Joel 1:10

the ground mourneth the country being personified, as Isaiah 33:9; Jeremiah 12:4; Jeremiah 12:11; Jeremiah 23:10; cf. on Amos 1:2. Conversely, at harvest time, when the fruits of the earth are abundant, "the vales shout for joy, and sing" (Psalms 65:13).

the corn … the new wine(or must) … the fresh oil] The three principal products of the soil of Palestine, often mentioned together as a triad of blessings (Deuteronomy 7:13; Deuteronomy 11:14; Deuteronomy 28:51; Hosea 2:8), bestowed by Jehovah upon His people, or, it may be, withheld, in the event of their unfaithfulness. The words, though they may be used with reference to the corn in the ears, and the juice in the grapes and the olives, denote more particularly these products after they have been adapted partially for the food, or use, of man. Corn(dâgân) is thus the grain of wheat after it has been threshed and freed from the husk ("from the threshing-floor," Numbers 18:27); new wine, or must (tîrôsh), is the freshly-expressed juice of the grape, sometimes, at any rate, if not always, slightly fermented (Hosea 4:11), and described as a sustaining (Genesis 27:37), invigorating (Zechariah 9:17), and exhilarating (Judges 9:13) beverage; fresh oil(yitzhâr) is similarly the freshly-expressed juice of the olive. On tîrôsh, see more fully the Additional Note at the end of the Book (p. 79). The oil which, when pressed, the fruit of the olive yields, is almost a necessary of life in Palestine: it is used in cooking and for food, where we should employ butter; it is burnt in lamps; it is in habitual use for anointing the person (see on Amos 6:6); it has medicinal virtues (Isaiah 1:6; Luke 10:34); it was used in ancient times in sacrifice (Leviticus 2:1; Leviticus 2:6, &c.), and it was prized as a gift (1 Kings 5:11; Hosea 12:1; Isaiah 57:9). Being a valuable commodity, it was subject to tithe (Deuteronomy 14:23; Nehemiah 13:5). See further Tristram, N. H. B.p. 373 ff.; Van Lennep, Bible Lands, p. 124 ff.; Whitehouse, Primer of Heb. Antiquities, pp. 104 110.

is dried up Better, sheweth shame (cf. R.V. marg.), the -new wine" being personified (cf. Isaiah 24:7, where it is said to -mourn"), just as the -ground" is in the first part of the verse. Comp. of Lebanon (though the Heb. word used is a different one), Isaiah 33:9.

languisheth The same word, said of trees of which the foliage has been stripped off, or is withering, Joel 1:12; Isaiah 16:8; Isaiah 24:7; Nahum 1:4.

Additional Note on Chap. Joel 1:10 (tîrôsh)

Tîrôshoccurs thirty-eight times in the O.T. It is mentioned generally as a valued product of the soil, by the side of corn in Genesis 27:28; Genesis 27:37; Deu 33:28; 2 Kings 18:32 (Isaiah 36:17); Isaiah 62:8; Hosea 2:9; Hosea 7:14; Hosea 9:2 (implicitly); Zechariah 9:17; Psalms 4:7; Proverbs 3:10 (implicitly); and by the side of corn and "fresh oil" (yitzhâr) together in Deuteronomy 7:13; Deuteronomy 11:14; Deuteronomy 28:51; Jeremiah 31:12; Hosea 2:8; Hosea 2:22; Joel 1:10; Joel 2:19; Joel 2:24; Hag 1:11; 2 Chronicles 32:28; Nehemiah 5:11; cf. Micah 6:15; and as the highly prized product of the vine, "gladdening God (or gods) and men" (i.e. offered to the former in libations and welcome to the latter at feasts) in Judges 9:13, and bringing a blessing in Isaiah 65:8; cf. Isaiah 24:7. It is mentioned further, also with corn and "fresh oil," as subject to tithe (Deuteronomy 12:17; Deuteronomy 14:23; Nehemiah 13:5; Nehemiah 13:12), and the payment of firstfruits (Deuteronomy 18:4; Num 18:12; 2 Chronicles 31:5; Nehemiah 10:37; cf. Nehemiah 10:39). Lastly, it is mentioned in Hosea 4:11, in company with "whoredom and wine," as "taking away the heart" (i.e. the understanding). From these passages it appears that tîrôshwas a beverage (Isaiah 62:8), prepared from the fruit of the vine (Isaiah 65:8; Micah 6:15), and possessed of sustaining (Genesis 27:37) and invigorating (Zechariah 9:17) properties. Hosea 4:11 shews further that it was, at least in some cases, fermented; and "gladdening," in Judges 9:13, which would naturally, in this connexion, have the force of "exhilarating" (cf. the same word of yayin"wine," in Psalms 104:15), suggests the same inference. Whether, however, tîrôshdenoted alwaysa fermented liquid, is more than we can say. Isaiah 65:8, "as the tîrôshis found in the cluster," might indeed be a poetical expression, not intended to be interpreted literally; but in Joel 2:24; Proverbs 3:10 it appears to be described as filling the "wine-vat" (see on Joel 2:24) so that (unless it were the custom to leave the grape-juice in this vat for the purpose of fermentation), it would seem to have denoted the unfermented juice of the grape as well. In our ignorance of the precise methods employed by the ancient Hebrews in the manufacture of wine, it is impossible to speak with entire definiteness: but with our present knowledge, it is most just, probably, to the various passages in which tîrôshoccurs, to suppose that it was a comprehensive term, applied both to the freshly-expressed, unfermented juice of the grape (or "must") [53], and also to a light kind of wine such as we know, from the classical writers, that the ancients were in the habit of making by checking the fermentation of the grape juice before it had run its full course [54].

