King James Version
Joel 1
20 verses with commentary
The Locust Plague
The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
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KJV Study Commentary
The opening verse establishes prophetic authority through the formula "The word of the LORD that came to Joel." The Hebrew term for "word" (dabar) signifies not merely spoken words but active, powerful divine communication that accomplishes God's purposes (Isaiah 55:11). The phrase "that came to" uses the verb hayah, indicating that prophecy originates with God, not human imagination. This counter...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(1) **Joel.**—Compounded of Jehovah—El, the composite title of the God of Revelation and of Nature, which is the subject of Psalms 19. It was a favourite name among the Jews, and was borne by an ancestor of Samuel, who gave it to his elder son. There is nothing known of the personal history of Joel the prophet, except the name of his father, Pethuel, or—LXX.—Bethuel.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
28. (Eze 36:23).
**sanctify Israel--**set it apart as holy unto Myself and inviolable (Ex 19:5, 6).
Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
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KJV Study Commentary
Joel summons two groups: "ye old men" and "all ye inhabitants of the land." The elders (Hebrew zaqen) held authority as community leaders and living repositories of tradition. By addressing them first, Joel establishes the unprecedented nature of the coming judgment—even the oldest members with decades of experience have witnessed nothing comparable. The rhetorical questions "Hath this been in you...
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(2, 3) **Hath this been in your days.—**The introduction points to the startling nature of the portent: it was unexampled; it was a cause of consternation to all who beheld it; it would be recollected as a subject of wondering comment among succeeding generations. The hand of God was evident, recalling the marvellous things he did in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse institutes a three-generation mandate for transmitting knowledge of God's judgment. The command "Tell ye your children of it" uses the Hebrew verb saphar, meaning to recount, rehearse, or declare with careful detail. This isn't casual mention but deliberate, formal instruction—what Deuteronomy 6:6-7 commands regarding God's law: "thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children." The ...
Read full commentary →That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten. That which the palmerworm: Heb. The residue of the palmerworm
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse employs devastating Hebrew parallelism to describe comprehensive agricultural destruction through four successive stages of locust invasion. The terms gazam (palmerworm/cutting locust), arbeh (swarming locust), yeleq (hopping locust/cankerworm), and chasil (destroying locust/caterpillar) describe either different species or lifecycle stages of locusts. The repetitive structure—"that whi...
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(4) **That which the palmerworm hath left.—**The picture is introduced suddenly and graphically. “Behold the desolation!” “Note the cause.” The earth is bared by locusts beyond all previous experience. There were different sorts of locusts; as many as ninety have been reckoned. The four names, palmerworm, locust, cankerworm, caterpiller, indicate different swarms of the insect. The first—*Gazam*—p...
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CHAPTER 38 Eze 38:1-23. The Assault of Gog, and God's Judgment on Him.
**The objections to a literal interpretation of the prophecy are--**(1) The ideal nature of the name Gog, which is the root of Magog, the only kindred name found in Scripture or history. (2) The nations congregated are selected from places most distant from Israel, and from one another, and therefore most unlikely to act in co...
Read full commentary →Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
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KJV Study Commentary
Joel commands drunkards to "Awake" and "weep," addressing those spiritually asleep in self-indulgence. The Hebrew quwts ("awake") indicates urgent arousal from stupor. The phrase "all ye drinkers of wine" doesn't merely describe social drinking but those whose lives center on pleasure and comfort. Joel targets complacency—the spiritual danger of being absorbed in earthly enjoyments while ignoring ...
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(5) **Awake, ye drunkards—***i.e.,* awake from such an insensibility as wine causes. The people failed to see the hand of God in the terrible calamity, like an acted parable, of the locusts. Insensate, as the revellers in the halls of Belshazzar, they carried on their feasting even while the enemies were at the city gates.
**It is cut off from your mouth.**—Either joy and gladness, as given in the...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
3. His high-sounding titles are repeated to imply the haughty self-confidence of the invader as if invincible.
For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.
