Bibelkommentare

1. The Title

2. The word of Jehovah that came unto] so Hosea 1:1; Micah 1:1; Zephaniah 1:1.

came unto] lit. was (ἐγένετο) unto, a very common expression in connexion with Jehovah’s ‘word’: 1 Samuel 15:10; 2 Samuel 7:4; 1 Kings 16:1; 1 Kings 16:7; Jeremiah 1:2; Jeremiah 1:4; Jeremiah 1:11, &c.

2–3. Introduction, characterizing the event which forms the occasion of Joel’s prophecy: it is an unexampled one, of a kind which even the oldest of the prophet’s contemporaries had neither witnessed themselves nor heard of from their fathers; its memory, therefore, deserves the more to be handed on to successive generations in the future.

Hear this] viz., the question following, implying the unprecedented character of the calamity.

ye old men, &c.] the whole people is addressed: not one among them, however long or varied his experience, has ever heard tell of such an occurrence.

of the land] i.e. of Judah, with which alone Joel deals: Song of Solomon 1:14; Song of Solomon 2:1.

this] i.e. the like of this.

or even] simply or.

Part I. Chap. Joel 1:2 to Joel 2:17Description of the present calamity (ch. 1.). The terrible “Day of Jehovah,” of which it is the harbinger (Joel 2:1-11), but which may yet be averted by the nation’s timely repentance (Joel 2:12-17).

3. Recount concerning it to your children] recount,—a stronger word than tell, and implying some narrative of particulars.

to your children, &c.] comp. (also with recount) Exodus 10:2; Psalm 22:30 (R.V.), Psalm 48:13, Psalm 78:4; Psalm 78:6; and “our fathers have recounted to us,” Jdg 6:13; Psalm 44:1; Psalm 78:3. Usually, it is the memory of Jehovah’s deliverances, which is thus to be handed on from father to son (comp. also Exodus 12:26 f., Exodus 13:8; Exodus 13:14; Deuteronomy 4:9; Deuteronomy 6:20 f.; Joshua 4:6 f., 21 f.); here it is the memory of an unprecedented disaster.

4. The calamity to which the prophet has thus emphatically directed his hearers’ attention: a visitation of locusts, repeated for more years than one (Joel 2:25), and of unexampled severity; what had escaped the ravages of one swarm, had been speedily devoured by a succeeding one, till the crops were completely ruined, and every chance both of harvest and vintage had been utterly destroyed.

That which the shearer (gâzâm) hath left, the swarmer (arbeh) hath eaten;

And that which the swarmer (arbeh) hath left, the lapper (yéleḳ) hath eaten;

And that which the lapper (yéleḳ) hath left, the finisher (ḥâsîl) hath eaten.

The general intention of the verse is manifestly to describe a total destruction of the herbage of the land; but as we cannot identify with certainty the kinds of locust meant,—nor, if we could, should have suitable English names by which to distinguish them,—it is best to translate the terms used by words expressing the ideas which they probably suggested to the Hebrew ear. Successive swarms of locusts, appearing partly, it is probable, in the same year, partly in following years, are indicated rhetorically by four distinct names, which may partly be synonymous designations of the same species (though not of the same individual insects), partly denote different species, and partly denote the ordinary locust in different stages of its development (see p. 84 f.). The gâzâm is mentioned besides only Joel 2:25, Amos 4:9. Arbeh is the usual name of the locust in Hebrew, and may be presumed therefore to have been the name of the species which most commonly invades Palestine, the Acridium peregrinum. The yéleḳ may have denoted the ordinary locust in its wingless larva- or pupa-stage (in which state it is not less destructive than in its mature form): in this case the second line of the verse will describe how what the fully-grown parent insects left in April or May, when they laid their eggs, was destroyed by the young larvae hatched in June. The ḥâsîl is named beside the arbeh, as a plague to which Palestine was liable, in 1 Kings 8:37; this, therefore, was probably a distinct species, perhaps the Oedipoda migratoria or Pachytylus, also common in Palestine[30]. See further particulars in the Excursus at the end of the Book (p. 85 ff.).

