The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

General Editor for the Old Testament:—

A. F. KIRKPATRICK, D.D.

THE BOOKS OF

JOEL AND AMOS

WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES

BY

THE REV. S. R. DRIVER, D.D.

regius professor of hebrew in the university of oxford.

Cambridge:

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

1898

[All Rights reserved.]

PREFACE

by the

GENERAL EDITOR FOR THE OLD TESTAMENT

The present General Editor for the Old Testament in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges desires to say that, in accordance with the policy of his predecessor the Bishop of Worcester, he does not hold himself responsible for the particular interpretations adopted or for the opinions expressed by the editors of the several Books, nor has he endeavoured to bring them into agreement with one another. It is inevitable that there should be differences of opinion in regard to many questions of criticism and interpretation, and it seems best that these differences should find free expression in different volumes. He has endeavoured to secure, as far as possible, that the general scope and character of the series should be observed, and that views which have a reasonable claim to consideration should not be ignored, but he has felt it best that the final responsibility should, in general, rest with the individual contributors.

A. F. KIRKPATRICK.

Cambridge,

August, 1896.

Principal Abbreviations employed

B.R.… Edw. Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine (ed. 2, 1856).

D.B. (or D.B.2) … Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, ed. 1, or (from A to J) ed. 2.

K.A.T.2 … Eb. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A. T., ed. 2, 1883 (translated under the title The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. 1885, 1888). The references are to the pagination of the German, which is given on the margin of the English translation.

K.B.… Eb. Schrader, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek (1889 ff.).

N.H.B.… H. B. Tristram, Natural History of the Bible (1868).

O.T.J.C.2 … W. Robertson Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, ed. 2, 1892.

P.E.F. Qu. St.… Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statements.

R.P.1 and R.P.2 … Records of the Past, first and second series, respectively.

Z.A.T.W.… Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft.

Z.D.M.G.… Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft.

Z.D.P.V.… Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins.

The illustrations are taken from Engel’s Music of the most Ancient Nations (Murray); Wilkinson and Birch’s Ancient Egyptians (Murray); the Speaker’s Commentary (Murray); the Cambridge Natural History (Macmillan); and Lortet’s La Syrie d’aujourd’hui (Hachette), by permission of the publishers.

CONTENTS

Introduction to Joel:—

§1.  Personal life of Joel

§2.  Occasion and contents of Joel’s prophecy

§3.  Date of Joel

§4.  Interpretation of Joel’s prophecy

Notes

Additional Notes:—

On Chap. i. 10 (tîrôsh)

On Chap. i. 15 (Shaddai)

Excursus on Locusts

Introduction to Amos:—

§1.  Personal life of Amos

§2.  Contents of Amos’s prophecy

§3.  Circumstances of the age of Amos

§4.  Characteristic teaching of Amos

§5.  Some literary aspects of Amos’ prophecy

Notes

Additional Notes:—

On Chap. i. 3 (the threshing-board)

On Chap. i. 5 (‘Eden)

On Chap. ii. 4 (the meaning of tôrâh)

On Chap. iii. 13 (Jehovah of hosts)

On Chap. v. 16 (Syrian mourning ceremonies)

On Chap. v. 23 (the meaning of nçbhel)

On Chap. vi. 5 (the meaning of pâraṭ)

On Chap. vi. 8 (on excellency and excellent in the English Versions of the O.T.)

Index

*** The Text adopted in this Edition is that of Dr Scrivener’s Cambridge Paragraph Bible. A few variations from the ordinary Text, chiefly in the spelling of certain words, and in the use of italics, will be noticed. For the principles adopted by Dr Scrivener as regards the printing of the Text see his Introduction to the Paragraph Bible, published by the Cambridge University Press.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

Israel.

  Dates according to Ussher’s chronology.

  Dates as corrected on the basis of Assyrian notices[1].

[1] See the writer’s Isaiah, his life and times, p. 13 f. with the references. In the Assyrian Inscriptions, Ahab is mentioned at a date = b.c. 854, Jehu in 842, Uzziah (probably) in 740, Menahem in 738, Pekah (as dethroned and succeeded by Hoshea) in 734 [so Schrader,K.A.T.2 p. 254 f.; but the year of Tiglath-pileser s reign is not actually given, the tablet being defective; and Rost, Die Keilschrift-texte Tiglat-pileser’s III. 1893, pp. xxix., xxxv. f., prefers 733 or 732], the capture of Samaria by Sargon in 722. The precise dates assigned to the individual kings are in some cases more or less arbitrary; but it is evident that the Biblical dates must be considerably reduced in order to harmonize with the Assyrian data.

Jehu

  884

  842

Jehoahaz

  856

  815

Jehoash

  839

  802 (al. 798)

Jeroboam II.

  825

  790 (al. 782)

Zechariah

  773

  749 (al. 741)

Shallum

  772

  749 (al. 741)

Menahem

  772

  748 (al. 741)

Pekahiah

  761

  738 (al. 737)

Pekah

  759

  736 (al. 735)

Hoshea

  730

  734 (al. 732)

End of Northern Kingdom

  722

  722

Judah.

  Dates according to Ussher’s chronology.

  Dates as corrected on the basis of Assyrian notices.[2]

[2] See the writer’s Isaiah, his life and times, p. 13 f. with the references. In the Assyrian Inscriptions, Ahab is mentioned at a date = b.c. 854, Jehu in 842, Uzziah (probably) in 740, Menahem in 738, Pekah (as dethroned and succeeded by Hoshea) in 734 [so Schrader,K.A.T.2 p. 254 f.; but the year of Tiglath-pileser s reign is not actually given, the tablet being defective; and Rost, Die Keilschrift-texte Tiglat-pileser’s III. 1893, pp. xxix., xxxv. f., prefers 733 or 732], the capture of Samaria by Sargon in 722. The precise dates assigned to the individual kings are in some cases more or less arbitrary; but it is evident that the Biblical dates must be considerably reduced in order to harmonize with the Assyrian data.

Athaliah

  884

  842

Joash

  878

  837

Amaziah

  839

  801 (al. 797)

Uzziah

  810

  792 (al. 778)

Jotham

  758

  740

Ahaz

  742

  736

Hezekiah

  726

  727

Jehoiachin taken into exile

  597

Destruction of Jerusalem by Chaldaeans

  586

Return of exiles under Zerubbabel

  536

Haggai and Zechariah

  520—18

Mission of Ezra

  458

Nehemiah’s visits to Jerusalem

  444, 432

Malachi

  c. 460, or c. 440

JOEL

INTRODUCTION

§ 1. Personal life of Joel

Of Joel nothing is known beyond what may be inferred, with greater or less probability, from the internal evidence supplied by the prophecy which bears his name. He is called in the title son of Pethuel,—or, as the LXX., Syr., and versions dependent upon them read, Bethuel; but this is all that we are expressly told about him: there is not even any statement, such as we possess in the case of Hosea and Amos, for instance, respecting the period at which he lived. Joel’s prophecy is concerned wholly with Judah; and that his home was in this country may be inferred with confidence from the terms in which he speaks repeatedly of Zion (Joel 2:1; Joel 2:15, Joel 3:17), the children of Zion (Joel 2:23), Judah and Jerusalem (Joel 2:32, Joel 3:1; Joel 3:17-18; Joel 3:20), the children of Judah (Joel 3:6; Joel 3:8; Joel 3:19), the children of Jerusalem (Joel 3:6)[3], and from the familiarity which he displays with the Temple and the ministrations of the priests (Joel 1:9; Joel 1:13-14; Joel 1:16, Joel 2:14; Joel 2:17, Joel 3:18 b).

[3] Israel, where Joel uses the term (Joel 2:27, Joel 3:2; Joel 3:16), is the covenant name of God’s chosen people, not the specific name of the northern kingdom: at most, the Israelites of the Ten Tribes may be alluded to, inclusively, in Joel 3:2 b.

§ 2. Occasion and contents of Joel’s prophecy

The occasion of the prophecy is indicated with sufficient clearness in Joel 1; it was a visitation of locusts of unusual severity, accompanied, as it seems (Joel 1:20), by a distressing drought. The contents of the prophecy are, in outline, as follows. The prophet begins by pointing to the unprecedented nature of the calamity from which Judah is suffering (Joel 1:2-3): he goes on to describe, with graphic vividness, the ravages wrought by the locusts, and the consternation produced by them among all classes: desolation prevailed throughout the land (Joel 1:4 &c.); the corn, the vintage, and the fruit-trees were all destroyed together; man and beast (Joel 1:18; Joel 1:20) were alike in despair; the means were gone not merely for providing the banquets of the wealthy or the dissolute (Joel 1:5), but even for maintaining the daily services of the Temple (Joel 1:9; Joel 1:13; Joel 1:16), and for the sustenance of life generally (Joel 1:10-12). The prophet views the occasion as a call to national humiliation and repentance (Joel 1:13-14); for the present visitation is to him the harbinger of the ‘Day of Jehovah,’ which he sees approaching, with overpowering violence, from the ‘Over-powerer’ (Joel 1:15). In ch. Joel 2:1-17, Joel, in imagery suggested by the scourge which had already so terribly afflicted the country, depicts more fully the signs of its approach: in numbers which none can resist, darkening the heavens, desolating the earth, spreading terror before them, the locusts, the ‘army’ of God, with Jehovah at their head (Joel 2:11), are pictured by him as advancing steadily like an armed force, and taking possession of the entire land (Joel 2:1-12). Even now, however, it is not too late to avert the judgement by timely repentance; and the prophet, in earnest tones, exhorts the people to ‘rend their heart, and not their garments,’ to ‘turn to Jehovah’ with all their heart, and with fasting and supplication to entreat Him to have compassion upon His people, and free them from the stroke which to their heathen neighbours seems to be the proof that He has abandoned them to their fate (Joel 2:13-17). An interval must here be assumed, during which the prophet’s call to repentance was obeyed. Ch. Joel 2:18 to Joel 3:21 gives Jehovah’s answer to His people’s prayer. He promises to remove from them the plague of locusts, to restore fertility to the parched and ravaged soil, and to bless its increase (Joel 2:18-27). Nor will Israel’s material welfare be the only object of His care: He will also confer upon it spiritual gifts (Joel 2:28-29), so that when Jehovah’s Day finally arrives, its terrors will alight, not upon the Jews (who are conceived implicitly as responding to the Divine grace, and ‘calling upon’ God faithfully), but upon their heathen foes (Joel 2:30-32). Ch. 3 draws out in detail the judgement upon these foes. In the day when Jehovah restores Judah and Jerusalem, He will summon all nations to the valley of Jehoshaphat (“Jehovah judges”), and contend with them there in judgement, because they have ‘scattered’ His people ‘among the nations,’ and ‘parted’ His ‘land’ (Joel 3:1-3).

