Joel 1:20

I. The Judgment of God, and the Prophet's Call to Repentance - Joel 1:2-2:17 An unparalleled devastation of the land of Judah by several successive swarms of locusts, which destroyed all the seedlings, all field and garden fruits, all plants and trees, and which was accompanied by scorching heat, induced the prophet to utter a loud lamentation at this unparalleled judgment of God, and an earnest call to all classes of the nation to offer prayer to the Lord in the temple, together with fasting, mourning, and weeping, that He might avert the judgment. In the first chapter, the lamentation has reference chiefly to the ruin of the land (Joel 1:2-20); in the second, the judgment is depicted as a foretype and harbinger of the approaching day of the Lord, which the congregation is to anticipate by a day of public fasting, repentance, and prayer (Joel 2:1-17); so that ch. 1 describes rather the magnitude of the judgment, and ch. 2:1-17 its significance in relation to the covenant nation. Lamentation over the Devastation of Judah by Locusts and Drought - Joel 1 After an appeal to lay to heart the devastation by swarms of locusts, which has fallen upon the land (Joe 1:2-4), the prophet summons the following to utter lamentation over this calamity: first the drunkards, who are to awake (Joe 1:5-7); then the congregation generally, which is to mourn with penitence (Joe 1:8-12); and then the priests, who are to appoint a service of repentance (Joe 1:13-18). For each of these appeals he gives, as a reason, a further description of the horrible calamity, corresponding to the particular appeal; and finally, he sums up his lamentation in a prayer for the deliverance of the land from destruction (Joe 1:19, Joe 1:20).

This chapter is the description of a lamentable devastation made of the country of Judah by locusts and caterpillars. Some think that the prophet speaks of it as a thing to come and gives warning of it beforehand, as usually the prophets did of judgments coming. Others think that it was now present, and that his business was to affect the people with it and awaken them by it to repentance. I. It is spoken of as a judgment which there was no precedent of in former ages (Joe 1:1-7). II. All sorts of people sharing in the calamity are called upon to lament it (Joe 1:8-13). III. They are directed to look up to God in their lamentations, and to humble themselves before him (Joe 1:14-20).

1:20 All creation suffers because of human sin (Gen 3:17-18; 9:2; Rom 8:20-21)—even the wild animals cry out to God. The Hebrew word translated “cry out” is the same word used in Ps 42:1 of the deer that “longs” for streams of water. The beasts, urgently requiring their food and drink, set an example of how the people of Judah and Jerusalem should seek their Lord (cp. Isa 1:3).