JOEL, whose name, according to ST. JEROME, signifies THE
LORD GOD: or, as others say, THE COMING DOWN OF GOD:
prophesied about the same time in the kingdom of Judea, as
OSEE did in the kingdom of Israel. He foretells under
figure the great evils that were coming upon the people for
their sins: earnestly exhorts them to repentance: and
comforts them with the promise of a TEACHER OF JUSTICE,
viz., CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD, and of the coming down of his
holy SPIRIT.
Joel Chapter 1
The prophet describes the judgments that shall fall upon
the people, and invites them to fasting and prayer.
1:1. The word of the Lord, that came to Joel, the son of
Phatuel.
1:2. Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye
inhabitants of the land: did this ever happen in your days,
or in the days of your fathers?
1:3. Tell ye of this to your children, and let your
children tell their children, and their children to another
generation.
1:4. That which the palmerworm hath left, the locust hath
eaten: and that which the locust hath left, the bruchus
hath eaten: and that which tbe bruchus hath left, the
mildew hath destroyed.
That which the palmerworm hath left, etc... Some
understand this literally of the desolation of the land by
these insects: others understand it of the different
invasions of the Chaldeans, or other enemies.
1:5. Awake, ye that are drunk, and weep, and mourn all ye
that take delight; in drinking sweet wine: for it is cut
off from your mouth.
1:6. For a nation come up upon my land, strong, and without
number: his teeth are like the teeth of a lion: and his
cheek teeth as of a lion's whelp.
1:7. He hath laid my vineyard waste, and hath pilled off
the bark of my fig tree: he hath stripped it bare, and cast
it away; the branches thereof are made white.
1:8. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the
husband of her youth.
1:9. Sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of
the Lord: the priests, the Lord's ministers, have mourned:
1:10. The country is destroyed, the ground hath mourned:
for the corn is wasted, the wine is confounded, the oil
hath languished.
1:11. The husbandmen are ashamed, the vinedressers have
howled for the wheat, and for the barley, because the
harvest of the field is perished.
1:12. The vineyard is confounded, and the fig tree hath
languished: the pomegranate tree, and the palm tree, and
the apple tree, and all the trees of the field are
withered: because joy is withdrawn from the children of
men.
1:13. Gird yourselves, and lament, O ye priests, howl, ye
ministers of the altars: go in, lie in sackcloth, ye
ministers of my God: because sacrifice and libation is cut
off from the house of your God.
1:14. Sanctify ye a fast, call an assembly, gather together
the ancients, all the inhabitants of the land into the
house of your God: and cry ye to the Lord:
1:15. Ah, ah, ah, for the day: because the day of the Lord
is at hand, and it shall come like destruction from the
mighty.
1:16 Is not your food cut off before your eyes, joy and
gladness from the house of our God?
1:17. The beasts have rotted in their dung, the barns are
destroyed, the storehouses are broken down: because the
corn is confounded.
1:18. Why did the beasts groan, why did the herds of cattle
low? because there is no pasture for them: yea, and the
flocks of sheep are perished.
1:19. To thee, O Lord, will I cry: because fire hath
devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness: and the
flame hath burnt all the trees of the country.
1:20. Yea, and the beasts of the field have looked up to
thee, as a garden bed that thirsteth after rain, for the
springs of waters are dried up, and fire hath devoured the
beautiful places of the wilderness.
Joel Chapter 2
2:1. Blow ye the trumpet in Sion, sound an alarm in my holy
mountain, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble:
because the day of the Lord cometh, because it is nigh at
hand.
The day of the Lord... That is, the time when he will
execute justice upon sinners.
2:2. A day of darkness, and of gloominess, a day of clouds
and whirlwinds: a numerous and strong people as the morning
spread upon the mountains: the like to it hath not been
from the beginning, nor shall be after it, even to the
years of generation and generation.
A numerous and strong people... The Assyrians, or
Chaldeans. Others understand all this of an army of
locusts laying waste the land.
2:3. Before the face thereof a devouring fire, and behind
it a burning flame: the land is like a garden of pleasure
before it, and behind it a desolate wilderness, neither is
there any one that can escape it.
2:4. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses,
and they shall run like horsemen.
2:5. They shall leap like the noise of chariots upon the
tops of mountains, like the noise of a flame of fire
devouring the stubble, as a strong people prepared to
battle.
2:6. At their presence the people shall be in grievous
pains: all faces shall be made like a kettle.
2:7. They shall run like valiant men: like men of war they
shall scale the wall: the men shall march every one on his
way, and they shall not turn aside from their ranks.
2:8. No one shall press upon his brother: they shall walk
every one in his path: yea, and they shall fall through the
windows, and shall take no harm.
2:9. They shall enter into the city: they shall run upon
the wall, they shall climb up the houses, they shall come
in at the windows, as a thief.
2:10. At their presence the earth hath trembled, the
heavens are moved: the sun and moon are darkened, and the
stars have withdrawn their shining.
2:11. And the Lord hath uttered his voice before the face
of his army: for his armies are exceedingly great, for they
are strong, and execute his word: for the day of the Lord
is great and very terrible: and who can stand it?
2:12. Now, therefore, saith the Lord. Be converted to me
with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and
mourning.
2:13. And rend your hearts, and not your garments and turn
to the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful,
patient and rich in mercy, and ready to repent of the evil.
2:14. Who knoweth but he will return, and forgive, and
leave a blessing behind him, sacrifice and libation to the
Lord your God?
