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The Day of the Lord cometh! Repentance alone can avail to meet it. Hence the Demand for a Day of Public Humiliation
Joe_2:1-17
Sound an alarm on my holy mountain.
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
Because the day of Jehovah cometh,
It is nigh at hand.
2 A day of darkness and of gloom,
A day of clouds, and of thick mists,
Like the morning dawn spread upon the mountains;
So shall come a people numerous and mighty,
The like of which hath never been before,
And the like of which shall not come again,
In the years of many generations.
3 A fire devoureth before them,
And behind them a flame burneth;
Before them the land is as the garden of Eden,
And behind them a desolate wilderness,
And nothing shall escape them.
4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,
And like horsemen shall they run.
5 Like the noise of chariots, on the tops of mountains they shall leap,
Like the sound of a flame of fire devouring stubble.
Like a strong people set in battle array.
6 Before them the people are in pain,
All faces gather paleness.
7 They shall run like mighty men,
They shall climb the wall like men of war;
And they shall march, each one in his way,
And they shall not turn aside from their paths.
8 And no one shall press upon another,
They shall march each one in his path;
And though they rush upon the dart, they shall not be wounded.
9 They shall run to and fro in the city,
They shall run upon the wall;
They shall climb upon the houses,
They shall enter behind the windows like a thief.
10 Before them the earth trembleth,
The heavens quake,
The sun and the moon shall be darkened,
And the stars withdraw their brightness,
11 And Jehovah shall utter his voice before his host,
For his army is very great,
For he that executes his word is mighty;
For great is the day of Jehovah, and very terrible,
And who can endure it?
12 Yet even now, saith Jehovah,
Turn unto me with all your heart,
With fasting, and with weeping, and with lamentation,
13 And rend your heart, and not your garments.
And return to Jehovah your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger and of great kindness,
And repenteth Him of the evil.
14 Who knoweth? He may return and repent
And leave a blessing behind,
A meat-offering and a drink-offering
For Jehovah your God.
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion,
Sanctify a fast,
Call a solemn assembly;
16 Gather the people,
Sanctify a congregation,
Assemble the old men,
Gather the children,
And those that suck the breasts;
Let the bridegroom desert his chamber,
And the bride her closet;
17 Between the porch and the altar,
Let the priests weep,
The ministers of Jehovah,
And say,
Spare thy people, O Jehovah,
And give not thy heritage to reproach,
That the heathen should rule over (or use a bye-word against) them;
Wherefore should they say among the heathen (—the peoples)
Where is their God?
Joe_2:1. Blow the Trumpet in Zion. This is a call to the priests. They must give a signal of alarm from Zion, which is to be understood not in the local sense, but as including the whole of Jerusalem. Then comes the more precise locality, “the holy mountain.” The design of this signal is to arouse the inhabitants of the land, and to apprise them that an event of terrible magnitude is close at hand. The Day is the judgment day of the Lord. There is a climax in the clauses announcing its approach, “it is coming,” “it is near,” i. e., its coming is not an event of the far distant future, but it will be very soon.
Joe_2:2. The Day is one of darkness. Four terms are used to show how intense it will be. See Exo_10:22; Deu_4:11. It will be darker than that of Egypt, and than that of Sinai. Here the “darkness” is to be understood in a literal sense, for by the vast swarms of locusts, the sun would be obscured (Joe_2:10, and Exo_14:15). That the prophet had these swarms of locusts in view is evident from what follows. ëùַׁäַø belongs to the following òַí øַá . As the early morning dawns upon the mountains, so this “people” comes. “This,” says Keil, “is to be understood of the shining caused by the reflected rays of the sun from the wings of a swarm of locusts.” [Some, says Dr. Pusey, have thought that there is here an allusion to the appearance which, the inhabitants of Abyssinia well know, precedes the swarm of locusts. A sombre yellow light is cast upon the ground from the reflection, it is thought, of their yellow wings. But that appearance seems to be peculiar to that country.—F.] The image naturally exhibits the suddenness and universality of the darkness, when men looked for light. As to the meaning of ùַׁäַø , expositors are greatly divided. Bauer thinks that the points of comparison are the quickness with which, and the wide extent over which the dawn spreads itself. Credner’s view is, that as the morning light overspreading the hills is a symbol and pledge of life and joy, so these clouds shall come overspreading the land with darkness and misery. [Wünsche takes it in the sense of the “morning gray,” i. e., the time when the morning is wrapped in a sort of darkish or dusky gray; the meaning being, that the nature of this “day” will be made known, just as the gray dawn of morning proclaims the coming day.—F.] There hath not been ever the like. The phrase seems to have been borrowed from Exo_10:14,—a passage on which the prophet, in a general way, seems to have had his eye,—where the same thing is said of the plague of locusts sent upon Egypt.
Joe_2:3. A fire devoureth. This description is based on what had been already experienced, namely, that the desolation caused by locusts had been attended usually by drought and terrible heat. But now the heat grows into a fierce flame, analogous to the awful displays when God revealed Himself at Sinai. So here, the army of locusts is God’s host. ôìֵéèָä . That which has “escaped,” namely, the “fire,” or the desolation caused by it, has not remained in the land. [This is a strained sense. The exposition of Newcome, Pusey, and Wünsche is more natural and sensible. “There is nothing that has escaped it, i. e., this army.” Pusey adds, “the word being used elsewhere of the persons who escape,—captivity or captives,—suggests in itself that we should not linger by the type of the locusts only, but think of enemies more terrible, who destroy men.—F.]
Joe_2:4-5. Their appearance—in battle array. The entrance of this fearful host is described. The head of the locust has a certain resemblance to that of the horse. Their celerity of movement is compared to that of horsemen; and in Joe_2:5, the noise caused by their leaping is likened to that made by chariots on rough mountain roads, so that their appearance is somewhat similar to that of an army advancing in battle array. Their noise in devouring plants and herbs is also compared to the crackling of flames in a field of stubble. [Pusey: The amazing noise of the flight of locusts is likened by those who have heard them, to all sorts of deep sharp rushing sounds. The prophet combines purposely things incompatible, the terrible heavy bounding of the scythed chariot, and the light speed with which these countless hosts should in their flight bound over the tops of the mountains where God had made no paths for man.—F.]
Joe_2:6. Before them the peoples, etc. òַîִéí here has the usual sense of “peoples,” “nations,” since the day of the Lord would not be confined to one country. All faces lose their glowing color, i. e., the blood retires from the cheeks, so that they grow pale. ÷ָáַõ is here to be taken in the sense of àָñַó in Joe_2:10; Joe_3:15.
Joe_2:7. They shall run, etc. With resistless power they advance and march toward their goal. They run to attack. In like manner they climb the wall. òָáַè = to change or shift the way, i. e., to turn from one’s way and go into that of another, so that the latter, is hindered. [Pusey: They are on God’s message and they linger not. Men can mount a wall few at a time; the locusts scale it much more steadily, compactly, irresistibly. The picture unites the countless multitude, condensed march, and entire security of the locusts with the might of warriors.—F.]
Joe_2:8-10. And no one shall press, etc. Those behind shall not press upon those before. No weapons can stop the advance of this host; or arrest its march. They rush through, or between, or under the darts, or swords. They go forward as if no obstacles were in their way. Of course this does not mean that any attempt was actually made to oppose their progress, but simply that it would be vain to resist them, by the means ordinarily used to arrest an army (Joe_2:9), comp. Exo_10:6. The picture in Joe_2:7-9 is perfectly true to nature. Jerome (in loc.) says, “We have ourselves lately seen this very thing in this province (Palestine). When the locusts come and fill the whole space betweeen earth and sky, they fly in perfect order, as if obedient to a divine command, so that they look like the squares of a pavement. Each one holds its own place, not diverging from it even so much as by a finger’s breadth. To these locusts nothing is impenetrable, fields, meadows, trees, cities, houses, even their most secret chambers.” The accounts of more recent observers agree with this description. There is a design in this picture so elaborate in its details. The more terrible the visitation of locusts appears, the more certain would it be, that when the day of the Lord came, this host would become God’s instrument in the infliction of his judgment. What follows in Joe_2:10 is fully consonant with the fact, though there is some rhetorical amplification, as the prophet, once for all, sees in the swarm of locusts not a mere natural phenomenon, but an evidence of the coming of the day of the Lord. The view we take of an event naturally gives a certain coloring to the picture of it, and a certain climactic amplication is proper, when the event is one that surpasses all previous experience. Before them, or it, i. e., this great and mighty people. The earth trembles. What more natural than that heaven and earth should be terrified by such a host,—one so dreadful in fact, so much more dreadful when viewed as the host of an avenging God? This most awful effect cannot, indeed, be seen or heard, like these marching hosts and the noise they produce; it can only be felt, and thus all the wider scope is given to the terrified imagination. The obscuration of the sun, moon, and stars is real, but this darkness becomes more fearfully impressive, since the locust swarms appear as a tempest cloud of divine wrath. (Comp. Jer_13:10; Eze_12:7; Mar_13:24.)