There follows a digression (Joel 3:4-8) describing the special doom of Tyre, Sidon, and the Philistines, on account of their having plundered Judah, and sold the inhabitants into slavery to the Greeks. In v. 9 the scene of judgement, interrupted at v. 3, is resumed. The nations are invited to arm themselves, and assemble in the valley of Jehoshaphat, ostensibly for battle against the Jews, in reality to be annihilated by the heavenly ministers of Jehovah’s wrath: multitudes are thronging in the ‘valley of decision’; in a storm, accompanied by preternatural darkness, the work of judgement, unobserved, is accomplished upon them, and Jehovah proves Himself to be “a refuge unto His people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel” (Joel 3:9-17). Henceforward, Jerusalem will be holy; no strangers will pass through her any more; the soil of Judah will be blessed with abundant fertility; while Egypt and Edom, as a punishment for the wrongs inflicted by them upon the people of God, will be changed into barren wastes (Joel 3:18-21).

§ 3. Date of Joel

For determining the date of Joel, we are dependent upon internal criteria alone; and as those which might be expected to throw light upon it are meagre, and in some cases ambiguous, it is not surprising that divergent conclusions have been drawn from them. The principal criteria afforded by the prophecy are the following:—(1) Joel mentions Tyre, Zidon, the Philistines, the Greeks (‘Javan,’ i.e. the Ἰάϝονες or Ionians), the Sabaeans, Egypt, and Edom,—all in Joel 3 (Joel 3:4; Joel 3:6; Joel 3:8; Joel 3:19); (2) he is silent—not even referring to them allusively—on the Syrians, the Assyrians, and the Chaldaeans, one or other of whom, especially of the two latter, figure so largely in the prophets generally from the time of Amos to that of Zechariah; (3) he does not mention, or allude to, the northern kingdom: even when speaking most generally, e.g. of the future restoration, or of Israelites sold into slavery, he names only Judah and Jerusalem (Joel 3:1; Joel 3:6; Joel 3:18; Joel 3:20): Israel, where the term occurs (Joel 2:27, Joel 3:2; Joel 3:16), is shewn by the context to be not the distinctive name of the northern kingdom, but the covenant name of God’s chosen people, applied generically to Judah; (4) it is said in Joel 2:19 (cf. Joel 2:17) that Jehovah’s heritage is a “reproach among the nations,” and “all nations” are described in Joel 3:2-3 as having “scattered” His “heritage among the nations,” “parted” His “land,” and “cast lots over” His people; the restoration of “Judah and Jerusalem” is also anticipated by the prophet in Joel 3:1; (5) the Tyrians, Sidonians, and Philistines are charged with having plundered Jehovah’s silver and gold, and carried the treasures belonging to Him into their temples, and further with having sold captive Judahites to the Greeks (Joel 3:4-6); (6) Egypt and Edom are threatened with desolation, as a punishment for the violence done to Judah by the murder of innocent Judahites in their land (Joel 3:19); (7) no crying national sins are denounced; drunkenness is alluded to (Joel 1:5), but no special stress appears to be laid upon it: idolatry is not referred to: on the contrary, the services of the Temple are properly maintained; and the cessation, through the destitution wrought by the locusts and drought combined, of the means of providing the daily meal-and drink-offering is treated as a grave calamity (Joel 1:9; Joel 1:13, Joel 2:14); (8) the prophet is silent as to the king, and even as to the princes; the elders (Joel 1:14), and especially the priests (Joel 1:9; Joel 1:13, Joel 2:17), are the prominent figures; (9) Joel 3:2; Joel 3:12 the ‘valley of Jehoshaphat’ is mentioned, a locality presumably so called from the king of that name; (10) there are resemblances between Joel and Amos which shew that one of these prophets must have been acquainted with the writings of the other (Joel 3:16 and Amos 1:2; Am. 3:18 and Amos 9:13 b).

It was argued by Credner in 1831 that the conditions implied by these criteria were satisfied by a date in the early part of the reign of Joash, who was king of Judah, b.c. 878–839, or rather, the dates being corrected as required by the Assyrian synchronisms[4], b.c. 837–801 (2 Kings 12). This date, it was urged, would explain, on the one hand, the allusions to Egypt and Edom, and on the other hand the absence of allusions to Syria, Assyria, and the Chaldaeans; Joel 3:17 (no strangers to pass through Jerusalem any more), and 19 (the violence done by Egypt and Edom to the children of Judah, and the innocent blood shed in their land) might be understood reasonably as allusions to the occasion when Shishak, in the reign of Rehoboam, invaded Judah without provocation and plundered the treasures of Jerusalem (1 Kings 14:25-26), and to the massacre of Judahites which would be a natural accompaniment of the revolt of Edom under Jehoram, the grandfather of Joash (2 Kings 8:20-22); while it was not till later in the reign of Joash that the Syrians under Hazael threatened Jerusalem, and had to be bought off at the cost of the Temple treasures (2 Kings 12:17 f.), and of course the Assyrians and Chaldaeans were still unknown as the foes of Judah. Upon this view Joel 3:2 b is referred to the loss of territory suffered by Judah at the time of the revolt of Edom, and Joel 3:3; Joel 3:5-6 to the occasion in the reign of Jehoram when, according to the Chronicler (2 Chronicles 21:16-17; 2 Chronicles 22:1), marauding bands of Philistines and Arabians broke into Judah, plundering the royal palace, and carrying off different members of the royal family; and afterwards, it may be presumed, sold the prisoners whom they took to the Greeks, much as the captives taken by the men of Gaza and Tyre are said by Amos (Joel 1:6; Joel 1:9) to have been sold into slavery to the Edomites. Joash, when he came to the throne, was only seven years old, and Jehoiada the priest acted as his adviser (2 Kings 11:21 to 2 Kings 12:3): if Joel’s prophecy dated from the period of his minority, the non-mention of the king, it is urged, would be explained, while the position of the priests, and the regularity of the Temple services, would be a natural consequence of the influence exerted by Jehoiada.

[4] See the note in the writer’s Isaiah, his life and times, pp. 13 f.

The only alternative date for Joel which Credner had practically before him, was one in the later period of the monarchy, such as would make the prophet a contemporary either of Isaiah or of Jeremiah. Against a date such as either of these, some of his arguments are certainly forcible: it is difficult to suppose that Joel wrote in an age when the great world-empires were making such a profound impression on the writings of the prophets who are known to have been then living, and when the sins of the people, on which Joel is silent, were so loudly and persistently denounced by them. There are however some passages which cannot, upon Credner’s view, be said to be explained satisfactorily; while among the criteria noticed by him, there are some, which (though he did not consider this alternative) are as consistent with a date after the captivity as with one in the reign of Joash; and there are other features exhibited by the prophecy which even harmonize with such a date better.

Thus (1) Credner’s view does not do justice to the terms of Joel 3:1. The expression in Joel 3:1 (“bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem”) is not sufficiently explained by anything which had happened before the age of Joash. Whether the phrase means properly “bring again the captivity” or “turn the fortune,” the ideas associated with it are evident from Jeremiah 29:14; Jeremiah 30:3; Jeremiah 30:18; Jeremiah 32:44; Jeremiah 33:7; Jeremiah 33:11 : they are those of restoration from extreme national disaster, and especially from exile. Amos (Amos 9:14) and Hosea (Hosea 6:11) can therefore use the expression, because, though ruin such as this had not actually overtaken Israel in their day, they view it as impending, and can therefore speak legitimately of Israel’s being restored after it: but Joel contemplates no such disaster at all; his outlook is wholly one of prosperity for Judah (Joel 2:19-32). In using the expression he must consequently have in view some past disaster, affecting the people at large (“Judah and Jerusalem”), far more serious than either the invasion of Shishak or the incursions of marauding bands of Philistines and Arabians. But if Joel be a post-exilic prophet, his use of the phrase is readily explained: he looks forward to the ideal age, which his predecessors had often promised, but which had not yet been realised, and declares that when it arrives, it will be a day of retribution for the nations who have maltreated Israel (Joel 3:1 ff.), but one of victory and deliverance (Joel 3:16 b) for the people of God.

(2) Still less does Credner’s view do justice to the terms of Joel 3:2. The expressions used here respecting the dispersion of Israel among the nations, and the allotment of its territory to new occupants, are far too strong to be referred fairly to any calamity less than Judah’s exile to Babylon (with allusion, not improbably, to the fate of the northern kingdom in 722 as well): “all nations” would be a very exaggerated description of a single incursion made by the Egyptians alone, whereas, from the point of view of a post-exilic writer, looking back at the losses which Israel had successively sustained at the hands of the great powers of Assyria and Babylon, and of the nations who often contributed contingents to their armies, it would be no incredible hyperbole. Keil (who adopts the earlier date for Joel) feels the difficulty of these words so strongly that he supposes them to have reference to the future; but if the passage be read in connexion with the context, it seems clear that it alludes to sufferings which have been already undergone by the nation.

(3) The book implies a nation united religiously, and free from any of those tendencies either to the unspiritual worship of Jehovah, or to actual heathenism, which call forth the constant rebuke of the pre-exilic prophets. Under Joash, we read, the high-places were not removed (2 Kings 12:3); the temple, during the first 23 years of his reign, remained in disrepair (ib. 2 Kings 12:6); and it is difficult to think, in spite of the reaction after Athaliah’s assassination (2 Kings 11:18), that the heathen rites introduced by her would be at once extirpated. Whether, however, this was the case or not, the earlier prophets regularly speak of ceremonial usages, especially sacrifice and fasting, with disfavour—not, to be sure, on their own account, but because of the unspiritual manner in which they were observed by the people (e.g. Amos 5:21-23; Hosea 6:6; Hosea 8:13; Isaiah 1:11-14; Jeremiah 6:20; Isaiah 58.): Joel refers to them approvingly, and exhorts the observance of a fast (Joel 1:14, Joel 2:15 : contrast Jeremiah 14:12). This implies that he was not conscious of those faults in the religious temper of the people which the earlier prophets so constantly denounce: in other words, that he lived in a different age. The manner in which Joel regards the cessation of the ritual service as equivalent to a break in the union between the land and Jehovah “is very unlike the way in which all other prophets down to Jeremiah speak of the sacrificial service” (A. B. Davidson). Joel also makes no allusion to the social disorders, the maladministration of justice, the extortions, and oppression of the poor, which the pre-exilic prophets are so persistent in denouncing. He reminds us in this respect of Haggai and Zechariah, who, though they do not represent the people as blameless, find little or no occasion to rebuke them for their shortcomings on these accounts[5].