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KJV Study Commentary
"For a nation is come up upon my land" describes the locust invasion using military terminology. The Hebrew goy (nation) typically refers to foreign peoples but here describes an insect army God sovereignly commands. This metaphor establishes that God controls nature to accomplish His purposes—natural disasters function as instruments of divine judgment. "Strong, and without number" emphasizes ove...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(6) **A nation.**—It was not uncommon with Hebrew writers to apply the name people or folk to animals, as, “The ants are a people not strong;” “The conies are but a feeble folk” (Proverbs 30:25-26); but the word used by Joel is different from that in the Proverbs. He selected a word indicative of *foreign* nations, suggestive of attack, including both the irrational invader and the foreign conquer...
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**4. turn thee back--**as a refractory wild beast, which thinks to take its own way, but is bent by a superior power to turn on a course which must end in its destruction. Satan shall be, by overruling Providence, permitted to deceive them to their ruin (Re 20:7, 8).
**hooks into thy jaws--**(Eze 29:4; 2Ki 19:28).
He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. barked: Heb. laid my fig tree for a barking
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KJV Study Commentary
"He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree" describes agricultural devastation. The vine and fig tree symbolized peace, prosperity, and covenant blessing throughout Scripture (1 Kings 4:25, Micah 4:4, Zechariah 3:10). Their destruction signals covenant curse—God removing blessings promised for obedience (Deuteronomy 28:30, 39). The phrase "made it clean bare" uses Hebrew chasap (strip off...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) **My vine.**—This expression might well captivate the Jewish ear. God appropriates to Himself this land on which the trouble was, by His providence, to fall, and in wrath remembers mercy. It is “my vine,” “my fig-tree,” the people of God’s own choice, that were afflicted; and the affliction, however fully deserved, was, to speak as a man, painful to the Lord, “who doth not afflict willingly.” ...
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**5. Persia ... Libya--**expressly specified by Appian as supplying the ranks of Antiochus' army.
Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
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KJV Study Commentary
"Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth" employs striking imagery of a young widow's grief. The Hebrew betulah (virgin) refers to a young, unmarried woman or newly married bride. Sackcloth, coarse cloth worn in mourning, contrasts sharply with bridal garments. The "husband of her youth" likely means betrothed fiancé who died before consummation—the most devastating...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(8) **For the husband of her youth.**—The land is addressed as a virgin betrothed, but not yet married, and forfeiting her marriage by unworthy conduct. Such was the relation of Israel to the Lord: He was faithful, but Israel unfaithful. Now let her mourn the penalty.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**6. Gomer--**the Celtic Cimmerians of Crim-Tartary.
**Togarmah--**the Armenians of the Caucasus, south of Iberia.
The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD'S ministers, mourn.
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KJV Study Commentary
"The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD" describes cessation of temple worship. The grain offering (minchah) and drink offering (nesek) accompanied sacrifices, representing thanksgiving and devotion. Without agricultural products, prescribed worship became impossible. This crisis forced recognition: worship depends entirely on God's provision. The phrase "th...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(9) **The meat offering and the drink offering**—*i.e.,* all the outward and visible signs of communion with God are cut off. The means are lost through this visitation. There is a total cessation of “the creatures of bread and wine.” The immediate significance of this fact is naturally appreciated first by “the priests, the Lord’s ministers.”
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**7. Irony. Prepare thee and all thine with all needful accoutrements for war--**that ye may perish together.
**be ... a guard unto them--**that is, if thou canst.
The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
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KJV Study Commentary
"The field is wasted, the land mourneth" personifies creation as mourning—echoing Genesis 3's curse where creation suffers for human sin (Romans 8:19-22). The Hebrew 'amal (mourn/wail) suggests deep grief. "For the corn is wasted" lists agricultural devastation: corn (grain), wine, oil—Israel's primary crops. The phrase "the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth" uses Hebrew umla'm (withered/d...
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(10) **The new wine.—**The necessaries and delights of life are all gone: “the wine that maketh glad the heart of man, the oil that makes his face to shine, the bread that strengthened man’s heart” (Psalm 104:15).
