Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

Tell ye your children of it,

And let your children tell their children,

And their children another generation.

That which the shearer hath left the swarmer hath eaten ; And that which the swarmer hath left the lapper hath eaten;

And that which the lapper hath left the consumer hath

eaten.

Awake, ye drunkards, and weep;

And howl, all ye drinkers of wine,

Because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

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 lioness.

He hath made my vine into a waste,

And my fig tree into splinters;

He hath made it clean bare, and cast it away;

The branches thereof are made white.

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

The meal offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord;

The priests, the Lord's ministers, mourn.

The field is wasted, the ground mourneth;

For the corn is wasted: the new wine is ashamed, the fresh oil languisheth.

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.

The vine is ashamed, 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: Yea, joy is ashamed and hideth herself from the sons of men.

Gird yourselves, and wail, ye priests:
Howl, ye ministers of the altar:

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

375

Come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: For the meal offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly,

Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land

Into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the
Lord.

Alas for the day! for the Day of the Lord is at hand,
And as a ruin from the Almighty shall it come.

Is not the food cut off before our eyes,

Yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

The grains shrivel under their spades;

[ocr errors]

The garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; For the corn is ashamed.

How do the beasts groan; the herds of cattle are perplexed, Because they have no pasture;

Yea, the flocks of sheep are accounted guilty.

O Lord, to thee will I cry:

For the fire hath devoured the pastures of the prairie,
And the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.

Yea, the beasts of the field pant unto thee:

For the channels of waters are dried up,

And the fire hath devoured the pastures of the prairie.

'Lapper,' 'shearer,' etc., are various kinds of locusts. The translation is Professor Driver's. To be ashamed' in this passage means to be disconcerted,' to 'show or express disappointment' (Driver).

§ 4. Fresh ruin foretold.-In the next section Joel predicts a fresh scourge of locusts, the precursors of the judgement day. He, therefore, summons his people to urgent and sincere repentance.

Blow ye the horn in Zion,

And sound an alarm in my holy mountain :

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble:

For the Day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

A day of darkness and of gloom,

A day of clouds and of thick darkness,

As the dawn spread upon the mountains:

A great people and a strong;

There hath not been ever the like,

Neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of

many generations.

A fire devoureth before them,

And behind them a flame burneth:

The land is as the garden of Eden before them,
And behind them a desolate wilderness;

Yea, and nothing escapeth them.

The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses;
And as horsemen, so do they run.

Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains do they leap,

Like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble,
As a strong people set in battle array.

At their presence the peoples are in anguish :
All faces grow pale.

They run like heroes;

They climb the wall like men of war;

And they march every one on his ways,
And they entangle not their paths:

None pusheth the other;

They walk every one in his path:

Though they fall upon weapons, their course is unbroken. (?) They rush upon the city;

They run upon the wall,

They climb up into the houses;

They enter in at the windows like a thief.

The earth trembleth before them;

The heavens quake:

The sun and the moon are darkened,

And the stars withdraw their shining:

And the Lord uttereth his voice before his army:

For his camp is very great:

For he is strong that executeth his word:

For the Day of the Lord is great and very terrible;

And who can abide it?

Therefore also now, saith the Lord,

Turn ye even to me with all your heart,

And with fasting, and with weeping, and with wailing:

'REND YOUR HEART'

And rend your heart, and not your garments,

And turn unto the Lord your God:

For he is gracious and merciful,

377

Slow to anger, and of great lovingkindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

Who knoweth if he will return and repent,

And leave a blessing behind him;

Even a meal offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?

Blow the horn in Zion,

Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: Gather the people, sanctify the meeting,

Assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts:

Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber,
And the bride out of her pavilion.

Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, 'Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the nations should use them as a byeword; wherefore should they say among the peoples, Where is their God?'

an

§ 5. Outward and inward redemption.-There is now assumed interval, during which we have to suppose that the 'prophet's call to repentance has been obeyed.' (Of course it is not a real interval; nor has the call been really made or really obeyed, for the Book of Joel is a literary unity, and simply expresses Joel's view of what will happen under certain, partly contingent, conditions.)

The following section describes, in 'prophetic perfects,' how God will answer the cry of his people, and how he will endow it with all material and spiritual welfare. The locusts will be driven away. A well-known problem in this section is the expression 'Northerner.' By it must be understood the locusts, and yet these creatures were not wont to enter Judah from the north, but rather from the south or south-east. And even if this particular plague came from the north, it is a very odd way of referring to them. It is partly this strange word which has made some persons think that under the figure of the locusts human enemies are really alluded to, for these did usually approach from the north. But there is little to favour this interpretation, and it is now generally rejected.

Then was the Lord jealous for his land, and had pity upon his people. And the Lord answered and said unto his people, Behold, I will send you the corn, and the new wine, and the fresh oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations: but I will remove far off from you the Northerner, and will drive him into a dry land and a waste, and will cast his van into the east sea, and his rear into the western sea, that his foulness may come up, because he hath done proudly.'

Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice:

For the Lord hath done great things.

Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field:

For the pastures of the prairie do spring,
For the tree beareth her fruit,

The fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.
Be glad then, ye children of Zion,

And rejoice in the Lord your God:

For he hath given you the former rain according to righteousness,

And he hath caused to come down for you the winter rain, and the latter rain.

And the floors shall be full of wheat,

And the vats shall overflow with new wine and fresh oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, The lapper, and the consumer, and the shearer,

My great army which I sent among you.

And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied,

And praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you:

And my people shall never be ashamed.

And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,

And that I am the Lord your God, and that there is none else:

And my people shall never be ashamed.

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and even upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will show portents in the heavens and in the

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »