The garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; 18 How do the beasts groan! 19 The herds of cattle are perplexed, Because they have no pasture; Yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. O LORD, to thee will I cry : For the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, satisfactory. Merx (p. 100 f.) examines the passage at some length; but his restoration is not convincing. garners] lit. treasuries, store-houses,—a word, in itself, of wider meaning than "garner": cf. 1 Chr. xxvii. 27, 28 (for wine and oil); 2 Chr. xxxii. 27 (for money and other valuables); Neh. xiii. 12, &c. are laid desolate...broken down] being empty, and falling into disrepair through disuse. barns] not the usual word (Deut. xxviii. 8, &c.), but another, not found elsewhere, though nearly resembling the word found in Hag. ii. 19. is withered] sheweth shame, fig. for fails, as vv. 10, 12. 18. The distress of the cattle through lack of pasture (cf. Jer. xiv. 5, 6). are perplexed] wandering hither and thither in quest of food1. yea (or even) the flocks of sheep, &c.] even the sheep, which do not require such moist or rich pasture as kine, suffer with them. are made desolate] are held guilty, or (R.V. marg.) suffer punishment. asham, to be guilty, is sometimes used in the sense of to be held guilty, to bear the consequences of guilt, i.e. to suffer punishment (comp. Hos. xiii. 16; Is. xxiv. 6); and here the term is applied improperly, by a poetical figure, to cattle. The rendering are made desolate is due to the fact that the Jews understood in the sense of DD. Merx and Wellh., however, perhaps rightly, read, ‘are made desolate' (Lam. iv. 5), or 'stand aghast' (Jer. iv. 9). 19. Unto thee, O Jehovah, do I cry] the prophet, speaking (as vv. 6, 7, 13) in the nation's name, turns for help to Jehovah, who "saveth men and cattle" (Ps. xxxvi. 6). fire] either fig. of the intense heat of the sun, or (comp. on Am. vii. 4) of the conflagrations kindled among the parched herbage during a up (esp. of dirt) both agrees better phonetically and yields a preferable sense. 1 is derived obviously from to sweep away (Jud. v. 21, of a torrent; so also in Arab. and Syr.): in Arab. the corresponding word means a broom for sweeping away mud &c., also (now) a shovel, and in Palestine (PEFQSt., 1891, p. 111), a hoe, and in Aram. a shovel for removing ashes (Num. iv. 14, &c.). The Arab. gurf does not mean gleba terrae (Keil), but (Lane, Arab. Lex. p. 411) the water-worn bank of a stream. Clod (Heb. 17, Job xxi. 33, xxxviii. 38) would not be a probable generalization even of a word signifying properly masses of earth swept away by a stream. what shall we מַה־נַנְחָה בָהֵמָּה express מה נאנחה בהמה LXX. for 1 כי הוביש דגן would be a very weak addition to lay up (Deut. xiv. 28) in them?" connecting the words with v. 17. But such a clause And the flame hath burnt all the trees of the field. And the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilder ness. drought. The words might, however, be simply a poetical description of the ravages of the locusts themselves (cf. ii. 3 a). the pastures of the wilderness] v. 20, ii. 22; Jer. ix. 10, xxiii. 10; Ps. lxv. 12. "Wilderness" does not mean the desert: midbār (properly, a place for driving cattle) denotes land which is unenclosed, and uncultivated, especially a broad prairie or steppe, but not land which is destitute of pasturage. 20. Yea, the beasts of the field pant (R.V.) unto thee] lit. ascend, mount up (viz. with longing and desire). The verb occurs in Heb. only here and Ps. xlii. 1 (twice). In Ethiopic it is the regular word for to go up, and it has the same meaning also in Arabic: in Heb. it is used only metaphorically in the sense explained above1. Cry of A.V. is based upon the interpretation of the Rabbis, who, in their ignorance of the real etymological affinities of the word, conjectured a meaning that would agree fairly with the context. rivers] channels (Is. viii. 7; Ps. xviii. 