Commentary on Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah and Nahum John Calvin (continued)
MINOR PROPHETS
Joel 1:12
12. The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
12. Vitis exaruit, et ficulnea infirmata est (vel, periit;) malogranatum, etiam palma et malus, omnes arbores exaruerunt: certe exaruit gaudium a filiis hominum.
Lecture Fortieth
The Prophet now concludes his subjects which was, that as God executed judgments so severe on the people, it was a wonder that they remained stupefied, when thus reduces to extremities. The vine, he says, has dried up, and every kind of fruit; he adds the fig-tree, afterwards the {}רמוןremun, the pomegranate, (for so they render it,) the palm, the apple-tree, 11 and all trees. And this sterility was a clear sign of God's wrath; and it would have been so regarded, had not men either wholly deceived themselves, or had become hardened against all punishments. Now this {αναὶσθησὶα} (insensibility) is as it were the very summit of evils; that is, when men feel not their own calamities, or at least understand not that they are inflicted by the hand of God. Let us now proceed ---
Joel 1:13-15
13. Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
13. Accingimini et plangete sacerdotes; ululate, ministri altaris; venite, pernoctate cum saccis, ministri Dei mei: quia prohibita est a domo Dei vestri oblatio et libamen.
14. Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord,
14. Sactificate jejunium, vocate coetum, congregate senes, omnes incoles terrae, in domum Jehovae Dei vestri, et clamate ad Jehovam,
15. Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
15. Heus Diem! Quia propinquus est dies Jehovae, et tanquam vastitas ab Omnipotente veniet.
Now the Prophet begins to exhort the people to repentance. Having represented them as grievously afÒicted by the hand of God, he now adds that a remedy was at hand, provided they solicited the favor of God; and at the same tine he denounces a more grievous punishment in future; for it would not have been enough that they had been reminded of their calamities and evils, except they also feared in time to come. Hence the Prophet, that he might the more move them, says, that the hand of God was still stretched out, and that there was something worse nigh at hand, except they of themselves anticipated it. This is the purport of the whole. I now
11Of the three foregoing trees we may add this account: The pomegranate, {,{רמוןgrows about 20 feet high, has a straight stem and spreading branches, and bears large red blossoms. Its fruit is about the size of an orange, and is delicious and cooling. The palm or date-tree, ,{}תמרis sometimes as high as 100 feet, and remarkably straight. Its fruit grows in clusters under its leaves, and is in taste very sweet. Palm branches were emblems of victory. What is called here the apple-tree, ,{}תפוחwas no doubt the citron-tree. The word is derived from ,{}נפהto breathe, on account of the extreme fragrance it emits. --- Ed.