Joe_2:11. And Jehovah shall utter his voice. Probably a real event is referred to,—a thunderstorm in connection with the coming of the locusts. The prophet hears the thunder not so much with his outward ear as mentally, recognizing it as a manifestation of God. Only such displays of power as those described in Joe_2:10-11, would befit the greatness of the host sent to do Jehovah’s will, and the terribleness of the day of the Lord that was coming,—a day so terrible as to wring from the prophet the inquiry, “who can endure it?” See Jer_10:10; Mal_3:1.
Joe_2:12-17. Yet even now, etc. Though the anger of God is so clearly revealed that men may see his day coming, yet He says, Turn unto me, and thus points out the way in which his anger may be averted. If they repented, they would escape these judgments, and find God gracious. With all your heart. This is the most essential thing, and so is named first, yet this hearty repentance will also manifest itself outwardly. But the prophet warns the people that a merely external repentance will effect nothing (Joe_2:13), comp. Psa_51:19; Eze_36:26. Such repentance, however, as that described in Joe_2:12-13, will avail, because “He is gracious” (Exo_34:6; 2Sa_24:16). Therefore is there hope that He will avert his judgments. Who knoweth. That God is such as He is here described is beyond a doubt, but whether, under present circumstances, He will display his mercy, is not so certain. This depends on the conduct of the people, and hence the prophet would have them to bear in mind, that pardon would not come to them as a matter of course, and that their repentance must not be of an easy and formal kind. He will return. Jehovah is conceived of as on his way from heaven for the purpose of judgment; but He may stop, and return to heaven. Leave behind Him, i.e., when He returns to heaven (Hos_5:5). A blessing, i. e., an abundant harvest, so that there may be no lack of those offerings, the materials of which had been destroyed by the locusts (Joe_1:9-13). Instead of a day of judgment (involving a greater desolation than any as yet experienced), there was hope that God would give another crop to replace the one destroyed (Joe_2:5). Since repentance opened such prospects of blessing, the priests should summon the people to meet for the purpose of humiliation and prayer, and they should themselves, in the name of the people, implore God’s mercy.
Joe_2:16 repeats what was said before in Joe_1:14, but more in detail. Sanctify a congregation, i., e., call a meeting of the congregation for sacred purposes. No age should be excepted, because the entire people deserved punishment and needed to repent. Even the joy of the bridegroom and the bride must give place to penitential mourning. What the priests should do, when the people were assembled, is defined in Joe_2:17. They shall stand between the porch and the altar, i. e., immediately before the entrance to the sanctuary and turning toward it, they should pray to God, appealing to Him in behalf of the people as his own covenant people.
[Pusey: The porch in this, Solomon’s temple, was in fact a tower in front of the Holy of holies, of the same breadth with the temple. The brazen altar for burnt-offerings stood in front of it. The space between the porch and the altar, became an inner part of the court of the priests. It seems to have been a place of prayer for priests. It is spoken of as an aggravation of the sins of those twenty-five idolatrous priests, that here, where they ought to worship God, they turned their backs toward the temple of the Lord to worship the sun. Here Zechariah was standing, when the spirit of God came upon him, and he rebuked the people, and they stoned him.—F.]