[53] Mêrîth, which corresponds etymologically in Syriac, is defined by the native lexicographers as "new wine, or must, as it comes forth from the wine-press" (Payne Smith, Thes. Syr.col. 1635).

[54] See the Dict. of Classical Antiquities, s.v. Vinum. Must was sometimes used at once, being drunk fresh after it had been clarified by vinegar. When it was desired to preserve a quantity in a sweet state, it was placed carefully in an air-tight amphora, and deposited in a cool place: it would then keep for a year or more, and was called ἀεὶ γλεῦκος or semper mustum. It was also preserved by being boiled down to two-thirds or less of its original volume, in which case it became a kind of jelly. Must intended for wine was allowed to ferment, by being exposed to the open air, in large earthenware vessels (dolia), for nine days; but fight wines were manufactured by the doliabeing closed and fermentation checked after five or seven days. In warm countries fermentation begins in the grape-juice a few hours after it has been expressed (Anderlind, Z.D.P.V.xi. 1888, p. 168). On modern Syrian wines, see ib.p. 170 ff.

It has sometimes been supposed [55] that tîrôshdenoted the produce of the vine in general, and it has been rendered for example vine-fruit. But this view is certainly untenable. (1) It is spoken of distinctly as something that is -drunk" (Isaiah 62:8); and surely the analogy of drinking a -cup" (for the contents of a cup) could not be applied to a mass of -vine-fruit." (2) It is spoken of as filling the yeḳeb, or -wine-vat" (Joel 2:24; Proverbs 3:10): the yeḳeb, however (see the note on Joel 2:24), was the receiver into which the juice trodden out in the gathran down: it would contain consequently, not a crushed mass of grapes, or -vine-fruit," but the expressed juice. (3) Tithe was levied on tîrôsh(Deuteronomy 12:17; Deuteronomy 14:23); but tithe, as follows from Numbers 18:27 (cf. Numbers 18:30), was levied not on the raw produce, but on what came "fromthe yeḳeb," or wine-vat, which it is evident can have been only the expressed juice. Tîrôshwas in fact the juice, especially the expressed juice, of the grape, just as dâgânand yitzhâr, with which it is so often conjoined, though they may be used, respectively, with reference to the corn in the ears, and the juice in the olives, denoted more particularly the threshed corn (Numbers 18:27, "from the threshing-floor"), and oil freshly expressed from the olive-berry.

[55] Especially in the Temperance Bible Commentary.

The clear evidence of these passages cannot be neutralized by the two, which, though they seem at first sight to imply that tîrôshwas a solid, can be readily explained in conformity with the others. The first is Deuteronomy 12:17, "Thou mayest not eatwithin thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy tîrôsh, or of thy fresh oil." The word eatmay, however, be used, as a general term, of a liquid (Deuteronomy 12:16; Deuteronomy 12:23; Deuteronomy 14:26, of -wine" and -strong drink"); and this usage is the easier in Deuteronomy 12:17, as the object joined immediately to eatis corn, and tîrôshis only attached to it in the second place. The other passage is Micah 6:15, where tîrôshis the object of dârakh, "to tread," and might consequently be supposed to be a solid. In Isaiah 16:10, however, dârakhhas for its object yáyin("wine"), which no one can pretend to be a solid, the reference being to the expressed juice flowing out from under the treader's feet; and Micah 6:15 may be understood quite naturally in the same sense [56].

[56] The fullest and most instructive discussion of tîrôshwill be found in A. M. Wilson, The Wines of the Bible(1877), pp. 301 339.

The all but uniform rendering of tîrôshin the ancient Versions is wine[57]; and either mustor new wineis the rendering adopted by all the principal Hebraists of modern times (Gesenius, Ewald, Hitzig, Delitzsch, Keil, Dillmann, &c.), without exception.

[57] In Hosea 4:11, LXX, Pesh., Targ., Symm., Vulg. all have "drunkenness." Otherwise wineis the uniform rendering of LXX, except Isaiah 65:8 (ῥώξ, "grape-stone"), of Pesh. (except 5 times), of Targ. (except 4 times, two being paraphrases). Aq., in accordance with his peculiar principles of translation, rendered ὀπωρισμός (see Field's Hexapla, on Hosea 2:22; also οἰνία, see ib.), whence Jerome has vindemia, Deuteronomy 7:13; Isaiah 24:7; Nehemiah 10:37; elsewhere always vinum, except Isaiah 65:8 (granum).