The prophet begins anew in this chapter, first delineating in greater detail the judgments of God; then calling to repentance. The image reaches its height in the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, itself an image only of worse judgments, first on the Jews by the Romans; then on particular Chu... [ Continue Reading ]
BLOW YE THE TRUMPET - The trumpet was accustomed to sound in Zion, only for religious uses; to call together the congregations for holy meetings, to usher in the beginnings of their months and their solemn days with festival gladness. Now in Zion itself, the stronghold of the kingdom, the Holy City,... [ Continue Reading ]
A DAY OF DARKNESS AND OF GLOOMINESS - o: “A day full of miseries; wherefore he accumulates so many names of terrors. There was inner darkness in the heart, and the darkness of tribulation without. They hid themselves in dark places. There was the cloud between God and them; so that they were not pro... [ Continue Reading ]
A FIRE DEVOURETH BEFORE THEM ... - Travelers, of different nations and characters, and in different lands, some unacquainted with the Bible words, have agreed to describe under this image the ravages of locusts. : “They scorch many things with their touch.” : “Whatever of herb or leaf they gnaw, is,... [ Continue Reading ]
THE APPEARANCE OF THEM, IS AS THE APPEARANCE OF HORSES - “If you carefully consider the head of the locust,” says Theodoret, a Bishop in Syria, “you will find it exceedingly like that of a horse.” Whence the Arabs, of old and to this day , say; “In the locust, slight as it is, is the nature of ten o... [ Continue Reading ]
LIKE THE NOISE OF CHARIOTS ON THE TOPS OF THE MOUNTAINS SHALL THEY LEAP - The amazing noise of the flight of locusts is likened by those who have heard them, to all sorts of deep sharp rushing sounds. One says , “their noise may be heard six miles off.” Others , “within a hundred paces I heard the r... [ Continue Reading ]
BEFORE THEIR FACE THE PEOPLE SHALL BE MUCH PAINED - The locust being such a scourge of God, good reason have men to be terrified at their approach; and those are most terrified who have most felt the affliction. In Abyssinia, some province of which was desolated every year, one relates , “When the l... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL RUN LIKE MIGHTY MEN - They are on God’s message, and they linger not, “but rejoice to run their course” Psalms 19:5. “The height of walls cannot hinder the charge of the mighty; they enter not by the gates but over the walls” , as of a city taken by assault. People can mount a wall few at... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THEY FALL UPON THE SWORD - (literally, “among the darts”) they shall not be wounded It may be that the prophet would describe how the locust seems armed as in a suit of armor. As one says , “Their form was wondrous; they had a sort of gorget round their neck like a lancer, and a helm on their h... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL RUN TO AND FRO IN THE CITY - “The city” is questionless Jerusalem. So to the Romans, “the city” meant Rome; to the Athenians, Athens; among ourselves, “town” or “the city” are idiomatic names for the whole of London or “the city of London.” In Wales “town” is, with the country people, the... [ Continue Reading ]
THE EARTH SHALL QUAKE BEFORE THEM - “Not,” says Jerome, “as though locusts or enemies had power to move the heavens or to shake the earth; but because, to those under trouble, for their exceeding terror, the heaven seems to fall and the earth to reel. But indeed, for the multitude of the locusts whi... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SHALL UTTER HIS VOICE - The prophet had described at length the coming of God’s judgments, as a mighty army. But lest amid the judgments, people should, (as they often do) forget the Judge, he represents God, as commanding this His army, gathering, ordering, marshalling, directing them,... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE - (And) now also All this being so, one way of escape there is, true repentance. As if God said , “All this I have therefore spoken, in order to terrify you by My threats. Wherefore “turn unto Me with all your hearts,” and show the penitence of your minds “by fasting and weeping and mourni... [ Continue Reading ]
AND REND YOUR HEARTS AND NOT YOUR GARMENTS - that is, “not your garments only” (see the note at Hosea 6:6). The rending of the clothes was an expression of extraordinary uncontrollable emotion, chiefly of grief, of terror, or of horror. At least, in Holy Scripture it is not mentioned as a part of or... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO KNOWETH IF HE WILL RETURN - God has promised forgiveness of sins and of eternal punishment to those who turn to Him with their whole heart. Of this, then, there could be no doubt. But He has not promised either to individuals or to Churches, that He will remit the temporal punishment which He ha... [ Continue Reading ]
Before, he had, in these same words Joel 2:1; Joel 1:14, called to repentance, because the Day of the Lord was coming, was near, “a day of darkness,” etc. Now , because God is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and plenteous in goodness,” he agains exhorts, “Blow ye the trumpet;” only the call is... [ Continue Reading ]
