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<p>It is a foolish fancy which some of the Jews have, that this Joel the prophet was the same with that Joel who was the son of Samuel (<a class="bibleref" title="1Sam.8.2" href="/passage/?search=1Sam.8.2">1 Sam. 8:2</a>); yet one of their rabbin very gravely undertakes to show why Samuel is here called <i>Pethuel</i>. This Joel was long after that. He here speaks of a sad and sore judgment which was now brought, or to be brought, upon Judah, for their sins. Observe,</p>
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<p class="tab-1">I. The greatness of the judgment, expressed here in two things:—1. It was such as could not be paralleled in the ages that were past, in history, or in the memory of any living, <a class="bibleref" title="Joel.1.2" href="/passage/?search=Joel.1.2">Joel 1:2</a>. The <i>old men</i> are appealed to, who could remember what had happened long ago; nay, and <i>all the inhabitants of the land</i> are called on to testify, if they could any of them remember the like. Let them go further than any man’s memory, and <i>prepare themselves for the search of their fathers</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Job.8.8" href="/passage/?search=Job.8.8">Job 8:8</a>), and they would not find an account of the like in any record. Note, Those that outdo their predecessors in sin may justly expect to fall under greater and sorer judgments than any of their predecessors knew. 2. It was such as would not be forgotten in the ages to come (<a class="bibleref" title="Joel.1.3" href="/passage/?search=Joel.1.3">Joel 1:3</a>): “<i>Tell you your children of it</i>; let them know what dismal tokens of the wrath of God you have been under, that they make take warning, and may learn obedience by the things which you have suffered, for it is designed for warning to them also. Yea, let <i>your children tell their children, and their children another generation</i>; let them tell it not only as a strange thing, which may serve for matter of talk” (as such uncommon accidents are records in our almanacs—It is so long since the plague, and fire—so long since the great frost, and the great wind), “but let them tell it to <i>teach their children</i> to stand in awe of God and of his judgments, and to tremble before him.” Note, We ought to transmit to posterity the memorial of God’s judgments as well as of his mercies.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">II. The judgment itself; it is an invasion of the country of Judea by a great army. Many interpreters both ancient and modern understand it of armies of men, the forces of the Assyrians, which, under Sennacherib, <i>took all the defenced cities of Judah</i>, and then, no doubt, made havoc of the country and destroyed the products of it: nay, some make the four sorts of animals here names (<a class="bibleref" title="Joel.1.4" href="/passage/?search=Joel.1.4">Joel 1:4</a>) to signify the four monarchies which, in their turns, were oppressive to the people of the Jews, one destroying what had escaped the fury of the other. Many of the Jewish expositors think it is a parabolic expression of the coming of enemies, and their multitude, to lay all waste. So the Chaldee paraphrast mentions these animals (<a class="bibleref" title="Joel.1.4" href="/passage/?search=Joel.1.4">Joel 1:4</a>); but afterwards (<a class="bibleref" title="Joel.2.25" href="/passage/?search=Joel.2.25">Joel 2:25</a>) puts instead of them, <i>Nations, peoples, tongues, languages, potentates</i>, and <i>revenging kingdoms</i>. But it seems much rather to be understood literally of armies of insects coming upon the land and eating up the fruits of it. Locusts were one of the plagues of Egypt. Of them it is said, There never were any like them, nor should be (<a class="bibleref" title="Exod.10.14" href="/passage/?search=Exod.10.14">Exod. 10:14</a>), none such as those in Egypt, none such as these in Judah—none like those locusts for bigness, none like these for multitude and the mischief they did. The plague of locusts in Egypt lasted but for a few days; this seems to have continued for four years successively (as some think), because here are four sorts of insects mentioned (<a class="bibleref" title="Joel.1.4" href="/passage/?search=Joel.1.4">Joel 1:4</a>), one destroying what the other left; but others think they came all in one year. We are not told, in the history of the Old Testament, when this happened, but we are sure that no word of God fell to the ground; and, though a devastation by these insects is primarily intended here, yet it is expressed in such a language as is very applicable to the destruction of the country by a foreign enemy invading it, because, if the people were not humbled and reformed by that less judgment which devoured the land, God would send this greater upon them, which would devour the inhabitants; and by the description of that they are bidden to take it for a warning. If this nation of worms do not subdue them, another nation shall come to ruin them. Observe, 1. What these animals are that are sent against them—<i>locusts</i> and <i>caterpillars, palmer-worms</i> and <i>canker-worms</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Joel.1.4" href="/passage/?search=Joel.1.4">Joel 1:4</a>. We cannot now describe how these differed one from another; they were all little insects, any one of them despicable, and which a man might easily crush with his foot or with his finger; but when they came in vast swarms, or shoals, they were very formidable and ate up all before them. Note, God is Lord of hosts, has all creatures at his command, and, when he pleases, can humble and mortify a proud and rebellious people by the weakest and most contemptible creatures. Man is said to be a worm; and by this it appears that he is <i>less than a worm</i>, for, when God pleases, worms are too hard for him, plunder his country, eat up that for which he laboured, destroy the forage, and cut off the subsistence of a potent nation. The weaker the instrument is that God employs the more is his power magnified. 2. What fury and force they came with. They are here called a <i>nation</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Joel.1.6" href="/passage/?search=Joel.1.6">Joel 1:6</a>), because they are embodied, and act by consent, and as it were with a common design; for, though <i>the locusts have no king, yet they go forth all of them by bands</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Prov.30.27" href="/passage/?search=Prov.30.27">Prov. 30:27</a>), and it is there mentioned
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<p class="tab-1">III. A call to the drunkards to lament this judgment (<a class="bibleref" title="Joel.1.5" href="/passage/?search=Joel.1.5">Joel 1:5</a>): <i>Awake and weep, all you drinkers of wine</i>. This intimates, 1. That they should suffer very sensibly by this calamity. It should touch them in a tender part; the <i>new wine</i> which they loved so well should be <i>cut off from their mouth</i>. Note, It is just with God to take away those comforts which are abused to luxury and excess, to <i>recover</i> the <i>corn and wine</i> which are <i>prepared</i> for Baal, which are made the food and fuel of a base lust. And to them judgments of that kind are most grievous. The more men place their happiness in the gratification of sense the more pressing temporal afflictions are upon them. The drinkers of water need not to care when the vine was laid waste; they could live as well without it as they had done; it was no trouble to the Nazarites. But the <i>drinkers of wine</i> will <i>weep and howl</i>. The more delights we make necessary to our satisfaction the more we expose ourselves to trouble and disappointment. 2. It intimates that they had been very senseless and stupid under the former tokens of God’s displeasure; and therefore they are here called to <i>awake and weep</i>. Those that will not be roused out of their security by the word of God shall be roused by his rod; those that will not be startled by judgments at a distance shall be themselves arrested by them; and when they are going to partake of the forbidden fruit a prohibition of another nature shall come <i>between the cup and the lip</i>, and <i>cut off the wine from their mouth</i>.</p>
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