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 palmer-worm hath left. Heb. The residue of the palmer-worm.
The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
The vine. Dr. Shaw observes, that in Barbary, in the month of June the locusts are no sooner hatched than they collect themselves into compact bodies, each a furlong or more square; and marching directly after they are come to life, make their way towards the sea and let nothing escape them, eating up everything that is green or juicy; not only the lesser vegetables, but the vine likewise, the fig-tree, the pomegranate, the palm, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field.
Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,
The word of Jehovah which came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. He names here his father; it is hence probable that he was a man well known and of some celebrity. But who this Pethuel was, all now are ignorant. And what the Hebrews hold as a general rule, that a prophet is designated, whenever his father’s name is added, appears to me frivolous; and we see how bold they are in devising such comments. When no reason for any thing appears to them, they invent some fable, and allege it as a divine truth. When, therefore, they are wont thus to trifle, I have no regard for what is held by them as a rule. But yet it is probable, that when the Prophets are mentioned as having sprung from this or that father, their fathers were men of some note.
Now what he declared by saying, that he delivered the word of the Lord, is worthy of being observed; for he shows that he claimed nothing for himself, as an individual, as though he wished to rule by his own judgment, and to subject others to his own fancies; but that he relates only what he had received from the Lord. And since the Prophets claimed no authority for themselves, except as far as they faithfully executed the office divinely committed to them, and delivered, as it were from hand to hand, what the Lord commanded, we may hence feel assured that no human doctrines ought to be admitted into the Church. Why? Because as much as men trust in themselves, so much they take away from the authority of God. This preface then ought to be noticed, which almost all the Prophets use, namely, that they brought nothing of their own or according to their own judgment, but that they were faithful dispensers of the truth intrusted to them by God.
And the word is said to have been to Joel; not that God intended that he alone should be his disciple, but because he deposited this treasure with him, that he might be his minister to the whole people. Paul also says the same thing, — that to the ministers of the Gospel was committed a message for Christ, or in Christ’s name, to reconcile men to God, (2Co 5:20;) and in another place he says, ‘He has deposited with us this treasure as in earthen vessels,’ (2Co 4:7.) We now understand why Joel says, that the word of the Lord was delivered to him, it was not that he might be the only disciple; but as some teacher was necessary, Joel was chosen to whom the Lord committed this office. Then the word of God belongs indeed indiscriminately to all; and yet it is committed to Prophets and other teachers; for they are, so to speak, as it were trustees (depositarii — depositories.)
As to the verb היה eie, there is no need of philosophizing so acutely as Jerome does: “How was the word of the Lord made?” For he feared lest Christ should be said to be made, as he is the word of the Lord. These are trifles, the most puerile. He could not, however, in any other way get rid of the difficulty but by saying that the word is said to be made with respect to man whom God addresses, and not with respect to God himself. All this, as ye must see, is childish; for the Prophet says here only, that the word of the Lord was sent to him, that is, that the Lord employed him as his messenger to the whole people. But after having shown that he was a fit minister of God, being furnished with his word, he speaks authoritatively, for he represented the person of God.
We now see what is the lawful authority which ought to be in force in the Church, and which we ought to obey without dispute, and to which all ought to submit. It is then only that this authority exists, when God himself speaks by men, and the Holy Spirit employs them as his instruments. For the Prophet brings not forward any empty title; he does not say that he is a high priest of the tribe of Levi, or of the first order, or of the family of Aaron. He alleges no such thing, but says that the word of God was deposited with him. Whosoever then demands to be heard in the Church, must of necessity really prove that he is a preacher of God’s word; and he must not bring his own devices, nor blend with the word any thing that proceeds from the judgment of his own flesh.
But first the Prophet reproves the Jews for being so stupid as not to consider that they were chastised by the hand of God, though this was quite evident. Hence they pervert, in my judgment, the meaning of the Prophet, who think that punishments are here denounced which were as yet suspended; for they transfer all these things to a future time. But I distinguish between this reproof and the denunciations which afterwards follow. Here then the Prophet reproaches the Jews, that having been so severely smitten, they did not gain wisdom; and yet even fools, when the rod is applied to their backs, know that they are punished. Since then the Jews were so stupid, that when even chastised they did not understand that they had to do with God, the Prophet justly reproves this madness. “Hear ”, he says, “ye old men; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land, and declare this to your children ”. But the consideration of this passage I shall put off till tomorrow.
Hear this, ye old men; and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land: has this been in your days, and in the days of your fathers? This declare to your children and your children to their children, and their children to the next generation: the residue of the locust has the chafer eaten, and the residue of the chafer has the cankerworm eaten, and the residue of the cankerworm has the caterpillar eaten (2) I have in the last Lecture already mentioned what I think of this passage of the Prophet. Some think that a future punishment is denounced; but the context sufficiently proves that they mistake and pervert the real meaning of the Prophet; for, on the contrary, he reproves here the hardness of the people, — that they fell not their plagues. And as men are not easily moved by God’s judgments, the Prophet here declares that God had executed such a vengeance as could not be regarded otherwise than miraculous; as though he said, “God often punishes men, and it behaves them to be attentive as soon as he raises up his finger. But common punishments are wont to be unheeded; men soon forget those punishments to which they have been accustomed. God has, however, treated you in an unusual manner, having openly as it were put forth his hand from heaven, and brought on you punishments nothing less than miraculous. Ye must then be more than stupid, if ye perceive not that you are smitten by God’s hand.” This is the true meaning of the Prophet, and may be easily gathered from the words.
Hear, ye old men, he says. He expressly addresses the old, because experience teaches men much; and the old, when they see any thing new or unusual, must know, that it is not according to the ordinary course of things. He who has past his fiftieth or sixtieth year, and sees something new happening which he had never thought of, doubtless acknowledges it as the unusual work of God. This is the reason why the Prophet directs here his discourse to the old; as though he said, “I will not terrify you about nothing; but let the old hear, who have been accustomed for many years to many revolutions; let them now answer me, whether in their whole life, which has been an age on the earth, have they seen any such thing ” We now perceive the design of the Prophet; for he intended to awaken the Jews that they might understand that God had put forth his hand from heaven, and that it was impossible to ascribe what they had seen with their eyes to chance or to earthly causes, but that it was a miracle. And his object was to make the Jews at length ashamed of their folly in not having hitherto been attentive to God’s punishments, and in having always flattered themselves, as though God slept in heaven, when yet he so violently thundered against them, and intended by an extraordinary course to move them, that they might at last perceive that they were summoned to judgment.
He afterwards adds, And all ye inhabitants of the land. Had the Prophet addressed only the old, some might seize on some pretext for their ignorance; hence he addressed and from the least to the greatest; and this he did, that the young might not exempt themselves from blame in proceeding in their obstinacy and in thus mocking God, when he called them to repentance. Hear, he says, all ye inhabitants of the land; has this been in your days or in the days of your fathers? He says first, has such a thing been in your days, for doubtless what happens rarely deserves a greater consideration. It is indeed true that foolish men are blind to the daily works of God; as the favor of God in making his sun to rise daily is but little thought of by us. This happens through our ingratitude; but our ingratitude is doubled, and is much more base and less excusable, when the Lord works in an unwonted manner, and we yet with closed eves overlook what ought to be deemed a miracle. This dullness the Prophet now reproves, Has such a thing, he says, “happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? Ye can recall to mind what your fathers have told you. It is certain that for two ages no such thing has happened. Your torpidity then is extreme, since ye neglect this judgment of God, which from its very rareness ought to have awakened your minds.”
(2) All these are different kinds of locusts. There are in Hebrew ten names for them, designative probably of so many kinds. There are four here: גזם, gizam, the young locust; ארבה, arebe, so called from their number, one on the wing; ילק, ilak, one of the hairy bristly kind; and λψσ᾿, chesil, one unfledged. Following the probable ideal meaning of the words, we may give them these names, —the cutter, the multiplier, the licker, and the devourer. — Ed.
He then adds, Tell it to your children, your children to their children, their children to the next generation. In this verse the Prophet shows that the matter deserved to be remembered, and was not to be despised by posterity, even for many generations. It appears now quite clear that the Prophet threatens not what was to be, as some interpreters think; it would have been puerile: but, on the contrary, he expostulates here with the Jews, because they were so slothful and tardy in considering God’s judgments; and especially as it was a remarkable instance, when God employed not usual means, but roused, and, as it were, terrified men by prodigies. Of this thentell: for עליה olie means no other thing than ‘tell or declare this thing to your children;’ and further, your children to their children. When any thing new happens, it may be, that we are at first moved with some wonder; but our feeling soon vanishes with the novelty, and we disregard what at first caused great astonishment. But the Prophet here showed, that such was the judgment of God of which he speaks, that it ought not to have been overlooked, no, not even by posterity. Let your children, he says, declare it to those after them, and their children to the fourth generation: it was to be always remembered.
He adds what that judgment was, — that the hope of food had for many years disappointed them. It often happened, we know, that locusts devoured the standing corn; and then the chafers and the palmer worms did the same: these were ordinary events. But when one devastation happened, and another followed, and there was no end; when there had been four barren years, suddenly produced by insects, which devoured the growth of the earth; — this was certainly unusual. Hence the Prophet says, that this could not have been chance; for God intended to show to the Jews some extraordinary portent, that even against their will they might observe his hand. When any thing trifling happens, if it be rare, it will strike the attention of men; for we often see that the world makes a great noise about frivolous things. But this wonder, says the Prophet, “ought to have produced effect on you. What then will ye do, since ye are starving, and the causes are evident; for God has cursed your land, and brought these insects, which have consumed your food before your eyes. Since it is so, it is surely the time for you to repent; and you have been hitherto very regardless having overlooked God’s judgments, which have been so remarkable and so memorable.” Let us now proceed.
The Prophet adds this verse for the sake of amplifying; for when God sees men either contemptuously laughing at or disregarding his judgments, he derides them; and this mode the Prophet now adopts. ‘Ye drunkards,’ he says, ‘awake, and weep and howl.’ In these words he addresses, on the subject in hand, those who had willfully closed their eyes to judgments so manifest. The Jews had become torpid, and had covered themselves over as it were with hardness; it was then necessary to draw them forth as by force into the light. But the Prophet accosts the drunkards by name; and it is probable that this vice was then very common among the people. However that might be, the Prophet by mentioning this instance shows more convincingly, that there was no pretense for passing by things, and that the Jews could not excuse their indifference if they took no notice; for the very drunkards, who had degenerated from the state of men, did themselves feel the calamity, for the wine had been cut off from their mouth. And this expression of the Prophet, “Awake ”, ought to be noticed; for the drunkards, even while awake, are asleep, and also spend a great portion of time in sleep. The Prophet had this in view, that men, though not endued with great knowledge, but even void of common sense, could no longer flatter themselves; for the very drunkards, who had wholly suffocated their senses, and had become thus estranged in their minds, did yet perceive the judgment of God; though drowsiness held them bound, they were yet constrained to awake at such a manifest punishment. What then does this ignorance mean, when ye see not that you are smitten by God’s hand?
