beauty of the olive in its dancing radiance is to cover all, while the fragrance shall go abroad like the breezes from the forest of Lebanon. (7) It would be more in accordance with the Hebrew idiom to render, The dwellers under its shadow shall once more cause the corn to grow. The word translated "scent" (margin, "memorial ") should be renown. The form of these promises is derived from the external signs of national prosperity. (Comp. chap. xii. 10.) But corn and wine are throughout the Scriptures the great symbols of spiritual refreshment, and are still the memorials of the supreme love of Him whose body was broken and whose blood was shed for us. (8) It would be better to adopt the slightly different of God's Blessing. with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found. (9) Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them but the transgressors shall fall therein. reading indicated by the rendering of the LXX., and translate, As for Ephraim, what has he to do with, &c. Here again, as in chap. xiii. 15, the Hebrew for "thy fruit" contains a play on the name Ephraim. I (says Jehovah) am to thee an evergreen tree of life and protection, and from me is thy fruit found. (10) Who is wise.-Hosea hands his words over to all students of the ways of God. The exhortation to wisdom is expressed in the form of a question. 66 Wisdom" and "wise men" take in the later Hebrew literature the place of "prophecy" and "prophets." Wisdom interprets both the word and its fulfilment. Christ's own teaching goes beyond wisdom and prudence (Matt. xi. 28; comp. 1 Cor. i. 20): it was spirit and life (John vi. 63). TO HOSEA. EXCURSUS ON NOTES TO EXCURSUS A: ON Schrader, in his "Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament," has the following note :—“ King Combat, or Contention (Jareb), is not a proper name-none such being found in the Assyrian lists. In the prevailing uncertainty respecting Biblical chronology, it is hard to determine what Assyrian monarch is meant by this appellative. If we are to understand Salmanassar III. (781-772) as the king in chap. x. 14, under the name Salman, the allusion here may be to Assur-dan-ilu (771-754), who conducted a series of expeditions to the West." But when we turn to Schrader's comment on JAREB (Chap. v. 13). Hosea x. 14, we find that he abandons the theory that Salman is Salmanassar III. (see ad. loc.). On the other hand, Tiglath-pileser, whom Schrader and Sir H. Rawlinson identify with the Pul of Scripture, was a warrior of great prowess, to whom such a designation as King Combat" from Hosea and his contemporaries would admirably apply. The verse might then be taken to refer to the events of the reign of Menahem (2 Kings xv. 19, see also Introduction). But this explanation, probable as it is, is complicated with questions of Biblical chronology. (See Introduction). EXCURSUS B (Chap. vi. 7). Buhl, in Zeitschrift fur Kirchliche Wissenschaft, Part v., 1881, throws some light on the enig matical phrase ke Adam, by pointing out that Adam is employed in many places to express all the other races of mankind as opposed to Israel. Thus, he translates Jer. xxxii. 20, Thou who didst perform wonders in Israel, as well as in Adam." Similarly Isaiah xliii. 4, on which Delitzsch remarks that those who do not belong to the chosen people are called Adam, because they are regarded as nothing but descendants of Adam. In this passage the emphatic | position of the Hebrew pronoun hemmah lends significance to the contrasted term Adam. The meaning, therefore, is-the Israelites, who should be a chosen race, belong now, through their violation of the covenant, to the heathen: have become, in fact, Lo 'Ammi. (Comp. chap. i. 9.) The word "there" in the last clause may refer to some local sanctuary, notorious for idolatrous corruption. This is confirmed by the mention of localities in the next verse. We prefer, however, to understand it (with the Targum of Jonathan) as referring to the Holy Land. INTRODUCTION ΤΟ JOEL. JOEL has a peculiar claim upon the attention of the Christian reader, inasmuch as he foretells the advent of the Comforter, who would hereafter carry on and complete the work of the Saviour. Joel is as emphatically the prophet of the Holy Ghost as Isaiah is emphatically of the Messiah. If, therefore, it is permissible to discover in the twenty-third verse of the second chapter (see Note) a reference to Jesus Christ, as in the third chapter there is described the coming of the Almighty Father to judge the world at the Last Day, the prophet Joel has in his short book an evidence of the doctrine of the most Holy Trinity. We may claim for him also one of the earliest places among the sixteen prophets (see Note on Acts ii. 17); but Henderson, in his Introduction to the Minor Prophets, considers him chronologically the first of all. There is absolutely nothing known of his personal history, except the name of his father, Pethuel, and his conjectured residence in Jerusalem. The condition of the kingdom of Judah, as indicated in his prophecy, suggests that he flourished in the reign of Joash. Besides, had he lived at a later period than this, in his enumeration of the imminent enemies of his country he would hardly have omitted the names of the Babylonians, Assyrians, and Syrians. Dean Milman, in his History of the Jews (vol. i., p. 370), says: "In my judgment the silence about the Assyrian power is conclusive as to this early period assigned to the prophecies of Joel." We therefore assign to him the date of about 870 B.C. This period of Jewish history saw a great revival of the worship of Jehovah, after the idolatrous movement under Athaliah, the