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**8. thou shall be visited--**in wrath, by God (Is 29:6). Probably there is allusion to Is 24:21, 22, "The host of the high ones ... shall be gathered ... as prisoners ... in the pit ... and after many days shall they be visited." I therefore prefer English Version to Grotius rendering, "Thou shalt get the command" of the expedition. The "after many days" is defined by "in the latter years," that ...
Read full commentary →Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.
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KJV Study Commentary
"Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers" commands farmers to lament. The Hebrew bosh (ashamed) indicates confusion, disappointment, and recognition of failure. Farmers who worked diligently now face total crop failure—not due to laziness but divine judgment. "For the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished" lists staple grains destroyed. Wheat and ba...
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**9. cloud to cover the land--**with the multitude of thy forces.
The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
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KJV Study Commentary
"The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered" catalogs comprehensive agricultural devastation. Every fruit tree fails. The final clause is devastating: "because joy is withered away from the sons of men." The Hebrew chabash (withered/dried up) used for trees now describes human joy—w...
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(12) **The vine is dried up.—**The ravages produced by the locusts and the drought are universal. There seems to be a method in the enumeration of the trees. The vine is the favourite term for the chosen people; the fig-tree has its life prolonged at the intercession of the “dresser of the vineyard,” in our Lord’s parable (Luke 13:8); the tall and stately pomegranate is of such importance as to gi...
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**10. an evil thought--**as to attacking God's people in their defenseless state.
A Call to Repentance
Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests</strong> (Hebrew <em>chigru vesphedu hakohanim</em>, חִגְרוּ וְסִפְדוּ הַכֹּהֲנִים)—Joel commands the priests, Israel's spiritual leaders, to lead corporate mourning. The verb <em>chagar</em> (חָגַר, "gird") means to bind on sackcloth, the coarse goat-hair garment worn in mourning. <em>Saphed</em> (סָפַד, "lament") describes loud, public mourning—wai...
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(13) **Gird yourselves, and lament.—**The priests are exhorted to commence preparations for a national humiliation, beginning with themselves; for the visitation touches them in a vital part: they have no sacrifices to offer to the Lord.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**11. dwell safely--**that is, securely, without fear of danger (compare Es 9:19). Antiochus, the type of Antichrist, took Jerusalem without a blow.
Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD, solemn: or, day of restraint
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KJV Study Commentary
"Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly" commands corporate repentance. The Hebrew qadash (sanctify) means to set apart as holy—the fast isn't mere hunger but sacred act of humiliation and seeking God. "Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God" requires universal participation—age, status, and occupation don't exempt anyone. Covenant community f...
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(14) **A solemn assembly.**—The Hebrew word strictly means a festival day, on which the people gathered themselves together, being relieved from work. Here they are summoned for a fast. The word may also be translated, as in the margin, “a day of restraint,” its root signifying *to shut, to hold back.*
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**12. midst of the land--**literally, "the navel" of the land (Jud 9:37, Margin). So, in Eze 5:5, Israel is said to be set "in the midst of the nations"; not physically, but morally, a central position for being a blessing to the world: so (as the favored or "beloved city," Re 20:9) an object of envy. Grotius translates, "In the height of the land" (so Eze 38:8), "the mountains of Israel," Israel ...
Read full commentary →Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
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KJV Study Commentary
"Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come." The exclamation "Alas!" (Hebrew 'ahahh) expresses distress and grief. "The day of the LORD" theme dominates Joel—that appointed time when God intervenes decisively. The phrase "at hand" (qarob) means near, imminent—not theoretical future but approaching reality. The comparison "as a destru...
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(15) **Alas.**—The exclamation is repeated three times in the LXX. and Vulg., thus giving occasion to Jeremy Taylor’s comment: “When the prophet Joel was describing the formidable accidents in the day of the Lord’s judgment, and the fearful sentence of an angry judge, he was not able to express it, but stammered like a child, or an amazed imperfect person, *A. A. A. diei, quia prope est Dies Domin...