[5] Comp. also, if it be assigned rightly to the post-exilic age (Kirk-patrick, Doctrine of the Prophets, pp. 476, 484 ff., with most recent writers), the prophecy which now forms chaps, 24–27 of the book of Isaiah.

(4) The non-mention of the king, though it may agree with the minority of Joash, would agree equally with a post-exilic date, as would also the prominence of the priests, and the estimation in which the public services of the Temple are evidently held. The mention of the ‘elders’ only, even at a gathering of the entire people (Joel 1:14) to the exclusion of the ‘rulers’ (Isaiah 1:10, Micah 3:1; Micah 3:9), or ‘princes’ (Isaiah 1:23; Isaiah 3:14, and constantly in Jeremiah: cf. Zephaniah 1:8; Zephaniah 3:3, Ezekiel 17:12), or other lay-authorities (Micah 3:1; Micah 3:9), is remarkable, if Joel were a pre-exilic prophet: the elders, when they are mentioned by the earlier prophets, are not represented as the sole leading authorities of the nation. That the Persians do not appear as the enemies of Judah is no difficulty: except on particular occasions, they were not unfriendly to the Jews; and though Judah was a Persian province the Jews were free to regulate their civil and religious affairs for themselves.

(5) Edom’s hostility to Judah was not limited to the period of its revolt under Jehoram: it broke out with particular violence at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldaeans (Obadiah 1:10-16; Ezekiel 25:12 ff., 5:35; Lamentations 4:21 f.); and the unfriendly attitude assumed then by Edom towards the Jews, was remembered and resented by them long afterwards (Isaiah 63:1-6; Isaiah 34:5-8; Psalm 137:7; cf. Malachi 1:3 f.).

(6) The invasion of Shishak took place a century before the reign of Joash, so that it is not very probable that the promise of Joel 3:17 b is prompted by the recollection of it: Shishak, moreover, is not stated to have entered Jerusalem at all. The promise would be much more pointed, if it were given after the experiences of b.c. 586 and the following years, when Jerusalem was burnt by the Chaldaeans, the Temple desecrated, and the people exiled for 50 years (cf. Isaiah 52:1 b). Similarly, the invasion of Shishak is an inadequate ground for the desolation of Egypt threatened in Joel 3:19. There is so little that is specific in what is said in this verse with reference to either Egypt or Edom, that both countries are probably named (at a time when the Assyrians and Chaldaeans had alike ceased to be formidable to Judah) as typical examples of countries hostile to the Jews: the desolation, threatened to both, may be supposed very naturally to be based upon Ezekiel 29:9-10; Ezekiel 29:12; Ezekiel 32:15 (of Egypt), and Ezekiel 35:3-4; Ezekiel 35:7; Ezekiel 35:14-15 (of Edom).

(7) There is no sufficient reason for supposing Joel 3:4-6 to refer to the incident narrated in 2 Chronicles 21:16-17; 2 Chronicles 22:1. Here Tyre and Sidon hold the prominent place: there only the Arabians are mentioned by the side of the Philistines. The particular occasion referred to by Joel must remain uncertain: but (see the note ad loc.) the Phoenicians continued to act as slave-dealers long after the age of Amos: and the notice of Javan (Greece) suits better a later time, when Syrian slaves were in request in Greece.

(8) Judah and the people of Jehovah are convertible terms: northern Israel does not appear: even the promises are limited to Judah and Jerusalem (Joel 3:1; Joel 3:18; Joel 3:20). This is not the case in the earlier prophets: the prophets of Israel do not exclude Judah at least from their promises, nor do the prophets of Judah exclude Israel.

(9) The allusions to the Temple services, though they might suit the minority of Joash, would suit equally the post-exilic age, when (as we know from independent sources) great importance was attached to their regular observance (comp. Nehemiah 10:33 : also, at a later date, Daniel 8:11; Daniel 11:31; Daniel 12:11).

(10) There are features in which the representations of Joel have affinity with the later prophets rather than with the earlier ones. Thus the enemies of Judah are, not actual and present foes, but the nations generally, who are to be gathered together at the valley of Jehoshaphat—some spot evidently not far from Jerusalem—in order to be annihilated. This is the development of the idea of a slaughter of nations hostile to Judah, which begins to appear in the prophets of the Chaldaean age (Zephaniah 1:2 f., Joel 3:8; Jeremiah 25:32 f.), and is a feature characteristic of the later prophets (Ezekiel 38-39, where the hosts of Gog are enticed by Jehovah from their home in the far north to attack the restored land of Israel, and are there annihilated with great slaughter; Isaiah 45:20; Isaiah 63:6; Isaiah 66:16; Isaiah 66:18 f.; Isaiah 34:1-3; Zechariah 12:3-4; Zechariah 14:2-3; Zechariah 14:12-15): earlier prophets in such a connexion speak of definite and present foes, as the Assyrians (Isaiah 17:12 f., Isaiah 33:3). Joel’s representation is based upon Ezekiel 38-39; and finds its parallel in Zechariah 14. Other features in which Joel’s dependence upon earlier prophets is at least as probable as the opposite view, are the outpouring of the spirit (Joel 2:28; see Ezekiel 39:29, and comp. p. 22); the figure of Jehovah’s ‘pleading’ with the heathen (Joel 3:2; Ezekiel 38:22; cf. Jeremiah 25:31; Isaiah 66:16; the term is elsewhere used of Jehovah only Jeremiah 2:35; Ezekiel 17:20; Ezekiel 20:35-36); the picture in Joel 3:18 a of the future fertility of the land (Amos 9:13; comp. below); and that of the stream issuing from the Temple and fertilizing the barren Wady of the Acacias (Joel 3:18 b: see Ezekiel 47:1-12, and cf. Zechariah 14:8): comp. also Joel 2:10, Joel 3:15 with Isaiah 13:10, Ezekiel 32:7-8. The Day of Jehovah also seems to be an idea not original in Joel, but borrowed: obviously it would not suggest itself to the prophet as a natural consequence of the visitation of locusts[6], and it is introduced, without any special description (such as earlier prophets give of it), as an idea with which Joel’s readers would be familiar, as of course they would be, from the writings of earlier prophets, if his date were late.

[6] It is to be noticed that, although in 1:15, 2:11 the locusts are represented as its harbingers, it reappears in 2:31, 3:14, entirely unconnected with the locusts, and after their removal has been promised (2:19 f., 25).

The conclusion to which these considerations point is confirmed by other indications. (1) The literary parallels between Joel and other writers. Here are the principal passages[7]:—

[7] With the following pages, comp. the careful study of Mr G. B. Gray, Expositor, Sept. 1893, pp. 208 ff.

-1Joel 1:15 Alas (אההּ) for the day!

  Ezekiel 30:2-3 Alas (ההּ) for the day! for near is (the) day, and near is a day for Jehovah.

for near is the day of Jehovah, and as devastation from Shaddai shall it come.

  Isaiah 13:6 Howl ye; for near is the day of Jehovah, and as devastation from Shaddai shall it come.

Cf. Joel 3:14 for near is the day of Jehovah in the valley of decision.

  Zephaniah 1:7 for near is the day of Jehovah.

  Obadiah 1:15 for near is the day of Jehovah upon all the nations.

-2Joel 2:1 b – Joel 2:2 For the day of Jehovah cometh, for it is near;

a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness.

  Zephaniah 1:14-15 Near is the great day of Jehovah, it is near, and hasteth greatly … That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the horn and the alarm, against the fenced cities, and the high corner-towers.

-3Joel 2:3 As the garden of Eden is the land before it, and behind it a desolate wilderness.

  Ezekiel 36:35 And they shall say, This land which was desolated is become as the garden of Eden. Cf. Isaiah 51:3.

-4Joel 2:6 Before it peoples are in anguish: all faces gather in beauty.

  Nahum 2:10 (H. 11) A melting heart, and tottering of limbs, and anguish in all loins: and the faces of all of them gather in beauty.

-5Joel 2:17 Wherefore should they say among the peoples, Where is their God?

  Psalm 79:10 Wherefore should the nations say, Where is their God?

  Psalm 115:2 Wherefore should the nations say, Where, now, is their God?

  Psalm 42:3; Psalm 42:10 When they say to me all the day, Where is thy God? Cf. Micah 7:10.

-6Joel 2:27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Jehovah your God, and there is none else.

  Ezekiel 36:11 And ye shall know that I am Jehovah (so very often in Ez.: see note on Joel 2:27)[8].

[8] This is the stereotyped phrase: with other parts of the verb “to know,” comp. Exodus 7:17; Exodus 8:18 b; Deuteronomy 29:5; Isaiah 45:3.

Joel 3:17 And ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God, dwelling in Zion my holy mountain.

  Leviticus 18:2 I am Jehovah your God (so Leviticus 18:4; Leviticus 18:30; Leviticus 19:3-4, and often in the group of Laws, Leviticus 17-26.; also Ezekiel 20:5; Ezekiel 20:7; Ezekiel 20:19).

  Ezekiel 39:28 And they shall know that I am Jehovah their God.

  Isaiah 45:5 I am Jehovah, and there is none else (so vv. 6, 18 only: cf. however vv. 14, 21, 22, 46:9; also Deuteronomy 4:35; Deuteronomy 4:39, 1 Kings 8:60).

-7Joel 2:28 I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.

  Ezekiel 39:29 When I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel. Cf. 36:27 And my spirit I will put in the midst of you. Also Numbers 11:29.

-8Joel 2:32 For in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be they that escape, as Jehovah hath said.

  Obadiah 1:17 And in mount Zion shall be they that escape,

Joel 3:17 And Jerusalem shall be holy.

  and it shall be holy.

-9Joel 3:2 And I will plead with them there.

  Ezekiel 38:22 And I will plead with him (Gog and Magog) with pestilence and with blood.

-10Joel 3:3 And upon my people they have cast lots.

  Obadiah 1:11 And upon Jerusalem they have cast lots.

  Nahum 3:10 And upon her (Nineveh’s) honourable men they have cast lots.

-11Joel 3:4 Swiftly, speedily, will I return your deed upon your head.

  Obadiah 1:15 For near is Jehovah’s day upon all the nations: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee; thy deed shall be returned upon thy head.

Joel 3:14 Near is Jehovah’s day in the valley of decision.

  

-12Joel 3:10 Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into lances.

  Isaiah 2:4 (= Micah 4:3) And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.

-13Joel 3:16 And Jehovah shall roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall quake.

  Amos 1:2 Jehovah shall roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the pastures of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall be dried up.

