A locust plague so total it becomes revelation. 'That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten' (1:4): four waves, nothing remaining. Joel summons everyone in turn: old men, has this been in your days? drunkards, weep, for the new wine is cut off; priests, gird yourselves with sackcloth, for the meal-offering and drink-offering are cut off from the house of Jehovah. Vine withered, fig-tree languishing, seed rotting under the clods, cattle groaning for want of pasture. And through the stripped fields Joel sees further: 'the day of Jehovah is at hand.'

Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary, John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and John Calvin, Commentaries.

Context

Prophecy · Joel — Joel overview

A. 1–4 What one locust swarm left, the next one ate
B. 5–12 Wake, drunkards; mourn, farmers — the harvest is gone
C. 13–14 Gird yourselves, priests, and call a solemn assembly
D. 15–20 The day of the LORD is at hand; even the beasts cry out

Top cross-references8 chapters ▾

Joel 25 verses
- Joel 2:2a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come.
- Joel 2:14Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him—grain and drink offerings for the LORD your God.
- Joel 2:15Blow the ram’s horn in Zion, consecrate a fast, proclaim a sacred assembly.
- Joel 2:17Let the priests who minister before the LORD weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
- Joel 2:25I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts—the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust—My great army that I sent against you.
- Read Joel 2 →
Joel 13 verses
- Joel 1:8Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth.
- Joel 1:12The grapevine is dried up, and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, palm, and apple—all the trees of the orchard—are withered. Surely the joy of mankind has dried up.
- Joel 1:13Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.
- Read Joel 1 →
Jeremiah 122 verses
- Jeremiah 12:4How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field be withered? Because of the evil of its residents, the animals and birds have been swept away, for the people have said, “He cannot see what our end will be.”
- Jeremiah 12:11They have made it a desolation; desolate before Me, it mourns. All the land is laid waste, but no man takes it to heart.
- Read Jeremiah 12 →
Jeremiah 142 verses
- Jeremiah 14:3The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns, but find no water; their jars return empty. They are ashamed and humiliated; they cover their heads.
- Jeremiah 14:5Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass.
- Read Jeremiah 14 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

Jeremiah 92 verses
- Jeremiah 9:10I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness pasture, for they have been scorched so no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they have gone away.
- Jeremiah 9:12Who is the man wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a desert, so no one can pass through it?
- Read Jeremiah 9 →
Amos 41 verse
- Amos 4:9“I struck you with blight and mildew in your growing gardens and vineyards; the locust devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.
- Read Amos 4 →
James 51 verse
- James 5:1Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.
- Read James 5 →
Hosea 41 verse
- Hosea 4:3Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea disappear.
- Read Hosea 4 →

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.