SECTION V. ON THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JOEL. I. Author and date. -II. Occasion and scope.-III. Analysis of the book.-IV. Observations on its style. BEFORE CHRIST, 810-660, or later. 4 I. CONCERNING the family, condition, and pursuits of this prophet, there is great diversity of opinion among learned men. Although several persons of the name of Joel are mentioned in the Old Testament, we have no information concerning the prophet himself, except what is contained in the title of his predictions (i. 1.), that he was the son of Pethuel. According to some idle reports collected and preserved by the Pseudo-Epiphanius, he was of the tribe of Reuben, and was born at Bethhoron, a town situated in the confines of the territories of Judah and Benjamin.3 It is equally uncertain under what sovereign he flourished, or where he died. The celebrated Rabbi Kimchi and others place him in the reign of Joram, and are of opinion that he foretold the seven years' famine which prevailed in that king's reign. (2 Kings viii. 1-3.) The authors of the two celebrated Jewish Chronicles entitled Seder Olam (both great and little,) Jarchi, and several other Jewish writers, who are also followed by Drusius, Archbishop Newcome, and other Christian_commentators, maintain that he prophesied under Manasseh. Tarnovius, Eckermann, Calmet, and others place him in the reign of Josiah; but Vitringa, Moldenhawer,5 Rosenmüller, and the majority of modern commentators, are of opinion (after Abarbanel) that he delivered his predictions during the reign of Uzziah: consequently, he was contemporary with Amos and Hosea, if indeed he did not prophecy before Amos. This opinion, which we think more probable than any, is supported by the following arguments: -1. Only Egypt and Edom (iii. 19.) are enumerated among the enemies of Judah, no mention whatever being made of the Assyrians or Babylonians:-2. Joel (iii. 4—7.) denounces the same judgments, as Amos (i. 9-11.) against the Tyrians, Sydonians, and Idumæans (who had invaded the kingdom of Judah, carried off its inhabitants, and sold them as slaves to the Gentiles); 3. It appears from Joel ii. 15-17. that at the time he flourished, the Jews were in the full enjoyment of their religious worship:-4. More prosperous times are promised to Judea, together with uncommon plenty (ii. 18, 19.):-5. Although Joel foretels the calamity of famine and barrenness of the land, it is evident from Amos (iv. 6. 7.) that the Israelites had not only suffered from the same calamity, but were even then labouring under it. -- 1 See Simonis Onomasticon Vet. Test. p. 517. 2 De Vitis Prophetarum in Epiphanii op. tom. ii. p. 245. 3 Relandi Palestina, p. 633. 4 Typus Doctrine Prophet. cap. iv. p. 35. et seq. 5 Introductio in Libros Canonicos Vet. et Nov. Test. pp. 120, 121. e Scholia in Vet. Test. Partis septimæ vol. i. 433, 434. II. From the palmer-worm, locust, canker-worm, caterpillar, &c. being sent upon the land of Judah, and devouring its fruits (the certain forerunners of a grievous famine), the prophet takes occasion to exhort the Jews to repentance, fasting, and prayer, promising them various temporal and spiritual blessings. III. This book consists of three chapters, which may be divided into three discourses or parts, viz. PART I. is an exhortation, both to the priests and to the people, to repent, by reason of the famine brought upon them by the palmerworm, &c. in consequence of their sins (i. 1—20.); and is followed by a denunciation of still greater calamities, if they continued impenitent. This discourse contains a double prophecy, applicable, in its primary sense to a plague of locusts, which was to devour the land, and was to be accompanied with so severe a drought and famine as should cause the public service of the temple to be interrupted; and, in its secondary sense, it denotes the Babylonian invasion, and perhaps also the invasions of the Persians, Greeks, and Romans, by whom the Jews were successively subjugated. PART II. An exhortation to keep a public and solemn fast (ii. 12—17.), with a promise of removing the calamities of the Jews on their repentance. (18-26.) From the fertility and prosperity of the land described in these verses, the prophet makes an easy transition to the copious blessings of the Gospel, particularly the effusion of the gifts of the Holy Spirit; with these he connects the destruction of the Jewish nation and polity in consequence of their rejecting the Gospel; interspersing promises of safety to the faithful and penitent, which were afterwards signally fulfilled to the Christians in that great national calamity. (27-32. Compare Acts ii. 17-21.) PART III. Predicts the general conversion and return of the Jews, and the destruction of their opponents, together with the glorious state of the church that is to follow. (iii.) IV. The style of Joel, though different from that of Hosea, is highly poetical: it is elegant, perspicuous, and copious; and at the same time nervous, animated, and sublime. In the two first chapters he displays the full force of the prophetic poetry, and his descriptions of the plague of locusts, of the deep national repentance, and of the happy state of the Christian church, in the last times of the Gospel, are wrought up with admirable force and beauty. 