PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible — Joel
Gill, John, 1697-1771 · 24,745 words · 42 reading sections
Joel 1:1
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible. Joel 1:1 INTRODUCTION TO JOEL In some Hebrew Bibles this prophecy is called "Sepher Joel", the Book of Joel; in the Vulgate Latin version, the Prophecy of Joel; and in the Syriac version, the Prophecy of the Prophet Joel; and the Arabic version, the Prophet Joel; and so th…
830 wordsSECTION 2Joel 1:2
Joel 1:2 Ver. 2. Hear this, ye old men,.... What the prophet was about to relate, concerning the consumption of the fruits of the earth, by various sorts of creatures, and by a drought; and these are called upon to declare if ever the like had been known or heard of by them; who by reason of age had the greatest oppor…
308 wordsSECTION 3Joel 1:3
Joel 1:3 Ver. 3. Tell ye your children of it,.... Give them a particular account of it; describe the creatures and their number as near as you can; say when they begun and how long they continued, and what devastations they made, and what was the cause and reason of such a judgment, your sins and transgressions: and …
128 wordsSECTION 4Joel 1:4
Joel 1:4 Ver. 4. That which the palmer worm hath left hath the locust eaten,.... These, with the two following, are four kinds of, locusts as Jarchi observes; though it is difficult to fix the particular species designed; they seem to have their names from some peculiar properties belonging to them; as the first of th…
696 wordsSECTION 5Joel 1:5
Joel 1:5 Ver. 5. Awake, ye drunkards, and weep: and howl, all ye drinkers of wine,.... Who are used to neither, either to awake or to howl, being very prone to drowsiness upon their drinking bouts, and to mirth and jollity in them; but now should be awake, and sober enough, not as being a virtue in them, but through w…
176 wordsSECTION 6Joel 1:6
Joel 1:6 Ver. 6. For a nation is come up upon my land,.... A nation of locusts, so called from their great numbers, and coming from foreign parts; just as the ants are called a "people", and the conies a "folk", Pr 30:25; and which were an emblem of the nation of the Chaldeans, which came up from Babylon, and invaded …
291 wordsSECTION 7Joel 1:7
Joel 1:7 Ver. 7. He hath laid my vine waste,.... That is, the locust, which spoiled the vines in Judea, the singular being put for the plural, by gnawing the branches, biting the tops of them, and devouring the leaves and the fruit; and so not only left them bare and barren, but destroyed them: this may emblematically…
353 wordsSECTION 8Joel 1:8
Joel 1:8 Ver. 8. Lament like a virgin,.... This is not the continuation of the prophet's speech to the drunkards; but, as Aben Ezra observes, he either speaks to himself, or to the land the Targum supplies it, O congregation of Israel; the more religious and godly part of the people are here addressed; who were concer…
259 wordsSECTION 9Joel 1:9
Joel 1:9 Ver. 9. The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord,.... The meat offering was made of fine flour, oil, and frankincense; and the drink offering was of wine; and, because of the want of corn and wine, these were not brought to the temple as usual; and which was matter of gre…
146 wordsSECTION 10Joel 1:10
Joel 1:10 Ver. 10. The field is wasted,.... By the locust, that eat up all green things, the grass and herbs, the fruit and leaves of trees; and also by the Chaldeans trampling on it with their horses, and the increase of which became fodder for them: the land mourneth; being destitute, nothing growing upon it, and s…
230 wordsSECTION 11Joel 1:11
Joel 1:11 Ver. 11. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen,.... Tillers of the land, who have took a great deal of pains in cultivating the earth, dunging, ploughing, and sowing it; confusion may cover you, because of your disappointment, the increase not answering to your expectations and labours: howl, O ye vinedressers; th…
195 wordsSECTION 12Joel 1:12
Joel 1:12 Ver. 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 loc…
295 wordsSECTION 13Joel 1:13
Joel 1:13 Ver. 13. Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests,.... Prepare and be ready to raise up lamentation and mourning; or gird yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn in that, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi supply the words; see Jer 4:8; howl, ye ministers of the altar; who served there, by laying on and burning the sacrif…
144 wordsSECTION 14Joel 1:14
Joel 1:14 Ver. 14. Sanctify yea a fast,.... This is spoken to the priests, whose business it was to appoint a fast, as the Targum renders it; or to set apart a time for such religious service, as the word signifies; and to keep it holy themselves, and see that it was so kept by others: Kimchi interprets it, prepare th…
255 wordsSECTION 15Joel 1:15
