Joel 1:5 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Awake: great drinkers of intoxicating liquors are apt to sleep and be secure, the prophet doth therefore here call to them, as to sleepers, and by one apt word expresseth a double duty, vigilance of mind as well as of the body; so may this be paralleled with Romans 13:11 1 Thessalonians 5:6 1 Peter 5:8, or Ephesians 5:14. Ye drunkards; riotous livers, such as Proverbs 23:30-32 Isaiah 5:11,12, whose life is nothing but a continued feasting with choicest wines, and in excess, such as Amos 6:4-6, describeth. Weep and howl; lament your condition with sober tears, for the sorrows coming upon you are just matter of weeping; nor will an ordinary degree of weeping suffice, cry out and howl, like men surprised with insupportable miseries, Isaiah 13:6, Isaiah 14:31 15:2. All ye drinkers of wine, who offend by an inordinate use of wine, for it is not to be understood of every one that drinketh wine, but of such as before are called drunkards, who are in love with wine. Because of the new wine, which is sweet and pleasing to the taste, and no doubt drank without stint or measure by men of that age, against which Joel prophesieth. For it is cut off from your mouth; suddenly cut off, even when you are ready to drink it, and totally, all cut off by these devouring vermin; which as it was a narrative of what was already done, refers to that waste and famine by the locusts; as it is allegorical and predictive, it will be more dreadfully fulfilled when the enemies of Judah shall destroy all.