To the same purpose are the words, Weep and howl. Drunkards, on the contrary, give themselves up to mirth, and intemperately indulge themselves; and there is nothing more difficult than to make them to feel sorrow; for wine so infatuates their senses, that they continue to laugh in the greatest calamities. But the Prophet says, Weep and howl, ye drunkards! What then ought sober men to do? He then adds, Cut off is the wine from your mouth. He says not, “The use of wine is taken away from you; ” but he says, from your mouth. Though no one should think of vineyards or of winecellars or of cups, yet they shall be forced, willing or unwilling, to feel the judgment of God in their mouth and in their lips. This is what the Prophet means. We then see how much he aggravates what he had said before: and we must remember that his object was to strike shame into the people, who had become thus torpid with regard to God’s judgments.
As to the word עסיס osis, some render it new wine. עסס osas is to press; and hence עסיס osis is properly the wine that is pressed in the wine-vat. New wine is not what is drawn out of the bottle, but what is pressed out as it were by force. But the Prophet, I have no doubt, includes here under one kind every sort of wine. Let us go on.
Of what some think, that punishment, not yet inflicted, is denounced here on the people, I again repeat, I do not approve; but, on the contrary, the Prophet, according to my view, records another judgment of God, in order to show that God had not only in one way warned the Jews of their sins, that he might restore them to a right mind; but that he had tried all means to bring them to the right way, though they proved to have been irreclaimable. After having then spoke of the sterility of the fields and of other calamities, he now adds that the Jews had been visited with war. (3) Surely famine ought to have touched them, especially when they saw that evils, succeeding evils, had happened for several years contrary to the usual course of things, so that they could not be imputed to chance. But when God brought war upon them, when they were already worn out with famine, must they not have been more than insane in mind, to have continued astonied at God’s judgments and not to repent? Then the meaning of the Prophet is, that God had tried, by every means possible, to find out whether the Jews were healable, and had given them every opportunity to repent, but that they were wholly perverse and untamable.
Then he says, Verily a nation came up. The particle כי ki is not to be taken as a causative, but only as explanatory, Verily, or surely, he says, a nation came up; though an inference also is not amiss, if it be drawn from the beginning of the verse: ‘Hear, ye old men, and tell your children;’ what shall we tell? even this, that a nation, etc. But in this form also כי ki would be exegetical, and the sense would be the same. This much as to the meaning of the passage.
A nation, then, came up over my land. God here justly claims the land of Canaan as his own heritage, and does so designedly, that the Jews might more clearly know that he was angry with them; for their condition would not have been worse than that of other nations, had not God resolved to punish them for their sins. There is here then an implied comparison between Judea and other countries, as though the Prophet said, “How comes it, that your land is wasted by wars and many other calamities, while other countries are at rest? This land is no doubt sacred to God, for he has chosen it for himself, that he might rule in it; he has here his own habitation: it then must be that there is some cause for God’s wrath, as your land is so miserably wasted, when other lands enjoy tranquillity.” We now perceive what the Prophet means. A nation, he says, came up upon my land, and what then? God could surely have prevented this; he could have defended his own land, of which he was the keeper, and which was under his protection: how then had it happened that enemies with impunity inundated this land, having marched into it and utterly laid it waste, except that it had been forsaken by the Lord himself?
A nation, he says, came up upon my land, strong and without number; and further, who had the teeth of a lion, the jaw-bones of a young lion. The nations had no strength which God could not in an instant have broken down, nor had he need of mighty auxiliaries, for he could by a nod only have reduced to nothing whatever men might have attempted: when, therefore, the Assyrians so impetuously assailed the Jews they were necessarily exposed to the wantonness of their enemies, for they were unworthy of being protected, as hitherto, by the hand of God.
(3) But most commentators consider these two verses as containing a more particular description of the devastations produced by the locusts mentioned before. That they are called “a nation” is according to prophetic style, and what has been done by heathen poets: the wasting of the vine and the barking of the fig-tree seem more suitable to this view. It is true that נוי, nation, and not וזם people, as in Pro 30:25, is here used; but, as Dr. Henderson observes, it seems to have been selected on purpose “to prepare the minds of the Jews for the allegorical use made of these insects in chapter 2.” — Ed.
He afterwards adds, that his vine had been exposed to desolation and waste, his fig-tree to the stripping of the bark. God speaks not here of his own vine, as in some other places, in which he designates his Church by this term; but he calls everything on earth his own, as he calls the whole race of Abraham his children: and he thus reproaches the Jews for having reduced themselves to such wretchedness through their own fault; for they would have never been spoiled by their enemies, had not God, who was wont to defend then, previously rejected them; for there was nothing in their land which he did not claim as his own; as he had chosen the people, so he had consecrated the land to himself. Whatsoever, then, enlisted in Judea, was, as it were, sacred to God. Now when both the vines and the fig-trees were exposed to the depredations of the unbelieving, it was certain that God no longer ruled there. How so? Even because the Jews had expelled him. He afterwards enlarges on the same subject; for what follows, By denuding he has denuded it and cast it away, is not a mere narrative; the Prophet here declares not simply what had taken place; but as we have already said, adduces more proof, and tries to awaken the drowsy senses of the people, yea, to arouse them from that lethargy by which the minds of all had been seized; hence it is that he uses in his teaching so many expressions. This is the reason why he says that the vine and the fig-tree had been denuded, and also that the leaves had been taken away, that the branches had been made bare and white; so that there remained neither produce nor growth.
Many interpreters join these three verses with the former, as if the Prophet now expressed what he had said before of the palmer worm, the chafer, and the locust; for they think that he spake allegorically when he said that all the fruits of the land had been consumed by the locusts and the chafers. They therefore add, that these locusts, or chafers, or the palmer worms, were the Assyrians, as well as the Persian and the Greeks, that is, Alexander of Macedon and the Romans: but this is wholly a strained views so that there is no need of a long argument; for any one may easily perceive that the Prophet mentions another kind of punishments that he might in every way render the Jews inexcusable who were not roused by judgments so multiplied, but remained still obstinate in their vices. Let us now proceed.
The Prophet now addresses the whole land. Lament, he says; not in an ordinary way, but like a widow, whose husband is dead, whom she had married when young. The love, we know, of a young man towards a young woman, and so of a young woman towards a young man, is more tender than when a person in years marries an elderly woman. This is the reason that the Prophet here mentions the husband of her youth; he wished to set forth the heaviest lamentation, and hence he says “The Jews ought not surely to be otherwise affected by so many calamities, than a widow who has lost her husband while young, and not arrived at maturity, but in the flower of his age.” As then such widows feel bitterly their loss, so the Prophet has adduced their case.
The Hebrews often call a husband בעל bol, because he is the lord of his wife and has her under his protection. Literally it is, “For the lord of her youth;” and hence it is, that they also called their idols בעלים bolim, as though they were as we have often said in our comment on the Prophet Hosea, their patrons.
The sum of the whole is, That the Jews could not have continued in an unconcerned state, without being void of all reason and discernment; for they were forced, willing or unwilling, to feel a most grievous calamity. It is a monstrous thing, when a widow, losing her husband when yet young, refrains from mourning. Now then, since God had afflicted his land with so many evils, he wished to bring on them, as it were, the grief of widowhood. It follows —
Here, in other words, the Prophet paints the calamity; for, as it has been said, we see how great is the slowness of men to discern God’s judgments; and the Jews, we know, were not more attentive to them than we are now. It was, therefore, needful to prick them with various goads, as the Prophet now does, as though he said, “If ye are not now concerned for want of food, if ye consider not even what the very drunkards are constrained to feel, who perceive not the evil at a distance, but taste it in their lips — if all these things are of no account with you, do at least look on the temple of God, which is now destitute of its ordinary services; for through the sterility of your fields, through so great a scarcity, neither bread nor wine is offered. Since then ye see that the worship of God has ceased, how is it ye yourselves still remain? Why is it that ye perceive not that God’s fury is kindled against you? For surely except God had been most grievously offended, he would at least have had some regard for his own worship; he would not have suffered his temple to remain without sacrifices.”
The Jews, we know, daily poured their libations, and offered meat-offerings. When, therefore, Joel mentions מנחה meneche and libation, he doubtless meant to show that the worship of God was nearly abolished. But God would have never permitted such a thing, had he not been grievously offended by the sins of men. Hence the indifference, or rather the stupidity of the people, is more clearly proved, inasmuch as they perceived not the signs of God’s wrath made evident even in the very temple. It follows —
The Prophet goes on here with the same subject, and uses these many words to give more effect to what he said; for he knew that he addressed the deaf, who, by long habit, had so hardened themselves that God could effect nothing, at least very little, by his word. This is the reason why the Prophet so earnestly presses a subject so evident. Should any one ask what need there was of so many expressions, as it seems to be a needless use of words; I do indeed allow that all that the Prophet wished to say might have been expressed in one sentence, as there is here nothing intricate: but it was not enough that what he said should be understood, except the Jews applied it to themselves, and perceived that they had to do with God; and to make this application they were not disposed. It is not then without reason that the Prophet labors here, and enforces the same thing in many words.
