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Joel.1:1. The word of the Lord came to Joel the son of Bethuel. The prophet says that the word of God came to him, so that we would give faith to the prophecy, be firmly confident and hope that what was foretold would in any case come to fulfillment. The Savior Himself assures us of this, saying: “my words... do not pass by” (Matthew 24:35), because the truth is not anything false, and what God says will, without a doubt, turn out to be fair, for He is “ordaining the words of His servant, and making true the counsels of His messengers” (Isaiah 44:26). So, very skillfully and wisely he gains the trust of his listeners, clearly expressing that before anyone he will not be a liar or offer the suggestion of his own heart, but will speak in the spirit, from the mouth of the Lord (Jer. 23:16). Of necessity, Bethuel is also mentioned so that they do not think about anyone else besides Joel himself, since, no doubt, many were called by this name, but not all came from Bethuel. So, the name Bethuel, I believe, was added for authenticity. Joel.1:2–3. Hear this, O elders, and teach all you who live on earth: if there were calico in your days, or in your fathers’ days? Tell your children about these, and your children to your children, and their children to another generation. Elderly people are brought back to ancient times and memories and are encouraged to think about when and under whom similar punishments of divine wrath were seen, inflicted on their fathers or even their predecessors. One must consider, he said, whether these events will seem strange, unusual and, perhaps, unknown to any of the ancients. However, for others, he says, it’s quite appropriate to think about whether something like this has happened in their memory - so this will be the subject of endless stories, which will be enough not for one, and not for two or three generations, but will last for a much longer time. In fact: just as we consider narratives of glorious deeds worthy of attention for many and even capable of sometimes giving pleasure, we think that disasters and sufferings that go beyond the ordinary deserve mention in the same way, because these kinds of events seem to overpower reality 1 and, due to their extreme persistence, have the strongest persistence, they demand mention and compete in fame with the greatest events. And I think that just as the memory of the good is not without benefit, so is the memory of the bad and sad, because one awakens in listeners the desire for virtue, the other teaches them to avoid the onset of evil in advance and, through the very thing with which others are punished, does not allow them to strive for the same offenses. Joel.1:4. The remains of the caterpillars of the pruzia moss moss, and the remains of the prugs of the moss moss, and the remains of the sipleve moss. The speech of the holy prophets is always somewhat hidden, and they present too sad stories slowly (not immediately) and, in order to prevent the uncontrollable anger of the listeners, they obscure with possible obscurity. But by composing riddles and parables, they bring considerable benefit. And sometimes their speech consists of useful examples, such as that offered by Ezekiel: “a great eagle, great-winged, long in length, and full of nails, who gave the command to go into Lebanon, and take the chosen cedars, and the tops of the softness of the fort, and bring them to the land of Canaanite” (Ezek. 17: 3-4), - pointing to Assyria, the ruler of the land Babylonian, who took all the best from the Israelites and took the stolen stuff home. The Holy Scripture also says that many times, even in the land of Judea, there were crop failures in the fields, shortages of the fruits of the earth and severe famines. So one day, during an exhausting famine, they came to such a need that a donkey’s head was bought for fifty shekels (2 Kings 6:25). Women who quarreled over children can serve as evidence of a difficult time: when the two of them ate one child, they asked the rulers to judge about the survivor. Thus, if here the prophetic word points us to the failure of the fields and the destruction of fruits, then in this case something unbearable is meant. Indeed: isn’t consistent and continuous defeat by the most varied and severe ulcers something very burdensome and worthy of mention? If we must reduce hidden thoughts to other ideas, more clear, then it seems to us that the prophet, under the guise of caterpillars, locusts, worms and beetles 2 and under the guise of terrible and unbearable harm from them, depicts devastation at different times and hints at different captivities by which they were exterminated and destroyed due to the fact that those who carried out the invasions, so to speak, devoured them and destroyed them like crops in a field. And there were many individual devastations, and sometimes neighboring nations fought against the land of Judea, sometimes even the kings of Egypt. So, when Rehoboam was invested with the kingship in Jerusalem, Shusakim, king of Egypt, rose up, took the capital, emptied all its treasures, and with golden spears and shields, which he made Straw, and returned home with a brilliant victory (1 Kings 14:25-26). Also, Hazael the Syrian dealt them considerable blows (2 Kings 8, etc.). Phul, king of Babylon, captured the Trans-Jordanian tribes (2 Kings 15). And in their place, Necho, king of Egypt, during the reign of Josiah, attacked Samaria and imposed tribute on the country, demanding one hundred talents of gold (2 Kings 23). So, a lot