Joel 1:5 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Reader Related Verse
Bible Comments

The Distress Caused by the Plague.

Joel 1:5-7. The wine-bibbers no censure is implied; they are mentioned first because of the contrast between their accustomed merriment and the tears they are bidden to shed are summoned to arouse from their drunken sleep and bemoan the devastation of the vineyards. The many-mouthed host of invaders (for nation cf. Proverbs 30:25 f.) has wrought such destruction that it is likened to a ravening lion. Vine and fig-tree are stripped bare, so that the twigs splinter and the branches gleam white.

[ Joel 1:6 b. The comparison with lions-' teeth (Revelation 9:8) is very apt, for in proportion to its size the teeth of the locust are enormously strong, and have a saw-like edge. A. S. P.].

Joel 1:7. barked: rather splintered. made it clean bare: i.e. vines and fig-trees collectively; the inedible or unattractive fragments were cast away, rejected.

Related Commentaries of Joel 1:5

Joel 1:5-12

5 Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

6 For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.

7 He hath laid my vine waste, and barkedb my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

9 The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD'S ministers, mourn.

10 The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

11 Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.

12 The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.