of wrath and punishment, then, we have a most glorious promise of the victory gained through the redemption planned in God's counsel of love, and the Apostle Paul was right in using this passage as his song of triumph on account of Christ's victory over death and hell. Cp. 1 Cor. 15, 55-57. V. 15. Though he be fruitful among his brethren, the Hebrew text here containing a play upon the name Ephraim, which means fruitfulness, an east wind shall come, with its parching heat, the wind of the Lord, sent by Him in punishment, shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up, so that he would no longer be known as a fertile land; he, namely, Assyria, shall spoil the treasure of all

pleasant vessels, of all the wealthy and proud cities of the northern kingdom. V. 16. Samaria shall become desolate, suffering its punishment by being made desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God; they, the inhabitants of the capital and of the country, shall fall by the sword, as the invader proceeds on his campaign of conquest; their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up, according to the unspeakably cruel methods of warfare then in use. The call of the Gospel, as we see here once more, sounded even in the midst of degenerate Israel; for it is not the desire of the Lord that any man should perish, but that all should be led to repentance.

A Final Exhortation to Return, with a Promise of Redemption.

After having shown the apostate Israelites in various ways in what their guilt consisted, the Lord here once more appeals to them to return to Him in true repentance, since He desires to show them His mercy in full measure. V. 1. O Israel, return unto the Lord, thy God, to the God of the Messianic covenant; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity, but there is still a possibility of returning. V. 2. Take with you words, expressed in prayers of forgiveness, and turn to the Lord; say unto Him, in a full and frank confession of sins, -Take away all iniquity, forgiving the transgression with its guilt, and receive us graciously, receiving the one good thing which they have to offer; so will we render the calves of our lips, literally, "and we will render as bullocks our lips," namely, the confession of guilt and the promise to amend their ways. V. 3. Asshur, the world-power upon which they had relied till then, shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses, depending upon their cavalry, their army; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, the idols which they had molded and fashioned, Ye are our gods, this being an open confession of the vanity of their idolatrous practises; for in Thee, in the true God alone, the fatherless findeth mercy. Cp. Ex. 22, 22; Deut. 10, 18. In the entire prayer of repentance the trust in the mercy of the Lord is evident. The Lord's answer, therefore, is a wonderful promise of mercy. V. 4. I will heal their backsliding, all the calamities brought upon them by their unfaithfulness to the Lord; I will love them freely, with the fulness of His abundant love and mercy; for Mine anger is turned away from him, having readily been withdrawn at the evidence of real sorrow which their prayer showed. V. 5. I will be as the dew unto Israel, refreshing and strengthening; he shall grow as the lily,

known for its fruitfulness, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon, the mountains having their foundations in the innermost recesses of the earth. V. 6. His branches shall spread, as he flourishes and develops with vigorous life, and his beauty shall be as the olive-tree, with its evergreen leaves and rich-gleaming fruit, and his smell as Lebanon, with its cedars and aromatic shrubs. So the attributes of firmness, of fruitfulness, of beauty and glory, and of amiability and loveliness are ascribed to the repentant people once more received into the grace of God. V. 7. They that dwell under His shadow, the members of Israel as they have turned to the Lord in repentance, shall return, they shall revive as the corn, rather, shall produce grain once more, be a soil fruitful in good works, and grow as the vine, the scent thereof shall be as the vine of Lebanon, which was known of old for its excellent flavor. V. 8. Ephraim shall say, in addressing the Lord, What have I to do any more with idols? Or the sentence may be considered as an appeal to Ephraim to renounce all idolatry. I have heard him and observed him, Jehovah regarding His people with favor; I am like a green fir-tree, a cypress, symbol of everlasting life; from Me is thy fruit found, it is the Lord's strength which nourishes the bodily and spiritual strength of His people. V. 9. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? namely, all that the prophet has written by way of warning, rebuke, admonition, and correction; prudent, and he shall know them? For the ways of the Lord, particularly in the manner in which He deals with His children on earth, are right, and the just shall walk in them, finding their delight in doing the Lord's will; but the transgressors shall fall therein. Cp. Deut. 32, 4. The preaching of truth is to some a savor of life unto life, to others a savor of death unto death. Cp. Deut. 30, 19. 20; 1 Cor. 1, 18.