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**13. Sheba, &c.--**These mercantile peoples, though not taking an active part against the cause of God, are well pleased to see others do it. Worldliness makes them ready to deal in the ill-gotten spoil of the invaders of God's people. Gain is before godliness with them (1 Maccabees 3:41).
**young lions--**daring princes and leaders.
Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Is not the meat cut off before our eyes</strong> (halo okhel nikhrat le'neghed enenu)—The rhetorical question demands acknowledgment of obvious devastation. 'Meat' (okhel, literally 'food') includes all agricultural sustenance, not just animal flesh. The locust plague has destroyed the grain offerings.<br><br><strong>Yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God</strong> (simchah ve-gil ...
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**14. shalt thou not know it?--**to thy cost, being visited with punishment, while Israel dwells safely.
The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. seed: Heb. grains
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>The seed is rotten under their clods</strong> (avshuh peruldot tachat megrefoteihem)—'Rotten' (avshuh) describes shriveled, dried-up seed. 'Clods' (megrefoteihem) are earth lumps, dried and hard. Seeds planted with hope now rot unproductive—a farmer's nightmare and biblical symbol of futility (Leviticus 26:16, Haggai 1:6).<br><br><strong>The garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken ...
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(17) **The corn is withered.—**The results of the terrible drought, coincident with the ravages of the locusts, are now described. The ancient versions present difficulty and variety in the exact rendering of this verse, owing to several words occurring in it being not found elsewhere in Holy Scripture. On the whole the English text seems correct and satisfactory.
How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed</strong> (mah ne'enechah behemah nivoku edrei baqar)—Even animals suffer the consequences of human sin. 'Groan' (ne'enechah) and 'perplexed' (nivoku) personify animal distress. Romans 8:19-22 teaches that creation itself groans under sin's curse, awaiting redemption.<br><br><strong>Because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of s...
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(18) **How do the beasts groan.—**All creation is represented as sharing in the dread perplexity; the beasts are involved in it, as also in Nineveh the animals were united in the proclamation of the general fast by the king’s decree, when he had heard of the preaching of Jonah.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**16. I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me--**So in Ex 9:16, God tells Pharaoh, "For this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee My power; and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth."
O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. pastures: or, habitations
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness</strong> (eleikha YHWH eqra ki esh akhlah ne'ot midbar)—Joel turns from description to prayer. 'Fire' likely refers to locust devastation appearing like scorched earth (Joel 2:3), though drought-induced brushfires may also be in view.<br><br><strong>And the flame hath burned all the trees of the field</st...
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(19) **The fire hath devoured.**—This may be explained as produced by the scorching heat bringing about spontaneous combustion, or by the efforts of the people to exterminate the locusts by burning the trees, or by the mark, as of fire, left upon all vegetation after the locusts had finished their work of devastation.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**17. thou he of whom I have spoken in old time--**Gog, &c. are here identified with the enemies spoken of in other prophecies (Nu 24:17-24; Is 27:1; compare Is 26:20, 21; Jr 30:23, 24; Joe 3:1; Mi 5:5, 6; Is 14:12-14; 59:19). God is represented as addressing Gog at the time of his assault; therefore, the "old time" is the time long prior, when Ezekiel uttered these prophecies; so, he also, as...
Read full commentary →The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>The beasts of the field cry also unto thee</strong> (gam bahamot sadeh ta'arog eleikha)—'Cry' (ta'arog) means panting or longing, like a deer panting for water (Psalm 42:1 uses the same root). Animals instinctively 'cry' to their Creator when natural systems fail.<br><br><strong>For the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness</strong> (ki ya...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(20) **The beasts of the field cry also unto thee.—**The prophet has cried to God; the very beasts echo that cry, “looking up” to Him. As yet, man seems dumb.
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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**18. fury shall come up in my face--**literally, "nose"; in Hebrew, the idiomatic expression for anger, as men in anger breathe strongly through the nostrils. Anthropopathy: God stooping to human modes of thought (Psa 18:8).