Joel 1:15 Ver. 15. Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord [is] at hand,.... A time of severer and heavier judgments than these of the locusts, caterpillars, &c. which were a presage and emblem of greater ones, even of the total destruction of their city, temple, and nation, either by the Chaldeans, or by the Romans…
1,327 wordsSECTION 16Joel 2:1
Joel 2:1 INTRODUCTION TO JOEL 2 In this chapter a further account is given of the judgment of the locusts and caterpillars, or of those who are designed by them, Joe 2:1; the people of the Jews are called to repentance, humiliation, and fasting, urged from the grace and goodness of God, his jealousy and pity for his …
333 wordsSECTION 17Joel 2:2
Joel 2:2 Ver. 2. A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness,.... Alluding to the gloomy and thick darkness caused by the locusts, which sometimes come in prodigious numbers, like thick clouds, and darken the air; so the land of Egypt was darkened by them, Ex 10:15; historians and travel…
476 wordsSECTION 18Joel 2:3
Joel 2:3 Ver. 3. 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 them themselves, which were like a consuming fire; wherever they came, they devoured all green grass, …
349 wordsSECTION 19Joel 2:4
Joel 2:4 Ver. 4. The appearance of them [is] as the appearance of horses,.... in their running, as Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it; they came with, as much swiftness and eagerness, with as much fierceness and courage, as horses rush into the battle. Bochart {h} has shown, from various writers, that the head of a locust…
200 wordsSECTION 20Joel 2:5
Joel 2:5 Ver. 5. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of that mountains shall they leap,.... The motion of the locusts is leaping from place to place; for which the locusts have legs peculiarly made, their hindermost being the longest; wherefore Pliny {i} observes, that insects which have their hindermost legs long …
441 wordsSECTION 21Joel 2:6
Joel 2:6 Ver. 6. Before their face the people shall be much pained,.... Or, "at their presence"; at the sight of them they shall be in pain, as a woman in travail; into such distress an army of locusts would throw them, since they might justly fear all the fruits of the earth would be devoured by them, and they should…
149 wordsSECTION 22Joel 2:7
Joel 2:7 Ver. 7. They shall run like mighty men,.... Like men of war, in a hostile way, as soldiers run upon their enemy with undaunted courage and bravery. Bochart from Pisidas describes the locusts' manner of fighting, who says, they strike not standing, but running: they shall climb the wall like men of war; scale…
307 wordsSECTION 23Joel 2:8
Joel 2:8 Ver. 8. Neither shall one thrust another,.... Press upon another, thrust him out of his place, or push him forward, or any ways straiten and distress him, or in the least hinder him in his progress: they shall walk everyone in his path; or "highway" {o}; everyone should have his path, and keep in it, and it …
327 wordsSECTION 24Joel 2:9
Joel 2:9 Ver. 9. They shall run to and fro in the city,.... Leap about from place to place, as locusts do; see Isa 33:4; and as the Chaldeans did when they became masters of the city of Jerusalem; they ran about from place to place to seize upon their spoil and plunder: they shall run upon the wall; which before they…
183 wordsSECTION 25Joel 2:10
Joel 2:10 Ver. 10. The earth shall quake before them,.... The inhabitants of it, because of the desolating judgments they bring with them, and those enemies that are signified by them: the heavens shall tremble; being obscured by them: the sun and moon shall be dark; the locusts sometimes come in such large numbers …
195 wordsSECTION 26Joel 2:11
Joel 2:11 Ver. 11. And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army,.... Either the army of the locusts, whom Pliny {u} calls "pestis deorum", "the plague of the gods"; and the Arabians frequently style them the army of God. It is a tradition of theirs that locusts fell into the hands of Mahomet, with this inscripti…
411 wordsSECTION 27Joel 2:12
Joel 2:12 Ver. 12. Therefore also now, saith the Lord,.... Before this terrible and intolerable day, which is near at hand, comes; before these judgments and calamities threatened take place, though just at hand; serious repentance is never too late, now is the accepted time; see Lu 19:42; turn ye [even] to me with a…
188 wordsSECTION 28Joel 2:13
Joel 2:13 Ver. 13. And rend your heart, and not your garments,.... Which latter used to be done in times of distress, either private or public, and as a token of grief and sorrow, Ge 37:34; nor was it criminal or unlawful, the apostles themselves used it, Ac 14:14; nor is it absolutely forbidden here, only comparative…
7,561 wordsSECTION 29Joel 3:1
Joel 3:1 INTRODUCTION TO JOEL 3 This chapter, which some make the fourth, contains a prophecy of God's judgments on all the antichristian nations at the time of the Jews' conversion, and the reasons of them, Joe 3:1; a threatening of Tyre and Zidon, by way of retaliation, for carrying the riches of the Jews into thei…
