to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.

9 Who is wise, and he shall under

as famed for its excellence as that which produces the wine of Lebanon. See note on the preceding clause. "Renown;" lit. "memorial;" which may possibly, but not so probably, mean "flavour." The wine of Lebanon has been most highly extolled, as well in ancient as in modern times: by Pliny, 'Hist. Nat.' XIV. 7; Niebuhr, quoted by Horsley, and others. Von Troil, cited by Dr Henderson, says: "On this mountain are very valuable vineyards, in which the most excellent wine is produced, such as I have never drunk in any country, though in the course of fourteen years I have travelled through many, and tasted many good wines."

8. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols?] The words "shall say" are not in the Hebrew, and somewhat weaken the spirit of the passage. As in Ps. cix. the words, "but I give myself unto prayer," are literally, "but I am prayer;" so we have here, "Ephraim is, What have I to do any more with idols?" meaning, "Ephraim's whole heart shall be, "What have I," &c. The question itself is similar in form to Jer. ii. 18, and means, "What are idols to me?" Another rendering is, "O Ephraim, what have I [the Lord] any more to do with idols!" i.e. Why should they any more be joined with Me as objects of thy worship? Am not I all-sufficient? So Mendelssohn, Wünsche, and some others.

I have heard him, &c.] Rather, "I, even I, have answered and have observed him: I am as a green pine tree; from me is thy fruit found." In response to Ephraim's renouncing all other trust, Jehovah asserts His allsufficiency for His people. He it is that will hear Ephraim's prayers (cp. ch. ii. 21; Isai. lxv. 24); that will watch over him, no longer (as in Deut. xxxi. 17) "hiding His face;" that will give him refreshing shade, and supply him with every blessing natural or spiritual (James i. 17).

fir tree] Or, "pine tree." For the exact import of berōsh, see Tristram, Nat. H.' p. 353. An umbrageous and perhaps downstooping tree is required, as in Isai. xli. 19. There seems to be here a reminiscence of Song of Sol. ii. 3. "I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste."

stand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.

9. Who is wise, &c.] Or, "Who is wise, that he may understand these things? a man of understanding, that he may know them?" This solemn proclamation challenges attention to the prophet's message. It is similar in import to, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." Cp. Jer. ix. 12.

for the ways of the LORD, &c.] Or, "for straight are the ways of the Lord, and the righteous shall go on in them, but transgressors shall fall therein." The "ways of the Lord" sometimes mean the methods of God's procedure, as Isai. lv. 8, 9; Job xxvi. 14; Ps. cxlv. 17; Ezek. xviii. 25; sometimes, the ways which the Lord prescribes for man's obedience, as Ps. lxxxi. 13, cxix. 3, 37. In the present passage, as also in Ps. xxv. 10, the phrase appears to comprise both senses. Since the course of spiritual and moral obedience, prescribed to us by God's law, must bring us into the most perfect harmony with His own course of procedure in the government of the world, those who faithfully walk therein may confidently expect, not only the Divine aid in their endeavours thus to live, but also the Divine blessing through the orderings of His providence both here and hereafter. "Go on:" the righteous endeavour to walk in them, and find that they really can do so: they move forward steadily, and without meeting with any real obstacle, even to the very end and goal of their journey. Cp. Ps. cxix. 3, 165. "Transgressors," those who are minded to gainsay God's revelations and refuse to obey His laws, find in them, as they think, plentiful occasion for doubt, for disbelief, for disobedience; but the word of God will infallibly avenge itself sooner or later in their utter confusion and overthrow. Cp. Ecclus. xxxix. 24; 2 Cor. ii. 16; 1 Peter ii. 7, 8. The prophet appears to feel how much there had been of this gainsaying in the men of his own time, and to despair therefore, at least for the present, of Israel's recovery; but he takes leave of his prophetic ministry, saddened, indeed, and foreboding, yet fortified and consoled by the conviction, that, whatever shall befal, the whole course of Divine providence will evermore commend itself to the highest reason and conscience, working out good and ill for all men according as they shall severally be found to deserve. See Introd. p. 405.

§ I. AUTHOR AND DATE § II. CONTENTS OF THE BOOK Its Three Predictions, viz.:(1) The day of the Lord

7E have no information respecting Joel, except such as is derived from the book which he has left us. From it we learn his name and country, and we may gather, with less certainty, his date.

