to call out to (i.e. properly · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
fire
אֵ֗שׁ'Esh
H784
fire (literally or figuratively) · noun, common both genders singular absolute
devoured
אָֽכְלָה֙'a.khe.Lah
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
pastures
נְא֣וֹתne.'ot
H4999
a home · noun, common feminine plural construct
wilderness
מִדְבָּ֔רmid.Bar
H4057
a pasture (i.e. open field · noun, common masculine singular absolute
flame
וְלֶ֣הָבָ֔הve.Le.ha.Vah
H3852
a flash · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
burned
לִהֲטָ֖הli.ha.Tah
H3857
properly · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
trees
עֲצֵ֥י'a.Tzei
H6086
a tree (from its firmness) · noun, common masculine plural construct
field
הַשָּׂדֶֽהha.sa.Deh
H7704
a field (as flat) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 50:15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
Jeremiah 9:10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up,…
Amos 7:4 Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a…
Micah 7:7 Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.
Psalms 91:15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
Joel 2:3 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 wil…
Habakkuk 3:17-18 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield…
Luke 18:7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Joel 1:14–end
We have observed abundance of tears shed for the destruction of the fruits of the earth by the locusts; now here we have those tears turned into the right channel, that of repentance and humiliation before God. The judgment was very heavy, and here they are directed to own the hand of God in it, his mighty hand, and to humble themselves under it. Here is,
I. A proclamation issued out for a general fast. The priests are ordered to appoint one; they must not only mourn themselves, but they must call upon others to mourn too: "Sanctify a fast; let some time be set apart from all worldly business to be spent in the exercises of religion, in the expressions of repentance and other extraordinary i…
to thee will I cry--Joel here interposes, As this people is insensible to shame or fear and will not hear, I will leave them and address myself directly to Thee (compare Isa 15:5; Jer 23:9).
fire--that is, the parching heat.
pastures--"grassy places"; from a Hebrew root "to be pleasant." Such places would be selected for "habitations" (Margin). But the English Version rendering is better than Margin.
John Gill on Joel 1:19
O Lord, to thee will I cry,.... Or pray, as the Targum; with great vehemency and earnestness, commiserating the case of man and beast: these are the words of the prophet, resolving to use his interest at the through of grace in this time of distress, whatever others did:
for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness; or, "of the plain" (c) though in the wildernesses of Judea, there were pastures for cattle: Kimchi interprets them of the shepherds' tents or cotes, as the word (d) is sometimes used; which were will not to be pitched where there were pastures for their flocks: and so the Targum renders it, "the habitations of the wilderness"; these, whether pastures or habitations,…
(Verse 19, 20.) I will cry out to you, Lord, for the fire has consumed the beautiful things of the desert, and the flame has set all the wood of the region ablaze; even the beasts of the field, like a parched land thirsting for rain, have looked up to you; for the springs of water have dried up, and the fire has devoured the beautiful things of the desert. LXX: I will cry out to you, Lord, for the fire has consumed the beautiful things of the desert, and the flame has set all the wood of the field ablaze, and the animals of the field have looked up to you, for the streams of water have dried up, and the fire has devoured the beautiful things of the desert. The prophet cries out to the Lord, or to the people through the prophet: for the fire has consumed the beautiful things of the desert, and the flame has set ablaze all the wood of the region, the beasts and the farm animals, or the fields, look to the Lord, like a little field thirsty for rain. This, in one word, is signified by the Eagle saying, 'it has been desolated'; and they look to him, because the fountains, or the outlets of water, have dried up, and the fire has devoured the beautiful things of the desert, because indeed the caterpillar, and the locust, and the devourer have done so, and the rust, because the fire is in the straw, and the flame in the bushes. However, the beautiful places of the desert, which are called Naoth in Hebrew (), let us understand either the flat plains, or the flourishing meadows, or the green places with herbs, which provided pastures for animals. But when the prophet cried out to the Lord, fire caused the animals to look towards him, which devoured the beautiful places of the desert, and the flame that ignited all the wood of the region, so that the crops and fruits were destroyed together, and because the water sources dried up, and whatever could be found in the desert, the voracious flame consumed. At the same time, let us consider that unless because of narrowness and the taking away of pleasures, neither the prophet nor the beasts would cry out to the Lord, or look up to the Lord, which indeed can be referred to a righteous man once, who when he turns away and does evil, his former virtues will by no means benefit him; but the Lord will judge him in whatever he finds. We can call them the beautiful things of the desert, about which it is written: 'More are the…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Wilderness — (1.) Heb. midhbar, denoting not a barren desert but a district or region suitable for pasturing sheep and cattle (Ps. 65:12; Isa. 42:11; Jer. 23:10; Joel 1:19; 2:22); an uncultivated place. This word…
Animals · Suffer un — Suffer un
Famine · 5:17;14:1-6;48:33; — 5:17;14:1-6;48:33;
Nation · Chastised — Chastised
Trees · Often suffered from: Fire — Often suffered from: Fire
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Joel 1:19-20
19. 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.
19. Ad te Jehovam clamabo, quia ignis consumpsit pascua (vel, habitacula) deserti: et flamma accendit omnes arbores agri.
20. And 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.
20. Etiam bestiae agri clamabunt ad te (quanquam rg proprium est cervi, ut dicunt grammatici, sicuti etiam Psalmo 42 habetur: est illic idem verbum: clamabunt igitur bestiae ad te,) quia aruerunt decursus aquarum, quia ignis consumpsit habitacula (vel, pascua) deser…
"Is not the food destroyed before our eyes, joy and exulting from the house of our God? Joe 1:17. The grains have mouldered under their clods, the storehouses are desolate, the barns have fallen down; because the corn is destroyed. Joe 1:18. How the cattle groan! the herds of oxen are bewildered, for no pasture was left for them; even the flocks of sheep suffer." As a proof that the day of the Lord is coming like a devastation from the Almighty, the prophet points in Joe 1:16 to the fact that the food is taken away before their eyes, and therewith all joy and exulting from the house of God. "The food of the sinners perishes before their eyes, since the crops they looked for are snatched away…
Lord, help us! (literally to you, Lord, I cry): Joel responded to the plague with an earnest prayer. The people’s only recourse was to turn to the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth and appeal to his goodness; he alone could reverse their desperate situation.