[30] The four names cannot, as Credner and (somewhat differently) Gesenius thought, denote, as they stand, locusts in four successive stages of their development, for various reasons: (1) because not more than three stages are distinguishable by an ordinary observer [yet cf. p. 90]; (2) because, upon this view, arbeh, the most usual name of the locust, would denote only the immature insect; (3) because in Joel 2:25 the four names occur in a different order; (4) because, as swarms of locusts always move onwards, a swarm in one stage of its development could not be said to have devoured what it had left in a previous stage, since it would be upon entirely new ground. (Of course the last objection does not hold in the particular case of the larvae emerging from eggs, assumed above to represent the yéleḳ.)

In illustration of the allusions to locusts, contained in this and the following chapter, numerous passages from the descriptions of naturalists and travellers have been collected by Credner (ad locc. and pp. 261–313), and after him by Dr Pusey, a selection from which (with some additions from more recent authorities) is reprinted here. In the Excursus (p. 87 ff.) will be found also some continuous descriptions, by different observers, of the invasion of a country by locusts.

5–12. All classes are to unite in lamenting this calamity, which has not only (1) deprived them of some of their most valued luxuries, Joel 1:5-7, but also (2) interrupted the public worship of God, Joel 1:8-10, and (3) even left them destitute of the means of subsistence, Joel 1:11-12.

Awake, ye drunkards] viz. from the sleep of intoxication (Genesis 9:24; Proverbs 23:35), which the ruin of the vintage will soon render impossible.

howl] in wild and desperate grief: so Joel 1:11; Joel 1:13. Comp. on Amos 8:3.

because of the sweet wine] Heb. ‘âsîs: see on Amos 9:13.

from your mouth] where it is a source to you of gratification.

6–7. By what agency this devastation has been wrought: an army of depredators has invaded Judah, countless in numbers and well equipped for their work; and vine and fig-tree have been left by them bare.

a nation] cf. for the figure Proverbs 30:24-26 : also Homer’s expression ἔθνεα μελισσάων, μυιάων, &c. (Il. 2:87, 469, &c.).

is come up upon (or against)] the phrase used of an invading army (e.g. 2 Kings 18:13).

my land] the prophet speaks in the name of the people. So Joel 1:7; Joel 1:13; Joel 1:19 and frequently (cf. the writer’s Introduction, p. 366 f.).

strong] Cf. Joel 2:2; Joel 2:5; Joel 2:11. The term is used often of a powerful and numerous nation (e.g. Deuteronomy 26:5, Isaiah 60:22, Micah 4:7). The reference is partly to the strength of limb possessed by the locust, enabling it for instance to take long flights and to persevere incessantly in its work of destruction, partly to the irresistible numbers in which swarms of locusts are apt to invade a country.

without number] a characteristic of locust-swarms, often alluded to in the O.T.: Psalm 105:34 (“and the yéleḳ without number”); and in comparisons Jdg 6:5; Jdg 7:12, Jeremiah 46:23 (all of the arbeh), Jeremiah 51:14; Jeremiah 51:27 (of the yéleḳ). Modern travellers speak often of the literally incalculable numbers in which locusts come. Thus an observer in South Africa writes, “For the space of 10 miles on each side of the Sea-Cow river, and 80–90 miles in breadth, an area of 16–1800 square miles, the whole surface might literally be said to be covered with them: the water of the river was scarcely visible on account of the dead carcases which floated on the surface, drowned in the attempt to come at the weeds which grew in it.” Again, in Cyprus, “the locusts lay swarming above a foot deep in several parts of the high road, and thousands were destroyed by the wheels of the carriage driving over them.” A writer in Nature (1889, p. 153) states “that a flight of locusts that passed over the Red Sea in Nov. 1889, was 2000 square miles in extent,” and upon the assumption that it was 48 miles square, half a mile deep, and contained 144 locusts, each weighing 16 oz., to a cubic foot, he calculated that it contained 24,420 billions of insects, and weighed 42,850 millions of tons. “A second similar, perhaps even larger flight, was seen passing in the same direction the next day. In Cyprus in 1881, up to the end of October, 1,600,000,000 egg-cases bad that season been collected and destroyed, each case containing a considerable number of eggs. By the end of the season over 1300 tons of eggs had been collected; and yet not less than 5,076,000,000 egg-cases were, it is believed, deposited in the island two years afterwards” (Cambridge Nat. Hist. v. 292).