-14Joel 3:17 And ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God …; and Jerusalem shall be holy,

  Ezekiel 36:11 &c., quoted above.

and strangers shall not pass through her any more.

  Obadiah 1:17 And it shall be holy.

  Isaiah 52:1 Jerusalem, the holy city, for the uncircumcised and the unclean shall not add to enter into thee any more.

  Nahum 1:15 for worthlessness shall not add any more to pass through thee.

-15Joel 3:18 The mountains shall drop with sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the channels of Judah shall flow with water.

  Amos 9:13 And the mountains shall cause sweet wine to drop down, and all the hills shall be dissolved.

-16Joel 3:19 For the violence done to the children of Judah (said of Edom).

  Obadiah 1:10 For the violence done to thy brother Jacob (also of Edom).

Passages verbally identical occur also in Joel 2:13 b and Exodus 34:6; and in Joel 2:31 b and Malachi 4:5 b.

From several of these parallels, it is true, no conclusion of any value can be drawn: the fact of there being a reminiscence, on one side or on the other, is sufficiently patent; but, unless it is known independently that one of the two writers was earlier than the other, there is nothing to shew which is the original. In some cases, however, grounds appear for supposing that the reminiscence is on Joel’s side; and when once this has been determined, it will of course rule the relation throughout Thus in No. 12 ‘spear,’ used by Is. and Mic., is common to all periods of the language, ‘lance’ (rômaḥ), used by Joel, has Aramaic affinities; it is used in two early writings belonging to north Israel, the dialect of which there is reason on other grounds to suppose was tinged with slight Aramaisms (Jdg 5:8; 1 Kings 18:28); otherwise, it is used almost entirely in exilic and post-exilic writings (9 out of 12 times in Neh. and Chron.). In No. 7 Joel differs from Ez. in the use of the expression ‘all flesh,’ which is also one found largely in the later literature[9]. In No. 6 the phrases quoted are characteristic of Deutero-Isaiah and (especially) of the author of Leviticus 17-26. and Ezekiel: if Joel wrote subsequently to all these writers, the expression used by him is capable of easy explanation; phrases with which he was familiar from his acquaintance with their writings were impressed upon his memory, and combined by him into one; it would have been strange if three writers should all have borrowed the characteristic phrases, embodying their fundamental conceptions, from the single short prophecy of Joel.

[9] As Isaiah 40:5-6; Isaiah 49:26; Isaiah 66:16; Isaiah 66:23-24; Zechariah 2:13 (replacing ‘all the earth’ in the original, Habakkuk 2:20); Psalm 136:25; Psalm 145:21.

In Nos. 13 and 15 it is to be noticed that in each case the picture in Joel is more highly coloured than in Amos: especially (as Kuenen observes), it seems unlikely that Amos, if he had been borrowing from a passage which described Jehovah’s thunder as shaking heaven and earth, would have limited its effects to the pastures of the shepherds and the top of Carmel. In No. 8 the appended words ‘As Jehovah hath said’ shew the passage to be a quotation; Obadiah 1:10-21 will not, however, be earlier than b.c. 586, and vv. 15–21 may even be later[10]. In No. 2, the words ‘A day of darkness’ &c. come in Zeph. as a climax; in Joel they are unconnected with the immediate context, and anticipate Joel 2:10 b, an indication that they are borrowed from elsewhere. In No. 10 the phrase for “cast lots” is found only in the passages quoted: the verb itself, also, occurs otherwise only in Lamentations 3:53, Jeremiah 50:14, Zech. 2:14, i.e. it is found only in the later period of the language. In No. 5 the closest parallels are in two late Psalms (Psalms 79 cannot be earlier than b.c. 586, and may be later): the dread displayed for the taunting attitude of the nations is also characteristic of the period which began with the exile of Judah from its land, and its diminished prestige, which continued even after its restoration under Cyrus. The description in Joel 2:13 (“Gracious and full of compassion &c.”) though derived obviously from the early literature (Exodus 34:6), occurs otherwise, it is remarkable, only in late writings (Psalm 86:15; Psalm 103:8; Psalm 145:8; Nehemiah 9:17; Jonah 4:2,—where it is followed, as in Joel, by ‘and repenteth him of the evil’: even the first half of the phrase is found elsewhere only Psalm 111:4; Psalm 112:4 [not of God]; Nehemiah 9:31; 2 Chronicles 30:9).

[10] See the writer’s Introduction, under Obadiah.

Thus while in some of the parallels a comparison discloses indications that the phrase in Joel is probably the later, in other cases, even though the expression may in itself be met with earlier, it becomes frequent only in a later age, and the use of it by Joel increases the presumption that he stands by the side of the later writers.

(2) The diction of Joel. The style of Joel is bright and flowing; and the contrast, which is palpable, with Haggai or Malachi, has been felt by some as a reason against supposing his prophecy to belong to the post-exilic period. But it is a question whether our knowledge of the literature of this age is such as to entitle us to affirm that a style such as Joel’s could not have been written then; certainly, if Zechariah 12-14 dates from the post-exilic age, it is difficult to argue that Joel cannot date from it likewise. The style, remarks Prof. A. B. Davidson[11], “is rather cultured and polished, than powerful and original.” And when Joel’s diction is examined closely, it appears that, though in the main it is pure and classical, it sometimes includes expressions which seem to betray a writer who lived in the later age of Hebrew literature.

[11] Expositor, March 1888, p. 210.

Thus in Joel 1:2, Joel 4:4 הֲ … וְאִם (the usual form of the disjunctive interrogative is in early writings הֲ … אִם); Joel 1:8 אלה to lament (an Aramaic word: not elsewhere in the O.T.); Joel 2:2-3[4]:20 דור ודור (this expression is found first in Deuteronomy 32:7, but it hardly occurs again till the exile and later, when it becomes frequent, as Lamentations 5:19; Isaiah 13:20; Isaiah 34:17; Isaiah 58:12; Isaiah 60:15; Isaiah 61:4; Jeremiah 50:39; Psalm 10:6; Psalm 33:11; Psalm 49:12; Psalm 77:9; Psalm 79:13; Psalm 106:31; and in parallelism with לעולם (as Joel 4:20) Psalm 85:6, Psalm 102:13, Psalm 135:13, Ps. 146:16, cf. Psalm 89:2; Psalm 89:5); Joel 2:8 שלח weapon (Job [Elihu-speeches], Neh., Chr.); Joel 2:20 סו̇ף end (Aram.: otherwise in Heb. only 2 Chronicles 20:16; Ecclesiastes 3:11; Ecclesiastes 7:2; Ecclesiastes 12:13); Joel 3:4 (4:4) נמל על (2 Chronicles 20:11); Joel 3:10 (4:10) רמח lance (see p. 22); Joel 3:11 (4:11) הנחת bring down (Aram.). Joel also, for the pron. of the 1st pers., uses אני (not אנכי) Joel 2:27 (bis), Joel 4:10, 17, in agreement with the preponderant usage of later writers.

The style of Joel, especially as compared with that of Zechariah, Haggai, and Malachi, is well characterized by Mr Gray (l. c. p. 224): “The post-exilic prophetic authors are, therefore, from a literary point of view, of three types: the first, represented by Zechariah, had largely assimilated the ideas and in some degree the style of the older prophets, and consequently wrote plain but not inelegant Hebrew; the second, represented by Joel,”—and, we may add, the author of Isaiah 24-27,—“were influenced by the ideas and greatly by the style of their predecessors, and so wrote Hebrew, frequently possessing the vivacity and rhythm of earlier days, but now and again unconsciously admitting some characteristic of the later period; the third, represented by Haggai and Malachi, had no doubt a general acquaintance with the teaching of the prophets, but” were little influenced by “their language; their style suffers in consequence, and forms” the first stage of “the transition to the Rabbinic Hebrew.” Joel, in other words, though a late writer, possessed independence and individuality: he betrays his acquaintance with earlier writers, but he does not reproduce them slavishly[12].

[12] The view that Joel is post-exilic has been adopted by most recent writers on the subject, including, for instance, Prof. A. B. Davidson (l. c. pp. 209 ff.). The case for an earlier date is stated with fairness and moderation by Prof. Kirkpatrick, Doctrine of the Prophets, pp. 57 ff.

As to the precise part of the post-exilic period to which the prophecy of Joel should be assigned, it is difficult, in the absence of distinct historical allusions, to speak confidently. It may be placed most safely shortly after Haggai and Zechariah 1-8. c. 500 b.c. At the same time the possibility must be admitted that it may be later, and that it dates in reality from the century after Malachi[13].

[13] In this connexion it deserves consideration whether upon internal grounds (cf. p. 19, with note 1) it is more probable that Joel in 2:31 b (“before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come”; cf. v. 11 b) quotes Malachi (4:5 b; cf. 3:2), or Malachi Joel.

§ 4. Interpretation of Joel’s prophecy

Some varieties and difficulties of interpretation, connected with parts of the book of Joel, may be here briefly noted.

(1) It is maintained by some scholars that ch. Joel 1:4-19 is not descriptive of a calamity from which the land was actually suffering, but is predictive of one which, when the prophet wrote, was yet future. In support of this opinion Joel 2:1 b – Joel 2:2 is pointed to, where the Day of Jehovah (which is spoken of, not as present, but as ‘near’) appears to be identified with the visitation of locusts described in Joel 2:2 b– Joel 2:11. It is, however, impossible to think that this view of the prophecy is correct. In the first place, it is open to the serious objection that it removes Joel’s book from the general analogy of prophecy, by cutting off all occasion for his prophecy in the history of the time. In the second place, it forces a most unnatural sense upon the language of ch. 1. There is nothing in ch. 1. suggesting, even indirectly, that the prophet is speaking of anything except an actual occurrence, which those whom he addresses have themselves witnessed. “The appeal to the experience of the old men and their fathers (Joel 1:2); the charge to hand on the memory of the visitation to future generations (Joel 1:3); the detailed and graphic picture of the calamity in all its consequences; in fact, almost every feature and every verse of the passage condemn the theory that the prophet is predicting the future while he seems to describe the present[14].” In Joel 2:1-11 the case is somewhat different. Here, it is true, Joel does look to the future; but this fact does not determine the interpretation of ch. 1.: the locusts of chap. 2. are invested with ideal traits, and represented as something more formidable than those of ch. 1.; hence, though the locusts of both chapters are equally Jehovah’s ‘army’ (Joel 2:11; Joel 2:25), those of ch. 1. are, so to say, the advanced post of those of ch. 2.[15]; and the actual locusts, as the prophet watches their depredations, suggest to his imagination the picture of the more terrible locust-army, which is speedily to appear, with Jehovah at its head, and thus to be the immediate forerunner of Jehovah’s Day. The locusts of ch. 2., though intimately connected with the locusts of ch. 1., are thus not strictly identical with them: they are the more immediate, and future, harbingers of Jehovah’s Day; and Joel 2:1 b – Joel 2:2 does not rule the interpretation of ch. 1.