Hence he says, The field is wasted, and the land mourns; for the corn has perished, for dried up has the wine, for destroyed has been the oil. And by these words he intimates that they seeing saw nothing; as though he said, “Let necessity extort mourning from you; ye are indeed starving, all complain of want, all deplore the need of bread and wine; and yet no one of you thinks whence this want is, that it is from the hand of God. Ye feel it in your mouth, ye feel it in your palate, ye feel it in your throat, ye feel it in your stomach; but ye feel it not in your heart.” In short, the Prophet intimates that the Jews were void of right understanding; they indeed deplored their famine, but they were like brute beasts, who, when hungry, show signs of impatience. So the Jews mourned, because their stomach disquieted them; but they knew not that the cause of their want and famine was their sins. It afterwards follows —
The Prophet says nothing new here, but only strengthens what he had said before, and is not wordy without reason; for he intends here not merely to teach, but also to produce an effect: And this is the design of heavenly teaching; for God not only wishes that what he says may be understood, but intends also to penetrate into our hearts: and the word of God, we know, consists not of doctrine only, but also of exhortations, and threatenings, and reproofs. This plan then the Prophet now pursues: Ye husband men, he says, be ashamed, and ye vinedressers, howl; for perished has the harvest of the field. The sum of the whole is, that the Jews, as we have already said, could by no excuse cover their indifference; for their clamor was everywhere heard, their complaints everywhere resounded, that the land had become a waste, that they were themselves famished that they were afflicted with many calamities; and yet no one acknowledged that God, who visited them for their sins, was the author. But what remains I shall put off until to-morrow.
The Prophet now concludes his subjects which was, that as God executed judgments so severe on the people, it was a wonder that they remained stupefied, when thus reduces to extremities. The vine, he says, has dried up, and every kind of fruit; he adds the fig-tree, afterwards the רמון remun, the pomegranate, (for so they render it,) the palm, the apple-tree, (4) and all trees. And this sterility was a clear sign of God’s wrath; and it would have been so regarded, had not men either wholly deceived themselves, or had become hardened against all punishments. Now this αναὶσθησὶα (insensibility) is as it were the very summit of evils; that is, when men feel not their own calamities, or at least understand not that they are inflicted by the hand of God. Let us now proceed —
(4) Of the three foregoing trees we may add this account:
The pomegranate, רמון, grows about 20 feet high, has a straight stem and spreading branches, and bears large red blossoms. Its fruit is about the size of an orange, and is delicious and cooling.
The palm or date-tree, תמר, is sometimes as high as 100 feet, and remarkably straight. Its fruit grows in clusters under its leaves, and is in taste very sweet. Palm branches were emblems of victory.
What is called here the apple-tree, תפוח, was no doubt the citron-tree. The word is derived from נפה, to breathe, on account of the extreme fragrance it emits. — Ed.
Now the Prophet begins to exhort the people to repentance. Having represented them as grievously afflicted by the hand of God, he now adds that a remedy was at hand, provided they solicited the favor of God; and at the same tine he denounces a more grievous punishment in future; for it would not have been enough that they had been reminded of their calamities and evils, except they also feared in time to come. Hence the Prophet, that he might the more move them, says, that the hand of God was still stretched out, and that there was something worse nigh at hand, except they of themselves anticipated it. This is the purport of the whole. I now come to the words.
Be girded, lament and howl, he says,ye priests, the ministers of the altar The verb חגרו chegeru may be explained in two ways. Some understand it thus “Gird yourselveswith sackcloth; ” for shortly after he says with sackcloth, or in sackcloth. But we may take it as simply meaning, gird yourselves, that is, Hasten; for this metaphorical expression often occurs. As to the drift of the passage, there is but little difference, whether we read, “Gird yourselves with sackcloth,” or, “Hasten.” And he addresses the priests, though a common and general exhortation to the whole people afterwards follows. But as God made them the leaders of his people, it behaved them to afford others an example. It is the common duty of all the godly to pray for and to further the salvation of their brethren; but it is a duty especially enjoined on the ministers of the word and on pastors. So also, when God calls those to repentance who preside over others, they ought to lead the way, and for two reasons; — first, because they have not been in vain chosen by the Lord for this end, that they might outshine others, and be as luminaries; — secondly, because they who bear any public office ought to feel a double guilty when the Lord visits public sins with judgment. Private men indeed sin; but in pastors there is the blame of negligence, and still more, when they deviate even the least from the right way, a greater offense is given. Rightly then does the Prophet begin with the priests, when he bids the whole people to repent. And he not only bids them to put on sackcloth, but commands them also, as we shall see, to proclaim a fast, and then to call an assembly: ye priests, he says, be girded, and put on sackcloth, wail, howl, and pass the night in sackcloth; and then he calls them the ministers of the altar and the ministers of God, but in a different sense; for the Prophet does not substitute the altar for God, as he would thus have formed an idol; but they are called the ministers of the altar, because they offered there sacrifices to God. They are indeed with strict propriety the ministers of God; but as the priests, when they sacrificed, stood in the presence of God, and as the altar was to them as it were the way of access to him, they are called the ministers of the altar. He calls them, at the same time, the ministers of God, and, as it has been stated, they are properly so called.
But he says here אלהי alei (my God.) The iod, my, is by some omitted, as if it were a servile letter, but redundant. I, however, doubt not but that the Prophet here mentions Him as his God; for he thus intended to claim more authority for his doctrine. His concern or his contest was with the whole people; and they, no doubt, in their usual ways proudly opposed against him the name of God as their shield. “What! are we not the very people of God?” Hence the Prophet, in order to prove this presumption false, sets forth God as being on his side. He therefore says, ‘The ministers of my God.’ Had any one objected and said, that he was in common the God of the whole people, the Prophet had a ready answer, — “I am specially sent by Him, and sustain his person, and plead the cause which he has committed to me: He is then my God and not yours.” We now then see the Prophet’s meaning in this expression. He now adds, for cut off is offering and libation from the house of our God. He confesses Him at the same time to be their God with reference to the priesthood; for nothing, we know, was presumptuously invented by the Jews, as the temple was built by Godly command, and sacrifices were offered according to the rule of the law. He then ascribes to the priesthood this honor, that God ruled in the temple; for God, as we have already said, approved of that worship as having proceeded from his word: and to this purpose is that saying of Christ, ‘We know what we worship.’ But yet the priests did not rightly worship God; for though their external rites were according to the command of God, yet as their hearts were polluted, it is certain that whatever they did was repudiated by God, until, being touched with the fear of his judgment, they fled to his mercy, as the Prophet now exhorts them to do.
He afterwards adds, sanctify a fast, call an assembly, gather the old, all the inhabitants of the land. קדש kodash means to sanctify and to prepare; but I have retained its proper meaning, sanctify a fast; for the command had regard to the end, that is, sanctification. Then afast proclaim — for what purpose? That the people might purge themselves from all their pollutions, and present themselves pure and clean before God. Call an assembly. It appears that there was a solemn convocation whenever a fast was proclaimed among the people: for it was not enough for each one privately at home to abstain from food, except all confessed openly, with one mouth and one consent, that they were guilty before God. Hence with a fast was connected a solemn profession of repentance. The uses and ends of a fast, we know, are various: but when the Prophet here speaks of a solemn fast, he doubtless bids the people to come to it suppliantly, as the guilty are wont to do, who would deprecate punishment before a judge, that they may obtain mercy from him. In the second chapter there will be much to say on fasting: I only wish now briefly to touch on the subject.
He afterwards bids the old to be gathered, and then adds, All the inhabitants of the land. But he begins with the old, and justly so, for the guilt of the old is always the heaviest. But this word relates not to age as in a former instance. When he said yesterday, ‘Hear ye, the aged,’ he addressed those who by long experience had learnt in the world many things unknown to the young or to men of middle age. But now the Prophet means by the old those to whom was intrusted the public government; and as through their slothfulness they had suffered the worship of God and all integrity to fall into decay, rightly does the Prophet wish them to be leaders and precursors to the people in their confession of repentance; and further, it behaved them, on account of their office, as we have said of the priests, to lead the way. Joel at the same time shows that the whole people were implicated in guilt, so that none could be excepted, for he bids them all to come with the elders.
Call them, he says,to the house of Jehovah your God, and cry ye to Jehovah. We hence learn why he had spoken of fasting and of sackcloth, even that they might humbly deprecate God’s wrath; for fasting of itself would have been useless, and to put on sackcloth, we know, is in itself but an empty sign: but prayer is what the Prophet sets here in the highest rank, and fasting is only an appendage, and so is sackcloth. Whosoever then puts on sackcloth and withholds prayer, is guilty of mockery; and no one can derive any good from mere fasting; but when fasting and sackcloth are added to prayer, and are as it were handmaids, then they are not uselessly practiced. We may then observe, that the end of fasting and sackcloth was no other, than that the priests together with the whole people, might present themselves suppliantly before God, and confess themselves worthy of destruction, and that they had no hope except from his gratuitous mercy. This is the meaning.
It now follows, Alas the day! for nigh is the day of Jehovah. Here the Prophet, as it was at first stated, threatens something worse in future than what they had experienced. He has hitherto been showing their torpidity; now he declares that they had not yet suffered all their punishments, but that there was something worse to be feared, except they turned seasonably to God. And he now exclaims, as though the day of Jehovah was before his eyes, and he calls it the day of Jehovah, because in that day God would stretch-forth his hand to execute judgment; for while he tolerates men or bears with their sins, he seems not to rule in the world. And though this mode of speaking is common enough in Scripture, it ought yet to be carefully noticed; for all seem not to understand that God calls that his own day, when he will openly shine forth and appear as the judge of the world: but as long as he spares us, his face seems to be hidden from us; yea, he seems not to govern the world. The Prophet therefore declares here that the day of the Lord was at hand; for it cannot be, but that the Lord must at length rise up and ascend his throne to punish men, though for a time he may connive at them. But the interjection, expressive of grief, intimates that the judgment, of which the Prophet speaks, was not to be despised, for it would be dreadful; and he wished to strike terror into the Jews, for they were too secure. And he says, The day is nigh, that they might not procrastinate, as they were wont to do, from day to day: for though men be touched by God’s judgments they yet even desire time to be prolonged to them, and they come very tardily to God. Hence the Prophet, that he might correct this their great slothfulness, says that the day was nigh.