of disastrous events happened at times, and there were four terrible and memorable devastations, namely: when Hoshea, the son of Elah, reigned in Samaria, Shalmaneser rose and deported Israel to the mountains of the Persians and Medes (2 Kings 18); then, some time later, when Jeremiah prophesied, Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem by storm (2 Kings 24:10–12): finally, after seventy years, Israel was liberated by Cyrus, the son of Cambyses (1 Ezra 1); Then, after some time, Antiochus, nicknamed Epiphanes, appeared: he came to Judea, burned the church of God, seized its vessels and forced the inhabitants of all Judea to abandon their fatherly customs: then the brilliant and wonderful feats of the Maccabees were performed; the fourth war against the Israelites was the Roman one, when they were scattered to every wind (Ezek. 5, 10, 12). So, the prophet in these expressions is unclear, illusory and, as if in the form of parables, apparently wants to convey a meaning that is understandable to us, indirectly denoting by the image of caterpillars, locusts, worms and beetles either the wars themselves, or the military commanders that we just mentioned. But if someone wanted to offer a moralizing interpretation here, he would not sin against justice. In fact: if it is clear that the soul is stung by numerous and constant passions and seems to lose all virtue, in a short time, out of frivolity, adding one thing to another, then isn’t it fair to say about it: “the remnant of the caterpillars that eat the pruzi”, and after them “moss, after moss sipleve”, because like “sipley” and other evils they eat up our inherent blessings evil and unclean forces that attack the mind and are accustomed to devour with insatiable teeth. So excellent is vigilance. The influx also edifies us no little, saying: “If the possessing spirit comes upon you, do not leave your place: for healing will assuage great sins” (Eccl. 10:4), for passions, curbed at the beginning, subside and stop, and if they become widespread and uncontrollable for the worse, they completely take possession of the soul and do not yield to the admonition of the punisher. Joel.1:5. Be sober, drink from your wine and weep: all you who drink wine until you become drunk, weep, for joy and joy are taken away from your lips. And from here, I believe, one can easily see with clarity how wise the divine Paul was, who sometimes cried out to those caught by faith in Christ to salvation and said: “Arise, sleep” (Eph. 5:14), - sometimes, urging them to love endurance in work, for the same reason he said: “If you endure punishment, as God will find you a son: for who is a son, the father does not punish him” ( Heb.12:7), because God, being a lover of mankind, strikes sinners reluctantly, but as if out of necessity, punishing them and making this a means of help for them. Without a doubt, those who know the science of medicine also give the sick very caustic medicines, causing them to cure their illness by inflicting pain. Look how, having foreshadowed the beatings and foreshadowed the outpouring of anger, so to speak, “with bridles and bridles he tightens their jaws,” according to what is written (Ps. 31:9), and, as it were, prompts them to turn back, turning their minds to the assimilation of what was best and most excellent. Therefore - “be sober, drinking from your wine.” Do you hear: he punishes the frenzied and intoxicated like children, since if they had sobered up earlier, then the punishment from the caterpillars alone would have been enough for them, but after they did not calm down at the first punishment inflicted on them, then another was added, followed by a third, and it came to a fourth. However, although it is late, those who wake up, come to their senses and leave, as it were, some intoxication, lust of mind and excessive inclination to sin, He encourages them to come to the consciousness of what happened, crying and sobbing about their sins. It should be noted that each of us has, as it were, a certain wine that intoxicates the heart; namely, we, so to speak, are divided according to various passions: one of us, in addition to other ailments, unbridledly strives for the love of money; another cares about worldly things and suffers from carnality, being in every possible way attached to pleasures and voluptuousness; another is inclined to some other sin. And we strive for destructive and God-hating passions - some not very diligently, others with all our might and with an uncontrollable attraction of the mind. That is why the prophet says: “be sober, drunk on your wine,” and considers it necessary to advise those who drink wine to weep until they become drunk, because, as I just said, they do not limit the love of pleasure to satiety and satisfaction, but they get drunk and drink beyond all measure. From such lips, he says, joy and joy are taken away: therefore, Christ is right that “those who mourn” will now certainly “be comforted” (Matthew 5:4), and for those who are accustomed to luxury there will be a need to shed tears, because the end of pleasure is crying and groans, and it brings those who love him down to the region of hell; David is also right when he says to God: “for what death will not be remembered to you” (Ps. 6:6), and in another place: “Lord, all who go down to hell will not praise you in the dead, but we will bless you alive,” Lord 3 (Ps. 114:25–26). But the meaning of the present can also be understood in application to the earth: if the sources of joy are destroyed by caterpillars and other things, then, of