v. 8. Heb “the husband of her youth.” The woman described here may already be married, so the reference is to the death of a husband rather than a fiancé (a husband-to-be). Either way, the simile describes a painful and unexpected loss to which the national tragedy Joel is describing may be compared. (Net Notes Joel 1)