He adds, כשד משדי יבוא kashed meshadi ibu ‘as a desolation from the Almighty will it come.’ The word שדי shadi signifies a conqueror; but it proceeds from the verb שדד shadad; and this in Hebrew means “to desolate,” or “to destroy.” The powerful and the conqueror is called שדי shadi; and hence they call God שדי shadi, on account of his power. Some derive it from udder: then they call God שדי shadi as though Scripture gave him this name, because from him flows all abundance of good things as from a fountain. But I rather refer this name to his strength and power, for the Jews, we know, gloried in the name of God as one armed to defend their safety. Whenever then the Prophets said that God was שדי shadi, the people laid hold on this as a ground for false confidence, “God is almighty, we are then secure from all evils.” But yet this confidence was not founded on the promises: and it was, we know, an absurd and profane presumption to have thus abused the name of God. Since then the Jews foolishly pricked themselves on this, that God had adopted them for his people, the prophet says here, “There will come a desolation from the Almighty;” that is, “God is Almighty, but ye are greatly deceived in thinking that your safety is secured by his power; for he will, on the contrary, be opposed to you, inasmuch as ye have provoked his wrath.” It follows —
He repeats the same thing as before, for he reproaches the Jews for being so slow to consider that the hand of God was against them. Has not the meat, he says, been cut off before our eyes? joy and exultation from the house of our God? Here he chides the madness of the Jews, that they perceived not things set before their eyes. He therefore says that they were blind in the midst of light, and that their sight was such, that seeing they saw nothing: they surely ought to have felt distressed, when want reached the temple. For since God had commanded the first-fruits to be offered to him, the temple ought not by any means to have been without its sacrifices; and though mortals perish a hundred times through famine and want, yet God ought not to be defrauded of his right. When, therefore, there was now no offering nor libation, how great was the stupidity of the people not to feel this curse, which ought to have wounded them more than if they had been consumed a hundred times by famine? We see then the design of the Prophet’s words, that is, to condemn the Jews for their stupidity; for they considered not that a most grievous judgment was brought on them, when the temple was deprived of its usual sacrifices.
He afterwards adds, that joy and gladness were taken away: for God commanded the Jews to come to the temple to give thanks and to acknowledge themselves blessed, because he had chosen his habitation among them. Hence this expression is so often repeated by Moses, ‘Thou shalt rejoice before thy God;’ for by saying this, God intended to encourage the people the more to come cheerfully to the temple; as though he said, “I certainly want not your presence, but I wish by my presence to make you glad.” But now when the worship of God ceased, the Prophet says, that joy had been also abolished; for the Jews could not cheerfully give thanks to God when his curse was before their eyes, when they saw that he was their adversary, and also when they were deprived of the ordinances of religion. We now then perceive why the Prophet joins joy and gladness with oblations: they were the symbols of thanksgiving.
He shows the cause of the evil, Rotted have the grains in the very furrows. For they call seeds פרדות peredut from the act of scattering. He then calls grains by this name, because they are scattered; and he says that they rotted in the fields when they ought to have germinated. He then adds, The granaries halve become desolated and the barns have been pulled down; for there was no use for them. Hence we conclude, that sterility had become most grievousand perpetual; for if the people had been only afflicted by famine for a few harvests or for one year, the Prophet would not have spoken thus. The famine must then have been, as it has been already stated for a long time. Let us now proceed —
The Prophet amplifies his reproof, that even oxen as well as other animals felt the judgment of God. There is then here an implied comparison between the feeling of brute animals and the insensibility of the people, as though he said, “There is certainly more intelligence and reason in oxen and other brute animals than in you; for the herds groan, the flocks groan, but ye remain stupid and confounded. What does this mean?” We then see that the Prophet here compares the stupidity of the people with the feeling of animals, to make them more ashamed.
How, he says, has the beast groaned? The question serves to show vehemence; for if he had said in the form of a narrative, that the animals groaned, that the cattle were confounded, and that the flocks perished, the Jews would have been less affected; but when he exclaims and, moved with astonishment, speaks interrogatively, How does the beast groan? He, no doubt, wished to produce an effect on the Jews, that they might perceive the judgment of God, which they had before passed by with their eyes closed, though it was quite manifest. It follows —
When the Prophet saw that he succeeded less than he expected, leaving the people, he speaks of what he would do himself, I will cry to thee, Jehovah. He had before bidden others to cry, and why does he not now press the same thing? Because he saw that the Jews were so deaf and listless as to make no account of all his exhortations: he therefore says, “I will cry to thee, Jehovah; for they are touched neither by shame nor by fear. Since they throw aside every regard for their own safety, since they account as nothing my exhortations I will leave them, and will cry to thee;” which means this, — “I see, Lord, that all these calamities proceed from thy hand; I will not howl as profane men do, but I will ascribe them to thee; for I perceive thee to be acting as a judge in all the evils which we suffer.” Having then before declared that the Jews were more tardy than brute animals and having reproached them for feeling less acutely than oxen and sheep, the Prophet now says, that though they all remained obstinate, he would yet do what a pious man and a worshipper of God ought to do,I will cry to thee — Why? Because the fire has consumed the pastures, or the dwellings, of the wilderness.
He here again gives an awful record of God’s judgments. Though the heat may burn up whole regions, yet we know that pasture-lands do not soon wither, especially on mountains; and of such cold pastures he speaks here. We know that however great may be the fertility of mountains, yet coolness prevails there, and that, in the greatest drought, the mountainous regions are ever green. But the Prophet tells us here of an unusual thing, that the dwellings of the wilderness were burnt up. Some render נאות naut pastures; others, dwellings: but as to the meaning, we may read either; for the Prophet refers here to cold and humid regions, which never want moisture in the greatest heats. Some render the word, the beautiful or fair spots of the wilderness, but improperly. He doubtless means pastures, or dwellings, or folds. The fire then has consumed the dwellings, or pastures of the wilderness. This was not usual; it did not happen according to the ordinary course of nature: it then follows that it was a miracle. This is the reason why the Prophet says, that it was now time to cry to God; for it did not appear to be fortuitous, that the heat had burnt up regions which were moist and well watered. The flame, he sayshath burnt up all the trees of the field.
He afterwards adds The beasts of the field will also cry (for the verb is in the plural number;) the beasts then will cry. The Prophet expresses here more clearly what he had said before that though the brute animals were void of reasons they yet felt God’s judgment, so that they constrained men by their example to feel ashamed, for they cried to God: the beasts then of the field cry. He ascribes crying to them, as it is elsewhere ascribed to the young ravens. The young ravens, properly speaking, do not indeed call on God; and yet the Psalmist says so, and that, because they confess, by raising up their bills, that there is no supply for their want except God supports them. So also the Prophet mentions here the beasts as crying to God. It is indeed a figure of speech, called personification; for this could not be properly said of beasts. But when the beasts made a noise under the pressure of famine, was it not such a calling on God as their nature admitted? As much then as the nature of brute animals allows, they may be said to seek their food from the Lord, when they send forth lamentable cries and noises, and show that they are oppressed with famine and want. When, therefore, the Prophet attributes crying to beasts, he at the same time reproaches the Jews with their stupidity, that they did not call on God. “What do you mean,” he says. “See the brute animals; they show to you what ought to be done; it is at least a teaching that ought to have effect on you. If I and the other prophets have lost all our labor, if God has in vain performed the office of a teacher among you, let the very oxen at least be your teachers; to whom indeed it is a shame to be disciples, but it is a greater shame not to attend to what they teach you; for the oxen by their example lead you to God.”
We now perceive how much vehemence there is in the Prophet’s words, when he says, Even the beasts of the field will cry to God; for the streams of waters have dried up, and the fire has consumed the dwellings, or the pastures of the wilderness. He again teaches what I have lately stated, that sterility proceeded from the evident judgment of God, and that it ought to have struck dread into men, for it was a sort of miracle. When, therefore the courses of waters dried up on the mountains, how could it be deemed natural? אפיקים aphikim mean courses of waters or valleys through which the waters run. The Prophet here refers, no doubt, to those regions which, through the abundance of water, always retain their fertility. When, therefore, the very valleys were burnt up, they ought surely to own that something wonderful had happened. On this account, he ascribes crying to herds and brute animals, and not any sort of crying, but that by which they called on God. What remains we shall defer till to-morrow.
Joe 1:2. Hear this, ye old men- This prophesy begins with threatening the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the land of Judah, with such desolation of their country, by swarms of locusts, as had never happened to them before in the memory of the oldest inhabitants of the land, and as should occasion the utmost distress to all sorts of persons among them. The havock that should be made by these creatures is described in a lively manner. Their corn of all sorts should be devoured, and all their choicest fruit-trees entirely destroyed; so that there should be the greatest scarcity of provision in the land, and not enough to supply the meat and drink-offerings for the altar of God. And what should increase this calamity was, the excessive heat and drought which should happen at the same time, whereby their herds and flocks should be almost ready to perish for want of water. Chandler.
Joe 1:4. That which the palmer-worm hath left, &c.- Bochart has given many probable reasons to believe, that the four Hebrew words here used, חסיל chasil, ילק ielek, ארבה arbeh, גזם gazam, signify four species of locust; which the learned reader will find in his Hieroz. tom. ii. lib. v. c. 1. See also Scheuchzer on the place.
Joe 1:5. Awake, ye drunkards- This character is given to Ephraim, Isa 28:1; Isa 28:3.; and excessive drinking is assigned as a reason of the captivity of Israel, Amo 6:6-7. Kimchi's commentary on the place, is, "You who accustom yourselves to get drunk with wine; awake ye out of your sleep, and weep night and day; for the wine shall fail you, because the locust shall devour the grape." See Chandler, and Sharpe. The author of the Observations thinks that new wine is a faulty translation; and that it should be rendered sweet wine; sweet as the new-trodden juice of grapes, but old. Wines (says he) of this sort were chiefly esteemed in former times, as appears from the Septuagint; for that which our version of Est 1:7 renders, Royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king, they read, Much and sweet wine, such as the king himself drank. Dr. Russel observes of the white wines of Aleppo, that they are palatable, but thin and poor, and seldom keep sound above a year. Now the prophet, in chap. Joe 3:18 describes a state of great prosperity, by the mountains dropping down sweet wine; as much as to say, the mountains of Judaea should not produce wine like that of Aleppo, but that which was rich, and capable of being long kept, and by that means of acquiring the greatest agreeableness. The same word עסיס asiis, is very properly translated sweet wine in Amo 9:13 and the same rendering in this place is confirmed and illustrated by an observation of Dr. Shaw's, concerning the wine of Algiers; which, says he, before the locusts destroyed the vineyards, in 1723 and 1724, was not inferior to the best Hermitage, either in briskness of taste or flavour. But since that time it is much degenerated; having not hitherto (that is, in 1732) recovered its usual qualities, Travels, p. 146. It is a desolation of their vineyards by locusts that Joel threatens, which thus injures their produce for many years as to briskness and flavour; and consequently nothing was more natural than to call the drunkards of Israel to mourn on that account. See Isa 49:26 and the Observations, p. 195.
