In this passage the same feeling is attributed to men and to the fruits of the land: _In grief are the priests, the ground is in grief_. And it is repeatedly said that all alike are _abashed_. By this heavy word we have sought to render the effect of the similarly sounding “hôbhîsha,” that our English version renders _ashamed_. It signifies to be frustrated, and so _disheartened_, _put out_: _soured_ would be an equivalent, applicable to the vine and to joy and to men’s hearts.
_Put on_ mourning _, O priests, beat the breast; Wail, ye ministers of the altar; Come, lie down in sackcloth, O ministers of my God: For meal-offering and drink-offering are cut off from the house of your God._
_Hallow a fast, summon an assembly, Gather[1201] all the inhabitants of the land to the house of your God; And cry to Jehovah: “Alas for the Day! At hand is the Day of Jehovah! And as vehemence from the Vehement[1202] doth it come.” Is not food cut off from before us, Gladness and joy from the house of our God? The grains shrivel under their hoes,[1203] The garners are desolate, the barns broken down, For the corn is withered—what shall we put in them?[1204] The herds of cattle huddle together,[1205] for they have no pasture; Yea, the flocks of sheep are forlorn.[1206] To Thee, Jehovah, do I cry: For fire has devoured the pastures of the steppes,[1207] And the flame hath scorched all the trees of the field. The wild beasts pant up to Thee: For the watercourses are dry, And fire has devoured the pastures of the steppes._
Here, with the close of chap. i., Joel’s discourse takes pause, and in chap. ii. he begins a second with another call to repentance in face of the same plague. But the plague has progressed. The locusts are described now in their invasion not of the country but of the towns, to which they pass after the country is stripped. For illustration of the latter see above, p. 401. The _horn_ which is to be blown, ver. 1, is an _alarm horn_,[1208] to warn the people of the approach of the Day of the Lord, and not the Shophar which called the people to a general assembly, as in ver. 15.
_Blow a horn in Zion, Sound the alarm in My holy mountain! Let all inhabitants of the land tremble, For the Day of Jehovah comes—it is near! Day of darkness and murk, day of cloud and heavy mist.[1209] Like dawn scattered[1210] on the mountains, A people many and powerful; Its like has not been from of old, And shall not again be for years of generation upon generation. Before it the fire devours,[1211] And behind the flame consumes. Like the garden of Eden[1212] is the land in front, And behind it a desolate desert; Yea, it lets nothing escape. Their visage is the visage of horses, And like horsemen they run. They rattle like chariots over the tops of the hills, Like the crackle of flames devouring stubble, Like a powerful people prepared for battle. Peoples are writhing before them, Every face gathers blackness._
_Like warriors they run, Like fighting-men they come up the wall; They march every man by himself,[1213] And they ravel[1214] not their paths. None jostles his comrade, They march every man on his track,[1215] And plunge through the missiles unbroken.[1216] They scour the city, run upon the walls, Climb into the houses, and enter the windows like a thief. Earth trembles before them, Heaven quakes, Sun and moon become black, The stars withdraw their shining. And Jehovah utters His voice before His army: For very great is His host; Yea, powerful is He that performeth His word. Great is the Day of Jehovah, and very awful: Who may abide it?_[1217]