I. The Author and Date.

Neither his own name nor the name of his father awakens any association. They are entirely unknown to us. Others bore the appellation of Joel, which means "Jehovah is God" or "the man who has Jehovah for his God;" but we have proof that they are not to be identified with the prophet, and it is therefore superfluous to refer to them. That he was a native of the southern kingdom is certain. It is Mount Zion and Jerusalem, the children of Judah and Jerusalem, that he addresses and of whom he speaks (ii. 1, 15, 23, 32, iii. 1, 6, 8, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21). The word Israel is used only three times (ii. 27, iii. 2, 16), and it is plain that it has no reference on any of these occasions to the northern kingdom. Further, the allusions which he makes are to things existing in Jerusalem and Judah, not in Samaria and the Israelitish kingdom; such as the temple of Solomon (ii. 17, iii. 18) and its services (i. 9, 13, ii. 14, 17) and the valley of Jeho shaphat, if in that name a reference is to be seen either to the valley of the Kedron, or to the valley of Berakah (iii. 2, 12, 14).

Of his occupation or profession we can only gather, negatively, that he was not a priest, as supposed by Mr Maurice (Prophets and Kings,' p. 179, Cambr. 1853) and others. He addresses the priests evidently from without (i. 13, ii. 17). We may notice, however, in opposition to a revived error, that in the prophet, though not a priest, there is no depreciation of the priestly office and of priestly ministrations. The error alluded to supposes the existence of a conscious and direct antagonism between the prophetic and the priestly office, of an "opposition of the prophets to the growth of the priestly and sacrificial system," which is represented as being "based on an eternal principle:" a "conflict" between the two orders, beginning with Joel and continuing down to the time of Jeremiah. There is no such antagonism, opposition, or conflict to be found in the records of the Jewish people. The prophetical office was supplemental, not antagonistic, to the priestly. They were twin powers which cooperated for the maintenance of the faith of Jehovah and of morality based upon the religious principle. When priests or priestly acts are denounced by prophets, it is not because they are priestly, but because they are sinful (Isai. i. 10; Mal. i. 14, ii. 1). In the prophet Joel we find the priests recognized, not as rude slayers of beasts, but as ministers of God, as mediators and intercessors

between God and man, and as the natural leaders of the devotions of the people (ii. 17). There is no hint of any "rebuke of the sacrificial and ceremonial system," which an erroneous interpretation has attributed to the words of Joel. Indeed some, to whom the idea of priesthood and sacrifice are specially repugnant, see so much value attached to the forms of worship in the Book of Joel, as to conclude therefrom that the author was a Levite'.

The elements out of which we have to form our judgment as to the date of the prophet Joel are (1) the language and style, (2) the references to foreign nations, (3) the references or allusions to occurrences or circumstances in Judah, (4) the quotations made from the book by other prophets, or by it from others, and (5) the position of the book in the Canon.

(1) From the language and style we are able to draw no satisfactory conclusion. In sublimity Joel comes next to Isaiah, in tenderness to Jeremiah; but there is nothing either in words or style, although both are peculiar, to shew whether he wrote early or late in the four hundred years over which the prophets of Judah range.

(2) The foreign nations named are Tyre, Zidon, Philistia (iii. 4), Greece (iii. 6), Sheba (iii. 8), Egypt and Edom (iii. 19); and the Assyrians may possibly be indicated under the name of "the Northern" (ii. 20). Tyre and Zidon are denounced by Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah; Philistia, by Amos, Isaiah, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel; Edom, by Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Obadiah, Ezekiel, Malachi; Egypt, by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. There is nothing therefore to be learnt from the fact of these nations being named as enemies of Judah. Their hostility was permanent from B. C. 800 (in the case of Egypt from B. C. 972) to B. C. 400. Greece is mentioned by Ezekiel (xxvii. 13), as by Joel, as a receiver of slaves from Tyre; and Sheba, as trading with Tyre (ib. 22); but there is no reason to suppose that their traffic was carried on more at one

1 Davidson, 'On the Old Test.;' Knobel, 'Der Prophetismus.'

date than another. We can therefore learn no more from these two names than from the others. The only remaining name is "the Northern," and it is so uncertain if this means a nation at all, that we can found no argument upon it. We can only say that if it means the Assyrians, and that if the invasion of Sennacherib is predicted by it, the prophet's date must have been previous to the reign of Hezekiah. An argument is, indeed, drawn by several commentators from the absence of any denunciation of the Syrians, who invaded Judah in the reign of Joash (2 K. xii. 18); but this is too precarious a foundation on which to build with any security.