15), not a very common word, used most frequently by Ezekiel (vi. 3, xxxi. 12 al.). CHAP. II. 1—17. A fuller description of the signs of the approaching Day of Jehovah,' followed by a renewed and more emphatic exhortation to repentance. This section of Joel's prophecy is an expansion of the thought of i. 14, 15. The signs of the approaching "Day of Jehovah" are more fully described (ii. 2-11); and the people are invited, more directly and earnestly than before (i. 14), to repent, if perchance Jehovah may be induced thereby to stay the threatened judgement (ii. 12—17). The imagery, under which the approach of the "day" is depicted, is borrowed from the recent visitation of locusts. Whereas, however, in ch. i. the stress lay upon the desolation which had been already wrought by the locusts in the land, in ii. 2—11 the prophet looks more to the future, and describes the attack of fresh and more formidable swarms, which he imagines as the immediate precursors of Jehovah's Day. The description, though founded upon correct observation of the habits of locusts, contains ideal traits; though it is not so idealized as that of the "apocalyptic " locusts of Rev. ix. 3-11. 1 The derivative ‘arūgāh occurs in the sense of a raised flower-bed, Ez. xvii. 7, 10; Cant. v. 13, vi. 2. 20 2 2 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: For the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, A day of clouds and of thick darkness, As the morning spread upon the mountains: 1. Blow ye the horn in Zion] see, in justification of this rendering of shōphär, on Am. ii. 2. The horn is to be sounded, in order to give notice of impending danger, and arouse the people to meet it (cp. on Am. iii. 6). sound an alarm] The word, though it often has the sense of shouting, is used also to denote the long, continuous blast of the horn, which, in contradistinction to a succession of short, sharp notes, was the signal of danger (Num. x. 9, though the reference there is not to the shōphār, but to the hatzotzerah). tremble] aroused viz., by the 'alarm,' from their security. for the day of Jehovah cometh, for it is at hand (or near)] Repeated, with some variation, from i. 15. at hand (or near), exactly as i. 15, iii. 14. 2-11. The signs of the approaching Day. A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness] So Zeph. i. 15. Four synonyms are combined, for the purpose of emphasizing the darkness, which the prophet has in view. Darkness is, in Hebrew poetry, a common figure for calamity (comp. on Am. v. 18); but here, no doubt, the image is suggested by the fact that a flight of locusts, as it approaches, presents the appearance of a black cloud, which, as it passes, obscures the sun, and even sometimes darkens the whole sky. Speaking of a 'column of locusts,' which appeared in India, a writer says, it was so compact that, like an eclipse, it completely hid the sun; so that no shadow was cast by any object, and some lofty tombs, not more than 200 yards distant, were rendered quite invisible' (ap. Kirby on Entomology, Letter VI.). "Our attention has often been attracted by the sudden darkening of the sun in a summer sky, accompanied by the peculiar noise which a swarm of locusts always makes moving through the air" (Van Lennep, Bible Lands, p. 315; comp. the illustration, p. 317). Many other observers speak similarly; cf. below, p. 87 ff. As the dawn spread upon the mountains, a people great and strong!] The words as the dawn &c. are to be connected with what follows, not with what precedes (which belongs rather to v. 1); and the allusion is probably to the glimmering brightness produced by the reflexion of the sun's rays from the wings of the locusts, which the prophet compares poetically to the early dawn as it first appears upon the mountains. "The day before the locusts arrived, we were certain that they were approaching from a yellow reflexion produced by their yellow wings in the heavens. As soon as this was observed, no one doubted that a A great people and a strong; There hath not been ever the like, And behind them a flame burneth: The land is as the garden of Eden before them, vast swarm of locusts was at hand" (from a description quoted by Credner, p. 274). Of a flight of locusts in the Sinai peninsula, the Rev. F. W. Holland writes, "They soon increased in number, and as their glazed wings glanced in the sun, they had the appearance of a snow-storm. Many settled on the ground, which was soon in many places quite yellow with them, and every blade of green soon dis appeared" (ap. Tristram, N.H.B. p. 316). "Their flight may be likened to an immense snow storm, extending from the ground to a height at which our visual organs perceive them only a minute, darting scintillations......, a vast cloud of animated specks, glittering against the sun. On the horizon they often appear as a dust tornado, riding upon the wind like an ominous hail-storm, eddying and whirling about and finally sweeping up to and past you, with a power that is irresistible" (C. V. Riley, The Rocky