Joe 1:6. For a nation is come up- A word of consideration concerning the locusts may not be altogether improper, says Dr. Sharpe in his Second Argument, &c. And as the commentators are divided in their opinions, it will be but fair to give a brief view of what has been said on both sides. To begin then with Grotius, Houbigant, Rabbi Tanchum, Abarbanel, &c. they are of opinion, that the prophet has used this image to set forth the multitude of the Chaldean army; but then Bochart and others, on the contrary, assert, that it is an army of real locusts, and not of men. Some, as Cyril and Theodoret, have interpreted it of both. Jerome informs us, that some of the Jews before his time understood this description of the locusts to be figurative, and to mean the most powerful enemies of the Jews: and he himself is forced to confess, that while you read of locusts, you think of the Babylonians. The force of the Chaldeans (says he) is described under the metaphor of locusts. This interpretation is favoured also by the Chaldee. Pocock has, with great learning and diligence, endeavoured to prove, that locusts, not men, are here described by the prophet; and then, after such his literal interpretation, he allows it will be lawful for any to apply them to such things as he pleases. Throughout the prophesies of Daniel, kings, kingdoms, and forces, are represented under the names and parts of animals; the lion, bear, ram, goat, horns, wings. The king of Egypt is represented, Isa 27:1 by leviathan, the crooked serpent; the literal meaning is, "The crocodile of the Nile:" the real import is Psammeticus, king of Egypt, taken prisoner by Cambyses. The army of Nebuchadnezzar is compared to locusts (grasshoppers in our version), Jer 46:23 which is a common metaphor for numerous and destructive armies, as the reader may see by comparing Isa 33:4. Jdg 6:5; Jdg 7:12. It may therefore be presumed, that, under the metaphor of locusts, Joel describes the army of the Chaldeans; and this presumption is moreover favoured by several circumstances in the description. The locusts were of four kinds; and the enemies appointed over the Jews were of four kinds, Jer 15:2-3. Jerome, with other interpreters, suppose the succession of these insects to mean the four several attacks of the Chaldeans: that is to say, first, in the last year of Nabopolassar, and third of Jehoiachim; secondly, when that king was taken prisoner, in the eleventh year of his reign; thirdly, in the ninth of Zedekiah; fourthly, about three years after, when Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. To conclude, we may with Bishop Warburton regard this as a double prophesy, and consider that Joel in his prediction of an approaching ravage by locusts, foretels likewise, in the same word, a succeeding desolation by the Assyrian army; for we are to observe, that this was God's method both in warning and punishing a sinful people. Thus when the seven nations, for their exceeding wickedness, were to be exterminated, God promises his chosen nation to send hornets before them,&c. See Exo 23:28 and Wis 12:8, &c. Now Joel, under one and the same prediction, contained in this and the following chapter, foretels both these plagues; the locusts in the primary sense, and the Assyrian army in the secondary. See Div. Leg. book 6: sect. 6 and the note on chap. Joe 2:20.
Joe 1:7. My vine- This is the name of Judah, Psa 80:8. Instead of, Cast it away, Houbigant reads, Deprived it of all fruit.
Joe 1:8. Lament like a virgin- A young woman. Houbigant. These words are an apostrophe to the land of Judah; the prophet puts her in mind, that she ought to be deeply affected with the heavy strokes of divine vengeance, and express her inward sense of these calamities, with the same external marks of mourning as a wife who had lost the husband of her youth. See AEneid 4: ver. 1:28 and Calmet.
Joe 1:12. The vine is dried up- In Barbary, in the month of June, the locusts collect themselves into compact bodies, a furlong or more square; and afterwards, marching directly on toward the sea, let nothing escape them; eating up every thing that is green or juicy, not only of the lesser kind of vegetables, but also the trees mentioned in this verse. The author of the
Observations is of opinion, that apple-tree cannot be a proper translation in this place; for the apples which the Arabs of Judea eat at this day, are of foreign growth, and at the same time very indifferent. He is therefore of opinion that the citron-tree is meant. See Observations, p. 199 and Dr. Shaw's Travels.
Joe 1:15. The day of the Lord is at hand- See Jer 46:10 and Eze 30:3.
Joe 1:17. The seed is rotten, &c.- Rotted. Whoever considers the authentic accounts given of the depredations of locusts in the year 1748 in our own country, wherein they were found burrowing under ground, and consequently destroyed the seeds under the clods, thereby rendering the gardens desolate, must own that this part of the description is applicable to the locusts: though Dr. Sharpe observes, "that these calamities are the natural consequence of war, and not the work of locusts; and that the whole is a picture of a country, not only pillaged and laid waste, but also deprived of its inhabitants; which was the truth of the case, they having been carried into captivity." See his Second Argument, p. 333.
Joe 1:18. How do the beasts groan!- That is, "How grievous will be the distress of the beasts of the field! How sadly will they complain, through the vehemency of thirst! How will the herds of cattle be troubled and perplexed! for their verdant pastures shall be all scorched up, and they will have none wherein to feed. The flocks also shall be desolate, and ready to perish." See Jer 14:1-6; Jer 15:2. Instead of, The herds of cattle are perplexed, Houbigant reads, How mournful are the lowings of the herds!
Joe 1:19. For the fire hath devoured, &c.- By the fire, is meant the fiery heat and drought which burned up all the pastures or pleasant places, both in the wilderness and in the valleys.
Joe 1:20. The beasts, &c.-the pastures- Every one of the beasts cries, &c.-the pleasant places.
REFLECTIONS.-1st, The prophet opens his discourse,
1. With an address to all the inhabitants of Judea, old and young, whose attention he demands to the message that he was about to deliver: a message of judgment, such as the oldest could not remember, nor the tradition of former ages produce; and which ought to be handed down to the latest posterity, that, warned by the sufferings of their forefathers, they may avoid their sins.
2. The judgment itself is an invasion from a terrible enemy; and is by many applied to the Assyrians, who ravaged and desolated the country; but may literally be better referred to the armies of locusts and other insects, which, in swarms succeeding each other, devoured all the fruits of the earth, and left the whole land barren as the scorched desert. Despicable as they might seem apart, their multitudes made them formidable: not the ravages of the lions from the forest could be more fatal: not only the vine-leaves are eaten up, but the very fig-trees are barked and destroyed by them. Note; God never wants instruments of vengeance: the most insignificant insect can in his hand be made the severest scourge; and a locust terrible as a lion.
3. The drunkards are admonished to lament the judgment which their sins had provoked, and by which they would be particularly affected, because the new wine is cut off from their mouths. And justly does God punish those who abuse his favours, by depriving them of their good things, and leaving them in want and wretchedness to lament their baseness.
2nd, The whole nation, deeply affected with the calamity, is called upon to mourn in sackcloth, as a virgin who is robbed of her betrothed spouse, on whom her warmest affections were fixed, and whose loss fills her heart with bitterest anguish. Note; They who are wedded to worldly comforts find it death to part from them.
The corn, wine, and oil, are perished; the trees stripped of leaves and fruit, and withered away; the very earth looks dark, and mourneth over the desolations; because joy is withered away from the sons of men; the songs of harvest and the shouting of the vintage are silent, and nothing is heard but howling and groans. Particularly,
1. The husbandmen and vine-dressers are called to bewail the dreadful devastations: their labours are ruined, their hopes disappointed, themselves and families left to pine in want, and perish by famine.
2. The priests of the sanctuary are commanded to join the general cry, and mourn over the deserted altars, where no sacrifice smoked, no oblation was presented. They are called ministers of the altar, as bound to a constant attendance there; and ministers of my God, this being their distinguished honour; and the motive to their indefatigable labour. They would now be peculiar sufferers, and be destitute of that maintenance with which the altar used to supply them; but a nobler concern must fill their minds, and grief to see God's worship neglected must swallow up every other concern which is merely their own. Note; A true minister of the Gospel has God's glory more at heart than every other consideration: compared with this, he counts not even his own life dear unto himself.
3rdly, To avert the heavy wrath upon them, the prophet points out to them the properest means to be pursued. As their sufferings came from God's displeasure, to remove this must be their first concern.
1. Let a solemn fast be proclaimed, a day of deep humiliation sanctified and set apart; that with united supplications they might surround the throne of grace; and while by a strict abstinence from meat and drink they acknowledged themselves unworthy of every mercy, and, prostrate in the courts of the Lord's house, confessed the justice of the judgments that he had inflicted, they might with prayers and tears cry unto a pardoning God, that sin, the cause of their calamity, being forgiven, their sufferings, the dire effects thereof, might be removed, Note; (1.) National judgments call for national humiliation. (2.) When we are found in God's appointed ways, we may humbly hope that he will meet us in mercy. (3.) Affliction then answers the end for which it was sent, when it brings us to our knees, and raises the cry of fervent importunate prayer.
2. Abundant reason there is for this humiliation.
[1.] What they suffered already was grievous. If they looked into their garners, they were empty; if to God's house, no sacrifice or oblation was seen; if to the country, desolate it mourned, the seed under the clod is rotten, and the very beasts groan, perplexed for want of food, and pining away. Note; (1.) How terrible is famine: how thankful ought we to be for the great plenty that we in general enjoy; and how should we fear to provoke God, by our abuse of his mercies to withhold them! (2.) The very earth mourns, the very beasts groan under men's sins; and shall we ourselves be the only insensible beings in the whole creation?
[2.] What they feared was yet more terrible: for the day of the Lord is at hand. What they felt was but the beginning of sorrows, and a foretaste of the greater evil approaching; as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come; which may refer to the ruin of the nation at first by the Chaldeans, or afterwards by the Romans, sent to punish them for their iniquities by Jehovah, whose arm of omnipotence is irresistible. And, more generally, this may be applied to every sinner, whose judgment advances, whose damnation slumbereth not, whose everlasting destruction is at the door; unless he repent without delay, he perishes eternally. Well, therefore, may we cry, Alas for the day!
3. The prophet urges them hereunto by the examples before them.
[1.] His own. O Lord, to thee will I cry: as deeply affected with their sins and their sufferings, he earnestly addresses his prayer to God; to him who wounds, and alone is able to heal; the fire of whose wrath, whatever instruments were employed, had almost consumed them; and He only, who had kindled, could quench it. Note; They who call others to fasting and prayer, must themselves lead the way.
[2.] Of the beasts. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee; with sounds inarticulate indeed, but which the Lord can hear and pity. They are parched with thirst and famished with hunger; for the rivers of water are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, scorched up with the excessive drought. Note; The very lowing of the oxen, yea, the ravens' cries, shall rise up in judgment to reproach the stupidity of the sinner who restrains prayer before God.