2. The next question is this,—Considering the “day of the Lord” as one of menace to Israel, how was it regarded by the prophet himself? We begin by saying that the “day,” as viewed by Joel, was not marked by a series of events, but by a single, sudden, and conclusive act. And therefore Keil applies modern speculative notions to the exposition of the phrase, when he says, “each particular judgment by which God chastises his own people for their sins, or destroys the enemies of his kingdom, may be regarded as a moment in the ‘day of the Lord.’ ” If so, why should Joel connect the approach of that day with the visitation of locusts? As already mentioned in Joel 1. the allegoric signification assigned by some to the locusts (i. e., hostile hosts), has arisen out of the union of two heterogeneous things. This allegoric sense may be found in those other prophets, one of whose chief themes was the judgment to be inflicted upon Israel by means of heathen nations—a judgment which then appears as “the day of the Lord” for Israel. But the verbal text will not admit of this principle of interpretation in Joel 1. The objection, however, does not hold in Joel 2, where the prophet describes the entrance of swarms of locusts into the land as an actual event, and also designates it as the coming of the day of the Lord. Some interpreters take the locust visitation as a presage and a symbol of an invasion by hosts of a different kind, partly on the ground that it is denoted as the coming of the day of the Lord, and partly from the use of the term “northern” in Joe_2:20, which cannot be applied to the locusts. There is, however, not much force in the first of these considerations, for while there is, in a general way, an obvious analogy between the swarms of locusts and an invading army, much is here said about the one that will not apply to the other. The reference to Isaiah 13. is more to the purpose, for he quotes the very words of Joel, and describes the judgment of Babel in terms that show that he understood the locust invasion in an allegoric sense. But though the language of the two prophets is so similar, it does not follow that they refer to the same events, nor that their words are to be understood in precisely the same sense.
But there are positive difficulties in the way of the allegoric interpretation of this chapter. For example, what can be meant by “driving the locusts into the sea” (Joe_2:20)? Again, the question arises, if Israel is threatened by an enemy, by what one? The word “northern” proves nothing. It is strange, on this theory, that while Joel describes the judgment on Israel by some foe, he gives us no hint even by which to identify him. There is no indication that the heathen nations were to be the chosen instruments for this purpose. On the contrary, what they do against Israel is exhibited as a crime which shall bring down God’s judgments on their own head. This method of exposition also overlooks the differences in the times when the several prophets lived. In Joel’s days, the great empires had not yet appeared as the special instruments of God’s judgments on his covenant people. In this character they had not yet come within the range of the prophet’s vision. He knew, indeed, that Israel’s sins deserved, and would receive chastisement, but he had not yet been told that the heathen nations would be God’s agents in inflicting it. Whenever they are named, it is as being themselves the objects of wrath, while Israel appears as a penitent and the recipient of God’s mercy.
But it may be said that while the prophet describes a real locust visitation, he sees in it, at least to a certain extent, a type of the “day of the Lord—a day of judgment; or in other words, what the land had already experienced might warn its inhabitants that they would have a still more bitter experience when that “day” arrived. But the difficulty is that if we suppose one event to be in any sense formally typical of the other, we find in the minutely detailed account of the type much that in no way corresponds with the antitype. The darkness, the terror, and the desolation produced by the locusts might be in themselves typical, but these are the features on which the least emphasis is laid by the prophet.
The view which we prefer is this. The land had been desolated by locusts to an unparalleled extent. The prophet had reason to fear that this was the harbinger of a worse calamity of the same sort. He sees in the visitation the beginning of the day of the Lord. The locust army is led by God himself, and hence the lively colors of that picture of it which he draws. The plague of locusts and the day of the Lord are not to be taken as two distinct things. They differ, not like the type and the antitype, but as the beginning and the end of the same thing. And so he says, “the day of the Lord cometh, it is near.” He sees its approach, still he hopes that the repentance of the people in answer to his earnest appeals, will ward off its further effects,—that Israel, warned and taught by the earlier and merely relative judgment, may escape the final one, and that the enemies of God’s people alone shall be overwhelmed by it. The day of the Lord in the highest sense of the words, did not, indeed, come with the calamity by which Israel was then chastised, but each preliminary judgment was really the precursor and pledge of the absolute and final one. All that we can affirm is that the prophet saw in this locust visitation not merely a natural phenomenon, but the finger of God. In these terrible scenes he hears the voice of the Living God calling his people to repentance. As God’s messenger he reechoes the earnest appeal, knowing that ere long He will come to judge his people, though the exact time of his coming none can tell.
