Isa 24:3, 5-6, Joe 1:2 | JFB

‏ Isaiah 24:3

‏ Isaiah 24:5-6

5. earth--rather, "the land."

defiled under ... inhabitants--namely, with innocent blood (Ge 4:11; Nu 35:33; Psa 106:38).

laws ... ordinance ... everlasting covenant--The moral laws, positive statutes, and national covenant designed to be for ever between God and them.

6. earth--the land.

burned--namely, with the consuming wrath of heaven: either internally, as in Job 30:30 [Rosenmuller]; or externally, the prophet has before his eyes the people being consumed with the withering dryness of their doomed land (so Joe 1:10, 12), [Maurer].

‏ Joel 1:2

2-3. A spirited introduction calling attention.

old men--the best judges in question concerning the past (De 32:7; Job 32:7).

Hath this been, &c.--that is, Hath any so grievous a calamity as this ever been before? No such plague of locusts had been since the ones in Egypt. Ex 10:14 is not at variance with this verse, which refers to Judea, in which Joel says there had been no such devastation before.