Commentary on Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah and Nahum John Calvin
MINOR PROPHETS
time and the late rain,' that is, of the month of March. For in those warm climates the harvests we know, is earlier than with us. We here gather the corn in July but they gather it there in May. The fruit then ripens with them in March, when they need the late rain. And in Jeremiah 5 it appears quite evident, that {}מורהmure, as in this place, is called the rain, which comes down after sowing; for God says there, `I will give you,' etc., and first he uses the general word {}גשםgeshem, and then he adds the two kinds of rain, which are also mentioned here; and afterwards he adds, `In their time,' that is, each rain in its time and season. --- Then {}מורהmure has its time, and {}מלקושmelkush also has its time; otherwise the words of the prophet would not be consistent.
We now see what the Prophet means. Of the word {}מלקוםmelkush we have said something in Hosea. Then the Prophet says now, that God would be so propitious to the Jews, as to neglect no means of testifying his favor towards them; for he would give them rain in the month of October and in the month of March, to fertilize the ground after sowing, and before the harvest or before the fruit came to maturity.
Here then is promised to the Jews that the land would be made fertile by natural means. It now follows ---
Joel 2:24
24. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil.
24. Et implebuntur horrea frumento et resonabunt torcularia vino (musto, ad verbum: diximus de hac voce prius,) et oleo.
He goes on with the same subject in this verse, and shows the effects of rain; for when the earth is irrigated and satiated with sufÏcient moisture, it brings forth fruit, rich and plentiful. God then will cause that the rains shall not be useless, for the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine as well as oil. He afterwards adds ---
Joel 2:25
25. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.
25. Et reddam vobis annos (pro aliis annis, subaudiendum est) quibus comedit locusta, bruchus, eruca ({,}חסילalii vertunt, rubiginem: sed dixi primo capite me non adeo solicitum esse de istis vocibus, quia etiam ignotae sunt hodie ipsis Judaeis; sed certum est esse insecta, quae corrumpunt omnes terrae fruges, ut tunc diximus,) exercitus meus magnus, quem miseram ad vos.
The Prophet confirms what he had previously said, and states what is of an opposite character, --- that God can as easily restore a rich fruitfulness to the land as he had before rendered it barren by sending devouring insects. I will give you years, (for the other years,) he says; and that the Jews might more fully understand that all this was in God's hand, he expressly declares that the cankerworms, the chafers, and the locusts 18 , were his army and as it were his hired army, whom he had employed as it seemed good to him. The spoilers, then, which had destroyed the whole
18There are four sorts mentioned in Hebrew as in the first chapter: one of them is omitted here and in the Latin text. — Ed.