Matthew Henry on Joel 1:8-13
The judgment is here described as very lamentable, and such as all sorts of people should share in; it shall not only rob the drunkards of their pleasure (if that were the worst of it, it might be the better borne), but it shall deprive others of their necessary subsistence, who are therefore called to lament (Joe 1:8), as a virgin laments the death of her lover to whom she was espoused, but not completely married, yet so that he was in effect her husband, or as a young woman lately married, from whom the husband of her youth, her young husband, or the husband to whom she was married when she was young, is suddenly taken away by death. Between a new-married couple that are young, that marrie…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Joel 1:12
pomegranate--a tree straight in the stem growing twenty feet high; the fruit is of the size of an orange, with blood-red colored pulp.
palm tree--The dates of Palestine were famous. The palm is the symbol of Judea on coins under the Roman emperor Vespasian. It often grows a hundred feet high.
apple tree--The Hebrew is generic, including the orange, lemon, and pear tree.
joy is withered away--such as is felt in the harvest and the vintage seasons (Psa 4:7; Isa 9:3).
John Gill on Joel 1:12
The vine is dried up,.... Withered away, stripped of its leaves and fruits, and its sap and moisture gone: or, "is ashamed" (t); to see itself in this condition, and not answer the expectation of its proprietor and dresser:
and the fig tree languisheth; sickens and dies, through the bite of the locusts:
the pomegranate tree: whose fruit is delicious, and of which wine was made: the palm tree also; which bears dates:
and the apple tree; that looks so beautiful, when either in bloom, or laden with fruit, and whose fruit is very grateful to the palate; so that both what were for common use and necessary food, and what were for delight and pleasure, were destroyed by these noisome creatures:…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin
