rs shall fall in them.

THE PROPHECY OF JOEL

JOEL, whose name, according to ST. JEROME, signifies THE LORD GOD: or,
as others say, THE COMING DOWN OF GOD: prophesied about the same time in
the kingdom of Judea, as OSEE did in the kingdom of Israel. He foretells
under figure the great evils that were coming upon the people for their
sins: earnestly exhorts them to repentance: and comforts them with the
promise of a TEACHER OF JUSTICE, viz., CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD, and of the
coming down of his holy SPIRIT.

Joel Chapter 1

The prophet describes the judgments that shall fall upon the people, and
invites them to fasting and prayer.

1:1. The word of the Lord, that came to Joel, the son of Phatuel.

1:2. Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the
land: did this ever happen in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

1:3. Tell ye of this to your children, and let your children tell their
children, and their children to another generation.

1:4. That which the palmerworm hath left, the locust hath eaten: and
that which the locust hath left, the bruchus hath eaten: and that which
the bruchus hath left, the mildew hath destroyed.

That which the palmerworm hath left, etc... Some understand this
literally of the desolation of the land by these insects: others
understand it of the different invasions of the Chaldeans, or other
enemies.

1:5. Awake, ye that are drunk, and weep, and mourn all ye that take
delight; in drinking sweet wine: for it is cut off from your mouth.

1:6. For a nation come up upon my land, strong, and without number: his
teeth are like the teeth of a lion: and his cheek teeth as of a lion's
whelp.

1:7. He hath laid my vineyard waste, and hath pilled off the bark of my
fig tree: he hath stripped it bare, and cast it away; the branches
thereof are made white.

1:8. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her
youth.

1:9. Sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of the Lord: the
priests, the Lord's ministers, have mourned:

1:10. The country is destroyed, the ground hath mourned: for the corn is
wasted, the wine is confounded, the oil hath languished.

1:11. The husbandmen are ashamed, the vinedressers have howled for the
wheat, and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished.

1:12. The vineyard is confounded, and the fig tree hath languished: the
pomegranate tree, and the palm tree, and the apple tree, and a