course, along with the abundance of fruits, the joy and joy of the victims disappears, because those in need are usually so distressed that, I think, they can exhaust their flesh, lose weight from cruel and unbearable sadness. Joel.1:6–7. From now on the tongue has risen upon my land, strong and numberless: its teeth... the teeth of a lion, and its limbs, its lionesses 4: put my grapes to be destroyed, and my figs to be broken; Wanting to somehow forestall events or the expected future and force a tear of repentance, he reveals the future in detail and, as if imagining with his own eyes the onset of sorrows, offers some lamentation to those who have received the order to weep, as if teaching a lamentable song and then encourages them to say the above: “before the tongue has come to my land, it is strong and numberless” and in the strength of teeth it is not much inferior to lions and lionesses. This is true, even if we understand about springs, caterpillars and mosses, because this creature is invincible, their attack is very irresistible, it can destroy to the ground everything that is in the fields - I mean fruits and greens, destroy figs and grapes, give a naked and ugly appearance to the arable land. If we apply the word to the inhumanity of the devastators and the complete devastation of the country, then it indicates nothing other than the fact that their entire country was destroyed, their outstanding people were exterminated, surpassing ordinary people in fame and wealth, why they are equated with a fig tree and grapes; however, they were subject to temptation in the same way as happens to sensual grapes when they happen to fall into the teeth of the locust, because they, sucking the juice from the plants and drawing out all the life-giving power from them, in a short time dries them up, and as a result makes them white in appearance. Thus the teeth of the enemies of the destroyers completely devoured those who were revered in the form of the grape, or in the form of the fig tree, and brought them into a state of complete disrepair, either by striking them with the sword, or by subjecting them to the yoke of slavery. If anyone would like to understand spiritually, then he can apply this to sinful people, into whose minds and hearts, like locusts, moss, and caterpillars, evil spirits always somehow creep in, as well as many-formed and diverse passions, and make them so that they turn out to be worthless and ugliest, having lost the color of piety and not having any growth of righteousness in themselves. I can say that they should continually cry and weep before God, with frequent prayer, seek forgiveness and help in order to become, although late and with difficulty, wise, powerful and able to avoid accidents. Those whose minds are ignorantly inclined to listen to those who are accustomed to reason differently and pervert the right teachings of the church can also tolerate this. About such people it is quite fair to say: their “teeth” are “the teeth of a lion, and their limbs,” “lionesses,” because this is a God-hating, deceptive, harmful race, devouring and captivating the mind of the simple with its own inventions, so that there is no remnant of rightness in them. Such people dry up the master's vineyard, deprive the garden of fig trees and make it naked and desolate - “whose judgment... will not touch” (2 Pet. 2:3), but in time they will be righteous (Rom. 3:8). So, those who spend their lives in ignorance will be food for “springs and moss and caterpillars”, they will be deprived of all beauty, and there will be nothing blooming in them. And a wise and God-loving soul, richly adorned with the dogmas of truth, having a heart, so to speak, abounding in the fruits of righteousness and covered with excellent flowers, will, of course, boldly say, like the bride depicted in the Song of Songs: “Let a brother... come down to his garden, and let him eat the fruit of his vegetables” (Song. 5:1). The fruits of piety and the vegetables of true curiosity are pleasing to the Savior of us all, Christ, who is also our brother, as born of a sister, the all-immaculate Lady. Joel.1:8. Cry to me more than a bride girded in sackcloth for her virgin husband. He orders them to bring repentance with the contrition characteristic of it, not casually and casually, and not in a careless way, but one that would compete with the most bitter complaints of others and would zealously take care to perform works commensurate with their sins. Usually, a newlywed bride grieves greatly for her deceased groom, plunges into such deep sadness for him that her soul is beyond consolation, and not a single type of lament seems completely sufficient to her, because the female sex is generally tearful and tearful, and most of all those who see their virgin and young groom sadly lying on the bed, dead and lifeless. Thus, he says, and in all fairness, the Jewish people should become like, they should put away the wrathful punishments and, as it were, stop by crying God’s visit that is irresistibly coming upon them, trusting that “the Lord of all is good and gentle” (Ps. 85:5), loving of mankind and abundantly merciful and, as usual, “repent of evil” (Joel 2:13). But the Jewish synagogue did not weep for the heavenly Bridegroom, that is, Christ: it killed Him and violated Him. Therefore she is not admitted into the divine bridal chamber, is outside the sacred wedding supper, not participating in the celebration, completely excommunicated and rejected, and very far from the hope of the saints. In her place is called a