[14] Kirkpatrick, Doctrine of the Prophets, p. 53. Similarly A. B. Davidson, l. c. p. 205.

[15] “It may not be easy to say, in regard to chap, 2, whether it be a prophecy of a new attack, or an ideal account of a present one: for the description has many marks of poetical exaggeration” (Davidson, l. c. p. 203).

(2) The second question is, are the locusts meant literally or allegorically? In other words, does Joel mean them as the allegorical description of a foreign invader? In support of the latter view it is argued, for instance, that the description of the locusts much exceeds the bounds of possible reality (e.g. the fire and flame in Joel 1:19, the peoples terrified by their approach Joel 2:6, the sun, moon, and stars withdrawing their light Joel 2:11); that the effects are greater than would be produced by mere locusts, in that even the meal-offering is destroyed (Joel 1:9), the fruits of more than one year are wasted (Joel 2:25), and the scourge is described as worse than any that could be remembered (Joel 1:2); that terms are applied to the locusts which are applicable only to human beings (‘nation’ Joel 1:6), and rational agents (‘magnified to do’ Joel 2:20); that the language of Joel 2:17 (‘that the nations should rule over them’) implies that Joel was speaking not of a plague of literal locusts, but of the domination of some foreign invader; that the term the northerner (Joel 2:20) cannot refer to locusts, which never invade Palestine from the north, but must denote some human enemy advancing from that direction; that as locusts could not be driven at once by the wind into the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea (Joel 2:20), the fate here predicated of the locusts must in reality be emblematical of the fate of the human invader; and that the Day of Jehovah, of which Joel speaks, is identical with the scourge which he describes, but is far beyond any plague of locusts (Joel 1:15, Joel 2:1 ff.)[16].

[16] Comp. Pusey, p. 99.

Most of these arguments are very inconclusive. In some of them it seems to be forgotten that Joel’s descriptions are naturally to be understood as those of a poet, and not as bare prose (hence the hyperbole in Joel 1:2, and perhaps in Joel 1:19, and the personification in Joel 1:6, Joel 2:20, are readily accounted for[17]); in others the exaggeration is not as great as is represented (for instance, locusts do sometimes ravage a country in successive years, and the effects of a visitation, confined to a single year, are often felt for years afterwards): the locusts of ch. 1. again are not identified with the Day of Jehovah, but in Joel 1:15 it is implied only that they are a sign of its approach, while in Joel 2:1-11, though the description, as has been just observed, contains ideal traits, there is no reason for supposing anything but locusts to be intended by it: in Joel 2:17 the words rendered rule over them admit equally of the rendering make proverbs of them. There is so little in ch. 1. to suggest an allegorical interpretation, that had it not been for Joel 2:1-11 it would never probably have been put forward: but, as it happens, it is just these verses which supply the strongest argument against it In Joel 2:4 b, Joel 2:5 end, Joel 2:7, namely, the locusts are themselves compared to a body of warriors; and “the poetical hyperbole which compares the invading swarms to an army, would be inconceivably lame, if a literal army was already concealed under the figure of the locusts. Nor could the prophet so far forget himself in his allegory as to speak of a victorious host as entering the conquered city like a thief (Joel 2:9)[18],” Moreover, if the assailants were really soldiers, some kind of allusion would be expected to the blood shed by them, the cities destroyed by them, and the captives whom they would carry off. But there is nothing of all this. And when Jehovah promises to restore the devastations wrought by His great army (Joel 2:25), there is no reference to the ravages wrought by the invasions of actual warriors, but only to the years which His army has eaten[19].

[17] “If pride can be attributed to the leviathan (Job 41:34), and to the ocean (Job 38:11), and mockery and scorn to the horse and wild-ass (Job 39:7; Job 39:22), haughtiness may be also attributed to locusts, on the principle that their acts would have been acts of haughtiness if performed by men” (Speaker’s Comm., p. 497).

[18] W. R. Smith, Encycl Brit., ed. 9, art. Joel, p. 706.

[19] A. B. Davidson, l. c. pp. 206 f.

A difficulty remains, however, unquestionably in the term ‘the northerner.’ Locusts, as a rule, invade Palestine from the South or the South-East; and as the Assyrians, and (especially) the Scythians, the Kimmerians, and the Chaldaeans—the Assyrians and the Chaldaeans on account of the direction from which their line of march led them ultimately to enter Palestine—are often spoken of as coming from the north[20], the allegorists point to this word as a strong confirmation of the truth of their position, those who adopt the post-exilic date for Joel considering it to be a further trait derived by the prophet from Ezekiel, and intended by him as a direct designation of the hordes from the north, who in Ezekiel 38:6; Ezekiel 38:15; Ezekiel 39:2 appear as the ideal foes of the restored Israel. In view, however, of the very slender basis which the rest of Joel’s representation furnishes for the allegorical explanation, the evidence of a single word must be exceptionally clear before it can be regarded as decisive. This, however, cannot be said to be the case with the word in question. Locusts breed not only in the Arabian desert, but also in the plains of Tartary, and in regions on the N.W. of India: although, therefore, they enter Palestine as a rule from the South, have we any assurance that they do so universally? May they not, on the particular occasion which Joel describes, have approached it from the N. or N.E.[21]? The impossibility of this must be more clearly shewn than it has been shewn hitherto, before the expression the northerner can be taken as establishing the allegorical interpretation[22].

[20] Isaiah 14:31 (cf. Zephaniah 2:13); Jeremiah 1:14-15; Jeremiah 4:6; Jeremiah 6:1; Jeremiah 6:22; Jeremiah 10:22; Jeremiah 13:20; Jeremiah 25:9; Jeremiah 46:20; Jeremiah 46:24; Jeremiah 47:2; Ezekiel 26:7; Ezekiel 38:6; Ezekiel 38:15; Ezekiel 39:2.

[21] So Houghton, in Smith’s Dict. of the Bible (ed. 1), II. 133 note. Cf. the note on Joel 2:20.

[22] The attempts which have been made to remove the difficulty by rendering צפוני otherwise than by ‘northerner’ break down upon philological grounds.

The allegorical view is that of several of the Fathers; in modern times it has been advocated chiefly by Hävernick[23] and Hengstenberg[24] (who even argue that the four kinds of locusts mentioned in 1:4, 2:25, represent the Chaldaean, Medo-Persian, Greek, and Roman empires, respectively). But the majority of modern commentators (including e.g. Keil, and Meyrick in the Speaker’s Comm.) reject it decisively. In a modified form it has been revived recently by Merx, who considers that the book has no reference whatever to the prophet’s own present, and was never delivered orally, but is an eschatological or apocalyptic work, composed for study, describing the terrors of the times which are to precede the final day of judgment: 1:2 f. is addressed to the generation upon whom these times are to fall; the locusts of ch. 1. are no ordinary locusts, but supernatural creatures, harbingers of the terrors to follow, those of ch. 2. are symbols of the hostile peoples of the ‘north’ (Ezekiel 38:6; Ezekiel 38:15): after their destruction the Day of Jehovah breaks, with blessings for Judah and judgement upon its foes. This view is even more strained than the older allegorical interpretation: it is in the highest degree unnatural to understand Joel 1. except as addressed to the prophet’s own contemporaries, especially in view of the terms of Joel 1:2-3, and the first person in Joel 1:6-7; Joel 1:16; Joel 1:19. Merx’s theory is rejected alike by Davidson (pp. 204 ff.), Kuenen (Onderzoek, § 69, 5–7). W. R. Smith (p. 706), and Kirkpatrick (l. c. p. 56).

[23] Einleitung II. 1 (1844), pp. 294 ff.

[24] Christology of the Old Test. 1. 302 ff.

What then, as a whole, may be said of the prophecy of Joel? The prophecy springs out of the circumstances of the time. Its central thought is the idea of the Day of Jehovah, which is suggested to the prophet by the drought and the visitation of locusts from which at the time the land of Judah was suffering. Joel sees in the locusts more than a mere swarm of insects, however vast: they are Jehovah’s army (Joel 2:11; Joel 2:25): He is at their head; they come to perform the mission which He has entrusted to them (Joel 2:11). We do not probably in this country realize what an invasion of locusts is: but if we can picture them as they come upon a land, in overwhelming numbers, darkening the heavens, crowding the air, desolating the land, penetrating into houses, bearing famine and pestilence in their train, and mocking every effort to arrest their course, we can imagine what alarm their approach would create, and understand how they might suggest to Joel the advent even of the great Day of Jehovah itself. But repentance may avert the judgement; and this accordingly is the duty which the prophet earnestly impresses upon his countrymen (Joel 1:13-14, Joel 2:12 f., Joel 2:15). They respond to his exhortations; and he is accordingly commissioned to announce the removal of the plague (Joel 2:19 f.). To this announcement Joel, in the manner of the prophets[25], attaches promises of the material and spiritual felicity to be enjoyed by the people afterwards (Joel 2:21-32); and further takes occasion to draw an ideal picture of the day of Israel’s justification, and the destruction of the powers hostile to it (ch. 3.). In this part of his book Joel re-affirms the promises given by older prophets. Isaiah and Ezekiel, for instance, had both foretold the future regeneration of Israel, and also the outpouring of the spirit. The ‘Day of Jehovah,’—the day when Jehovah interposes in the history of the world, it may be through some human agent acting on His behalf (Isaiah 13:6-10, see Joel 3:17; Zephaniah 1:15 f.), it may be more directly, destroying wickedness and illusion, and confirming righteousness and truth, bringing terror to His enemies, but joy to His faithful servants—had been often foreseen and promised by the prophets; but it had not yet been fully realized. Partial realizations had indeed taken place—as when the ‘Day’ foreseen by Amos came in the ruin of the northern kingdom—but its ideal consequences had not yet appeared: the ideal triumph of right over wrong, of justice over oppression, had not yet been witnessed. Joel re-affirms these older prophecies; and seizing the idea of Jehovah’s Day, pictures its realization in a new way, and stamps upon the conception a new character. For Joel the great contrast is between Israel and the nations. Israel is to be saved and glorified, the nations are to be judged. Here there is a point of contact between Joel and the later prophets. The older prophets as a rule emphasize the distinction between the righteous and the wicked within Israel itself: in the later prophets there is often a tendency to emphasize more strongly the distinction between Israel and other nations (comp. Ezekiel 38-39.; Isaiah 45:16 f., 20, 34:1–3, 35.). It is thus true that the ethical element, though not absent in Joel, does not occupy in this prophecy the same central position which it generally holds in the older prophets. Joel calls indeed to repentance, earnestly and repeatedly: but he does not particularize what the sins of the people are. He treats Jehovah’s Day, not as sifting morally Israel itself[26], but as justifying Israel (cf. Isaiah 45:25) against the world. It must not however be forgotten that the Israel which is pictured by him as saved is not the actual Israel, but the Israel which has been restored in the ideal future (Joel 3:1), and which is conceived by him implicitly as a people spiritually transformed (Joel 2:28 f.), ‘calling upon’ Jehovah in faithfulness (Joel 2:32), and worthy of His abiding presence in its midst (Joel 3:21). It is not therefore the Israel of the popular imagination, which was believed to be secure, whatever its moral condition might be, merely because it was Jehovah’s people (Jeremiah 7:1-15). That illusion had been shattered by Amos (Amos 5:15 ff.); and Joel was not the man to revive it. Nevertheless, it remains true that Joel’s outlook is narrower than that of those other prophets who picture the heathen world not as annihilated, but incorporated side by side with the chosen people in the future kingdom of God (e.g. Isaiah 2:2-4; Isaiah 19:18-25). Joel’s point of view, it cannot be denied, is more ‘particularistic.’ The nations are judged for the wrongs done by them to Israel: they have no share in the blessings of the future; the outpouring of the spirit is limited to Israel; deliverance is promised only to Jerusalem, and to those found there. There is latent under Joel’s representation that antagonism between Israel and the nations, which is accentuated in post-exilic writings, and which, continuing unchecked, developed ultimately into the exaggerated national pretensions which are so prominent in many of the apocalyptic writings. But Joel possesses the inspiration of the prophet, and is free from the temptation to such exaggeration.