Joel was probably the earliest of the prophets whose writings have descended to us. His personal history is unknown further than the bare statement (1:1). His field of labor was presumably Judah rather than Israel, the southern rather than the northern kingdom, because of allusions to the center of public worship which was at Jerusalem (1:9, 13-14; 2:15), and because of non-allusions to Israel distinctively. Such places as 2:27, and 3:16 are thought to mean Israel as inclusive of Judah, i.e., the whole united nation. Although it is assumed that Joel was the earliest of the prophets, the evidence is inferential rather than direct. He is presumably earlier than Amos who is known to have prophesied somewhere about the close of the eighth century B.C., because he seems to be quoted by Amo 5:16-18. He also refers to the same heathen nations as Amo 3:4-6, and to the same physical scourges as prevalent in the land (1:4, 17, 20). (Compare the marginal references to Amos.)
OUTLINE OF JOEL
Joel 1 Introduction (Joe 1:1-3) Announcement of a coming judgment of locusts (Joe 1:4-5) Announcement of the coming judgment from the heathen nations, of which that of the locusts is a type (Joe 1:6-7) A lamentation of sorrow (Joe 1:8-12) A call to repentance (v. 13-20) Joel 2 A recurrence to the same judgments (Joe 2:1-3) A description of their executioners in which there is a blending of the idea of the locusts with that of the warriors. The picture is made vivid by the use of the present tense in the Revised Version (Joe 2:4-11) A call to repentance (Joe 2:12-17) A promise of future blessing (Joe 2:18-32) a. The enemies overthrown (Joe 2:18-20) b. The land blessed (Joe 2:21-27) c. The Holy Spirit poured out (Joe 2:28-32) Joel 3
This chapter returns to the future blessing spoken of in the preceding chapter, for the purpose of amplifying some of its features, a peculiarity of all the prophets, as was indicated in one of our earlier lessons:
The overthrow of the enemy (Joe 3:1-15) The deliverance of Jerusalem (Joe 3:16-17) The blessing on the land (Joe 3:18) The permanency of the restoration (Joe 3:19-20)
QUESTIONS
1. What chronological relation does Joel bear to the other prophets?
2. To which kingdom were his messages sent?
3. What proof is there of this?
4. What future blessings are predicted for Israel?
5. When was the prophecy of 2:28-32 partially fulfilled?
AMOS GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK
The opening verse shows that Amos, like Hosea, was a prophet sent to Israel, though his home, Tekoa, was in Judah. He was contemporary with Hosea for a while, though the latter prophesied longer than he.
After the introduction (Amo 1:1-3) there follows a series of messages concerning Gentile nations (Amo 1:4 to Amo 2:3), each beginning with the words “For three transgressions.., and for four, I will not turn away the punishment,” an orientalism, meaning that it was not for three or four transgressions merely, but an innumerable number, that the judgments predicted were to fall.
These messages are succeeded by one to Judah (Amo 2:4-5) while the remainder of the book is concerned with Israel.
The messages of Amos are more orderly than Hosea, and allow homiletic divisions like the following: The first, beginning at Amo 2:6 and concluding with the chapter, contains an indictment for sin (Amo 2:6-8), aggravated by the divine goodness toward them (Amo 2:9-12); and a declaration of the judgment to follow (Amo 2:13-15). This sin is greed (Amo 2:6), lust (Amo 2:7), and oppression (Amo 2:8). The marginal references frequently give the meaning of expressions in the prophets. Compare Exo 22:26 with Amo 2:8, for example, and Jer 11:21 with Amo 2:12.
God will press them as a cart full of sheaves presseth the ground (Amo 2:13, RV). In other words none shall escape the Assyrian hosts when they come down against them (Amo 2:14-16).
The second discourse is limited to the third chapter, and contains, after the introduction, verses 1-2, (1) the prophet’s justification of his message (Amo 3:3-8); (2) an indictment for sin (Amo 3:9-10); and (3) a declaration of punishment (Amo 3:11-15).
When God says, “You only have I known,” etc., (Amo 3:2), He means what is expressed in Deu 7:6, Psa 147:19-20, and other places. Israel’s punishment is proportioned to her privilege.
Amos prophesied because he could not do otherwise, is practically the interpretation of Amo 3:3-8. As two do not walk together except they are agreed, or have made an appointment; as a lion does not roar when it has no prey, etc., so the fact that Amos prophecies is an evidence that Jehovah hath spoken to him (Amo 3:8).
Notice the suggestion of the preservation of a faithful remnant in the “two legs” or “piece of an ear” of a sheep taken out of the mouth of the lion (Amo 3:12). Messages of this character continue till the seventh chapter when a series of visions begins.
In the first vision (Amo 7:1-3), Jehovah is withholding the coming judgment at the prophet’s intercession, and the same is true of the second (Amo 7:4-6), but not of the rest (Amo 7:7-9; Amo 8:1-3; Amo 9:1-10).
And yet notice the conclusion of the last message growing out of the vision of the Lord beside the altar (Amo 9:8-9). He will not “utterly destroy.” He will sift Israel “among all nations” as He has been doing all these centuries, but only the chaff will be destroyed.
This thought is amplified in the epilogue of the book (Amo 9:11-15), where the prophet definitely reveals the history of Israel in the latter days: (1) the kingdom is to be restored (Amo 9:11); (2) Israel is to be the head of the nations (Amo 9:12); (3) the land of Palestine is to be greatly increased in fruitfulness (Amo 9:13); (4) the cities are to be rebuilt (Amo 9:14); (5) the blessing is to be perpetual (Amo 9:15).
QUESTIONS
1. To which kingdom was Amos sent?
2. What orientalism is employed by him and what is its meaning?
3. How do the messages of Amos differ in form from those of Hosea?
4. Name some of the sins of Israel at this time.
5. Have you examined the marginal references?
6. How would you interpret Amo 2:3-8?
7. What change in the character of Amos’ messages take place at chapter 7?
8. What five promises are given Israel for the latter days?
OBADIAH GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK
This prophet’s period was probably just after Babylon conquered Judah, but before they conquered Edom, a conquest he proclaims (Oba 1:1). Of the nations afflicting the Jews the chief were the Assyrians, the Babylonians and Edomites. Although the Edomites were close relatives to the Jews, they were the greatest enemies of all. They descended from Esau, the brother of Jacob, the ancestor of Israel. Examine a map to become familiar with their territory, and using a concordance or Bible dictionary, refresh your recollection of their relations with Israel in the past. Compare also Jer 49:7-22.
The Edomites were not thought of very highly by their neighbors (Oba 1:2), but were conceited in their own eyes. Why (Oba 1:3)? Would their supposedly impregnable situation save them (Oba 1:4)? What figures of speech show, by contrast, the thoroughness of the destruction to fall upon them (Oba 1:5-6)?
Of what were they proud besides the physical features of their territory (Oba 1:8-9)?
Why is judgment to fall upon them (Oba 1:10)? Note what they did in the case of Judah in her day of need: (1) They stood aloof (Oba 1:11); (2) they rejoiced in her calamity (Oba 1:12); (3) they boasted against her (same verse); (4) they shared in her spoiling (Oba 1:13); (5) they prevented the escape of some of her people (Oba 1:14); and (6) they actually delivered up some of them as prisoners (same verse). No wonder God speaks as He does (Oba 1:15-16)!
And now mark the difference. Judah has been carried into captivity and her land was deserted, but was that condition in her case to continue (Oba 1:17)? On the contrary, what would be true of Edom (Oba 1:18)? In the day to come observe that while she will be swallowed up, Judah and Israel shall arise again, and possess not only their own land but that of Edom and Philistia as well (Oba 1:19-20). It will be the day of the Messiah (Oba 1:21).
QUESTIONS
1. What was Obadiah’s period?
2. What is his mission?
3. What relation existed between the Edomites and Israelites?
4. Have you identified the territory of the first named on the map?
5. How did they show enmity toward Israel?
6. What contrast will be seen in Edom and Israel in the time to come?
7. When will that be?
A MISGUIDED PATRIOT LEARNS OBEDIENCE
There is only one instance of Jonah’s prophesying to his own people of Israel, 2Ki 14:25. There he made a prediction concerning the restoration of the coasts of Israel, which was fulfilled in the reign of Jeroboam 2 about 800 B.C., showing that he lived earlier than that date. Of his personal history nothing further is known than what is found in this book.
Jonah 1
Nineveh (Jon 1:2) was the capital of Assyria, and the reason Jonah sought to avoid the divine command against it (Jon 1:3) arose from his patriotism. As a student of the earlier prophets he knew what was to befall his nation at the hands of Satan, and he shrank from an errand which might result favorably to that people, and spare them to become the scourge of Israel. The contents of the rest of this chapter require no comment till the last verse, where it is interesting to note that it is not said that a whale swallowed Jonah, but “a great fish” which “the Lord had prepared.”
Jonah 2
Is self-explanatory, but it is interesting to observe Jonah’s penitence under chastisement (Jon 2:2), the lively experiences he underwent (Jon 2:3-6), his hope and expectation even in the midst of them (Jon 2:4), his unshaken faith (Jon 2:5), the lessons he learned (Jon 2:8), and the effect of it all on his spiritual life (Jon 2:9). God could not afford to set him at liberty (Jon 2:10).
Is This Historic?
The question “Is this chapter historic?” will not go away. The evidence for it is found:
1. In the way it is recorded, there being not the slightest intimation in the book itself, or anywhere in the Bible, that it is a parable.
2. In the evidence of tradition, the whole of the Jewish nation, 626 practically, accepting it as historic.
3. The reasonableness of it (see the remarks under chapter 3).
4. The testimony of Christ in Mat 12:38, and parallel places. There are those who read these words of the Savior in the light of the argument of which they form a part, and say that they allude only to what He knew to be a parable, or an allegory, but I am not of their number. Jesus would not have used such an illustration in such a connection, in my judgment, if it were not a historic fact.
5. The symbolic or prophetic character of the transaction (see the remarks under chapter 4).
Jonah 3
To grasp the significance of the events in this chapter it is necessary to know that the Ninevites worshiped the fish God, Dagon, part human and part fish. They believed he came up out of the sea and founded their nation, and also that messengers came to them from the sea from time to time. If, therefore, God should send a preacher to them, what more likely than that He should bring His plan down to their level and send a real messenger from the sea? Doubtless great numbers saw Jonah cast up by the fish, and accompanied him to Nineveh as his witnesses and credentials.
