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 . 5 Awake , drunkards , and weep ; And wail , all you wine drinkers , On account of the sweet wine That is cut off from your mouth . 6 For a nation has [1]invaded my land , Mighty and without number ; Its teeth are the teeth of a lion , And it has the fangs of a lioness . 7 It has made my vine a waste And my fig tree [2]splinters . It has stripped them bare and cast them away ; Their branches have become white .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Joel 1:1-7
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.