1 Early in the last century, M. Hermann Von der Hardt, whom, from his love of philosophical paradoxes, Bp. Lowth has termed the "Hardouin of Germany," attempted to reduce Joel's elegies to iambic verse. He accordingly published the three first elegies at Helmstadt, in 1708; and again, with additions, at the same place, in 1720, in 8vo. SECTION VI. ON THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET MICAH. I. Author and date. - II. Occasion and Scope.-III. Synopsis of its contents. IV. Prophecies concerning the Messiah. -- V. Observations on its style. BEFORE CHRIST, 758-699. I. MICAH, the third of the minor prophets according to the arrangement in the Hebrew and all modern copies, as well as in the Septuagint, was a native of Morasthi, a small town in the southern part of the territory of Judah; and, as we learn from the commencement of his predictions, prophesied in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of that country: consequently he was contemporary with Isaiah, Joel, Hosea, and Amos. II. The people of Judah and Israel being very profane and impenitent in the days of Isaiah (in consequence of which the Assyrian captivity was then hastening upon Israel, and the Babylonian not long after fell upon Judah), the prophet Micah was raised up to second Isaiah, and to confirm his predictions against the Jews and Israelites, whom he invited to repentance both by threatened judgments and by promised mercies. III. This book contains seven chapters, forming three parts, viz. INTRODUCTION or title i. 1. PART I. comprises the prophecies delivered in the reign of Jotham king of Judah (with whom Pekah king of Israel was contemporary), in which the divine judgments are denounced, against both Israel and Judah for their sins. (i. 2-16.) PART II. contains the predictions delivered in the reigns of Ahaz king of Judah (with whom his son Hezekiah was associated in the government during the latter part of his life), and of Pekah king of Israel, who was also contemporary with him. (ii.--iv. 8.) In this prophetic discourse, Micah foretels the captivity of both nations (ii. 1-5.), and particularly threatens Israel for their enmity to the house of David (6-13.), and Judah for their cruelty to the pious. (iii. 1-7.) He then vindicates his prophetic mission (8 -12.), and predicts the yet future triumphant state of the church. (iv. 1-8.) PART III. includes the prophecies delivered by Micah during the reign of Hezekiah king of Judah, the first six years of whose government were contemporary with the greater part of the reign of Hoshea, the last king of Israel. (iv. 9--13. v.-vii.) In this portion of the book of Micah, the Jews are threatened with the Babylonish captivity (iv. 9, 10.); the total overthrow of Sennacherib's forces is foretold (11—13.); and the pious king Hezekiah is assured of God's preservation by a new promise of the Messiah who should descend from him, and by a prediction of Sennacherib's murder. (v. 1–15.) The people are then forewarned of 1 Compare 2 Kings xv.-xix. 2 Chron. xxvi.-xxxi. Isa. xxxvi.—xxxviii. VOL. IV. 22 the judgments that would befal them for their sins in the reign of Manasseh (vi. 1—16.), the wickedness of whose reign is further described, together with his captivity and return from Babylon, as also the return of the Jews from Babylon, and from their general dispersion after they shall be converted to the Gospel. IV. The book of Micah, who (we have seen) was the contemporary of Isaiah, contains a summary of the prophecies delivered by the latter concerning the Messiah and the final return of the Jews, which are thus translated and arranged by Dr. Hales. CHAP. V. 2." And art thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, little to be [esteemed] II. From thee shall issue [THE LEADER,] Who shall rule my people, the Israel [of God]: From days of eternity.) III. 3. Therefore he will give them up [for a season] Until the time that she which shall bear Have borne: then shall return The residue of thy brethren [the Jews] IV. 4. And He shall stand and guide them In the strength of THE LORD, In the majesty of THE NAME OF THE LORD HIS GOD. Unto the ends of the earth, And He shall be their PEACE." "This prophecy," Dr. Hales remarks, "consists of four parts, 1. The human birth-place of CHRIST. 