young, immaculate, pure and wise “bride... from Lebanon” (Song. 4:8), a beautiful dove (Song. 2:14), that is, a church of the pagans, who confesses the very passion of Christ and, so to speak, grieves for Him, condoling, grieving, walking the same path with Him and having love for Him. And by her virgin bridegroom (although she is a synagogue - due to error and is considered to have committed adultery and fornicated with Satan) we must understand Emmanuel - for the sake of the heavenly rebirth, by which we are enriched through the Spirit, denying the birth of the flesh, for it is written about Christ: “He came to his own, and did not receive him as his own” and so on (John 1:11). Joel.1:9–11. The sacrifice and drink offering have been poured out from the house of the Lord: mourn the priests who serve the altar of the Lord. For the fields are desolate: lament the earth, for the wheat has suffered, the wine has dried up, the oil has diminished: it has dried up. It’s the same as if he said directly: the thanksgiving sacrifices have stopped, there is no one at all to offer the sacrifice, to bring the offering and the firstfruits of grain - of course, the sacred sheaf offered to God according to the Law of Moses in the form of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest. There is no one, he says, who, having put the first-picked fruits into a basket, went to the house of God to sing the songs of thanksgiving to God that were supposed to be uttered. That is why the chosen race, I mean the priests, is encouraged to weep, not because they are in difficulty about their income, but because they grieve for the people under their command and are placed in a sacred and wonderful service, so that they, before others, will propitiate God and imitate the very priest Moses, who interceded for Israel and said to God: “I pray... 5 Lord, when men have sinned, this is a great sin... and even... forgive them their sin 6, leave it: even if you blot me out of this book 7, you wrote it in the book” (Ex. 32:31-32), for the rank of the priesthood serves as a mediator between God and people, and those assigned to such important service, as I believe, in all fairness, are entitled to boldness in prayers: after all, they seem to dedicate for everyone to God's own life by consuming sin offerings. God says the same thing through the mouth of Hosea: “The sins of my people will consume, and in their iniquities they will take away their souls” (Hos. 4:8), that is: when the people commit unrighteousness, violating the precepts of the law, then the priests of the divine altars will “take up” their own souls to God for them (and “take up” says instead: “they will bring” or “they will lift up,” because to offer up to God was called “to take”). What is the reason for their crying? The fields and wheat suffered, he says, being eaten by the teeth of locusts, and as if being burned by “sniffles” (Joel 1:4), because they seem to burn and destroy what is in the fields. It is necessary, he says, to weep in a certain way to the earth when its fruits perished: “the wheat is lost, the wine is dry, the oil is diminished”: when it dried up, that is, everything disappeared from it, for which they were usually very surprised at her, as the mother and nurse of good fruits. This is what we would say in relation to sensory actions. But everyone, if he is a true priest, will mourn those who, due to immeasurable damage to the mind, do not accept purification by faith and do not love sanctification from Christ, because in any case they will remain deprived of spiritual fertility and will suffer a lack of everything that can nourish and that raises them to spiritual courage, having neither wheat nor wine and deprived of the use of oil. It is said in a mysterious sense, because to those who accept faith, Christ will offer Himself as the bread of life (He said: “I am the bread of life” - John 6:51), like wine that gladdens the heart of man (Ps. 103:15). Again, take your mind into what I’m saying. They will also use oil, of course - spiritual, sanctifying and understood in the sense of assimilating His grace, and those who have a stubborn, daring and unloving mind, a disobedient and unyielding mind, of course, will make them deprived and completely uninvolved in the benefits we have just named. It should be noted that Paul, while carrying out the holy work of preaching the gospel of Christ to the pagans, seemed to mourn the unbelievers from Israel, saying: “My tribulation is great” (Rom. 9:2) and so on. Real speech, as I said, is mysterious and hidden. Joel.1:11–12. Farmers weep for the villages for the sake of wheat and barley, 8 because the embrace of the field has perished; the grapes have faded, and the figs have withered, the thorns and the phoenix, and the apple trees, and all the trees of Poland have withered, as if they have disgraced the joy of the sons of men. Truly grief, sorrow and lamentation for farmers is the death of everything in the fields and the complete impossibility of collecting anything from them, sometimes after long labors, and also to see the best trees in the gardens dry, destroyed, vineyards along with crops and even wild forests destroyed along with the gardens, for, he says, “all the trees of Poland were withered, as if they had disgraced the joy of the sons of men.” , that is: those living on earth made the time of shame, reproach, reproof, punishment and judgment the time in which it was natural to widely enjoy prosperity, collecting harvest from the fields, filling warehouses (granaries) with wheat, singing undercutting