[25] Comp. e.g. the promises of material prosperity and moral renovation which Isaiah attaches to his prophecies of the deliverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrians (30:19–26, 32:15–20 &c.).

[26] Which is Malachi’s representation (Malachi 3:2-5; Malachi 4:1-3; Malachi 4:5).

The prophets, in their visions of the future, throw out great and ennobling ideals, but ideals which, in many cases, are not destined to be realized literally in fact[27]. That is the case with Joel. The contrast between Israel and the nations is typical of the great contrast between good and evil, between truth and falsehood, which is ever being exemplified in the history of the world, which has already resulted often in the partial triumph of right over wrong, and which, we may be sure, will in the end result in its complete triumph: but this triumph, we may be not less sure, can never be gained in the form in which Joel’s imagination pictured it[28]. The thought of Israel being saved, and the nations being exterminated, may be a form in which the victory of good over evil naturally presented itself to a prophet living in Joel’s age, when truth and right were, or at least seemed to be, confined largely to Israel: it is not the form in which it has been realized hitherto; nor is it the form in which it can ever be realized in the future. A restoration of Israel to its own land, coupled with the destruction of all other nations, is opposed not only to the teaching of other prophets, who saw more deeply into the purposes of God: it is opposed to the plainest teaching of Christ and His Apostles, according to which the Gospel is to be preached in the whole world, disciples are to be made of all nations, and there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, between bond and free. Joel’s picture, again, of Jehovah sitting to judge all the nations round about, approximates more to the idea of a final judgement upon all men than any other representation—prior at least to Daniel 7:9 f.—contained in the Old Testament; but, though it may fairly be regarded as typical of the final judgement, it does not itself depict it; Christ does not place Israel on the one hand, and the nations on the other, but He separates the sheep from the goats among ‘all’ nations impartially. Of course, also, the idea either of judgement, or of retribution, in a future state of existence is entirely foreign to Joel’s representation[29]. And, to take a third point, while it is not more than just that the authors of injustice towards Israel should themselves suffer for it, it is an exaggeration of this truth that Egypt and Edom should become desolations in the future on account of crimes wrought by their inhabitants in the past,—an exaggeration due to the disproportionate degree in which, among the ancient Hebrews, sin—and not merely the consequences of sin—was held to be transmitted from one generation to another. Joel draws a magnificent picture of Jehovah’s coming to judgement: but its figurative and ideal character must not be misunderstood. The Day of Jehovah can never come precisely in the form in which Joel pictured it: nevertheless, it is a day which comes constantly to nations, and also to individuals, and often in ways which they do not expect. That is the sense in which Joel’s picture must be practically applied. Jehovah’s face is set against cruelty and oppression: but He does not extirpate it by mowing down nations wholesale: and the true antithesis is not between Israel, even though invested with ideal perfections, and the other nations of the earth, but between those who, in whatever nation, “fear God and work righteousness” (Acts 10:35), and those who do the reverse. Joel, in striking imagery, sets forth some of the eternal principles of Divine righteousness and human duty, and draws pictures of the ideal blessedness, spiritual and material, which, if man would but adequately respond, God would confer upon the human race; but, as is the case with the prophets generally, these truths are set forth under the spiritual forms of the Jewish dispensation, and with the limitations, thereby imposed, which even the most catholic of prophets were rarely able to throw off.

[27] Comp. the writer’s Isaiah, his life and times, pp. 94, 105, 110–114; Kirkpatrick, Doctrine of the Prophets, pp. 15–17, 402–406, 524 f.

[28] For other imaginative pictures of the same general idea of the glorification of Israel and fall of the heathen powers opposed to it, see Ezekiel 38-39; Zechariah 14; Isaiah 24-27. (Kirkpatrick, pp. 336 f., 470, 475–484).

[29] Israel is settled afterwards in its own land (3:17, 18, 20, 21).

The principal Commentaries on Joel are those of Credner (1831), Ewald in his Prophets (ed. 2, 1867), Hitzig (ed. 3, 1863, ed. 4 revised by Steiner, 1881), Keil (ed. 2, 1888), Pusey (in his Minor Prophets, 1861), Wünsche (1872), Merx, 1879 (containing a very instructive study, pp. 110–447, on the history of the interpretation of the book, patristic, Jewish, mediaeval and modern Christian). See also W. R. Smith, art. Joel, in the Encycl Brit., ed. 9 (reprinted in Black’s Bible Dictionary, 1897), Farrar, Minor Prophets, pp. 103–123, A. B. Davidson, in the Expositor, March, 1888, p. 198 ff., Kuenen, Onderzoek, ed. 2, 1889, §§ 68–69, Kirkpatrick, The Doctrine of the Prophets, 1892, pp. 46–78, and Wellhausen in Die kleinen Propheten übersetzt, mit Noten, 1892.

Excursus on Locusts

The locust belongs to the order of insects termed Orthoptera, having their fore-wings straight, and the hind-wings very large and wide, and folded longitudinally like a fan under the fore-wing. The order consists of two groups, the Runners (Cursoria), unclean under the Levitical law, and the Leapers (Saltatoria), “having jointed legs above their feet to leap withal,” i.e. jointed posterior legs, of great strength and length, enabling them to leap (see the fig., p. 84), which were regarded as clean (Leviticus 11:20-23). The Saltatoria are divided into three families, viz.

(i) The Gryllidae, of which the ordinary house-cricket may be taken as the type.

(ii) The Locustidae, represented by the common grass-hopper.

(iii) The Acridiidae, including the “locusts,” properly so-called, and embracing (among other genera) [60]:

[60] For the following particulars see the Cambridge Natural History, v. pp. 309 f.; and especially J. Redtenbacher, Ueber Wanderheuschrecken (Budweis, 1893), kindly lent to the writer by Dr Sharp of Cambridge.

(1) Tettigides.

(5) Tryxalidae.

The Tryxalidae are markedly distinguished from the genera which follow by their long tapering head (see the fig. in Tristram, N.H.B[61], p. 309). Of this genus, only one species, Stauronotus Maroccanus (found along all the N. coast of Africa, and in Syria, and especially common in Asia Minor and Cyprus), is at present known to be migratory, and that only in the larva-stage. It is about an inch in length. Swarms of this locust visited Algiers in 1866, 1867, 1874 (in these two years their depredations were followed by famines), and yearly since 1884. In June, 1890, the larvae marched over the ground in columns often more than 50 miles wide: and a field of barley after an hour presented the appearance of having been mown (Redtenb., p. 11). The eggs are laid in June, and the young larvae are hatched in the following May.

[61] .H.B. … H. B. Tristram, Natural History of the Bible (1868).

(6) Oedipodides:—

Pachytylus migratorius (or Oedipoda migratoria).

Pachytylus cinerascens.

Pachytylus has often visited Europe, especially the central parts. The two species named closely resemble each other, and are frequently confused. Their colour. speaking generally, is grey or green. The males are about 1½ inches in length, the females about 2 inches. The home of P. migratorius is South Russia, whence it migrates into the adjacent countries. P. cinerascens is frequent in the S. of Europe, N. Africa, Syria and Asia Minor. These species lay their eggs in autumn, the young being hatched in the following May.

(8) Pamphagides (a wingless genus: Camb. N. H. p. 303).

(9) Acridiides:—

Acridium Egyptium (doubtful if migratory).

Acridium peregrinum (now generally termed Schistocerca peregrina).

Frequent in most of the tropical and subtropical parts of the globe. Often very destructive in Mexico and other parts of Central America. About 2–2¼ inches long. Colour, in N. Africa, generally yellow, in Syria and India, reddish. Algiers was visited by destructive swarms of this locust in 1845, 1864, 1866, and 1891: they are brought thither by the Sirocco from across the Sahara. The insects arrive about May, the eggs are soon laid, they are hatched, unlike those of all other locusts (Redtenbacher, p. 24), within a month; in 6–7 weeks more the insects are full grown, and a fortnight afterwards the females are again ready to lay their eggs. This locust is constantly present in small numbers in Egypt, and is sold as an article of food (cf. Matthew 3:4) in the markets of Cairo, Bagdâd, &c. It is probably the locust of Exodus 9, though Redtenbacher knows of no other historical instance of its visiting Egypt in destructive swarms.

Schistocerca Americana.

Caloptenus Italicus.

Frequent on all coasts of the Mediterranean. Males ¾ inch long, females 1–1¼ inches. Migrates both in the larva and in the winged state.

Caloptenus (or Melanoplus) spretus.

The “hateful locust” of the Rocky Mountains, which wrought such havoc over a large area of the United States, that an Entomological Commission was appointed to report upon the best means of checking its ravages (1878). The Report of this Commission contains much valuable information on the Natural History of Locusts.

Of the species here enumerated, Pachytylus and Acridium peregrinum are those which most commonly appear in Palestine.