SANCTIFY THE CONGREGATION - o: “Do what in you lies, by monishing, exhorting, threatening, giving the example of a holy life, that the whole people present itself holy before its God” , “lest your prayers be hindered, and a little leaven corrupt the whole lump.” ASSEMBLE THE ELDERS - o: “The judgme... [ Continue Reading ]
LET THE PRIESTS, THE MINISTERS OF THE LORD, WEEP BETWEEN THE PORCH AND THE ALTAR - The porch in this, Solomon’s temple, was in fact a tower, in front of the holy of holies, of the same breadth with the temple, namely, 20 cubits, and its depth half its breadth, namely, 10 cubits 1 Kings 6:3, and its... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN WILL THE LORD BE JEALOUS FOR HIS LAND - Upon repentance, all is changed. Before, God seemed set upon their destruction. It was His great army which was ready to destroy them; He was at its head, giving the word. Now He is full of tender love for them, which resents injury done to them, as done... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL SEND YOU CORN ... - This is the beginning of the reversal of the threatened judgments. It is clear from this, and still more from what follows, that the chastisements actually came, so that the repentance described, was the consequence, not of the exhortations to repentance, but of the chasti... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I WILL REMOVE FAR OFF FROM YOU THE NORTHERN ARMY - God speaks of the human agent under the figure of the locusts, which perish in the sea; yet so as to show at once, that He did not intend the locust itself, nor to describe the mode in which He should overthrow the human oppressor. He is not spe... [ Continue Reading ]
FEAR NOT, O LAND - Before, they were bidden to tremble Joel 2:1, now they are bidden, “fear not;” before, “to turn in weeping, fasting and mourning;” now, “to bound for joy and rejoice;” before, “the land mourned;” now, “the land is bidden to rejoice.” The enemy had “done great things;” now the caus... [ Continue Reading ]
The reversal of the whole former sentence is continued up to man. The beasts of the field “groaned, were perplexed, cried” unto God; now they are bidden, “be not afraid;” before, “the pastures of the wilderness were devoured by fire;” now, they “spring” with fresh tender life; before, “the fig tree”... [ Continue Reading ]
BE GLAD THEN AND REJOICE IN THE LORD YOUR GOD - All things had been restored for their sakes; they were to rejoice, not chiefly in these things, but in God; nor only in God, but in the Lord their God. “For He hath given you the former rain moderately.” The word rendered “moderately” should be render... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I WILL RESTORE TO YOU THE YEARS THAT THE LOCUST HATH EATEN - The order in which these destroyers are named not being the same as before, it is plain that the stress is not on the order, but on the successiveness of the inroads, scourge after scourge. It is plain too that they did not come in the... [ Continue Reading ]
AND YE SHALL EAT IN PLENTY AND BE SATISFIED - It is of the punishment of God, when people eat and are not satisfied (see Hosea 4:10); it is man’s sin, that they are satisfied, and do not to praise God, but the more forget Him Hosea 13:6. And so God’s blessings become a curse to him. God promises to... [ Continue Reading ]
AND YE SHALL KNOW THAT I AM IN THE MIDST OF ISRAEL - God had foretold their rebellion His forsaking them, “the troubles” which should “find” them, and that they should say, “Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?” Deuteronomy 31:17. It had been the mockery of the Pagan in... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS AFTERWARD - After the punishment of the Jews through the Pagan, and their deliverance; after the Coming of the Teacher of righteousness, was to follow the outpouring of the Spirit of God. I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT ON ALL FLESH - o: “This which He says, “on all flesh,” admi... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ALSO UPON THE SERVANTS - God tells beforehand that he would be no respecter of persons. He had said, that He would endow every age and sex. He adds here, and every condition, even that of slaves, both male and female. He does not add here, that they shall prophesy. Under the law, God had provide... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I WILL SHEW WONDERS - Each revelation of God prepares the way for another, until that last revelation of His love and of His wrath in the Great Day. In delivering His people from Egypt, “the Lord shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt Deuteronomy 6:22. Here, in allusion to it, He s... [ Continue Reading ]
BEFORE THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE DAY OF THE LORD COME - o: “The days of our life are our days wherein we do what we please; that will be the “Day of the Lord,” when He, our Judge, shall require the account of all our doings. It will be “great,” because it is the horizon of time and eternity; the last d... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSOEVER SHALL CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD - To call upon the name of the Lord, is to worship Him, as He is, depending “upon” Him. “The name of the Lord,” expresses His True Being, That which He is. Hence, so often in Holy Scripture, people are said to “call on the Name of the Lord,” to bless th... [ Continue Reading ]