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Commentary on Joel, Chapter Two
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COMMENTARY ON JOEL, CHAPTER TWO Sound a trumpet in Zion, proclaim in my holy mountain, and all the inhabitants of the earth will assemble, for a day of the Lord has come, because a day of darkness and gloom is nigh, a day of cloud and mist (vv.1–2). NCE AGAIN there is a nice description of war for us, and it would be factual in either case, whether taken as re- ferring to a locust and young locust, or to the Babylonians if you prefer.1 The war, in fact, had already come to the very doors, and was, as it were, bruited abroad throughout all the land of Zion, or in the whole of Judea, and so everything was filled with panic and alarm. A day of the Lord has come, note—that is, it was no longer merely a warning: the sufferings were before their eyes, and they were actually experiencing what had long been foretold,2 that it would have been better for them to take a turn for the better, and avert the experience of the troubles before their onset and arrival. Far from allowing them to shrink from repentance, therefore, he bids them dismiss lassitude and indolence of mind, embrace activity with alacrity, and have the will to lend assistance to themselves in a noble spirit, obviously by appealing to God and annulling the faults of their former crimes by a turn for the better. Consequently, he says that the day of the Lord is nigh, when they will be, as it were, in darkness and gloom, afraid of hunger due to the locust, or of misery and destruction threatening them from the Assyrians. A people numerous and strong will spread over the mountains like 280 1. Cyril is still ready to allow either interpretation of the plague in the previous chapter, whether from locusts or from Babylonians/Assyrians (he cites both here). 2. The apocalyptic motif means to Cyril only a divine warning of disaster that is factual/historical, “a nice description of war.” Introduction of a different perspective by the author does not cross his mind; the troubles are at the door, and will just as soon be over. dawn; its like has not occurred from the beginning, and will not occur again after it for generations of generations. Fire devouring what is in front of them, (315) and flame igniting what is behind them. As a garden of delight the land before it, and behind it a countryside of destruction . None of them will be saved (vv.2–3). By dawn he is probably referring to the dew at dawn, which, when it completely covers the mountains, leaves nothing on them unmoistened. Or the first rays of the sun, and the initial glimmerings of the light of day, which reaches the tops of the mountains even before anything else, as it were, and lends a pink tinge to the hills. This is the way, he says, the people numerous and strong will be over the mountains: perhaps as locusts or, by comparison with them, the Assyrian is understood on the basis of incomparable numbers, since he says its like has not occurred from the beginning, nor will it ever be. Because whatever creeps in is immediately consumed by the onset of the locusts, anything that chances to survive is left to those that follow the first ones; he says, Fire devouring what is in front of them, and flame igniting what is behind them and following them. In my view, this is what a column of enemy would do: coming closely in the rear, they will without exception follow the insolence and cruelty of those preceding them. They will make the land like a garden of delight, utterly ravaging it and reveling in what is found there. The verse has a factual application, even if applied to the locust itself.3 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and they will charge just as cavalry do. (316) They will leap forward like the sound of chariots on the crests of the mountains, and like the sound of flaming fire consuming straw, and like a people numerous and strong, arrayed for war (vv.4–5). If the locust and the young locust advance on towns and cities, he says, they are not less fearsome than a warlike horse, stamping on the ground in such a way as to resemble the sound of chariots. In fact, they leap on all the...