There are two side arguments that corroborate the historicity of this event. In the first place, Oannes is the name of one of the latest incarnations of Dagon, but this name with J before it is the spelling for Jonah in the New Testament. In the second place, there was for centuries an Assyria mound named Yunas, a corrupted Assyria form for Jonas, and it was this mound’s name that first gave the suggestion to archeologists that the ancient city of Nineveh might be buried beneath it. Botta associated Yunas with Jonah, and the latter with Nineveh, and so pushed in his spade, and struck the walls of the city.
The Moral Miracle
Before leaving this chapter, observe that the moral miracle was greater than the physical. The sparing of a nation of confessed sinners, simply on their repentance and their giving heed to the message of the prophet, was more astounding than the prophet’s preservation in the fish’s belly (Jon 3:5-10)!
Jonah 4
Especially the opening verse (Jon 4:1-3), corroborates the view that patriotism led Jonah to flee from his divinely-imposed duty. He could not bear to see his enemy spared.
From Jon 4:5 we gather that he waited in the hope of seeing the destruction of the city; and yet how gracious God was to his narrow-minded and revengeful servant (Jon 4:6)!
JONAH A TYPE OF ISRAEL
But we should not conclude this lesson without speaking of the dispensational significance of Jonah and his mission, which is a contribution to its historicity. To illustrate:
Jonah was called to a world mission, and so was Israel.
Jonah at first refused compliance with the divine purpose and plan, and so did Israel.
Jonah was punished by being cast into the sea, and so was Israel by being dispersed among the nations.
Jonah was not lost, but rather especially preserved during this part of his experience, and Israel is not being assimilated by the nations, but being kept for God.
Jonah repentant and cast out by the fish, is restored to life and action again, and Israel repentant and cast out by the nations shall be restored to her former national position.
Jonah, obedient, goes upon his mission to Nineveh, and Israel, obedient, shall ultimately engage in her original mission to the world.
Jonah is successful in that his message is acted upon to the salvation of Nineveh, so Israel shall be blessed in that she shall be used to the conversion of the whole world.
QUESTIONS
1. Have you read 2Ki 14:25?
2. What was the motive for Jonah’s disobedience?
3. Give five reasons for believing the historicity of this book.
4. Can you quote Mat 12:38?
5. What explanation of this miracle is found in the worship of the Ninevites?
6. What two side arguments for the historicity of this event can you name?
7. What second miracle does this book contain?
8. Indicate the sense in which Jonah is a type of Israel.
MICAH INTRODUCTION
The little known of Micah is briefly stated. Calling himself a Morasthite indicates Moresheth, or Mareshah, as his birthplace in southwestern Judah, near Gath. The time of his prophesying is shown in the same verse (by the reference to the kings of Judah) as between 758-700 B.C. He seems to be the writer of his own book, if we may judge from the personal allusions in chapter 3:1, 8, and to have died in peace, judging by Jer 26:18-19. He is frequently referred to as a prophet, and his utterances quoted, not only in the instances above given, but in Isa 2:2-4; Isa 41:15; Eze 22:27; Zep 3:19; Mat 2:5; and Joh 7:42. Jesus quotes him in Mat 10:35-36. For further references to his period, see our lessons on Isaiah.
A DESCRIPTION OF JUDGMENT
Chapters 1-3 contain a description of the approaching judgment on both kingdoms Israel and Judah. How does Mic 1:1; Mic 1:5 indicate that both kingdoms are under consideration?
Notice the order in which the three classes of hearers are addressed: (1) The people at large (Mic 1:2) (2) The princes (chap. 3) (3) The false prophets (Mic 3:5) According to Mic 3:11, what seems to have been the most crying sin of all? And yet notwithstanding their covetousness and greed, how did they show either gross hypocrisy or gross ignorance of God (same verse, last part)? It is at this point that the declaration of judgment is expressed, and in language which has been literally fulfilled (Mic 3:12).
A VISION OF HOPE
Chapters 4 and 5 unfold the future and happier, because holier, experience of the nation. Mic 4:1-4 are quoted almost verbatim in Isaiah 2, unless we reverse the order and say that Micah quoted Isaiah.
At what time are these better things to come to pass according to the beginning of this chapter? How are these things figuratively expressed in Mic 4:1? It is not difficult to recognize in these figures of speech the exaltation of Jerusalem and Judah overall the nations in that day. But how does Mic 4:2 show that the exaltation will not be exacting and tyrannous, but the opposite? What language shows that the millennial age is referred to, and no period which has yet appeared in the history of the world? How do Mic 4:3-4 strengthen this conviction? What expression in Mic 4:7 almost directly states this to be the case? In Joel we saw that prior to Israel’s deliverance, and, as incident thereto, the Gentile nations will be besieging Jerusalem and desirous of seizing her, and that Jehovah will interpose on her behalf. How do the closing verses of this chapter parallel that prophecy?
Addressing ourselves to chapter 5, we discover the common teaching of the prophets that these good times coming for Israel and Judah are connected with the person and work of Messiah. How is that led up to in Mic 5:2? These words are quoted in Matthew 2 to apply to the first coming of Christ, but that does not exclude His second coming. Moreover, all the succeeding verses in this chapter point to events which did not occur at His first coming, but will be found to be uniformly predicated of His second coming.
A CONTRAST DRAWN
Chapters 6 and 7 present a contrast between the reasonableness, purity and justice of the divine requirements, and the ingratitude, injustice and superstition of the people which caused their ruin.
The closing chapter is peculiarly affecting, a kind of soliloquy of repentance on Israel’s part. The better element among the people are confessing and lamenting their sinful condition in Mic 6:1-6, but expressing confidence in God’s returning favor (Mic 6:7-8).
There are few verses in the Bible more expressive of quiet hope and trust than these. The spirit of confession and submission (Mic 6:9) is beautiful, as is the certainty of triumph over every foe (Mic 6:10). Note how Jehovah Himself speaks through the prophet (Mic 6:11-13 RV). See the promise of interposition on Israel’s behalf in that day (Mic 6:15); and the confusion of the Gentile nations at their triumph, and their own discomfiture (Mic 6:16-16). Of course, the temporal blessings coming upon Israel are predicated upon their return to the Lord and His forgiveness of their sins (Micah 6:18-19). Nevertheless these things will take place on the grounds of the original promise to Abraham (Micah 6:20).
QUESTIONS
1. What can you say of the history of Micah?
2. Name the three great divisions of the book.
3. Analyze chapters 1-3.
4. With what future event is the deliverance of Israel always associated?
5. What makes the closing chapter particularly affecting?
NAHUM CONSOLATION FOR ISRAEL
Isaiah concludes his work at about the end of Hezekiah’s reign, which synchronizes with the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel by the Assyrians. At this period of perplexity, when the overthrow of Samaria (the capital of Israel) must have suggested to Judah fears for her own safety, when Jerusalem (the capital of Judah) had been drained of its treasure by Hezekiah in the vain hope of turning the fury of the Assyrians from her, and when rumors of the conquest of a part of Egypt by the same great power added still more to the general dismay, Nahum was raised up by Jehovah to reveal His tenderness and power (Nah 1:1-8), to foretell the subversion of the Assyrians (Nah 1:9-12), the death of Sennacherib the Assyrian king and the deliverance of Hezekiah from his toils (1:10-15).
The name of the prophet means consolation.
After the consolatory introduction which covers the whole of chapter 1, the prophet predicts in detail, the destruction of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire. Properly to grasp Nahum, one needs to compare it with Jonah, of which it is a continuation and supplement. The two prophecies form parts of the same moral history; the remission of God’s judgments being illustrated in Jonah, and the execution of them in Nahum. The city had one denunciation more given a few years later, by Zephaniah (Zep 2:13), and shortly afterwards (606 B.C.), the whole were fulfilled.
QUESTIONS
1. Against what Gentile nation is this prophecy uttered (Nah 1:1)?
2. Indicate the verses in chapter 1 that particularly console Israel.
3. How is Nah 2:2 rendered in the Revised Version?
4. How does Nah 3:7; Nah 3:19 show the ultimate utter destruction of Nineveh?
5. How does Nah 3:16 indicate the commercial greatness of that city?
HABAKKUK THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH
Nothing is known of the personal history of Habakkuk, and little as to the time when he prophesied. He is placed by some successor to Zephaniah, for he makes no mention of Assyria and yet refers to the approach of the Babylonian invasion. See Hab 1:6; Hab 2:3; Hab 3:2; Hab 3:16-19. The book seems to have been written by himself, as we judge from Hab 1:2, and Hab 2:1-2.
His “burden” begins by lamenting the iniquity of his people Hab 1:1-4. He then declares God’s purpose of raising up the Chaldean nation as a scourge against them Hab 1:5-10. The probability is that the Chaldeans (or Babylonians) were still a friendly nation (see 2Ki 20:12-19), but they were soon to march through the land as a ravaging enemy. There were three invasions by the Babylonians, as the second book of Kings showed us; in the reigns of Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, and it is thought Habakkuk alludes to all three. Hab 1:11 of chapter 1 might be taken as a prophecy of the disease that came over Nebuchadnezzar when, as a punishment for his pride, his reason was taken from him for a season. The chapter concludes with an expostulation to the Holy One for inflicting such judgment on Judah and for using a nation to inflict them less righteous, as the prophet thinks, than themselves.
In chapter 2 he awaits God’s answer to this expostulation (Hab 2:1), and receives it (Hab 2:2-4). This is encouraging. “The vision shall surely come and the just shall live by faith and wait for it.” The continuation of the chapter is a prediction of the judgments that shall fall on the Babylonians for their cruelty and idolatry.
The prophet, hearing these promises and threatenings, concludes his book with a song of praise and prayer (chapter 3). He celebrates past displays of the power and grace of Jehovah, supplicates God for the speedy deliverance of His people and closes by expressing a confidence in God which no change can destroy.
Attention is called to the words in Hab 3:2-3, which the writer of Hebrews, according to the law of double reference, applies to the second coming of Christ (Heb 10:37-38).
In the same manner notice Hab 3:4 of the same chapter, “The just shall live by faith,” and the application of it in Rom 1:17; Rom 5:1 and Gal 3:24.