3. The plague of locusts was a punishment of the nation’s sins. The prophet, therefore, demands hearty repentance, and a return to God. He, however, does not name the sins which had brought down this chastisement. There seems to have been no one prevalent form of corruption at that time; and, in particular, there is no distinct trace of idolatry. But this shows how earnest God is in punishing sin, since not only do gross iniquities awaken his displeasure, but also sins of the heart, though there may be no outward display of them. His love to his people also appears, since He summons them to repentance, in circumstances, in which, without such a call, they might have sunk into a condition of dangerous security. The earnestness of the prophet is also shown by his recognizing these calamities as divine judgments for sin, and his evident belief that although the people might outwardly seem to be in the right way, they might really be at the same time ripe for punishment. The repentance he demands, should consist essentially of turning with the whole heart to God, and which would outwardly manifest itself by fasting, weeping, and rending the garments. These were expressive symbols, and on this very account there was danger of putting them in the place of the inward feelings which they implied and represented. Against this mistake he warns the people, “rend your hearts and not your garments.” But even their sorrow for sin, however real, would be of no avail without an actual turning to God. The repentance which He demands, is such as both has its seat in the heart, and displays itself in the life. Prayer for pardon is a prominent feature of the public solemn humiliation described in Joe_2:17. As the whole land had been already chastised, and was still threatened with a severer infliction, the repentance suited to the occasion was not simply that of individuals, but of the whole nation as such. Of course, this national penitence has its root in that of individual men, but it does not rest there. As Israel had only one legal sanctuary—the Temple,—all public religious ceremonies must take place there, and through the ministry of the one priesthood. The public fast-day demanded by the Prophet is a Biblical precedent for the observance of similar days in Christian times and lands. They are as proper under the New Economy as they were under the Old. In this penitential prayer, there is not only an appeal to God’s mercy, but a declaration that his honor is concerned in the continued existence of Israel as his people. To abandon Israel wholly would give occasion to the heathen to blaspheme, as if God had been unable to save his people, or had forgotten his promises to do so. This relation, and these promises were not designed, nor did they really tend to beget a sinful security, but to keep alive in the hearts of God’s people an humble faith and hope. Israel bows I under God’s hand, but at the same time trusts Him as his God. This relation of ancient Israel is repeated, but in a far higher form and degree in the sonship of God’s people under the New Covenant.
Repentance is necessary. It alone can help, yet the punitive justice of God has also its influence for good. For while it is certain that the righteous Lord will punish sin, his grace, and pity, and patience are no less certain. And so if there be no defect in the repentance of the sinner, forgiveness will not be wanting on the part of God. This truth is most emphatically expressed in Joe_2:18, where a rich promise immediately follows a severe menace. Yet the observation of Reiger is a very just one, namely, that the true penitent must and will leave wholly in God’s hand the mitigation of the temporal punishment which he may have brought upon himself on account of his sins.
[Pusey: Joe_2:1. The trumpet was wont to sound in Zion only for religious uses: to call together the congregations for holy meetings, to usher in the beginnings of their months, and their solemn days with festival gladness. Now, in Zion itself, the stronghold of the kingdom, the holy city, the place which God chose to put his Name there, which He had promised to establish, the trumpet was to be used only for sounds of alarm and fear. Alarm could not penetrate there, without having pervaded the whole land. Good is the trouble which shaketh carnal peace, vain security, and the rest of bodily delight, when men, weighing their sins, are shaken with fear and trembling, and repent.—F.]
Joe_2:2. A day of darkness. A day of judgment is a manifestation of God’s wrath against sin, after the measure of his grace which seeks to save and bless them has been exhausted. Hence darkness is its proper symbol.
