JOEL THE ARGUMENT Since so many undeterminable points of less moment occur in our prophet, as of what tribe he was, whether his father were a prophet, whether he prophesied in Jeroboam’s or Hezekiah’s time, whether contemporary with Hosea, Amos, and Isaiah; whether he preached to the ten tribes, or…

Joel; supposed to be of the posterity of Reuben, therefore could not be (as the Jews suppose) Samuel’s son, nor will his time fit to 1 Chron. 5:4, 1 Chron. 5:8; but of what tribe soever, we know he came from God, and with his authority, and is so cited by the apostle, Acts 2:16.

Hear this: he is about to report a very wonderful occurrence, and desires all to consider it, mark it well, and tell me what you know. Ye old men; the oldest among you, who can remember things done in your days when you were young, some scores of years past.

Declare it very particularly, or record it, write it as in a book, that your children may know it, and the memory of it may be perpetuated; for as it was a very wonderful and unusual thing, so it was for to mind us of the cause of it, and what it taught, or should have taught, them and us.

Four sorts of insects pernicious to all sorts of trees, corn, and herbs are here mentioned, which did succeed each other, and devoured all that might be a future support to the Jews; whence ensued a grievous famine for four years together, say the Jewish interpreters, though there is no cogent…

Awake: great drinkers of intoxicating liquors are apt to sleep and be secure, the prophet doth therefore here call to them, as to sleepers, and by one apt word expresseth a double duty, vigilance of mind as well as of the body; so may this be paralleled with Rom. 13:11, 1 Thess. 5:6, 1 Pet.

This verse countenanceth their conjecture who take the locusts and vermin to be emblematical in part as well as literal; for it seems not very suitable to call their teeth teeth of a lion.

He, that nation of locusts, Joel 1:6, both literally and mystically understood, hath laid my vine waste; made it a desolation, i.e. most desolate, which is more particularly declared in what followeth. And barked my fig tree; peeled off the bark. which is certain destruction to the tree.

The vicious and wicked among the Jews were alarmed and threatened in the former part of the chapter; now the prophet bespeaks the good and godly among them to prepare for mournful times.

The meat-offering; which by Divine appointment was to be of fine flour, oil, and frankincense, as Lev. 2:1;c. Lev. 6:14;c. This meat-offering was necessary to every sacrifice offered under the law; so that without the mincha, or meat-offering, the sacrifice was maimed and illegal.

The field is wasted; the soil that was wont to be fat and fruitful, and did shout with fruits, now lieth waste, horrid to look upon, and such as promises no fruit; the famine in their houses, and the ceasing of the sacrifices in the house of God, is like to be perpetuated.

Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen: some read it assertively, the husbandmen are ashamed, and as to matter of fact it is true they were ashamed; but the imperative mood, or by way of exhortation, will better suit the context.

The vine is dried up: see Joel 1:10, The fig tree; a tree well known, and the fruit of it was usually a great advantage and benefit to the people of those countries.

Gird yourselves; bind your mourning sackcloth close to you with a girdle, that it may be more troublesome to the flesh; for though in Hebrew it is only gird, the phrase is well known in the Scripture, on these occasions, to include sackcloth, as what is girded on the mourner, and sackcloth is…

Sanctify ye; you priests, ministers of my God, set apart a day, or more days, appoint a time, forbid all servile work and sensual pleasures, do what you may to prepare for such a necessary work.

This verse and the three next may be looked upon either as a particular declaration of the grounds of this fast, or as a direction how to manage the fast, a suggesting to the people what they should spread before the Lord, or else as the words of the priests, bewailing the calamitous state of the…

Is not the meat? the question does most vehemently affirm, our food, what we should eat, i.e. all provision we should live upon. Cut off; devoured by locusts, or withered with drought, it is perished. Before our eyes; we see it, it is not so far off as what is foretold, it is under our eye.

The seed; called so from the seedsman’s scattering it abroad when he soweth it, and in this place only so used, for aught I can observe, and yet this use of it here is justified by all the following words; the grain which is sown for the seed against next spring.

How do the beasts groan? so great was the penury and want of sustenance, that the beasts in the field, pinched with hunger, groaned, made dismal noise for fodder and water; the word beasts is general, and contains all sorts.

O Lord, Maker and Preserver of these poor famished cattle, to thee will I cry: either it is the prophet’s prayer he maketh, or a form prescribed for the priests.

The beasts: see Joel 1:18. Cry; the wilder sort, that rove about many miles seeking their livelihood, find no sustenance, they look up to God, and cry to him: these creatures, that can better shift for themselves, yet can make no good shift; they utter their complaints in their sad tones, they have…