his teeth, &c.] the locust’s teeth are edged like a saw, and very powerful; hence, though infinitely smaller, they may for destructiveness be compared to those of a lion. Cp. Revelation 9:8.

the cheek-teeth] or jaw teeth (R.V.), i.e. the sharp and prominent eye-teeth of the animal. The word is the same which is found in Job 29:17 and Proverbs 30:14; and (with two letters transposed) in Psalm 58:6 (also of the lion: R.V. “great teeth”): it possibly signifies (from the Arabic) the projectors.

of a great lion] of a lioness. Hebrew has several distinct terms, all denoting generally the lion, but, unfortunately, seldom distinguishable in English except by the use of separate epithets. The ordinary word for lion is that used in the former clause of the present verse (aryçh, also ărî), that used here (lâbhî’) is the lioness, Numbers 23:24, Deuteronomy 33:20 al., but only in poetry; another (kĕphîr) is the young lion (Isaiah 31:4, and frequently); other poetical words are layish, only Isaiah 30:6, Job 4:11, Proverbs 30:30; and shaḥal, properly the roarer, Hosea 5:14; Hosea 13:7, Job 4:10; Job 10:16; Job 28:8, Proverbs 26:13, Psalm 91:13. Gûr (or gôr) is a lion’s whelp, Genesis 49:9 al. In poetry, the synonyms for lion appear often, as they do here, in the parallel clauses of a verse: see esp. Job 4:10-11.

7. He hath made my vine into a waste, and my fig-tree into splinters] The vine and the fig-tree are mentioned as the two principal and most representative fruit-trees of Palestine, the vine holding the first place (cf. Hosea 2:12; 1 Kings 4:25; 2 Kings 18:31). For splinters (lit. something broken into pieces), comp. nearly the same word in Hosea 10:7 (R.V. marg.). The words indicate the severity of the visitation. Locusts first attack plants and vegetables; when these have been all consumed, they attack trees, consuming first the leaves, then the bark. Comp. the quotation from Shaw’s Travels, below, p. 88. The effects of such ravages are felt sometimes for many years: “the wine of Algiers, before the locusts in 1723 wasted the vineyards, was in flavour not inferior to the best Hermitage. Since that time the wine has much degenerated, and has not yet [1732] recovered its usual qualities” (Shaw, p. 227).

made it clean bare] viz. by stripping off the bark, cf. Psalm 29:9 (the same word).

cast it away] There is no pron. in the Hebrew; and the reference is, no doubt, partly to the fragments of bark and wood which have been bitten off by the locusts, but being uneatable by them have fallen to the ground, partly to the barked branches and trunks themselves, which (metaphorically) the insects have ‘cast away.’ “After they have passed, nothing remains but the large branches, and the roots, which, being under ground, have escaped their voracity.” “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” (Lichtenstein, Travels in S. Africa, p. 241, ap. Pusey).

its branches] Genesis 40:10; Genesis 40:12 only, also of the vine: properly, something intertwined.

shew whiteness] viz. through the bark being stripped off. “Ambedunt enim, ut Tacitus (Annal. xv. 5) loquitur, quicquid herbidum est et frondosum; ut nee culmus, nec granum ullum remaneat, et arbores frondibus et cortice tamquam vestibus nudatae instar truncorum alborum conspiciantur” (Ludolf, Hist. Aeth. p. 178 f., ap. Credner).

8. Lament] The verb is fem in the Hebrew, the community, personified as a woman, the “daughter of Judah,” or “daughter of my people,” being addressed. So often in the prophets: comp. on Amos 5:2. The word rendered lament (’âlâh) occurs only here in the O.T., though it is common in Aramaic.

like a virgin, &c.] “The interruption of the fellowship between the land and Jehovah through the failure of the sacrifices the prophet throws into the figure of a young wife bereaved and in mourning. The land is the virgin; the dreary bleak aspect of it is the mourning which she wears. The bereavement lies in this: that through the cutting off of the meal-offering and the drink-offering, the tokens of Jehovah’s presence and favour, manifested in His acceptance of the offerings, have been removed; communications between the land and its God have been removed, and the land is bereaved” (A. B. Davidson).

sackcloth] The regular sign of mourning in the East (Amos 8:10).

husband] lit. possessor, owner (Deuteronomy 24:4; 2 Samuel 11:26 al.).

8–10. Interruption of the public services of the Temple.