The prophet Joel ("Jehovah is God") is distinguished from other men bearing this rather common name by the statement that he was the son of Bethuel. Nothing definite is known concerning the circumstances of his life. Nor can we tell with certainty where he lived, although it seems most probable that he labored in Judea and proclaimed his prophecies in Jerusalem. Joel belongs to the earliest of the so-called minor prophets, for there are evident references to his book in the writings of Amos and even of Isaiah. The fact that he names the Phenicians, Philistines, Egyptians, and Edomites as the enemies of Judah, but neglects to mention the Syrians, indicates that this worldpower and others were not yet a factor when he lived. Altogether, it seems best to assume that Joel lived in the earlier half of the ninth century before Christ.

The Book of Joel was occasioned by a terrible visitation of grasshoppers and drouth, which he explains as the precursors and signs

of the last Great Judgment of Jehovah, which may be averted only by a sincere repentance. The book is clearly divisible into two parts. The first part is a heartrending lament over the affliction of the people on account of the plague of locusts, together with an urgent call to repentance, chap. 1, 1-2, 17. The second part is a promise of divine mercy for all those who repent, first concerning temporal blessings in the near future, then also regarding spiritual, Messianic benefits, particularly the outpouring of the Spirit, as the last great deed of God before the coming of the terrible Day of the Lord.

The language of the prophet excels in classical beauty and purity, and some of his passages are without a parallel for force of expression. The blessings of the Messianic age are brought out in periods of surpassing splendor and power. The salient points of the book are named by Peter in his great sermon on Pentecost, Acts 2, 16-21, and by Paul, Rom. 10, 13.

Lament over the Desolation of Judah. A DESCRIPTION OF THE CALAMITY.-V. 1. The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel, the superscription assuring us that we are not getting Joel's own ideas, but the inspired words of Jehovah. V. 2. Hear this, ye old men, whose memory reached back through generations of men, and give ear, in yielding a most willing and careful attention, all ye inhabitants of the land. It is a spirited challenge to all the people of Judah to mark the lesson of the great calamity which has befallen them. Hath this been in your days or even in the days of your fathers? A visitation of this kind, and grievous to this extent, had never yet been seen in Palestine. V. 3. Tell ye your children of it and let your children tell their children and their children another generation, passing it on from father to son, all of them accepting this tradition with awe, fear, and trembling, as being an unparalleled manifestation of God's anger against men on account of their sins. V. 4. That which the palmer-worm, literally, "the gnawer-off," hath left hath the locust eaten, the swarming or multiplying locust of the Orient; and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm, the devouring grasshopper, eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten, that is, the consuming locust. All four names describe the devastation wrought by the great Oriental locust, which apparently came into the land in successive swarms at that

V. 5.

time, gnawing off first the tender shoots of the orchards and vineyards, then the vegetables and field fruits, and finally the foliage of the trees and every spear of green that was in sight. The desolation wrought by the plague of the locusts is described in the most graphic manner, one feature after another being depicted in a way to arouse the people to a realization of the seriousness of the situation. Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, since the supply of grapes and therefore of the liquor made from them was not available; for it is cut off from your mouth. This appeal is introduced to describe, with poetical power, the complete devastation of the country. V. 6. For a nation is come up upon My land, a great and mighty army of fierce warriors, strong and without number, in swarms of countless myriads, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek-teeth of a great lion, the jawteeth of a lioness protecting or avenging her young, grinding to pieces everything that came in their path. V. 7. He hath laid My vine waste, by consuming its foliage, and barked My fig-tree, gnawing off the bark and laying bare stem and branches, so that they were ruined; he hath made it clean bare and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white, by the complete removal of the bark. This being the condition in which the land was left after the visit of the locusts, the prophet now urges his countrymen to mourn.