239 wordsSECTION 30Joel 3:2
Joel 3:2 Ver. 2. I will also gather all nations,.... Or cause or suffer them to be gathered together against his people; not the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites, in the times of Jehoshaphat, as Aben Ezra; but either the Turks, prophesied of under the name of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel, Eze 38:1; and a multitude of oth…
797 wordsSECTION 31Joel 3:3
Joel 3:3 Ver. 3. And they have cast lots for my people,.... Not only parted their land, but cast lots for their persons, Or played at dice for them, how many captives each soldier should have, and which should be their share and property: ninety seven thousand Jews, Josephus {d} says, were carried captive by the Roman…
224 wordsSECTION 32Joel 3:4
Joel 3:4 Ver. 4. Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine?.... The Tyrians, Zidonians, and Philistines, were near neighbours of the Jews, and implacable enemies to them; and are here put for the enemies of the true church of Christ, the Papists and Turks, and in whose pos…
197 wordsSECTION 33Joel 3:5
Joel 3:5 Ver. 5. Because ye have taken my silver and my gold,.... Which is all the Lord's, Hag 2:8; or which he had bestowed upon his people, and they had taken from them: and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things; either the rich furniture of the houses of his people, which they carried into their…
218 wordsSECTION 34Joel 3:6
Joel 3:6 Ver. 6. The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem,.... Not children in age literally, as Kimchi, kidnapped or bought by the Tyrians; but the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem: have ye sold unto the Grecians; or sons of Javan; it was one part of the merchandise of Tyre to trade in the persons …
174 wordsSECTION 35Joel 3:7
Joel 3:7 Ver. 7. Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them,.... That is, bring them back to their own land, from their places whither they have been carried captive, and where they have dwelt in obscurity, and as if theft had been buried in graves, but now should be raised up and restored; a…
250 wordsSECTION 36Joel 3:8
Joel 3:8 Ver. 8. And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah,.... That is, deliver them into their hands, to dispose of them; this is thought to have been literally fulfilled in the Tyrians, when thirty thousand {g} of them were sold for slaves, upon the taking of their city by …
564 wordsSECTION 37Joel 3:9
Joel 3:9 Ver. 9. Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles,.... This decree of God, concerning the deliverance of his church; and the destruction of their enemies; which is to be proclaimed among them, to the terror of them, and the comfort of God's people, encouraging them to the battle, since they might be sure of victory…
294 wordsSECTION 38Joel 3:10
Joel 3:10 Ver. 10. Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears,.... Let not only soldiers, and such as have been trained up in military discipline, appear in the field on this occasion; but let husbandmen and vinedressers leave their fields and vineyards, and turn their instruments of husban…
392 wordsSECTION 39Joel 3:11
Joel 3:11 Ver. 11. Assemble yourselves,.... From divers parts into one place: "be ye gathered"; or "gather yourselves together", as the Targum and Kimchi; get together in a body, muster up all the forces you can collect together, Jarchi, from Menachem, by the change of a letter, renders it, "make ye haste"; lose time …
334 wordsSECTION 40Joel 3:12
Joel 3:12 Ver. 12. Let the Heathen be awakened, and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat,.... That is, let the enemies of Christ and his church be aroused from that state of security in which they are, and prepare for their own defence; for in such a state the antichristian powers will be before their destruction; see Re…
271 wordsSECTION 41Joel 3:13
Joel 3:13 Ver. 13. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe,.... This is said to the mighty ones sent, the Christian princes, the executioners of God's vengeance on antichrist; the angels that will pour out the vials of his wrath on the antichristian states, compared to reapers, with a sharp sickle in their hands…
321 wordsSECTION 42Joel 3:14
Joel 3:14 Ver. 14. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision,.... The same with the valley of Jehoshaphat before mentioned; which shows that not any valley of that name is intended, but a certain place so called from the judgments of God in it; and here named "the valley of decision", because here their judgmen…
3,717 wordsSource & rights
Public domain; John Gill (1697–1771). Source item is marked Public Domain on Internet Archive.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.