(3) Internal allusions. Here, for the first time, we reach something definite. There can be little or no doubt that Joel's description of the overthrow of the heathen, of the triumph of Judah, and of the judgment by Jehovah in the valley of Jehoshaphat, following upon the great fast to which the prophet had called his countrymen, is based upon the historical facts of the overthrow of the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites by the hand of God, and of the rejoicing of the Israelites, in the valley of Berakah, after the fast held by Jehoshaphat (2 Chro. xx.). Here then we have a terminus a quo; Joel must have lived and written subsequently to the accession of King Jehoshaphat, B. C. 915. Only one writer places him earlier (Bunsen, "Gott in der Geschichte,' 1. 321): only one (T. F. Bauer) assigns him so early a date.

The verse previous to that in which the valley of Jehoshaphat is mentioned promises a restoration of "the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem." On account of this expression Vatke has placed the prophet's date so low down as the captivity by Nebuchadnezzar. But this is a mistake. "The captivity" means in general the exiles, not necessarily the Babylonish exiles (see Amos i. 6, 9); and the occupation of the land of Judah is spoken of as a past thing (iii. 2) in relation to the day of requital, not in relation to the prophet. That he was not a prophet of the captivity is proved by his referring to the temple of Solomon and the ministrations at the temple as still existing (i. 9, 13, ii. 17, iii. 18). So far

then we learn that his date was subsequent to the earlier part of the reign of Jehoshaphat, and before the captivity of Nebuchadnezzar.

His call to a public fast would imply that he did not live in the reign of any of the kings who had lapsed into paganism. This would exclude the reign of Athaliah, the latter part of the reign of Joash, the latter part of the reign of Amaziah, the early part of the reign of Manasseh, and the reign of Amon.

(4) Quotations. Amos begins his prophecy with the same words with which Joel almost ends his. Which quoted the words from the other? In Joel they evidently belong to the context. In the account of the last day, after the description of the sun and moon and stars being darkened, there naturally follows, "The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem" (iii. 16). Amos begins abruptly with those words, and prefixes them as a sort of text to his prophecy. Therefore it would seem that it is Amos that quotes from Joel. The date of Amos is known. He lived in the reign of Uzziah, B. C. 810-759, and of Jeroboam, B. C. 824772; and before he wrote Joel had written. The beginning of the reign of Joash, B. C. 887-839, has been suggested as his date'. But we may fix with greater probability on the early years of the reign of King Uzziah'.

(5) This date falls in with the place that the book holds in the Hebrew Canon, which is for the most part, though probably not altogether, chronologically arranged. And we may add (though of course this would prove nothing of itself) that the mention of agriculturists and of agricultural implements and of the vice of drunkenness (the only vice or sin specified by the prophet), and aspirations after conquest and dominion, would seem to be not unsuitable to the days of Uzziah.

Joel then, we may consider, was the earliest prophet of the kingdom of Judah,

1 So Credner, Movers, Hitzig, Ewald, Meier, Delitzsch, Keil, Auberlen, Schmoller, Wünsche.

2 So Abarbanel, Vitringa, Ussher, Justi, Rosenmüller, Eichhorn, Holzhausen, De Wette, Knobel, Hengstenberg, Jäger, Bleek, Havernick, Umbreit, Köster, Küper, Pusey, Davidson, Wordsworth.

a contemporary of Hosea in the northern kingdom, and followed in quick succession in Judah by Isaiah, who quotes a sentence from him (xiii. 6), and by Micah. It is this position which gives such an exceeding interest to two of the predictions contained in his book.

II.

Contents of the Book.

There are three predictions in Joel. The first is of the plague of locusts and drought, and the removal, or reversal, of that plague, occupying chap. i. and chap. ii. to the end of v. 27. The second is of the effusion of the Holy Spirit, typified by the refreshing rain which brought back verdure to the parched fields, contained in the last five verses of ch. ii. (These verses, according to the Hebrew arrangement, form ch. iii.) The third prediction is of the Day of Judg ment, typified by the destruction wrought upon the locust scourge, and of the Reign of Righteousness accompanying and following the judgment. This occupies the remaining chapter. We will consider these predictions in their reverse order.