V. 8. Lament like a virgin, girded with sackcloth, the dress of mourning, for the husband of her youth, whom, after their betrothal, death took away. The grief of a bereaved virgin and bride is represented also in other passages as deep and overwhelming. Cp. Is. 54, 6. V. 9. The meat-offering and the drink-offering, the sacrifices in the worship of Jehovah, is cut off from the house of the Lord, because it was impossible to procure the necessary materials, since everything was destroyed; the priests, the Lord's ministers, mourn, on account of the decay resulting from the devastation, which was followed also by a dearth of the animals used for sacrificial purposes. V. 10. The field is wasted, made desolate; the land mourneth, both the uncultivated and the cultivated sections of the land suffering in the same measure; for the corn is wasted, the grain completely consumed; the new wine is dried up, the grapes being spoiled for want of foliage on the vines; the oil languisheth, because the olive-trees produced no fruit. V. 11. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen, bearing the shame of disappointed hopes after working hard for a crop; howl, O ye vine-dressers, these two representing the agricultural classes of the land, for the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished, this being the cause of the farmers' lament. V. 12. The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth, so that gardener and horticulturist likewise had reasons for mourning; the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, the datepalm, which ordinarily escaped the onslaughts of the locust, and the apple-tree, or the quince, even all the trees of the field, are withered; because joy is withered away from the sons of men, so that there could be no rejoicing over a bountiful harvest, as usual. Cp. Ps. 4, 7; Is. 9, 3. The description of the swarming grasshoppers and the desolation following in their wake is one of the most powerful in all literature, and the picture is rightly regarded as one which ought to call all men to repentance.

PRESCRIBING FASTING AND PENITENCE. V. 13. Gird yourselves, namely, with garments of mourning, and lament, ye priests; howl, ye ministers of the altar, whose chief duties were concerned with the sacrifices brought on the two altars of the Temple. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God, extending their exercises of mourning even through the night season; for

the meat-offering and the drink-offering is withholden from the house of your God, cp. v. 9, so that all the usual sacrifices had to be discontinued. V. 14. Sanctify ye a fast, appointing a day or a number of days for a special religious service, during which the depth of the people's grief should be indicated by their abstaining from food; call a solemn assembly, such as were held in connection with the great festivals; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord, your God, and cry unto the Lord, with impetuous and importunate praying. V. 15. Alas for the day! so the prophet himself laments, for the day of the Lord, the time of His stern visitation, is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come, bringing its desolating scourge upon the land. V. 16. Is not the meat cut off before our eyes? as their food supply was destroyed by the invading hordes of locusts, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? since the various sacrifices and meals of thanksgiving were no longer possible. V. 17. The seed is rotten under their clods, withering in the soil on account of the terrible drouth; the garners are laid desolate, the granaries being empty because there could be no harvest; the barns, which otherwise harbored such rich crops, are broken down, falling to pieces for want of money to repair them; for the corn is withered. V. 18. How do the beasts groan! since the meadows also were dried up. The herds of cattle are perplexed, the word being chosen to denote the restless hunting of hungry cattle, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate, bearing their sufferings as a consequence of the transgressions of the people of the land. All this causes the prophet to lift up his voice to the Lord in a cry for help. V. 19. O Lord, to Thee will I cry; for the fire, the parching heat, hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, of the great Judean steppes, and the flame, the fierce heat of the drouth, hath burned all the trees of the field. V. 20. The beasts of the field, both domestic and wild animals, cry also unto Thee, their dumb misery being a powerful appeal for help; for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness. Cp. Job 38, 41; Ps. 104, 21; 145, 15; 147, 9; Jer. 14, 5. 6. All creation groans and travails in pain together until now on account of the burden of man's guilt. Rom. 8, 19—22.