queen-mother, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, had been suppressed. The protectorate of the kingdom during the minority of Joash was in the hands of the high priest Jehoiada; and he had excited immense enthusiasm in the Temple and its services. And such an enthusiasm as then existed is in a marked manner evident in the prophecy of Joel. In the vivid description of the straits to which the kingdom was reduced by the famine and locusts, the most grievous calamity is the enforced suspension of the Temple sacrifices. "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" (chap. i. 13). While, on the other hand, when there is a glimpse of better days the prophet's joy culminates in the hope that these sacrifices will be restored: "who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; EVEN A MEAT OFFERING AND A DRINK OFFERING UNTO THE LORD YOUR GOD?" (chap. ii. 14). There is further teaching in the words of this inspired prophet of extreme importance at all times, and especially in these latter days-the teaching that God heareth prayer in respect of those events which are due, as it is said, to the laws of nature. We are sometimes met with the argument that it is even an impertinence to endeavour to interfere with such laws by our prayers. But we have a wiser teacher in Joel. When our land is threatened with famine through excessive drought (or through excessive rain) and the natural impulse of our hearts is to offer up prayers and intercessions to Almighty God, we may turn to the striking precedent which God has given us in this prophet, for who knoweth whether (even in our emergency) He will turn and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him? All the commentators who have earnestly considered the nature and the matter of this prophecy have found immense difficulty in the question whether Joel intended literally a plague of locusts to be understood as the calamity which he described, or whether he rather desired to convey under that figure a description of the human enemies of Judah. It is well known that the ravages of locusts were among the punishments of God most highly dreaded by the Jews. Solomon enumerated them among the special causes for prayer to the Lord, in his supplication at the dedication of the Temple. And, as will be found noticed in the Commentary, the Eastern nations without exception dreaded, and dread, an incursion of locusts as one of the greatest scourges of their countries. But although such a plague may, in the first instance, have aroused the prophet's extreme apprehension, and stirred his soul to its lowest depths, still we rise up from the perusal of his words convinced that they refer to some greater anxiety yet to come-some incursion of enemies, who would inflict terrible ravages upon the land, leaving it desolate and bare behind them, after the manner of these locusts. Under such circumstances as we have suggested, Joel appeared at Jerusalem with the suddenness of an Elijah before Ahab. He came, as it were, out of the darkness of the unknown to declare the wrath of God, as manifest in the visitation on the land. He exercised on the instant the office and authority of a prophet, calling upon the priests to perform their duties in a terrible emergency. He demanded of them a solemn Litany to deprecate the anger of the Lord, and to invoke His compassion on the devastated country. He described the horror of the situation in graphic details. There was an enemy in their midst, countless in number, inexorable, remorseless. Their ravages stared them in the face on every side. The foliage of the country is gone, the trees stand stark and bare, as if fired, all vegetation is destroyed; vines, fig-trees, pomegranates, palms, apple-trees-all are withered, the corn is wasted, the seed is sodden, the very beasts of the field are dying for lack of moisture. The locusts of various kinds are at work, sparing nothing; at the same time, a drought assists their ravages. The locusts found the land a Garden of Eden, they leave it a wilderness. Fields, streets, houses, walls are occu JOEL. pied by this terrible pest. Let the priests therefore stir themselves, proclaim a fast for high and low, that a common supplication may be made for the removal of this plague. But there lay something still more anxious beneath the visitation, although it far surpassed all previous experience of locusts. symbolical of that scourge which David most feared, It was in a marked manner the scourge of war; so that the national Fast called for by the present overwhelming calamity was quickened by the apprehension of an invasion by foreign enemies. In this apprehension the prophetic description of Joel culminated. The unparalleled visitation of the locusts was an advanced guard of greater terrors to come. the prophet interpreted it. So Joel then saw the submission of the people, and as its effect the plague averted. Once more plenty smiled upon the land-plenty, which was the gift of God. And the material gift was an earnest of a spiritual gift poured out in the last days, on the Day of Pentecost. which was to come to pass "afterward.” God was to be poured out, as St. Peter declared it was The Spirit of victory of the people completed in the eternal victory Thenceforward Joel was caught up, so to speak, into the regions of apocalyptic vision. He beheld the of the last day. The multitudes came together to be judged in the eponymous valley of Jehoshaphat, and the Lord was the judge. After the conflict, after the judgment, there was the vision of peace. The enemies have ceased to exist; the people of the Lord are in the mansions of eternal blessedness, and in their midst is God, blessed for ever. |