(1) If Joel and the other prophets had been secular writers, we should say that with Joel originated that apocalyptic literature which culminated in the Book of the Revelation. Being what they are, we say that it pleased God first to reveal to Joel that which He, in a similar, though not in the same, form afterwards revealed to His other prophets respecting the end of the world and the occurrences which were to precede it. The glorious prospect of a future blessedness became the inheritance of the Jewish people from the time of Joel onwards, and with it the terrors of the day of

3 The prophet Obadiah is considered by some to have been still earlier than Joel; and it must

be allowed that the advocates of this view have strong arguments to urge in its favour; but we do not adopt it. See Introduction to the Book of Obadiah.

4 The two latest commentators on the Book of Joel, Wünsche and Schmoller, revive the view (urged also with some vehemency by Calvin) that the locust plague is not predicted but narrated by the prophet as a thing already past, and lately witnessed by himself and his countrymen. Their arguments deserve respectful attention, but are not convincing, as against those of Hengstenberg and others.

judgment. The prophetic "form" which the "idea" takes in Joel and his successors is that of an universal reign of righteousness and peace and happiness under the visible headship of Jehovah, the centre of whose kingdom would be the earthly Jerusalem. This glorious period is to be inaugurated by a terrible "Day of the Lord" (itself ushered in by signs and wonders in the universe), wherein, the Jewish exiles having been restored, a judgment will be pronounced by Jehovah in solemn assize upon all the heathen; and the foes of Jehovah and of His people Israel will be exterminated. Our Lord, divesting the "idea," which is permanent, of the "form," which is transitory, declares to us that the "Day of the Lord" shall come, ushered in by the signs and wonders described by the prophet; that He, the Son of Man, shall sit upon His throne of His glory; that, His elect having been gathered from all quarters, He shall give solemn judgment upon all nations collected before Him; and that those who are His foes and the foes of His elect will be dismissed into everlasting punishment, while the righteous are admitted to the inheritance of the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world (Matt. xxv. 31-46). St John, in like manner, in his final apocalyptic visions, sees Joel's vision spiritualizedthe gathering of the heathen, the day of judgment, the destruction of the wicked, and the creation of the new Jerusalem, in which God's people shall dwell for ever around the throne of God and of the Lamb; "and God Himself shall be with them and be their God, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away;" "and they shall reign for ever and ever" (Rev. xx., xxi., xxii.). The dearest hopes and the most awful fears which encourage and restrain the human race at the present day were first revealed by God to the prophet Joel, and from his time onwards became the inheritance of His Church.

(2) Looked at in the above light, the apocalyptic descriptions contained in ch. iii. (according to the Hebrew arrange

ment, ch. iv.) are the most interesting of Joel's predictions. Yet there is another prediction still more important--the promise of the effusion of the Spirit of God upon His people in the latter times. God's ancient Church, as well as the Christian Church, had a participation in the Spirit of God. They could not have been His people without it. His Spirit was the bond of communion, the only inward bond which could, or can, exist between God and men in covenant with God. But in the Old Testament the graces of His Spirit were less rich and less generally bestowed. At times they seemed to be almost confined to the prophets; and even of a prophet it might be said, as of John Baptist, that, with regard to means of participation in the ordinary graces of the Spirit, the least in the kingdom of heaven was greater than he. Until Christ had returned to His Father, the Comforter could not come and bestow Himself in His fulness (John xvi. 7). Joel is the first to predict that He should so come-" afterwards,” not in the prophet's own day. Now God would, in answer to penitent prayer, give the natural rains which were needed to repair the injuries of the locust devastation. Hereafter He would rain down his Spirit in an abundance which had never before been vouchsafed. Moses had long ago uttered the ejaculation, "Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them" (Num. xi. 29). Joel takes up his words and predicts that this longing shall be accomplished "in the latter days." Isaiah (xi. 9, xxxii. 15, liv. 13), Jeremiah (xxxi. 33), Ezekiel (xxxvi. 26), Zechariah (xii. 10), intimate the same truth; but it is Joel who, both from the priority and the clearness of his prediction, is in an especial manner the prophet of the manifestation of the Holy Ghost, as others were prophets of the manifestation of the Messiah,

(3) The rest of the book (i. 1 to ii. 27) contains the remaining prediction, which consists of a threat of a visitation of locusts, a description of the desolation wrought by them, a call to repentance and public humiliation in consequence of them, and a promise upon such repentance of fertilizing rains-types of those streams of refreshing grace from