Joel 1:10

The field is wasted,.... By the locust, that eat up all green things, the grass and herbs, the fruit and leaves of trees; and also by the Chaldeans trampling on it with their horses, and the increase

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

The field is wasted; the soil that was wont to be fat and fruitful, and did shout with fruits, now lieth waste, horrid to look upon, and such as promises no fruit; the famine in their houses, and the ceasing of the sacrifices in the house of God, is like to be perpetuated. The land mourneth; the inhabitants of the land, by a usual figure, here called the land. The corn is wasted; the wheat and barley, their bread corn, is eaten up in its greenness by these devouring locusts, whether in the letter by vermin, or in the figure by the Babylonians. The new wine is dried up; the word may as well be rendered is ashamed, or confounded; it is then a figurative expression, which this prophet useth, ,17, in the last of which it is rendered withered; if you retain, as well you may, our version, it plainly tells us the heats and drought with them were so great, that the vines were withered, and all their hopes of new wine by this means cut off. The oil; the olive trees, as the vines, fade too, and promise very little oil. Languisheth; neither able to send sap from the root to maintain its verdure, nor to put forth berries, or to bring them to maturity. Now as these words declare what barrenness was now upon the land, so it is a plain account of the reason why the priests are called to mourn, and why the meat-offering and drink-offering are cut off; these must cease when that ceaseth which made them up corn, wine, and oil.

Joe 1:10 The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.Ver. 10. The field is wasted, the land mourneth] The sacrifices are not only cut off for present, but little hopes left for the future; for the field, that common storehouse, that horreum unde hauriatur, is wasted: Shuddad Sadeh, there is an elegant allusion in the original: as in the following words a personification not inferior to those of the poets, as Luther and Vatablus here note. The land mourneth] By an ordinary metaphor among the Hebrews, those things are said to mourn that are wasted, desolated, corrupted, and changed for the worse. Lamentations 2:8, the rampart and the wall are said to lament, and to languish together. When Ephestion died, Alexander not only clipped his horses’ and mules’ hair, but plucked down also the battlements of the walls of the city; because it should appear that the wails and ramparts did mourn for his death (Plutarch): so Isaiah 24:7, "The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merry hearted do sigh." It is fit that if the land mourn and fail of her increase, men should much more mourn and be moved with a sense of their sins, the cause of such calamities. The earth lies under a curse of barrenness, at its best, Genesis 3:17, and was never so beautiful and cheerful since the fall of Adam. At this day it lieth bedridden, as it were, waiting for the coming of the Son of God, that it may be delivered from the bondage of corruption, Romans 8:20. But in times of dearth it seemeth to mourn more than ordinary, yea, to blush and bleed. The new wine is dried up] Or is abashed; as loth to look men in the face, because not answerable to their expectation: see Isaiah 33:9. The oil languisheth] Or, is sick. Grain, wine, and oil are the main supports of man’ s life: all is gone.

(10) The new wine.—The necessaries and delights of life are all gone: “the wine that maketh glad the heart of man, the oil that makes his face to shine, the bread that strengthened man’s heart” (Psalms 104:15).

10. the ground mourneth] the country being personified, as Isaiah 33:9; Jeremiah 12:4; Jeremiah 12:11; Jeremiah 23:10; cf. on Amos 1:2. Conversely, at harvest time, when the fruits of the earth are abundant, “the vales shout for joy, and sing” (Psalms 65:13). the corn … the new wine (or must) … the fresh oil] The three principal products of the soil of Palestine, often mentioned together as a triad of blessings (Deuteronomy 7:13; Deuteronomy 11:14; Deuteronomy 28:51; Hosea 2:8), bestowed by Jehovah upon His people, or, it may be, withheld, in the event of their unfaithfulness. The words, though they may be used with reference to the corn in the ears, and the juice in the grapes and the olives, denote more particularly these products after they have been adapted partially for the food, or use, of man. Corn (dβgβn) is thus the grain of wheat after it has been threshed and freed from the husk (“from the threshing-floor,” Numbers 18:27); new wine, or must (tξrτsh), is the freshly-expressed juice of the grape, sometimes, at any rate, if not always, slightly fermented (Hosea 4:11), and described as a sustaining (Genesis 27:37), invigorating (Zechariah 9:17), and exhilarating (Judges 9:13) beverage; fresh oil (yitzhβr) is similarly the freshly-expressed juice of the olive. On tξrτsh, see more fully the Additional Note at the end of the Book (p. 79). The oil which, when pressed, the fruit of the olive yields, is almost a necessary of life in Palestine: it is used in cooking and for food, where we should employ butter; it is burnt in lamps; it is in habitual use for anointing the person (see on Amos 6:6); it has medicinal virtues (Isaiah 1:6; Luke 10:34); it was used in ancient times in sacrifice (Leviticus 2:1; Leviticus 2:6, &c.), and it was prized as a gift (1 Kings 5:11; Hosea 12:1; Isaiah 57:9). Being a valuable commodity, it was subject to tithe (Deuteronomy 14:23; Nehemiah 13:5). See further Tristram, N. H. B. p. 373 ff.; Van Lennep, Bible Lands, p. 124 ff.; Whitehouse, Primer of Heb. Antiquities, pp. 104–110. is dried up] Better, sheweth shame (cf. R.V. marg.), the ‘new wine’ being personified (cf. Isaiah 24:7, where it is said to ‘mourn’), just as the ‘ground’ is in the first part of the verse. Comp. of Lebanon (though the Heb. word used is a different one), Isaiah 33:9. languisheth] The same word, said of trees of which the foliage has been stripped off, or is withering, Joe 1:12; Isaiah 16:8; Isaiah 24:7; Nahum 1:4. Additional Note on Chap. Joe 1:10 (tξrτsh)Tξrτsh occurs thirty-eight times in the O.T.

The field is wasted, the land mourneth - As, when God pours out His blessings of nature, all nature seems to smile and be glad, and as the Psalmist says, “to shout for joy and sing” Psalms 65:13, so

5-12. The prophet calls upon all to lament, because all luxuries are cut off (Joe 1:5-7); the worship of Jehovah has suffered through the interruption, or at least threatened interruption, of the