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Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Joel 2:3

Before them... behind them. — As with the locusts, so with the invading hosts of enemies: the country is found a paradise, and left a desert.

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See also Joel 2:3 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Joel 2:3. _A FIRE DEVOURETH BEFORE THEM_] They consume like a general conflagration. "They destroy the ground, not only for the time, but burn trees for two years after." Sir _Hans Sloane_, Nat....

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    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...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    II. THE COMING DAY OF THE LORD: THE REPENTANCE AND RESTORATION OF ISRAEL CHAPTER 2 _ 1. The alarm sounded and the day at hand (Joel 2:1) _ 2. The invading army from the north (Joel 2:3) 3. The rep...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    LET THE ALARM BE SOUNDED, FOR THE LOCUSTS ARE PRECURSORS OF THE DAY OF YAHWEH. Speaking in Yahweh's name the prophet bids the priests sound the alarm from Mt. Zion, that all the community may realise...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    A FIRE, &c. Compare Joel 1:19; Joel 1:20. THEM. The northern army (Joel 2:11) symbolized by the locusts of Joel 1:4. THE GARDEN OF EDEN. Reference

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    Part I. Chap. Joel 1:2 to Joel 2:17 Description of the present calamity (ch. 1.). The terrible "Day of Jehovah," of which it is the harbinger (Joel 2:1-11), but which may yet be averted by the nation...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    The signs of the approaching Day. _A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness_ So Zephaniah 1:15. Four synonyms are combined, for the purpose of emphasizing the darkness, whi...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _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;...

  • Charles Box Commentaries

    _THE DAY OF THE LORD IS GREAT -- JOEL 2:1-11:_ The trumpet was blown to warn the nation of danger and invasion. The warning was sounded in order that the people could tremble and make matters right wi...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    THE EXECUTORGOD USING NATURAL AGENTS TEXT: Joel 2:1-11 1 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 Jehovah c...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. A FIRE DEVO...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    REPENTANCE FOLLOWED BY RESTORATION Joel 2:1 are another description of the locust plague. An alarm is sounded as though the Day of Jehovah had come (Joel 2:1). The advance of the locusts into the city...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    THE DAY OF THE LORD JOEL _ROY ROHU_ CHAPTER 2 THE ARMY OF *LOCUSTS V1 Blow the *trumpet in *Zion. Tell the people on the *Lord’s hill to watch for trouble....

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    לְ פָנָיו֙ אָ֣כְלָה אֵ֔שׁ וְ אַחֲרָ֖יו תְּלַה

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    THE LOCUSTS AND THE DAY OF THE LORD Joel 1:2; Joel 2:1 JOEL, as we have seen, found the motive of his prophecy in a recent plague of locusts, the appearance of which and the havoc they worked are des...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    A SUMMONS TO PENITENCE Joel 1:1-20; Joel 2:1-11 We know nothing of Joel beyond this book. He was content to be God's mouthpiece and remain unknown. His message was one of unparalleled woe. The memory...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    Having thus dealt with the actual visitation and its terrible devastation, and having called the people into the place of humiliation, the prophet rose to a higher level, and interpreted the visitatio...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land [is] as the garden of (d) Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. (d) The...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Flame. They destroy all by their bite, chap. i. 12. (Calmet) (Theodoret) --- Pleasure. Hebrew, "Eden." So luxuriant was Palestine._...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    If we read these verses with an eye to the gospel of Christ, (and surely in the present hour it were a folly to read them otherwise), how graciously do they describe the first dawnings of a day of gra...

  • Introductory Lectures - Commentary by William Kelly

    Lectures on the Minor Prophets. W. Kelly. "The word of Jehovah that came to Joel the son of Pethuel." Like Hosea, Joel is one of the earliest prophets (being earlier even than Jonah), but differs ess...

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    _Before them, _he says,_the fire will devour, and after them the flame will burn. _He means that the vengeance of God would be such as would consume the whole people: for God has in various ways begun...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    Joel 2:1 sounds the alarm, because the day is near. The day is then described as the invasion of a people, the like of whom had never been seen by Israel or the land. It was, in fact, the army of Jeho...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    A FIRE DEVOURETH BEFORE THEM, AND BEHIND THEM AFLAME BURNETH,.... This is not to be understood of the heat of the sun, or of the great drought that went before and continued after the locusts; but of...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land [is] as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. Ver. 3. _A f...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _A fire devoureth before them_, &c. They consume like a general conflagration. “They destroy the ground,” says Sir Hans Sloane, (_Natural History of Jamaica, 1:_ 29,) “not only for the time, but burn...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    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 swar...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    THE PROPHET URGES REPENTANCE...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    1-14 The priests were to alarm the people with the near approach of the Divine judgments. It is the work of ministers to warn of the fatal consequences of sin, and to reveal the wrath from heaven aga...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    A FIRE, either the heat of the sun more vehement than usual, or the locusts, or Chaldeans and Babylonians resembled by locusts, as fire, shall devour, utterly consume and eat up, BEFORE THEM; that peo...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Joel 2:3 fire H784 devours H398 (H8804) before H6440 behind H310 flame H3852 burns H3857 (H8762) land...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Day of vengeance upon Israel. Invading hosts and awful scourges. Repentance of the Jewish remnant and Jehovah's response and deliverance. CHARACTERS: God, Holy Spirit, Joel. CONCLUSION: The...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Joel 2:1. _Blow ye the trumpet in Zion,_ to convoke a solemn assembly for fasting and humiliation. Numbers 10:2. Joel 2:2. _A day of darkness, nigrum esse._ The army of locusts obscured the light whil...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    JOEL 2:1 Army Invasion: The Arrival of the Day of the Lord. Joel describes the coming of an army, whose arrival may yet be prevented by a wholehearted return to the Lord. Verses Joel 2:1 describe the...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    JOEL—NOTE ON JOEL 2:3 FIRE DEVOURS... FLAME BURNS. The army is associated with destructive fire. LIKE THE GARDEN OF EDEN... A DESOLATE WILDERNESS. The destructive power of this “great... people” (v....

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL NOTES.] This chapter still urges repentance, directs for a meeting of the people, and assures that God will have compassion. JOEL 2:1. BLOW] Priests must sound an alarm, as if foreign invasi...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION JOEL 2:1 These verses contain a further description of the calamity occasioned by the locusts and the appearance presented by them; the calling of a congregational meeting for penitence a...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Now he uses this as the springboard and he begins to speak now of a yet future day of devastation that is coming from armies that are to invade the land. And in the second chapter, as he describes thi...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    Amos 7:4; Exodus 10:15; Exodus 10:5; Ezekiel 31:8; Ezekiel 31:9;...

  • Wells of Living Water Commentary

    A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF JOEL Joel 2:1 INTRODUCTORY WORDS 1. The Book of Joel anticipates the day of Jehovah. The 1st chapter has a definite historical setting, but it also looks forward in anticipatio...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    A fire — The Chaldeans, as a fire shall utterly consume all things. Behind them — What is left behind is as burnt with a flame. As Eden — Fruitful and pleasant....

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