2:15. Blow the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, call a
solemn assembly,
2:16. Gather together the people, sanctify the church,
assemble the ancients, gather together the little ones, and
them that suck at the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth
from his bed, and the bride out of her bridal chamber.
2:17. Between the porch and the altar the priests, the
Lord's ministers, shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord,
spare thy people: and give not thy inheritane to reproach,
that the heathens should rule over them. Why should they say
among the nations: Where is their God?
2:18. The Lord hath been zealons for his land, and hath
spared his people.
2:19 And the Lord answered, and said to his people: Behold
I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and you shall be
filled with them: and I will no more make you a reproach
among the nations.
2:20. And I will remove far off from you the northern
enemy: and I will drive him into a land unpassable, and
desert, with his face towards the east sea, and his hinder
part towards the utmost sea: and his stench shall ascend,
and his rottenness shall go up, because he hath done
proudly.
The northern enemy... Some understand this of Holofernes
and his army: others, of the locusts.
2:21. Fear not, O land, be g1ad, and rejoice: for the Lord
hath done great things.
2:22. Fear not, ye beasts of the fields: for the beautiful
places of the wilderness are sprung, for the tree hath
brought forth its fruit, the fig tree, and the vine have
yielded their strength.
2:23. And you, O children of Sion, rejoice, and be joyful
in the Lord your God: because he hath given you a teacher
of justice, and he will make the early and the latter rain
to come down to you as in the beginning.
2:24. And the floors shall be filled with wheat, and the
presses shall overfiow with wine, and oil.
2:25. And I will restore to you the years which the locust,
and the bruchus, and the mildew, and the palmerworm hath
eaten; my great host which I sent upon you.
2:26. And you shall eat in plenty, and shall be filled and
you shall praise the name of the Lord your God; who hath
done wonders with you, and my people shall not be
confounded for ever.
2:27. And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel:
and I am the Lord yonr God, and there is none besides: and
my people shall not be confounded forever.
2:28. And it shall come to pass after this, that I will pour
out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy: your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
2:29. Moreover, upon my servants and handmaids in those days
I will pour forth my spirit.
2:30. And I will shew wonders in heaven; and in earth,
blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke.
2:31. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon
into blood: before the great and dreadful day of the Lord
doth come.
2:32. And it shall come to pass, that every one that shall
call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved: for in
Mount Sion, and in Jerusalem shall be salvation, as the
Lord hath said, and in the residue whom the Lord shall
call.
Joel Chapter 3
3:1. For behold in those days, and in that time when I
shall bring back the captivity of Juda, and Jerusalem:
3:2. I will gather together all nations and will bring them
down into the valley of Josaphat: and I will plead with
them there for my people, and for my inheritance, Israel,
whom they have scattered among the nations, and have parted
my land.
3:3. And they have cast lots upon my people: and the boy
they have put in the stews, and the girl they have sold for
wine, that they might drink.
3:4. But what have you to do with me, O Tyre, and Sidon,
and all the coast of the Philistines? will you revenge
yourselves on me? and if you revenge yourselves on me, I
will very soon return you a recompense upon your own head.
3:5. For you have taken away my silver, and my gold: and my
desirable, and most beantiful things you have carried into
your temples.
3:6. And the children of Juda, and the children of
Jerusalem, you have sold to the children of the Greeks,
that you might remove them far off from their own country.
3:7. Behold, I will raise them up out of the place wherein
you have sold them: and I will return your recompense upon
your own heads.
3:8. And I will sell yonr sons, and your daughters, by the
hands of the children of Juda, and they shall sell them to
the Sabeans, a nation far off, for the Lord hath spoken it.
3:9. Proclaim ye this among the nations: Prepare war, raise
up the strong: let them come, let all the men of war come
up.
3:10. Cut your ploughshares into swords, and your spades
into spears. Let the weak say: I am strong.
3:11. Break forth, and come, all ye nations from round
about, and gather yourselves together: there will the Lord
cause all thy strong ones to fall down.
3:12. Let them arise, and let the nations come up into the
valley of Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all
nations round about.
3:13. Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe: come
and go down, for the press is full, the fats run over: for
their wickedness is multiplied.
3:14. Nations, nations in the valley of destruction: for
the day of the Lord is near in the valley of destruction.
3:15. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars have
withdrawn their shining.
3:16. And the Lord shall roar out of Sion, and utter his
voice from Jerusalem: and the heavens and the earth shall
be moved, and the Lord shall be the hope of his people, and
the strength of the children of Israel.
3:17. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God,
dwelling in Sion, my holy monntain: and Jerusalem shall be
holy, and strangers shall pass through it no more.
3:18. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the
mountains shall drop down sweetness, aud the hills shall
flow with milk: and waters shall flow through all the
rivers of Juda: and a fountain shall come forth of the
house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns.
A fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord,
etc... Viz., the fountain of grace in the church militant,
and of glory in the church triumphant: which shall water
the torrent or valley of thorns, that is, the souls that
before, like barren ground brought forth nothing but
thorns; or that were afflicted with the thorns of crosses
and tribulations.
3:19. Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom a wilderness
destroyed: because they have done unjustly against the
children of Juda, and have shed innocent blood in their
land.
3:20. And Judea shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem
to generation and generation.
Judea - and Jerusalem... That is, the spiritual Jerusalem,
viz., the church of Christ.
3:21. And I will cleanse their blood, which I had not
cleansed: and the Lord will dwell in Sion.
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