Having dealt with the cause of the destruction in verse 4, Joel now proceeds to

describe that destruction, picking out several particular items. The structure of this

section enables us to high-light these.

1: 5a.

PEOPLE.  Call to awake and howl.

1: 5b-7.

REASON.  Vine laid waste. Fig made bare.

1: 8.

LAND.  Call to lament.

1: 9, 10.

REASON.  Offerings are cut off.

1: 11a.

PEOPLE.  Call to be ashamed and howl.

1: 11b, 12.

REASON.  Harvest perished. Trees withered.

1: 13a.

LAND.  Call to lament.

1: 13b.

REASON.  Offerings withheld.

Joel 1: 5. The drunkards are told to awake and "all ye drinkers of wine" are told to

howl. In those days "all ye drinkers of wine" would include nearly everyone--the only

general exception being those who chose to be Nazarites (Numb. 6: 2-21). Apart from

fresh milk there was little else to drink. The water could not always be relied upon to be

free of infection and it could not be stored for long. The fermentation process necessary

for the production of wine does allow the product to be stored for quite some time

afterwards. The apparent conflict between "new wine" (A.V.) and "sweet wine" (R.S.V.)

is only apparent. New wine would always be sweet for the longer the fermentation lasts,

the less sweet the wine and the greater its alcoholic content. Thus sweet, low alcoholic

wines would be popular and one can be sure that Joel is addressing practically the whole

of the population.  Also, sadly, some who took the Nazarite vow, which involved

abstention from wine, did not keep it, Amos 2: 11, 12. So we can safely say that this

somewhat derisory description.

is embracing the whole of Judah and is apt for a people exhorted to repent of their wrong

and turn again to God. These people are told to awake and howl because of "the new

wine: for it is cut off from your mouth". This would indicate that the plague had arrived

just before the grape harvest! What a bitter blow! Just when they were thinking of

picking the grapes . . . . . destruction!

Joel 1: 6. Next the people are told to awake and howl because a nation has come upon

God's land--note the "My land". The word for nation is goy and here it seems that the

locusts are called a nation just as ants are called a "people" in Prov. 30: 25. However

some assert that this word goy, which is translated nation or Gentiles, cannot refer to

locusts and thus interpret the four descriptions of  Joel 1: 4  as the four Gentile

superpowers which were to rule over this land until our Lord Jesus Christ's time on earth,

and beyond. That Daniel's interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream (Dan. 2: 27-45)

refers to these nations of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome is agreed but to read these

nations into Joel 1: 4 is perhaps forcing a prophetic and allegorical interpretation onto a

past and literal event. Certainly this opening chapter is a very "agricultural" section and