[Henry: Extraordinary judgments are rare things and seldom happen, which is an instance of God’s patience. Let none be proud of the beauty of their grounds any more than of their bodies, for God can soon change the face of both.—F.]
Joe_2:6. The people tremble. An ever-growing dread will accompany and enhance the terrors of approaching judgment. Men in their wanton security are all the while preparing the material of such fear.
[Henry: When God frowns upon men, the lights of heaven will be small joy to them. For, man by rebelling against his Creator, has forfeited the benefit of all his creatures. None can escape the arrests of God’s wrath, can make head against the force of it, or bear up under the weight of it.
Pusey: The judgments of God hold on their course, each going straight to that person for whom God, in the awful wisdom of his justice, ordains it. No one judgment or chastisement comes by chance. Each is directed and adapted, weighed and measured, by infinite wisdom, and reaches just that soul for which God appointed it, and no other, and strikes upon it with just that force which God ordains it.—F.]
Joe_2:11. Very great is his army. God can use any creature as his instrument to do his work. How many and mighty the hosts which He can send against men! The smallest things can become his agents to produce the greatest results. The mightiness of God, and the weakness of men, are here most distinctly displayed. Who can endure? No one who does not turn in penitence to God. This is a most momentous question, which we should often and seriously ponder. O what a creature is man! How proud when trouble is at a distance! How powerless and despairing when it overtakes him!
Joe_2:12. Yet also even now, etc. These words introduce the exhortation to repentance, to guard the people against the notion, that, when the prophet called on them to repent, and assured them that they would escape punishment if they did so, he was speaking in a sort of formal way, and in his own name. Both the exhortation and the promise come from God. When repentance enters, then comes help and hope. Repentance alone can ward off divine judgments. It is not enough that repentance be strong in its outward manifestations, as fasting and weeping, it must also be deep-seated, hearty, and not superficial. Turn unto the Lord. A call that is both needful and salutary, though, alas, too often unheeded. Grief for sin is only the half of repentance, it must be accompanied by a real turning to God. Only thus, O man, shalt thou obtain pardon; only thus will there be an actual turning away from sin. Sinner! despair not on account of thy misdeeds. Is God’s wrath against sin very great? His grace in pardoning it is greater still. So rich is the grace of God that the prophet is at a loss for words adequately to describe it. How ready God is to repent Him of the evil! Make a trial of his readiness and see. He who does not seek God’s grace as a penitent will never know how great it is. How much more willing is God to leave behind Him a blessing rather than a curse. No one would ever truly repent unless grace planted in the heart the seeds of faith and hope. Though a gracious hope grows slowly, yet the wavering heart will often be, in a secret way, sustained by it, and such a soul will better apprehend it than one filled with overmuch confidence.
[Jeremy Taylor: Although all sorrow for sins hath not the same expression, nor the same degree of pungency and sensitive trouble, yet it is not a godly sorrow, unless it really produces these effects; i. e. (1), that it makes us really to hate, and (2) actually to decline sin; and (3) produces in us a fear of God’s anger, a sense of the guilt of his displeasure; (4) and then such consequent trouble as can consist with such apprehension of the Divine displeasure; which, if it express not in tears and hearty complaints, must be expressed in watchings and strivings against sin; in patiently bearing the rod of God; in confession of our sins; in perpetual begging of pardon; and in all the natural productions of these according to our temper and constitution; it must be a sorrow of the reasonable faculty, the greatest of its kind.
Pusey: Although the mercy of God is in itself one and simple, yet is called abundant, on account of its divers effects. For God knows how in a thousand ways to succor his own.—F.]
Joe_2:14. A meat-offering, etc. God’s glory and our salvation are so intimately conjoined, that the pardon of the guilty is facilitated thereby, since the salvation of the sinner redounds to the glory of God.