The true locusts are all migratory species of the family Acridiidae: they are seldom bred in the country which they devastate, their breeding grounds being comparatively barren districts (mostly elevated plateaus), which they soon forsake for more cultivated lands. The migrations of locusts are however irregular, taking place neither at definite seasons of the year, nor at definite intervals of time: they sometimes for instance visit a district for several successive years, at other times only at considerable intervals. When conditions are favourable, the migratory instinct is strong in them; but they have little power of guidance in flight, and are mainly borne along by the wind. Those which invade Palestine are brought nearly always from parts of the Arabian desert on the S.E. or S. Swarms do not always ravage the locality on which they alight: they sometimes merely stop to deposit their eggs, and resume their flight.

Acridium peregrinum: A, larva, newly hatched;

B, pupa, just before its last moult;

C, perfect insect.

(From the Cambridge Natural History, 1895, v. p. 156.)

The female locust has a special apparatus by means of which she excavates holes in the earth, in which she deposits her eggs regularly arranged in a long cylindrical mass, enveloped in a glutinous secretion[62]. Each female (at least of the American species) deposits four such egg-cases, containing in all about 100 eggs. The eggs are laid in some species in the autumn, in others in April or May; in both cases they are hatched usually in May or June. Both parents commonly die soon after the eggs are laid. The insect, after leaving the egg, casts its skin not less than six times before it assumes its complete form (which is reached 6–7 weeks from birth), but only three of the stages through which it thus passes are clearly different to an ordinary observer. Immediately after the locusts are hatched, they are in the larva-stage, in which they have no wings, but are capable of hopping about; and advancing in compact bodies, they begin almost immediately their destructive operations. After about three weeks’ time, their fourth moult brings them to the pupa-stage, in which their wings are partially developed, but enclosed as yet in membranous cases: in this stage they advance by walking rather than by hopping. Ten days after reaching the pupa-stage, they moult again; and 10–15 days after this, by a last moult, they disengage themselves from their ‘pupa,’ or nymph-skin, and as soon as their wings are stiffened and dry, mount in clouds into the air: they are now the imago, or complete insect. In all stages of their development, they are equally voracious, and equally destructive to vegetation. The colours of locusts vary according to species and locality, and also according to the stage of their growth. The Acridium peregrinum, as observed in Algiers, is green, after its first skin (or amnion) is cast (which happens as soon as it is hatched), but it rapidly becomes brown, and in 12 hours its colour is black: after its second moult (six days from birth) streaks of red appear on the body; and the general effect of the following changes is to make the colouring of the insect brighter and more distinct[63].

[62] See the illustration in the Encycl. Brit. ed. 9, s.v. Locusts, p. 767; and, for a description of the process, the Riverside Nat. Hist. (London, 1888), ii. 197, 198.

[63] See details of the several moults in the Cambridge Natural History, v. 287 f.; and, for a graphic description of the one in which the perfect insect emerges, the Riverside Nat. Hist.ii. 199–201 (= Riley, The Rocky Mountain Locust, 1877, pp. 79–82).

The following are the names of locusts (or allied insects) occurring in the Old Testament:—

1. Gâzâm (the lopper or shearer: the root in Arab, and New Hebrew means to cut off, esp. branches), only Joel 1:4; Joel 2:25, and (as destructive to fig-trees and vines), Amos 4:9.

2. Arbeh (prob. the swarmer, from râbâh, to multiply), the common and ordinary name of the locust, occurring 24 times, viz. of the Egyptian plague, Exodus 10:4; Exodus 10:12-14; Exodus 10:14; Exodus 10:19; Exodus 10:19, Psalm 78:46; Psalm 105:34; as otherwise destructive to crops, Deuteronomy 28:38, 1 Kings 8:37, Joel 1:4; Joel 1:4; Joel 2:25, 2 Chronicles 6:28; as a type of what is innumerable, Jdg 6:5; Jdg 7:12, Jeremiah 46:23, Nahum 3:15 end, 17; as tossed about by the wind, Psalm 109:23; as advancing in organized bands, Proverbs 30:27; as leaping with a quivering motion, like horses, Job 39:20; as a ‘clean’ insect, Leviticus 11:22.

3. Yéleḳ (apparently the lapper: cf. lâḳaḳ, to lap, Jdg 7:5), Joel 1:4; Joel 2:25; Jeremiah 51:14; Jeremiah 51:27 (as numerous; in v. 27 with the epithet rough, alluding probably to the horn-like sheath in which the wings of the locust, during its ‘pupa’ stage, are enveloped); Nahum 3:15 (as voracious, and also as numerous: R.V. cankerworm); Nahum 3:16 “the yeleḳ strippeth, and flieth away” (with allusion probably to the manner in which, at the end of the ‘pupa’ stage, the locust casts the sheaths which enclose its wings, and quickly mounts into the air); Psalm 105:34 (in poetical parallelism with arbeh, of the Egyptian plague).

4. Ḥâsîl (the finisher: comp. the verb ḥâsal, Deuteronomy 28:38 “for the locust (arbeh) shall finish it”; it occurs also with the same sense in Aramaic), Joel 1:4; Joel 2:25; 1 Kings 8:37 = 2 Chronicles 6:28 (by the side of arbeh, as a plague common in Palestine); Psalm 78:46 (of the plague of Egypt, with arbeh in the following parallel clause); Isaiah 33:4 “And your spoil [the spoil of the Assyrians] shall be gathered as the ḥâsîl gathereth.”

5. Gôbai, gôb, also (as pointed) plur. gçbîm (perh. the gatherer; cf. on Amos 7:1), Isaiah 33:4 “as gçbîm attack shall they attack it” (the spoil of the Assyrians); Nahum 3:17 “Thy [Nineveh’s] crowned are as the arbeh, and thy marshals as the gôb gôbai [the word is probably written by error twice], which camp in the fences on a cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are” (locusts are benumbed by the cold, and halt at night, but when the sun rises in the morning they quickly leave their halting place: as suddenly and completely will the Assyrian leaders, numerous as they are, disappear); Amos 7:1.

6. Sol‘âm (perh., from the Aram., the swallower up, or annihilator) Leviticus 11:22 (A. V., R.V. bald locust, from a Rabbinical statement that its head was bald in front).

7. Ḥâgâb (perh., from the Arab., the intervener or concealer, sc. of the sun), Leviticus 11:22; a type of smallness, Numbers 13:33, Isaiah 40:22, and perh. Ecclesiastes 12:5 (A.V. grasshopper); voracious, 2 Chronicles 7:13. In the Talmud, ḥâgâb becomes the general designation of the locust, arbeh falling out of use.

8. Ḥargôl (perh., from the Arab., the galloper), Leviticus 11:22 (R.V. cricket),

9. Tzelâtzçl (prob. the creaker, from the stridulous sound produced by many of the Orthoptera, especially the males, by rubbing the upper part of the leg against the wing), Deuteronomy 28:42 (A.V., R.V. locust).

In Leviticus 11:22 the arbeh, the sol‘am, the ḥargôl, and the ḥâgâb, are mentioned as four distinct species of winged insects having “jointed legs above the feet to leap withal,” i.e. jointed posterior legs, of the kind described above: they need not, therefore, all be “locusts,” but they must all be “saltatorial” Orthoptera.

The species of Orthoptera found in Palestine have not at present been classified with sufficient exactness to enable us to identify all these insects with any confidence[64]. Arbeh, the commonest name of the locust, denoted probably the species which invaded Palestine most frequently, viz. Acridium peregrinum. Pachytylus, which differs from A. peregrinum both in size and colour, may well have received a separate name, perhaps ḥâsîl. Tryxalis, which is smaller than either of these species, and differs also from them both by its tapering head, may likewise have well been denoted by a separate name: but we cannot say which it was. Gôb, to judge from Amos 7:1, may have denoted the newly-hatched larvae: its mention in Nahum 3:17 might be explained either by the custom of the locust in its larva-stage halting, as it marched, at night time, during the cold, but starting again when the sun rose and warmed it; or by the supposition that the term included the pupa-stage as well, and that the reference was to the nymphae encamping at night, and obtaining wings in the warmth of the morning (the usual time for moulting), and so flying away (Houghton, D. B. II. p. 131 b). As stated above, there is some ground for thinking that the yéleḳ denoted the locust in its pupa-stage. The more exact determination of the insects denoted by the Hebrew words quoted, must however be left to some naturalist who has accurately acquainted himself, by residence in Palestine, with the species most commonly found there[65].

[64] The Arabs say that there are different kinds of locusts, yellow, white, red, black, large and small: they also mention that they have different names, when they are first hatched (dabâ), when their wings begin to grow (ghaughâ), and when they are fully formed (jaräd, the ‘stripper’), the males being then yellow and the females black. The Syrians distinguish flying locusts and creeping locusts, the former for instance standing in the Pesh. for arbeh, and the latter for yéleḳ, in Joel 1:4; Joel 2:25. According to Jerome (on Nahum 3:17) bruchus, attelabus, and locusta, denote, respectively, the insect in its three stages of growth (though other ancient writers define the first two of these terms differently). See Bochart, Hieroz. iii. 260–262.

[65] See further Bochart, Hierozoicon, Pt. II. Lib. iv. ch. 1–8; Tristram, Nat. Hist. of the Bible, pp. 306 ff.; Houghton in Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, s.v. Locusts (who states, II. 607a, that only two or three destructive species of locust are known to visit Palestine); the Cambridge Nat. Hist. v. Chap. xii. (on the Acridiidae); Redtenbacher (as cited above); C. V. Riley, The Rocky Mountain Locust (Chicago, 1877).

The following accounts, by different observers, will illustrate, in various particulars, Joel’s description, and will also, it is hoped, be found interesting independently:—

(1) Locustae “pariunt in terram demisso spinae caule ova condensa autumni tempore. Ea durant hieme sub terra. Subsequente anno exitu veris emittunt parvas, nigrantes et sine cruribus pennisque reptantes.… Mori matres cum pepererint, certum est … Eodem tempore mares obeunt.… Est et alius earum obitus. Gregatim sublatae vento in maria aut stagna decidunt.… Deorum irae pestis ea intelligitur. Namque et grandiores cernuntur, et tanto volant pennarum stridore, ut aliae alites credantur. Solemque obumbrant, sollicitis suspectantibus populis, ne suas operiant terras. Sufficiunt quippe vires; et tamquam parum sit maria transisse, immensos tractus permeant, diraque messibus contegunt nube, multa contactu adurentes: omnia vero morsu erodentes, et fores quoque tectorum. Italiam ex Africa maxime coortae infestant, saepe populo ad Sibyllina coacto remedia confugere, inopiae metu. In Cyrenaica regione lex etiam est ter anno debellandi eas, primo ova obterendo, deinde fetum, postremo adultas: desertoris poena in eum qui cessaverit.… Necare et in Syria militari imperio coguntur. Tot orbis partibus vagatur id malum.… Minores autem in omni hoc genere feminis mares” (Pliny, N. H. x. 29; partly after Arist. H. A. v. 28. The accuracy of many of the particulars is strikingly confirmed by modern observers).