Mountain Locust, p. 85 f.). a great people and a strong] terms applied elsewhere to a human nation (Ex. i. 9; Deut. vii. 1: comp. on ch. i. 6); and suitable to locusts, because they advance not only in vast numbers, but also (comp. on vv. 5, 7, 8) with the order and directness of an organized host, against which all measures of defence are practically unavailing. there hath not been, &c.] cf. Ex. x. 14 b. 3. A fire devoureth before them, &c.] A hyperbolical description of the destructive march of a swarm of locusts: the country which they have passed over is left as bare as if it had been wasted by fire; and the prophet accordingly imagines poetically a fire as preceding and following them on their course. Many travellers have used the same comparison; one says, for instance, "Wherever they come, the ground seems burned, as it were with fire." Another, "They covered a square mile so completely, that it appeared, at a little distance, to have been burned and strewed over with brown ashes." And a third, "Wherever they settled, it looked as if fire had devoured and burnt up everything." Palestine was invaded by locusts in 1865; from June 13 to 15 they poured into Nazareth: "the trees,' "" an eye-witness wrote, "are as barren as in England in winter, but it looks as if the country had been burnt by fire" (Eccles. Gazette, 1865, p. 55). as the garden of Eden] like a park (LXX. here, as in Gen., Tаρádeiros), richly watered, and well stocked with majestic trees (Gen. ii. 8-10): the comparison, as Ezek. xxxvi. 35 (of the restored land of Israel) "this land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden": similarly the garden of Jehovah, Gen. xiii. 10, Is. li. 3 (in the parallel clause, Eden); cp. also the trees of Eden, Ez. xxxi. 9, 16, 18. J. A. 4 3 4 5 And behind them a desolate wilderness; Yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains and behind them a desolate wilderness] The destruction wrought by locusts is such as to be hardly imaginable by those who have not witnessed it: see the next note; and cf. Ex. x. 15. shall escape them] escapeth them. Present tenses, in English, represent the scene, as pictured by Joel, most vividly; and are best throughout to v. 11 (cf. R.V.). The fact noted by the prophet is literally true, as almost every observer testifies. "On whatever spot they fall, the whole vegetable produce disappears. Nothing escapes them, from the leaves on the forest to the herbs on the plain" (Clarke, Travels, I. 428 f.). "They had [for a space of 80-90 miles in length] devoured every green herb, and every herb of grass." "Not a shrub nor blade of grass was visible" (Barrow, S. Africa, pp. 242, 257). -9. Further description of the march of the locusts. They move on like some mighty host: the noise of their approach is heard from afar; they spread terror before them; their advance is irresistible; the keenest weapons, the strongest walls, are alike powerless to arrest their progress. 4. as the appearance of horses, &c.] partly on account of their speed and compact array, but chiefly on account of a resemblance which has been often observed between the head of a locust and the head of a horse (hence the Italian name cavalletta, and the German name Heupferd). Theodoret says, "If you observe attentively the head of a locust, you will find it exceedingly like the head of a horse." And an Arabic poet, quoted by Bochart, Hieroz. Pt. II., L. iv., c. 4, writes, They have the thigh of a camel, the legs of an ostrich, the wings of an eagle, the breast of a lion, a tail like a viper's; and the appearance of a horse adorns them about the head and mouth." C. Niebuhr heard a similar description in Bagdad (Beschreibung von Arabien, 1772, p. 173). “To this day the same metaphor is familiar in every Arab camp" (Tristram, N.H.B. p. 314). See also Rev. ix. 7. 66 as horsemen or, possibly, as war-horses-so do they run] charging with the same directness, and also with the same swiftness and surefootedness. For these virtues of an ancient warrior, cf. 2 Sam. i. 23, ii. 18; Ps. xviii. 33. 5. Like the noise of chariots, &c.] Cf. Rev. ix. 9, "And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to war." The remarkable noise made by a flight of locusts is noticed by many travellers. "Within a hundred paces, I heard the rushing noise occasioned by the flight of so many millions of insects. When I was in the midst of them, it was as loud as the dashing of waters occasioned by the mill-wheel." "While passing over our heads, their |