out of their care-free condition; for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand, the visitation is no longer in the dim and distant future, but is an event to be expected very soon, v. 2. a day of darkness and of gloominess, as when the light of the sun is shut out by immense swarms of locusts, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, of heavy, dense, and obscuring cloudiness, as the morning spread upon the mountains, a great people and a strong, the wings of the locusts reflecting the rays of the sun in a murky light before their immense numbers shut out the sun altogether. There hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations, cp. chap. 1, 2. V. 3. A fire, a most intense and parching heat, devoureth before them, in preparing for the desolation to follow, and behind them a flame burneth, the terrible, withering heat continuing even after the swarms of grasshoppers had passed. The land is as the Garden of Eden before them, like the beautiful park of paradise described in Gen. 2, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them, the devastation would be so thorough. V. 4. The appearance of them, of the locusts, is as the appearance of horses, whom they resemble as to the shape of their heads; and as horsemen, so shall they run, with uncanny swiftness. V. 5. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains, as they clatter along over rough mountain roads, shall they leap, such would be the noise of their crackling movements in a great mass, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array, for there is a strong similarity to all these rushing, pounding sounds in the movements of vast swarms of locusts. V. 6. Before their face, as they proceed on their path of devastation, the people, all those so visited, shall be much pained, trembling and helpless with terror; all faces shall gather blackness, losing the glowing color of health, growing pale with conscious helplessness. V. 7. They shall run like mighty men, straightforward to the attack; they shall climb the wall like men of war, in an advance that cannot be stopped; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks, this peculiarity being noted by all observers. It was and is vain to resist them by the means ordinarily used to stop the progress of an invading army. V. 8. Neither shall one thrust another, not pressing ahead upon those going before; they shall walk every one in his path, like a welldrilled army; and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded, for they are represented as an invincible army of the Lord. V. 9. They shall run to and fro in the city, being altogether unhindered in their advance; they shall run upon the wall,

they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. Jerome writes concerning this phenomenon: "When the locusts come and fill the whole space between earth and sky, they fly in perfect order, as if obedient to a divine command, so that they look like the squares of a pavement. Each one holds its own place, not diverging from it even so much as by a finger's breadth. To these locusts nothing is impenetrable, fields, meadows, trees, cities, houses, even their most secret chambers." V. 10. The earth shall quake before them, terrified by their dreadful host, the heavens shall tremble, resounding with the rushing of their flight; the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining, their light shut out by the immense hosts of locusts; v. 11. and the Lord shall utter His voice before His army, which the grasshoppers here represent; for His camp is very great, the host under His command exceedingly large; for He is strong that executeth His word, carrying out the will of the Lord; for the day of the Lord, His coming visitation, is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? It is evident that the entire description is incidentally symbolical of the great and mighty Judgment of the Lord, which, in its preliminary features, is seen in the Deluge, in the two destructions of Jerusalem, and in various other calamities and cataclysms, but which is destined to be immeasurably greater than man can conceive of when it actually comes to pass. Cp. Mal. 3,2. This being true, the admonition of the prophet comes with particular force. V. 12. Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, in a true repentance, and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning, as outward indications of the change of heart, v. 13. and rend your heart, in a true and unfeigned sorrow, and not your garments, for the latter may be done also by hypocrites, and turn unto the Lord, your God; for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil, that is, He is persuaded not to let stern justice alone rule. Cp. Ex. 34, 6. V. 14. Who knoweth if He will return, not carry out the threatened punishment, and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him, namely, when He, as men pictured Him, returns to His throne in heaven, even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord, your God? for by an abundant harvest, which He may be persuaded to give, the people would again be enabled to bring their usual sacrifices in the Temple. In order to accomplish this, however, it was necessary that the people unite in a great service of prayer and supplication. V. 15. Blow the trumpet in Zion, the call once more going forth; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly, v. 16. gather the people, for a great meeting of worship and supplica