2. His eternal generation. 3. His temporary desertion of the Jews, until his miraculous birth of the virgin, after which they are to return with the true Israelites. 4. His spiritual and universal dominion. The application of the first part of this prophecy was decided at the time of OUR SAVIOUR's birth, by the most respectable Jewish synod that ever sate, convened by Herod, to determine from prophecy the birth-place of the MESSIAH, which they agreed to be Bethlehem, upon the authority of Micah, which they cited. Their citation, of the first part only, is given by the evangelist Matthew, in an improved translation of the original, greatly superior to any of the antient versions. Matt. ii. 6. "And thou Bethlehem, territory of Judah, Art by no means least among the captains of Judah; Who shall guide my people, the Israel [of God].” 1. Here the Evangelist has removed the ambiguity of the question proposed by the prophet, by supplying the answer in the negative. As in Nathan's prophecy, Shalt thou build me a house?" (2 Sam. vii. 5.), the parallel passage answers in the negative, "Thou shalt not build me a house." (1 Chron. xvii. 4.) 2. He has supplied a chasm in the Masorete text, of, Nagid, a usual epithet of the MESSIAH (1 Chron. v. 2.; Isa. lv. 4.; Dan. ix. 25.), usually rendered 'Hyouevos, "leader," by the Septuagint, and retained here by the evangelist, as a necessary distinction of his character, as supreme commander, from "the captains of thousands," styled 'Hyquod, judiciously substituted for the thousands themselves in Micah, to mark the analogy more correctly. 3. He has also determined the pastoral nature of the MESSIAH'S "rule" by the verb ouavsi, "shall guide as a shepherd," afterwards intimated by Micah,, xa aves, as there rendered by the Septuagint. For He is the Shepherd of Israel" (Gen. xlix. 24.; Psal. Ixxx. 1.), "the chief shepherd" (1 Pet. v. 4.), and "the good shepherd" (John x. 14.), who appointed his apostles to "guide and pasture his sheep." (John xxi. 6.) 4. The human birth of the MESSIAH is carefully distinguished by Micah from his eternal generation, in the parenthetical clause, which strongly resembles the account of the primeval birth of Wisdom. (Prov. viii. 22-25.) 5. The blessed virgin of Isaiah's former prophecy (vii. 14.) is evidently alluded to by Micah, and also the return of the remnant of the Jews (Isa. x. 20, 21.), and of the final peace of his kingdom. (Isa. ix. 6, 7.) This prophecy of Micah is perhaps the most important single prophecy in the Old Testament, and the most comprehensive, respecting the personal character of the MESSIAH, and his successive manifestation to the world. It crowns the whole chain of prophecies descriptive of the several limitations of the blessed seed of the woman to the line of Shem, to the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to the tribe of Judah, and to the royal house of David, here terminating in his birth at Bethlehem, "the city of David." It carefully distinguishes his human nativity from his eternal generation; foretells the rejection of the Israelites and Jews for a season; their final restoration, and the universal peace destined to prevail throughout the earth in the Regeneration. It forms, therefore, the basis of the New Testament, which begins with his human birth at Bethlehem, the miraculous circumstances of which are recorded in the introductions of Matthew's and Luke's Gospels; his eternal generation, as the ORACLE or WISDOM, in the sublime introduction of John's Gospel his prophetic character, and second coming, illustrated in the four Gospels and Epistles, ending with a prediction of the speedy approach of the latter in the Apocalypse. (Rev. xxii. 20.)1 V. The style of Micah is, for the most part, forcible, pointed, and concise, sometimes approaching the obscurity of Hosea; in many parts animated and sublime, and in general truly poetical. SECTION VII. ON THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET NAHUM. I. Author and date.-II. Scope and synopsis of its contents.-III. Observations on its style. BEFORE CHRIST, 720-698. I. NAHUM, the seventh of the minor prophets, is supposed to have been a native of Elkosh or Elkosha, a village in Galilee, and 1 Dr. Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. ii. book i. pp. 462, 463. |