[Henry: Now observe: (1) The manner of the expectation is very humble and modest. Who knows? Some think it is expressed thus doubtfully to check the presumption of the people, and to quicken them to a holy carefulness. Or, rather, it is expressed doubtfully, because it is the removal of a temporal judgment that they here promise themselves, of which we cannot be so confident, as that God is gracious. (2) The matter of the expectation is very pious, they hope God will return and leave a blessing behind Him, not as if He were about to go from them, and they could be content with any blessing in lieu of his presence, but behind Him, i. e., after He has ceased his controversy.
Pusey: God has promised forgiveness of sins to those who turn to Him. But He has not promised, either to individuals or churches, that He will remit the temporal punishment which He had threatened. He forgave David his sin (against Uriah). But the temporal punishment of his sin pursued him even on the bed of death. God often visits the penitent soul, and by some sweetness with which the soul is bathed leaves a token of his renewed presence.—F.]
Joe_2:15-16. Sanctify a fast—Gather the people. Fasting is a refined external discipline, promotive of prayer and piety. Only we must take care not to make a merit of it.—The people. By penitence and prayer, an entire community may be saved from a great calamity.—Children. Parents should be aroused to a deeper sorrow for their sins by the thought of their young children, who are also members of God’s Church, and included in his covenant. As little children share in the calamities caused by the sins of their parents, their common distress should be presented before the Lord, and deliverance from it asked.—The Bride. In seasons of general distress and danger, we should abstain from the most innocent enjoyment.
[Henry: It is good to bring little children, as soon as they are capable of understanding anything, to religious assemblies, that they may be trained up betimes in the way they should go.—Private joys must always give way to public sorrows, both those for affliction, and those for sin.
Robinson: It is very consolatory to observe, even in the midst of this terrific visitation—the last harbinger of the Saviour’s coming—an invitation of mercy. If men will then but seek the Lord with their whole heart, in deep humiliation, and turn away from their sins, He will be inquired of. At the eleventh hour, when the time for work is all but gone, they may find admission into his vineyard. Happy is it when outward afflictions of any kind lead us to true repentance.—F.]
Joe_2:17. Let the Priests. The special duty of the priesthood was to exhort the people to repentance, to stand between them and the Lord and pray for them, and hence it is the duty of every Christian, as a spiritual priest, to stir up his fellow Christians to repentance, and to pray for them.—Spare Thy People,—a petition full of humility and confidence, i. e., “look upon our needs, but remember also thy glory, O Lord!” What we need is God’s mercy. We can appeal to what his grace has made of us. There is the strongest antithesis between God’s people and the heathen, just as there is between God and idols.—Where is their God. God will never abandon his people,—a truth full of comfort to them, though it affords no ground for carnal security. On the contrary, it is fitted to stimulate us to be faithful to Him, as He is faithful to us.
[Henry: Ministers must themselves be affected with those things wherewith they desire to affect others.—The maintaining of the credit of the nation among its neighbors, is a blessing to be desired and prayed for, by all that wish well to it. But that reproach of the Church is especially to be dreaded and deprecated which reflects upon God.—F.]
Footnotes:
Joe_2:1.—The ùׁåֹôָø of the Hebrews, according to Jerome, was a metal instrument in the shape of a horn, and had a tone of extraordinary power. Its root, ùָׁôַø , to be bright, refers either to the metallic glitter of the instrument, or its clear ringing sound.
Joe_2:1.—“And sound.” And is omitted in the Vulg., Sept., Arab., Chald., and five MSS. omit å . There is more energy in the passage without it.
Joe_2:1.—“Holy mountain.” ÷ָãְùִׁé is a noun, lit., “mountain of my holiness,” The adject. ÷ָãåֹùׁ is only applied to persons and never to things.
Joe_2:1.—“The day—cometh.” The perf. áָà is used as the present to express the certainty of the event.
Joe_2:2.—“Darkness and gloom.” àֲôֵìָä is often connected with çùֶׁêְ , to express a kind of climax. Its root is not used in Heb., but we find it in the Arab. ܩܪܪܷܬܱܐ.
Joe_2:2.—“Clouds and thick mists.” òֲøָôֶì , formed apparently from òָøִéó , a cloud, and àָôַì , to be dark, corresponding to the Greek ὀñöíç . Here, too, a gradation is marked.