tion; sanctify the congregation, so that no one would be Levitically unclean; assemble the elders, the aged people of the congregation; gather the children and those that suck the breast, for no one is to be omitted in this great appeal for mercy, since all of them, from the smallest to the greatest, were guilty; let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet, where they were preparing for the coming wedding. The fact that even infants in arms and bride and groom were included in the appeal of the prophet shows that the guilt was universal and beyond excuse. V. 17. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, who occupied the position of mediators between God and His people, weep between the porch and the altar and let them say, in a solemn litany chanted at the very door of the Holy Place, Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage, the people of His own possession, to reproach, cp. Ex. 32, 11. 12, that the heathen should rule over them, or, "make mockery of them." Wherefore should they say among the people, among the heathen nations everywhere, Where is their God? thus bringing disgrace upon the holy name of the Lord. This is one of the strongest arguments which believers may advance in presenting their supplication before the Lord, namely, that the glory of His own name requires His looking upon His children in mercy, so that they may not be abandoned to the wiles of the enemy.

GOD'S PROMISE OF TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS. V. 18. Then, when the Lord saw that His people were truly penitent, will the Lord be jealous for His land, be filled with the zeal of His love, rather, He was so filled and acted accordingly, and pity His people. V. 19. Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto His people, actuated with the zeal of His love for them, Behold, I will send you corn and wine and oil, the richest temporal blessings made possible by the renewed fertility of the land, and ye shall be satisfied therewith; and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen, of which their prayer had complained, v. 20. but I will remove far off from you the northern army, the swarms of locusts which came from that direction, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, into the desert of Arabia, with his face toward the East Sea, that is, the Dead Sea, and his hinder part, his rearguard, toward the utmost sea, that is, the Mediterranean; and his stink shall come up, the terrible stench of the decaying insects, and his ill savor shall come up, because he hath done great things, the entire description picturing the rapid and total destruction of the great plague. V. 21. Fear not, O land, the entire country being included in this new admonition, as before; be glad and rejoice, namely, over the hosts that laid waste the country; for the

Lord will do great things, Jehovah is able to perform marvelous works in delivering His people. V. 22. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field, which had been so sorely in need of food supplies; for the pastures of the wilderness, of the great prairies of the South, do spring, once more verdant with an abundance of grass; for the tree beareth her fruit, as before the terrible visitation, the fig-tree and the vine do yield their strength, so as to bring forth fruit as of old. V. 23. Be glad, then, ye children of Zion, the inhabitants of Judah, the children of the Lord, and rejoice in the Lord, your God, the God of the covenant, the Lord of mercy; for He hath given you the former rain moderately, literally, "a teacher for righteousness," or "rain in just measure," the meaning of the Hebrew word being in dispute to some extent; and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month, the former rain being due right after seeding-time, in the fall, and the latter rain coming just before harvest, in the spring. V. 24. And the floors, the threshing-floors, shall be full of wheat, the result of a new, rich harvest, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil, the receptacles of the vineyards being unable to hold the rich measure of blessings. V. 25. And I will restore to you, make up, the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm and the caterpillar and the palmer-worm, My great army which I sent among you, the insects of chap. 1, 4 being named in the reverse order. V. 26. And ye shall eat in plenty, having an abundance of the best food, and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord, your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you, making His wonders known through the manner in which He dealt with them; and My people shall never be ashamed, never be justly heaped with mockery and disgrace, since it would be so evident that the Lord was on their side. This would, moreover, be substantiated more than ever by the fulness of spiritual blessings which He intended to pour out upon His children after their restoration to His sonship. V. 27. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, as His chosen people, and that I am the Lord, your God, the God of the covenant, and none else; and My people, the true spiritual Israel, shall never be ashamed. V. 28. And it shall come to pass afterward, in the Messianic period, toward which this prophecy converged, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh, upon men of every race and nation; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, openly proclaiming the great deeds of God, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, the great possibilities of the Lord's work and the energy for carrying out the plans of the Lord coming to them and urging them forward with irre