SEV Biblia, Chapter 2:3
Delante de él consumirá fuego, tras de él abrasará llama; como el huerto del Edén será la tierra delante de él, y detrás de él como desierto asolado; ni tampoco habrá quien de él escape.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Joel 2:3
Verse 3. A fire devoureth before them] They consume like a general conflagration. "They destroy the ground, not only for the time, but burn trees for two years after." Sir Hans Sloane, Nat. Hist. of Jamaica, vol. i., p. 29. Behind them a flame burneth] "Wherever they feed," says Ludolf, in his History of Ethiopia, "their leavings seem as if parched with fire." Nothing shall escape them.] "After devouring the herbage," says Adanson, "with the fruits and leaves of trees, they attacked even the buds and the very bark; they did not so much as spare the reeds with which the huts were thatched."
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 3. A fire devoureth before them, and behind them aflame burneth , etc.] This is not to be understood of the heat of the sun, or of the great drought that went before and continued after the locusts; but of them themselves, which were like a consuming fire; wherever they came, they devoured all green grass, herbs, and leaves of trees, as fire does stubble; they sucked out the juice and moisture of everything they came at, and what they left behind shrivelled up and withered away, as if it had been scorched with a flame of fire: and so the Assyrians and Chaldeans, they were an emblem of, destroyed all they met with, by fire and sword; cut up the corn and herbage for forage; and what they could not dispense with they set fire to, and left it burning. Sanctius thinks this refers to fire, which the Chaldeans worshipped as God, and carried before their armies as a sacred and military sign; but this seems not likely: the land [is] as the garden of Eden before them ; abounding with fields and vineyards, set with fruitful trees, planted with all manner of pleasant plants, and all kind of corn growing upon it, and even resembling a paradise: and behind them a desolate wilderness ; all green grass eaten up, the corn of the field devoured, the vines and olives destroyed, the leaves and fruit of them quite gone, and the trees themselves barked; so that there was just the same difference between this country before the calamities described came upon it, and what it was after, as between the garden of Eden, or a paradise, and the most desolate wilderness; such ravages were made by the locusts, and by those they resembled: yea, and nothing shall escape them ; no herb: plant, or tree, could escape the locusts; nor any city, town, or village, nor scarce any particular person, could escape the Chaldean army; but was either killed with the sword, or carried captive, or brought into subjection. The Targum interprets it of no deliverance to the ungodly.
Matthew Henry Commentary
A plague of locusts. (Joel 1:1-7) All sorts of people are called to lament it. (Joel 1:8-13) They are to look to God. (Joel 1:14-20)
Joel 1:1-7 The most aged could not remember such calamities as wer about to take place. Armies of insects were coming upon the land to ea the fruits of it. It is expressed so as to apply also to the destruction of the country by a foreign enemy, and seems to refer to the devastations of the Chaldeans. God is Lord of hosts, has ever creature at his command, and, when he pleases, can humble and mortify proud, rebellious people, by the weakest and most contemptibl creatures. It is just with God to take away the comforts which ar abused to luxury and excess; and the more men place their happiness in the gratifications of sense, the more severe temporal afflictions ar upon them. The more earthly delights we make needful to satisfy us, the more we expose ourselves to trouble.
Joel 1:8-13 All who labour only for the meat that perishes, will sooner or later, be ashamed of their labour. Those that place their happiness in the delights of sense, when deprived of them, or disturbe in the enjoyment, lose their joy; whereas spiritual joy then flourishe more than ever. See what perishing, uncertain things ou creature-comforts are. See how we need to live in continual dependenc upon God and his providence. See what ruinous work sin makes. As far a poverty occasions the decay of piety, and starves the cause of religio among a people, it is a very sore judgment. But how blessed are the awakening judgments of God, in rousing his people and calling home the heart to Christ, and his salvation!
Joel 1:14-20 The sorrow of the people is turned into repentance an humiliation before God. With all the marks of sorrow and shame, sin must be confessed and bewailed. A day is to be appointed for thi purpose; a day in which people must be kept from their commo employments, that they may more closely attend God's services; an there is to be abstaining from meat and drink. Every one had added to the national guilt, all shared in the national calamity, therefor every one must join in repentance. When joy and gladness are cut of from God's house, when serious godliness decays, and love waxes cold then it is time to cry unto the Lord. The prophet describes ho grievous the calamity. See even the inferior creatures suffering for our transgression. And what better are they than beasts, who never cr to God but for corn and wine, and complain of the want of the delight of sense? Yet their crying to God in those cases, shames the stupidit of those who cry not to God in any case. Whatever may become of the nations and churches that persist in ungodliness, believers will fin the comfort of acceptance with God, when the wicked shall be burned u with his indignation __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
לפניו 6440 אכלה 398 אשׁ 784 ואחריו 310 תלהט 3857 להבה 3852 כגן 1588 עדן 5731 הארץ 776 לפניו 6440 ואחריו 310 מדבר 4057 שׁממה 8077 וגם 1571 פליטה 6413 לא 3808 היתה׃ 1961
