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The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

The word of the Lord that came, … — See the note on Hosea 1:1 , with whom Jerome and some other interpreters make this prophet a contemporary, for the likeness of argument; and that common canon of the Jewish doctors, that the prophet who sets not down his time is to be held of the same time with him that is placed before him. The Seventy set him not only after Hosea, but also after Amos and Micah: and the ancient Hebrew Chronicle, called Sedar Olam, affirmeth that Joel prophesied together with Nahum and Habakkuk, the days of King Manasseh; which Drusius would prove out of Joel 3:5 . Others, with more show of reason, out of 2 Kings 21:10 ; 2 Kings 23:26 . Joel might very well be one of those prophets that denounced God’s heavy judgments against Judah, for the sins and abominations of Manasseh, whom some make to be his convert. For although at first the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people, but they would not hearken, 2 Chronicles 33:10 yet the rod might set the word to work afterwards; for Manasseh, when he was in affliction, besought the Lord, and humbled himself greatly, 2 Chronicles 33:12 and Joel might very well be to him a son of Pethuel, or of God’s persuasion: God, by his ministry, might speak to his heart, Hosea 2:14 , set before him an open door (another Etymology of the name Pethuel, ostium Dei mouth of God), Revelation 3:8 , minister unto him an entrance farther and farther into Christ’s everlasting kingdom, 2 Peter 1:11 . If any think it more likely that Joel prophesied under Josiah, king of Judah, when that great famine occured which is described in like terms by Jeremiah, Jeremiah 14:1-2 cf. 2 Kings 23:26 , I shall not strive with him. But that this Joel was the son of Samuel (here called Pethuel, a persuader of God, because what he asked of God he obtained), as R. Salomon would carry it, I cannot imagine: for that Joel was not a prophet, but a corrupt judge, 1 Samuel 8:1-5 .

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Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

Hear this, ye old men — Who, as ye are fittest to hear serious discourses (Aristotle excludeth young men from his ethic lectures, because raw and rash: green wood is ever shrinking and warping), so ye are more experienced; and yet not so wise, but that, by hearing, ye may become wiser, Proverbs 1:5 . Solon said, he could never be too old to learn, γηρασκω αιει πολλα διδασκομενος . Julianus, the lawyer, said, that when he had one foot in the grave, yet he would have the other in the school. David Chytraeus, when he lay dying, lifted up himself to hear the divine discourses of his friends that sat by him; and said, that he should die with better cheer if he might die learning something, Si moribundus etiam aliquid didicisset.

And give ear, all, … — Hear and give ear: draw up the ears of your minds to the ears of your bodies, that one sound may pierce both. When these two words are joined together, as they are often, the matter propounded is either very dark or very remarkable, and commands attention, as Deuteronomy 1:45 Isaiah 1:2 ; Isaiah 1:10 Jeremiah 13:15 Hosea 5:1 .

All ye inhabitants of the land — sc. of Judea, or all ye inhabitants of the whole earth, q.d. I shall speak of so great a matter, as that I could wish to be heard all the world over. And because all men love to hear news, I shall tell you that that was never known to happen in any age. Rem novam pollicetur emphaticoteros quam more Rhetorico, saith Oecolampadius. Prick up your ears, therefore, and listen.

Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers — Was there ever such havoc made by several sorts of vermin successively, for four years together? This was the very finger of God, Exodus 8:19 , all whose works (by how small instruments soever) are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein, Psalms 111:2 . His extraordinary works especially are to be noted and noticed; the memory of them is to be transmitted to all posterity. "This shall be written for the generation to come," Psalms 102:18 . "They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this," Psalms 22:31 . Sed vae stupori nostro. There is a woe to such as regard not the works of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands, Isaiah 5:12 , that make of them but a nine days’ wonderment at best, and so pass them over. Whereas every judgment of God should be a warning peal to repentance. We be like the smith’s dog (saith one), who the harder the anvil is beaten on, lies by, and sleeps the sounder. Like the hen (saith another), which loseth her chickens one after another by the devouring kite; and yet still continues to pick up what lies before her: such a deep drowsiness and dressiness of spirit there is upon most of us.

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Tell ye your children of it, and [let] your children [tell] their children, and their children another generation.

Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children — Heb. Cipher them up diligently, after the manner of mathameticians; reckon up the several years with the several calamities thereof to your children and nephews, that they may hear, and fear, and do no more so, Deuteronomy 19:20 . Let your woes be their warnings, your sufferings their standing sermons; your corrections their instructions. See 1 Corinthians 10:5-12 . Ruina maiorum sit cautela minornm (Greg. Mot.). Hast thou marked the old way (saith Eliphaz to Job, Job 22:15-16 ), which wicked men have trodden, which were cut down out of time; whose foundation was overflown with a flood (Heb. a flood was poured upon their foundation), which said unto God, Depart from us? … He speaketh of those antediluvian atheists, buried in one universal grave of waters. See Joshua 22:20 Nehemiah 13:26 Judges 1:5-7 , and learn to keep a catalogue of God’s great works, whether of mercy or judgment; yea, to polish and garnish them for the use of posterity, not with vain affectation of wit, nor with pedantic pomp of words, but with sobriety and holy gravity, as here; such as may stick by our children, and leave impression.

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That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.

That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten — The palmerworm hath its name in Hebrew from shaving, âæí (because it shaveth off the fruits of the earth). In Chaldee from creeping; in Greek from crookening; in Latin from gnawing. (Zachala. καμπη . Eruca ab erodendo. ) The locust hath its name in Hebrew from multitude, wherewith the very sun is darkened; in Latin from burning places, where it spoileth, Locusts, quasi loca ustulans; in Greek from cropping the tops of grain and plants, which, as they fled, they fed upon. The cankerworm hath its name in Hebrew from licking; in Chaldee from fleeing; in Greek and Latin from feeding upon the flowers of apples and other fruits, Aκρις Mηλοχονθη . Comester some render it. Flemings call it, The preacher, a bombo quem palando edit, from the noise it maketh as it flies. The caterpillar hath its name, Chasil, from wasting, because it utterly consumeth all, not only fruits and leaves, but tender boughs and branches: Ut ita creseat oratio sicut ipsum malum, to show that as their sin increased so did their punishment. The Lord of hosts cannot possibly want a weapon wherewith to beat a rebel; neither may wicked men expect that he should lay down the bucklers first. To that bold question of Pharaoh, Exodus 5:2 , "Who is the Lord, that I should obey him?" God made a large reply, by his armies of locusts, lice, flies, …, till Pharaoh was forced to answer himself, "The Lord is righteous." What spoil hath been made by these despicable creatures here mentioned in other countries, Pliny recordeth. Pierius testifieth that the Egyptians made the locust a hieroglyphic of famine. And although we find not expressly set down in the holy history when this particular plague was executed, yet we need not doubt but it was done according to Deuteronomy 28:38-39 . See 1 Kings 8:37 .

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Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

Awake, ye drunkards — Ye ale stakes, and suckers (Heb. Shiccorim), that pour in heady and intoxicating drinks, such as soon lay you to sleep, and (besides) take away your heart, Hosea 4:11 , rob you of yourselves, and lay a beast in your room. Portentosum sane potionis genus, saith Pliny concerning ale, that excessively drunk maketh men mere sleepy than dormice: besides that worse sleep of carnal security, Ephesians 5:14 Romans 13:11 . These, therefore, are here called upon to be sober and watch, see 1 Thessalonians 5:6 1 Peter 5:8 1 Peter 4:7 yea, to weep and howl, to turn their laughter into mourning, and their joy into heaviness. And why? For their sin they should have done (as that drunkard in the ecclesiastical history, that, touched with a sense of his sin, wept himself blind), but here they are sarcastically called upon to weep for their great loss, as they esteem it.

Because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth — As many things occur between the chin and the chalice, the cup and the lip: you made account to have mouthed it, to have swilled your souls, as they say, and to have swallowed it down your wide gullets, Vinum merum nondum dilutum. But behold, it happens somewhat otherwise; the caterpillar hath been before you, and left you nothing better than Adam’s ale to tipple. This as cold comfort to the drunkard, whose word is that of the vine in Jotham’s parable, Non possum relinquere vinum meum, I am not able to leave my wine. Take away my liquor, you take away my life. Austin brings him in saying, Malle se vitam quam vinum eripi, He would rather lose his life than his wine. And Ambrose tells of one Theotimus, that being told by his physicians, that much quaffing would make him blind, Vale lumen amicum, said he, Farewell, sweet eyes; if ye will not bear wine, ye are no eyes for me. This drunkard would rather lose his sight than his sin; his soul than his lust. Such kind of persons are like the panther, which is said to love the dung of man so much, as if it be hanged on high from it, it will skip and leap up, and never leave till it have burst itself in pieces to get it; and this is the way they take that creature. God will take these natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, 2 Peter 2:14 , after another manner. He will not only cut them short enough here, but turn a cup of fire and brimstone down their throats, Psalms 11:6 , which will be worse to them than that ladleful of boiling lead poured down the throat of a drunken Turk, by the command of a bashaw.

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For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth [are] the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.

