The Devastation of the Land by Locusts

11 The word of the Lord that came to Joel , the son of Pethuel : 2 Hear this , O elders , And listen , all inhabitants of the land . Has anything like this happened in your days Or in your fathers' days ? 3 Tell your sons about it, And let your sons tell their sons , And their sons the next generation . 4 What the gnawing locust has left , the swarming locust has eaten ; And what the swarming locust has left , the creeping locust has eaten ; And what the creeping locust has left , the stripping locust has eaten .

Matthew Henry's Commentary on Joel 1:1-4

Commentary on Joel 1:1-7

(Read Joel 1:1-7)

The most aged could not remember such calamities as were about to take place. Armies of insects were coming upon the land to eat the fruits of it. It is expressed so as to apply also to the destruction of the country by a foreign enemy, and seems to refer to the devastations of the Chaldeans. God is Lord of hosts, has every creature at his command, and, when he pleases, can humble and mortify a proud, rebellious people, by the weakest and most contemptible creatures. It is just with God to take away the comforts which are abused to luxury and excess; and the more men place their happiness in the gratifications of sense, the more severe temporal afflictions are upon them. The more earthly delights we make needful to satisfy us, the more we expose ourselves to trouble.