an exception to so established a rule.

But we cannot acknowledge as such, what _Credner_ (in his _Comment. on
Joel_, p. 41 sqq.) has brought forward to prove that Joel committed to
writing his prophecies as early as under the reign of Joash, _i.e._,
about 870-65 B.C., or from seventy to eighty years earlier than any of
the other prophecies which have come down to us. If we do not allow
ourselves to be carried away by the multitude of his words, we shall
find that the only remaining plausible argument is--that the Syrians
of Damascus [Pg 293] are not mentioned among the enemies of the
Covenant-people, as they are in Amos. From this, _Credner_ infers that
Joel must have prophesied before the first inroad of the Syrians on
Judea, which, according to 2 Kings xii. 18 ff.; 2 Chron. xxiv. 23 ff.,
took place under Jehoash. But we need only look at that passage, in
order to be convinced that the mention of that event could not be
expected in Joel. The expedition of the Syrians was not directed
against Judea, but against the Philistines. It was only a single
detached corps which, according to Chronicles, incidentally, and on
their return, made an inroad on Judah; but Jerusalem itself was not
taken. This single act of hostility could not but be soon forgotten in
the course of time. It was of quite a different character from that of
the Ph[oe]nicians and Philistines mentioned by Joel, which were only
particular outbreaks of the hatred and envy which they continually
cherished against the Covenant-people, and which, as such, were
preeminently the object of punitive divine justice. But on what ground
does the supposition rest, that Joel must necessarily mention all those
nations, with which the Covenant-people came, at any time, into hostile
contact? The context certainly does not favour such an idea. The
mention of former hostile attacks in chap. iv. (iii.) 4-8 is altogether
incidental, as _Vitringa_, in his _Typ. Doctr. Proph._ p. 189 sqq., has
admitted: "The prophet," says he, "was describing the heavy judgments
with which God would, after the effusion of the Spirit, successively,
and especially in the latter days, visit the enemies of the Church, and
overthrow them, on account of the injuries which they had inflicted
upon it. And while he was doing so, those injuries presented themselves
to his mind, which in his own time, and in the immediate past, were
inflicted upon the Jewish people--a portion of the universal Church--by
the