For a nation is come up upon my land — A nation, sc. of vermin, by swarms, as Joel 2:9 , called afterwards an army, Joel 2:11 , and a people, Joel 2:2 . See the like Proverbs 30:25-26 . "Is come," that is, shortly shall come, "upon my land," this glorious and goodly land, as it is called, Daniel 11:16 . Tarnovius makes this by a mimesis Rhet. A figure of speech, whereby the supposed words or actions of another are imitated. ŒD to be the drunkard’s lamentation. "A nation is come up," …

Strong and without number — Yea, therefore strong, because without number; insuperable, because innumerable. Feeble they are, and yet formidable; because set on by God Almighty, whose warriors they are, as the Roman spoilers are called, Matthew 22:7 . And perhaps the Assyrians may here be hinted at. I doubt not but the literal sense is chiefly intended; neither can I concur with Oecolampadius, who holdeth it to be propheta indignum, unbeseeming the prophet to preach thus concerning worms and locusts: for concerning such poor creatures deal the prophets by the instinct of the Holy Ghost, in sundry other places, Proverbs 6:6 Amos 4:9 ; Amos 7:1 Nahum 3:15 .

Whose teeth are the teeth of a lion — That is, they devour all that is in their way; as there is no standing before a lion, no, not before a moth that hath commission to crush a man, Job 4:19 .

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He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast [it] away; the branches thereof are made white.

He hath laid my vine waste — The prophet proceeds in aggravating the calamity, that he might make the people the more sensible. There is nothing in the world more stupid and more stubborn than a drunkard. Of such it is that that saying of an ancient is often verified, Ablatus est a peccantibus timor, ne possit esse cautela, Fear is taken away from offenders, that there should be no caution against it. Here therefore let the words of the wise be as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of the assemblies. Let them so preach with Peter, that their hearers may be pricked at heart, Acts 2:37 , may be galled and sawed, as it were, Acts 7:54 , may startle and tremble, as Acts 24:25 , may awaken out of that dead lethargy, whereinto Satan hath cast them, and recover out of his snare who are taken captive by him at his pleasure, 2 Timothy 2:26 . True it is, we can hardly get men to believe that hell is so hot, or sin so heavy, or the devil so black or God so unmerciful as the preachers make him. The lion, say they, is not so terrible as he is painted; nor is our case so dangerous as is borne us in hand. Sed non pergamus exaggerare, saith Pareus here. Let God’s ministers lay load upon men’s sins, and set forth to the full the miseries that will fall upon them. The prophets did so for temporal (as here most graphically and to the life), shall not we much more for eternal punishments? "Oh" (saith one) "that I could get words to gore your very hearts with smarting pain; that this doctrine might be written in your flesh!"

And barked my fig tree — Take away the bark from the tree, and the sap can never find the way to the boughs. These vermin had barked the trees with their teeth, cast the bark out of their mouths upon the ground, and made the branches naked and all white as froth; so that the drunkards, deprived of their sweet draughts, were brought ad effiationem animae (as the Chaldee here expounded Chetsephah), to a yielding up of the ghost, yea, ad laqueum et restim, as the Latins, to the very halter.

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Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

Lament like a virgin — Our prophet hath done with his drunkards; and now applieth himself to the soberer sort, whom also he calleth to deep and downright mourning, in this case of common calamity; there being not any so innocent and holy, but had some hand, if not upon the greater cart ropes, yet surely upon the smaller cords, that drew down dearth and judgment upon the land.

Lament therefore like a virgin — Betrothed, but bereft of her espoused husband before she was married to him: so Placater. Others understand it of her that (lately a virgin, but now newly married) passionately loved her husband and bitterly bewaileth his death; which some young women have taken so grievously, that they have refused to live any longer; but have chosen to put an end to their life and grief together, as historians testify.

Girded with sackcloth — Sacco non serico, with mourning weeds as a testimony of help to your humiliation. The dead we see may be lawfully lamented; indeed, it is one of the dues of the dead, τα νομιζομενα , iusta defunctorum. It is fit that the body, when sown in corruption, should be watered by the tears of those that plant it in the earth. Only we must not mourn in this case as heathens, without hope, 1 Thessalonians 4:13 . Our grief must not be excessive, either for measure or continuance; neither must we mourn so much for our friends departed as for our sins against God. In the former case baldness is forbidden; in the latter it is required, Isaiah 22:12 Zechariah 12:10 ; Zechariah 11:13 . One poor woman weeping over Christ shall be as deeply affected as all the people were in that unspeakable loss of their good king Josiah, at Hadadrimmon, in the valley of Megiddo, where Jeremiah lamented, and all the singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentation, and made them an ordinance, 2 Chronicles 35:24-25 .

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