Joe_2:2.—“Like the morning dawn,” etc. The Vulg. renders it, “as the morning spread upon the mountains, a people much and mighty,” but the accents will not admit of this. Newcome has it, “like the dusk,” but this suggests evening rather than morning. It properly means the gray of the morning, while the sun is still far below the horizon. It is one of the names of the Nile, from the turbid color of its water.
Joe_2:3.—“Eden.” òֵãֶï , an old Semit. word, found also in various dialects in the sense of pleasure, like the Gr. ἠäïíÞ . In the sing, with zere on the penult., it always means Paradise. With seghol on the penult., it is the name of a part of Mesopotamia. In the plur. form it denotes pleasures. Psa_36:9; 2Sa_1:24.
Joe_2:4.—“Is like.” ë is here used ðáñáâïëéêῶò compar., and not, as Theodoret supposes, ἐðéôáôéêῶò intens.
Joe_2:5.—“On the tops of mountains,” etc. òַìÎãָàùֵé must be connected with éְøַ÷ֵּãåּï , they shall leap, and not with ëְּ÷åֹì ; the latter union is forbidden by the accents, and by the use of the word “chariots,” whose “noise” is only heard on level ground.
Joe_2:6.—“Peoples.” The plural form òַîִּéí is used, not as Credner supposes, with reference to the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but simply to denote people generally.
Joe_2:6.—“Paleness.” ôָàãåּø is variously understood. The Sept. render the clause ὡò ðñüò êáõìá÷ýôñáò , as the burning of a pot. The Chald., Syr., Vulg., Arab., “become like a pot or have the blackness of a pot.” But there is nothing in the nature of the thing, or in the etymology of the word, to warrant the “blackness” of our E. V. Cramer explains rather than translates the words: “all faces contract their muscles.” The root of the word is ôָּàַø , to be beautiful, to glow: and it literally means “ruddiness.” This gathers, or withdraws itself, and the countenance becomes pale.
Joe_2:7.—“They shall not turn aside”. éòַáְּèåּï is variously explained. Many expositors take it in the sense of pervertere, as if it were éְòַæúּåּï , to bend. Others get its meaning from the Arab. ÕَáَÙَ , to split, or divide. One MS., De Ross, has the reading, éְáְòַèåּï , they strike not out behind, like horses. The sense is, they move in a compact mass, bending neither to the right nor the left, forwards nor backwards.
Joe_2:8.—“Each one in his path” lit., the mighty one, âֶּáֶø , used here Poetically for àִù .
Joe_2:8.—“Though they rush,” etc. The meaning of this line is plain enough, i. e., nothing can arrest their march; but the renderings of it are various, growing out of the senses given to áְòַã . De Wette renders it: “Und zwischen Waffen stürzen sie hindurch, brechen den Zug nicht ab.”—Wünsche: “Und hinter dem Wurfpiess fallen sie, nicht brechen sie ab.” On the whole, I prefer the rendering of Tregelles: “Though they rush,” etc.
Joe_2:12.—“Yet even now.” Credner, without reason, supplies a ùׁåּáåּ after åâַּí òַúָּä .
Joe_2:12.—“Saith Jehovah.” ëְàֻí is most frequently used as the part. pass. constr. =“the voice of Jehovah is.”
Joe_2:14.—“Who knoweth.” The interrogative particle àִí is omitted here as in Jon_3:9. The question is expressed only by the tone. Holzh. takes the phrase îé éåֹãֵòַ to=every one knows, i. e., it is quite certain; but this sense is too absolute.
Joe_2:17.—“Rule over.” The primary meaning of îָùַì is to make like, and in its nominal form it has the sense of similitude, parable, proverb, song. Scholars have been a good deal puzzled how to reconcile the signification of making like and ruling, which last sense the word undoubtedly has in many places. When used in this last sense it is usually followed by á , rarely (Wünsche says never) by òַì or àֵì . Tregelles renders it in this place, “to sing a song of derision,” and De Wette, “spotter,” which, I think, the context favors. Pusey and Wünsche insist on the sense of our E. V. “rule over.”—F.]