represented under the image of a consuming and destroying fire, with a reference to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, in which the divine wrath really manifested itself in that way. Under the image of fire, _war_ also, one of the principal punishments of God, is often represented. Thus, fire means the fire of war in Num. xxi. 28: Amos i. 4, 7, 10, etc.; Jer. xlix. 27; Rev. viii. 8, 10. On the latter of these passages, my Commentary may be compared. If, then, the fire spoken of in this passage mean likewise the fire of war, and the locusts, the heathen enemies, the difficulty presented by the connection of these two things is solved. The comparison of Amos vii. here serves as a key. In vers. 1-3, the divine punishment is represented by the prophet under the image of a great army of locusts laying waste the country, which is just beginning to recover under Jeroboam II. after the former calamities inflicted by the Syrians; and then in ver. 4, under the image of a great fire devouring the sea (_i.e._, the world), and eating up the holy land. This analogy is so much the more important, the more impossible it is to overlook, in other passages also, the points of agreement betwixt Joel and Amos. But the symbolical representation goes still further; it extends even to the details. The beasts of the field are the barbarous, heathen nations. In ver. 19, the desolations are described which the fire of war accomplishes among Israel; in ver. 20, those which it effects among the Gentiles: compare the antithesis between the beasts of the field and the sons of Zion in ii. 22. In Is. lvi. 9, the beasts of the field likewise occur as a figurative designation of the heathen. In Jer. xiv.--a prophecy which has been distorted by expositors through a too literal interpretation--the image is, in vers. 5, 6, individualized by the mention of particular wild beasts--the hind and the wild ass. Joel himself indicates that the beasts in this description must, in general, be understood figuratively, by using in ver. 18 the word נאשמו, which can be explained only by "become guilty," "suffer punishment." (Compare Is. xxiv. 6: "Therefore curse devoureth the land, and they that dwell in it become guilty;" and [Pg 314] Hos. xiv. 1.) The word נאנחה, which is never used of beasts, likewise leads us to think of men. "How do the beasts groan," is explained by "All the merry-hearted do groan," in Is. xxiv. 7. The words תערג אליך, in which there is an evident allusion to Ps. xlii. 2, must likewise appear strange, if the description be understood literally. But what is decisive in favour of the figurative interpretation is ii. 22: "Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green with grass, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig-tree and vine do yield their strength." The object of joy is here described, first, figuratively, and then, literally. The pastures of the wilderness are green with grass, _i.e._, the tree, etc.