QUESTIONS
1. What are the terms of the indictment against Judah (Hab 1:1-4)?
2. What features of the military power of Babylon are noted (Hab 1:8)?
3. How would you interpret Hab 2:1?
4. Have you identified the New Testament reference in this lesson?
5. What are the terms of indictment against Babylon (Hab 2:5-19)?
6. Memorize Hab 3:17-18.
ZEPHANIAH DIVINE DEVASTATION AND PROMISE
Little is known of the personal history of Zephaniah beyond the two facts in the first verse of his prophecy, the first bearing on his ancestry and the second on the period of his ministry. About fifty years have elapsed since Nahum, and Hezekiah has been succeeded by three of his descendants (see 2 Kings 20-21). Manasseh and Amon were idolatrous and wicked, but Josiah now upon the throne, is righteous and God-fearing. The story of his reign is in the succeeding chapters of 2 Kings and should be read preparatory to Zephaniah, who prophesied in the earlier part of his reign and assisted him in his efforts to restore the worship of the true God.
The first chapter contains a denunciation of vengeance against Judah and those who practiced idolatrous rites; Baal, his black-robed priests (Chemarims), and Malcham (Moloch), being condemned (Zeph. 1-2:3). The second chapter predicts the judgments about to fall on the Philistines, those especially of the sea-coasts (Cherethites), the Moabites, Ammonites, and Ethiopians, and describes the desolation of Nineveh.
In the third chapter, the prophet arraigns Jerusalem, but concludes with promises of her restoration in the latter day (Zep 3:1-20).
Coincidence of expression between Isaiah and Zephaniah are frequent, and still more between Zephaniah and Jeremiah. It may be added that the predictions of Jeremiah complete the view here given of the devastations to be effected by Chaldea in Philistia and Judah.
In Zep 3:8, observe the agreement with Joel concerning the gathering of the Gentile nations to judgment at the end of the present age. In Zep 3:9, we see these nations, or the spared and sifted remnant of them, converted to God and serving Him with a ready will. In Zep 3:10 they are bringing the sons of Israel back to their own land, the second gathering of them as explained in Israel. In Zep 3:11-18, the cleansed, rejoicing, nation of Israel appears, dwelling in their own land. In Zep 3:19-20 we find the restored people a blessing in the whole earth as foretold in the original promise to Abraham, and in the millennial psalms. Zep 3:17 repays careful meditation. The old marriage covenant between Jehovah and Israel is there depicted as gloriously restored (Isa 62:5; Hos 2:19); the husband is rejoicing in His wife, resting in His love and joying over her with singing. “Rest” is translated in the margin “be silent,” and this silence of Jehovah towards His people is no longer the silence arising from forbearance in order to punish at last (Psa 50:21), but because He has nothing more to reprehend.
QUESTIONS
1. Have you reviewed 2 Kings 20, 21?
2. In whose reign did this prophet prophesy?
3. Name the nations denounced in chapters 2-3.
4. How would you interpret Zep 3:8-20 in detail?
5. How would you interpret Zep 3:17 especially?
HAGGAI POST-BABYLONIAN PROPHET
This is the first of the post-Babylonian prophets those who prophesied after the return from the seventy years’ captivity. To be interested in this book therefore, one needs to read Ezra afresh, particularly chapters 4-5, for the mission of Haggai was to stir up the people of that time to rebuild the temple.
What excuse did the people make for not engaging in the work (Hag 1:2)? What showed their selfishness (Hag 1:4)? What showed their moral blindness (Hag 1:6)? What remedy for the material conditions indicated does God propose (Hag 1:7)? How is the divine judgment upon their neglect extended in verses (Hag 1:9-11)? What is the result of the prophet’s indictment against them (Hag 1:12), and its effect in heaven (Hag 1:13)? How shall we explain this result from the spiritual point of view (Hag 1:14)? How much time is covered by the events of this chapter (compare first and last verses)?
Note the date of the second message beginning chapter 2, and compare Ezr 3:8-13. Some were discouraged because of their weakness and poverty, and felt that the temple could never be completed, and that in any event it would be outclassed by that of Solomon (Hag 2:3). How does God inspire them (Hag 2:4-5)? Hag 2:6-10 are messianic, in which the first and second advents of our Lord are blended. The “shaking of the nations” seems future. “The desire of all nations” is taken as a personal designation of Christ, and yet the Revised Version renders it “the desirable things of all nations” which has a millennial flavor. Hag 2:9 is usually considered fulfilled by Christ’s presence in this second temple.
Note the date of the third message (Hag 2:10). For the Levitical bearing of Hag 2:11-13, compare the marginal references, Lev 10:10-11; Deu 33:10; Num 19:11; Mal 2:7, etc. Moral cleanness was not communicated by contact, but the same was not true of uncleanness. Israel was unclean in the spiritual sense, and all that they did in the way of divine service was correspondingly so (Hag 2:14), but in God was their help as the following verses prove.
God did not wait until the outcome of their labors testified to their change of heart, but from the day of that change His blessing began to be visited upon them (Hag 2:19). Previously, as the result of their disobedience, they reaped but ten measures of grain where they expected twenty, and twenty vessels of the fruit of the vine where they expected fifty; they had experienced blasting, and mildew and hail. But now all this would be changed, and the harvest plenteous. Let them take it by faith before the seed was in the barn, or the blossoms had come upon the trees (Hag 2:19).
Note the date of the fourth message (Hag 2:20). This is in the future, and recalls the forthcoming judgments on the Gentile nations of which the pre-exilic prophets have spoken. The period referred to is the end time. There are those who regard Hag 2:23 as a prophecy of Christ of whom Zerubbabel is the type, though others take the words literally as foreshadowing the resurrection of the governor himself.
QUESTIONS
1. To what period does Haggai belong?
2. With what historical book is this contemporaneous?
3. Have you re-read that book?
4. What was Haggai’s mission?
5. How many of the questions on chapter 1 were you able to answer?
6. How would you explain the purpose of the second message?
7. To what period does the fourth message point?
THE PROPHET’S OWN TIME
Zechariah, like Haggai, had a twofold mission, to strengthen the hands of Israel for the rebuilding of the temple, and to quicken their hope as the earlier prophets had done, by painting in glowing colors the coming time of triumph over every foe.
This mission is set before us in a two-fold division of the book. Chapters 1-8 give us a series of prophetic visions bearing primarily, upon the prophet’s own time, while chapters 9-14 deal chiefly with the events culminating at the end of the age and the opening of the millennium.
Part one, after the introduction, Zec 1:7 to Zec 6:8; might be outlined thus:
1. The Prophetic Visions (chaps. 1-6) The man among the myrtle trees The four horns The four smiths The measuring line The high priest in the temple
The golden candlestick
The flyer roll
The woman in the ephah
The four chariots
2. The Symbolic Crowning of the High Priest (6:8-15)
3. The Instruction about Fasting (chaps. 7-8)
THE FIRST FOUR VISIONS (Zechariah 1-2)
To understand the first vision is the key to the rest. When was it received by the prophet (1:7)? Describe what he saw (Zec 1:8). Observe that two persons are referred to, the man upon the red horse, and the angel that talked with Zechariah, sometimes called “interpreting angel.” The man on the horse seems afterward identified with “the angel of the Lord” (Zec 1:11-12), one of the Old Testament names of Christ. It is presumable that the other horses had angelic riders also. Who are these described to be (Zec 1:10)? What report gave they of the earth (Zec 1:11)? Prosperity and peace seem to have been characteristic of all the peoples, while Jerusalem was distressed, the temple unfinished, and the remnant of the Jews there persecuted by enemies. Who now intercedes on behalf of Jerusalem and Judah (Zec 1:12)? Is the answer of Jehovah encouraging or the opposite (Zec 1:13)? What was His answer in detail (Zec 1:14-17)? Was the peace and prosperity of the Gentile nations an evidence of the divine blessing upon them (Zec 1:15)? Jehovah had used them to discipline His people, but what shows their selfish and wicked intent in the premises (same verse)? What does Jehovah promise shall be accomplished by the little remnant at this time (Zec 1:16)? What of the future (Zec 1:17)? This was fulfilled in the history of God’s people at the time, in a measure at least. The temple was built, the cities restored, and Jerusalem and Judah comforted. And yet there is to be grander fulfillment in the days to come.
The two following visions, if we call them two the four horns and four smiths (RV), are closely connected with the one just considered. The four horns are the four world-powers (Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman) who scatter Israel, but the four smiths are four corresponding powers of some sort, not necessarily nations, which shall overcome them at the last and bring deliverance. We are almost necessarily shut up to the conclusion that this prophecy extends to the latter days by its reference to the whole of the four powers.
The next vision, that of the measuring line, presents no serious difficulty. Its significance explained (Zec 2:4-5), is the same practically as that of the man among the myrtles. However it may have had an approximate fulfillment in the prophet’s own time, Zec 2:10-13 indicate that it looks toward the future. What declaration in those verses seem to prove that?
THE HIGH PRIEST AND SATAN (Zechariah 3)
To understand the meaning of the vision now reached, keep in mind that a cause of dejection of the Jews was their consciousness of past sin. They felt that God had forsaken them, and that their present calamities were the result. We see herein, a parallel to the spiritual condition of a true believer in our own day, whom Satan torments with the belief that he cannot be saved on account of his many sins. This is now set before us in symbol, only there is a nation in the case here, and not an individual, for Joshua the high priest represented Israel.
Where is the high priest seen to be (Zec 3:1)? It is thought that he was represented as in the holy place ministering at the altar. Who is seen with him, and for what malign purpose? We have here in symbol, Satan’s temptation of the saint to doubt God’s power to forgive and save. How is this goodness and power shown, in the next verse? On what ground is Jerusalem to be saved, on that of merit or of the divine choice? What does Zec 3:3 teach as to the truth of Satan’s insinuation against Israel as represented by the high priest? Does the imagery indicate the holiness or sinfulness of the people.
Yet how is divine grace illustrated in the next command of Jehovah (Zec 3:4)? What did the removal of his filthy garments signify? What did the changed raiment signify? Compare Rom 3:22. What next was done (Zec 3:5)? By this act the clothing of the high priest was completed and he was fitted for his official service. Who is represented as “standing by” all this time as if interceding for Joshua (and through him for the nation), and to see that these commands were carried out and these benefits conferred? With whom have we identified “the Angel of the Lord”? What charge is now laid upon Joshua, and what privilege is connected with it (Zec 3:7)?
QUESTIONS
1. Name the two-fold mission of this prophet.
2. Name the nine prophetic visions of Part 1.
3. Give some reasons showing the application of these visions in the future.
4. What leads to that conclusion in the case of the four horns and the four smiths?
5. What is necessary to understand the vision of chapter 3?