(2) “Those which I saw, Ann. 1724 and 1725 [in Algiers] were much bigger than our common grasshoppers, having brown spotted wings, with legs and bodies of a bright yellow. Their first appearance was towards the latter end of March, the wind having been for some time southerly; and in the middle of April their numbers were so vastly increased that, in the heat of the day, they formed themselves into large bodies, appeared like a succession of clouds, and darkened the sun. About the middle of May they retired into the adjacent plains to deposit their eggs. Accordingly, in June, their young broods began gradually to make their appearances; and it was surprising to observe, that no sooner were any of them hatched than they immediately collected themselves together, each of them forming a compact body of several hundred yards in square: which, marching afterwards directly forward, climbed over trees, walls and houses, eat up every plant in their way, and let nothing escape them.” The inhabitants sought to stop their progress by filling trenches with water, and kindling fires; but in vain: “the trenches were quickly filled up, and the fires put out by infinite swarms succeeding one another; whilst the front seemed regardless of danger, and the rear pressed on so close, that a retreat was impossible. A day or two after one of these bodies was in motion, others were already hatched to glean after them; gnawing off the young branches, and the very bark of such trees as had escaped before with the loss only of their fruit and foliage. Having in this manner lived near a month upon the ruin and destruction of everything that was green or juicy, they arrived at their full growth, and threw off their worm-like state, by casting their skins. This transformation was performed in 7 or 8 minutes; after which they lay for a small time in a languishing condition; but as soon as the sun and air had hardened their wings, and dried up the moisture that remained upon them after the casting of their sloughs, they returned again to their former voracity, with an addition both of strength and agility. But they continued not long in this state before they were dispersed towards the North, where they perished probably in the sea” (T. Shaw, Travels in Barbary, 1738, p. 256–8, slightly abridged).

(3) “On the 11th of June, whilst seated in our tents [at Shiraz, in Persia] about noon, we heard a very unusual noise, that sounded like the rushing of a great wind at a distance. On looking up we perceived an immense cloud, here and there semi-transparent, in other parts quite black, that spread itself all over the sky, and at intervals shadowed the sun. This we soon found to be locusts, whole swarms of them falling about us; but their passage was but momentary, for a fresh wind from the S.W., which had brought them to us, so completely drove them forwards, that not a vestige of them was to be seen two hours after.… These locusts were of a red colour.… They seemed to be impelled by one common instinct, and moved in one body, which had the appearance of being organized by a leader.… At Smyrna, in 1800, they committed great depredations. About the middle of April the hedges and ridges of the fields began to swarm with young locusts, which then wore a black appearance, had no wings, and were quite harmless. About the middle of May they had increased triple the size, were of a grey cindery colour, and had incipient wings about ½-inch long. They still continued to be harmless; but at the end of June they had grown to their full size, which was 3½ inches in length; the legs, head, and extremities red; the body a pale colour, tending to red. They appear to be created for a scourge; since to strength incredible for so small a creature, they add saw-like teeth, admirably calculated to destroy herbage.… It was during their stay that they shewed themselves to be the red plague described in Exodus. They seemed to march in regular battalions, crawling over everything that lay in their passage, in one straight front. They entered the inmost recesses of the houses, were found in every corner, stuck to our clothes, and infested our food” (J. Morier, A Second Journey through Persia, 1818, pp. 98–100).

(4) “It was Sept. 13, 1863, when, just after luncheon, it suddenly became quite dusk, and the servants coming in told us that the locusts had arrived, and so we went out to see them. The whole sky, as far as the eye could reach, in every direction was full of them. They flew from the north-east at a great pace, with a strange rustling filling the air with sound, which seemed to come from every point, and were much scattered in their flight, which ranged from 30 to 200 feet above the ground. The wind was blowing from the north-east, and they were borne along upon it. Afterwards the wind veered round, and the locusts turned with it. These locusts were of a red colour, differing but slightly from the well-known migratorius, about 3 inches long, while the expanse of the wings measured nearly five inches. A heavy storm of rain obliged them soon to settle. They did not remain here, however: the next morning the sun came out, and with dried wings they mounted up into the air, and went straight off to the north-west.… The appearance of a flight on the horizon is curious. It is like a thin dark streak, which increases in density every moment till it has arrived. It is often several hundred feet in depth, and 1–2, or even 3–4 miles long. What strikes every one as they approach is the strange rustling of millions on millions of crisp wings.… Afterwards many swarms settled in the Punjaub, where they laid their eggs in the ground, and though thousands were destroyed, many yet remained, and the young wingless larvae crawled over the ground, creating far greater havoc than their winged parents” (C. Horne, in Hardwicke’s Science Gossip, 1871, p. 79f.).

(5) “Early in the spring the locusts appeared in considerable numbers along the sea-coast, and on the lower spurs of the Lebanon-range. They did no great injury at the time, and, having laid their eggs, immediately disappeared. Towards the end of May we heard that thousands of young locusts were on their march up the valley towards our village (Abeîh): we accordingly went forth to meet them, hoping to stop their progress, or at least to turn aside their line of march.” The endeavour was useless. “I had often passed through clouds of flying locusts; but these we now confronted were without wings, and about the size of full-grown grasshoppers, which they closely resembled in appearance and behaviour. But their number was astounding: the whole face of the mountain was black with them. On they came like a disciplined army. We dug trenches and kindled fires, and beat and burnt to death heaps upon heaps, but the effort was utterly useless. They charged up the mountain side, and climbed over rocks, walls, ditches, and hedges, those behind coming up and passing over the masses already killed.… For some days they continued to pass on towards the east, until finally only a few stragglers of the mighty hosts were left behind.… Whilst on the march they consumed every green thing with wonderful eagerness and expedition.… The noise made by them in marching and foraging was like that of a heavy shower falling upon a distant forest” (Thomson, The Land and the Book, Central Pal., p. 296–8).

(6) “Jaffa, June 20 [1865]. In April last, we observed twice large dark clouds, resembling smoke, moving to and fro, as if swayed by the wind. One morning these clouds came down and proved to be locusts, so great in number that the whole land was covered with them. The grain at that time was full in ear, and nearly ripe, but the locusts did not touch it or any other vegetation. Soon after, however, it was observed that they buried themselves in the soil, and there deposited their innumerable eggs. The Arabs and peasants saw the approaching mischief, and went through the land in thousands digging for these eggs: they succeeded to a certain extent, and destroyed incredible numbers with water and fire, but all their efforts had very little effect. About the middle of May, small black creatures, at a distance resembling ants, were observed accumulating in large heaps throughout the country; and a few days after they began to leap. The people now began to sweep them together, and bury or burn them in ditches dug for the purpose. But all to little or no effect, and as they grew larger, the extent of their multitude began to be seen, and the coming catastrophe could not be mistaken. The roads were covered with them, all marching in regular lines, like armies of soldiers, with their leaders in front, and all the opposition of man to resist their progress was in vain.” Having consumed the plantations in the country, they then entered the towns and villages. “Jaffa for several days appeared forsaken, all shops were shut, and all business was suspended: almost all the inhabitants had gone out to destroy and drive away the invading army: but in vain; in parts they covered the ground for miles to a height of several inches. They change in colour as they grow: at first they are black; when about three weeks old they become green, after two weeks more they are yellow, striped with brown: at this stage they have wings, but too small to enable them to fly, and when in an erect position, their appearance at a little distance is that of a well-armed horseman; in 14 days more, when perfect, they are pink below and green above, with various streaks and marks, differing also in colour. At present they are here still in their third stage, when they seem to be the most destructive. The gardens outside Jaffa are now completely stripped, even the bark of young trees having been devoured, and look like a birch tree forest in winter. When they approached our garden, all the farm servants were employed to keep them off, but to no avail; though our men broke their ranks for a moment, no sooner had they passed the men than they closed again, and marched forward, through ditches and hedges, as before. Our garden finished, they continued their march toward the town, devastating one garden after another. They have also penetrated into most of our rooms; whatever one is doing, one hears their noise from without, like the noise of armed hosts, or the running of many waters” (Abridged from an account in the Journ. of Sacred Lit., Oct. 1865, p. 235 f.)

(7) “On the 27th ult., when travelling inland [in Formosa], indistinct sounds were heard far ahead. These grew louder as we approached. Looking towards the east was seen, in appearance, a perfect snowstorm advancing rapidly westwards. We halted on the pathway, and, with a rushing noise, swarms of locusts on the wing flew ten feet high over our heads. On and on with the wind the insect army pressed forward, until the air was thickened and the sun darkened. In a moment they settled on the waving rice fields of green, and with great rapidity that colour gave way to a brownish hue. Crowds of farmers, their wives and children, were wild with excitement, and were jumping, running, yelling, and cursing the destroyers. I clapped my hands, not only to assist in driving the voracious hosts away, but also from real joy, because these eyes saw what accurate observers the inspired naturalists were. Bamboo groves have been stripped of their leaves, and left standing like saplings after a rapid bush fire. Rice crops have been made to resemble oat fields in Canada after the army worm has marched through. And grass has been devoured, so that the bare ground appeared as if burned.… The heads, bodies, and legs of the majority are yellow, while others are reddish-brown in colour. Their antennae are short and thick. The front wings are straight, membranous, and four inches in length when stretched at right angles. The hinder ones are sail-like, translucent, and three and one-half inches long when spread out to fly. One specimen in my museum is so gaily coloured that it might be mistaken for a gaudy butterfly.… As there are countless numbers in the larval condition, and as eggs are being deposited in the ground, it is to be feared these dreadful armies may next year invade and devastate vast regions in North Formosa. As this is their first appearance here, the natives are amazed and alarmed. Many declare there are letters on their wings, and that they are a scourge somehow connected with the coming of these Japanese, and many have burned incense sticks and invited the locusts to leave Formosa and go elsewhere. Christians declare they understood better than ever one of the plagues in Egypt” (From the Standard, Dec. 25, 1896).

See also Clarke’s Travels (1810), 1.437–9 (in the Crimea); Burckhardt, Bedouins (1831), II. 89–92; and the Rev. F. W. Holland, ap. Tristram, The Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 316–318. For an interesting account of the movements (including the passage of broad rivers) of the wingless locusts of S. Africa (called by the Dutch “voetgangers”) see the Camb. Nat. Hist. V. 295 f.