songs to the grape gatherers and amusing themselves with flocks of sheep, when the thickest and most luxurious grass spreads out under them. Again, here, apparently, the speech covertly refers to the then rulers of Jewish affairs as farmers, who, as he said, should have cried that soon all the inhabitants and inhabitants of the earth would go to destruction, which is meant by the image of wheat, barley and fruit trees. And, perhaps, the content of these thoughts is most suitable for the scribes and Pharisees, who, like the farmers, outraged Christ and killed the heir, so that they themselves could receive the fruit and henceforth be the masters of the vineyard, admiring, as it were, the fields, a crowded crowd of subordinates, and robbing the most famous of them like pomegranates, like apple trees. But the Roman war befell them and destroyed the great and the small, the glorious and the famous, depicted under the guise of fig trees, as I just said, or grapes, palms, apple trees, trees, under the guise of barley and wheat, because morals are different and not everyone has the same way of life. And since he just likened the land of Judea to a field and called the leaders farmers, the speech withstands the comparison to the end, in various ways likening the subordinates to bread and trees. If anyone believes that this should be reduced to a moral explanation, then he will think correctly. Indeed, the grapes, fig trees, and other trees, which are usually decorated with attractive fruits, should be likened to virtues and spiritual deeds. But if someone is wise, reasonable and careful about good decorations, he will plant a garden in his mind and heart with beautiful flowers and trees, cultivating in himself many different virtues and all kinds of good qualities. If someone is careless, voluptuous and too prone to shameful things, he will, of course, cry when his good qualities perish and when he experiences great sterility of mind. Therefore, reasonable people should take care of the blessings of the heart, which will probably appear if only they themselves personally please the Giver of heavenly blessings. Joel.1:13. Gird yourselves and fight, you priests, weep, you who serve the altar; come, sleep in sackcloth, you who serve God, for you have taken sacrifice and drink offering from the house of your God. And in these words, as it were, the incident is brought to light and instills the most unbearable fear, declaring that the matter requires the most fervent prayer, because the priests themselves must groan. But the speech contains some good intentions. Namely: when they, very senselessly, flocked to the idol churches, from there they sought help, although they were struck down by God in anger, then the God of all wisely commands his own clergy to begin prayers and patiently undertake penitential exercises, so that those struck know that if they do not henceforth wish to seek what is pleasing to God and offer up prayers to Him, they will not suspend their anger. Consequently, priests, as he said, should, in some way, in addition to other labors, also use prayerful labors, groaning, crying, putting on sackcloth, which signifies the abandonment of bliss and peace, harsh life and labor, the right and immaculate passage of a holy life. Then, establishing a clear reason for the work, he says: “going away from home” the Lord’s “sacrifice and drink offering.” The strong word: does not say that the sacrifice and libation are reduced to small or decreased, but “otyasya,” which means a complete cessation. And this is a terrible and truly painful matter for the leaders of the people, when their subordinates cannot in any way appease God. Joel.1:14–15. Sanctify the fast, preach celibacy, gather the elders of all who live on earth to the house of your God, and cry earnestly to the Lord: woe is me, woe is me, woe is me this day. Now he explains exactly how they should cry, is a wise mentor for them on the path to repentance and indicates why the God of all will be lenient and favorable to them. It was up to Him, I think, to stop anyone’s anger, destroy sadness, limit harm, and then endow them with happiness and shower them with blessings. Therefore, “sanctify”, he says, “fast”, that is: arrange, instead of an offering and in the form of a sacrifice, a truly holy and immaculate fast. Of course, we should not exhaust the flesh by not eating, and at the same time, while fasting, we ourselves should do something that offends God, because if during fasting we do not decide to lag behind our desires, but we torment our assistants in courts and quarrels, as usual, “beating the humble with the palm of the hand” (Is. 58: 3-4), then we will not fast as we should, but we will justly suffer punishment for our labors, because God proclaims: “I have not chosen such a fast” (Is. 58:6). Therefore, one should abstain from vice and follow with great zeal the teachings of the Lawgiver, directing the heart to what pleases Him, and, bowing the neck of the mind, chant and say: “See my humility and my labor, and forgive all my sins” (Ps. 24:18), and at the same time that prophetic saying: “behold... we will be to you, for you are the Lord our God” ( Jer.3:22). This is a spiritual offering and pleasing to God “more than a young bull” (Ps. 68:32), more than a ram from flocks, more than a goat from goats, more than a heap and frankincense, for with spiritual “sacrifices God is pleased” (Heb. 13:16). But, sanctifying the fast, let us proclaim the “purpose” (service), that is: the fulfillment of God’s commands, which will probably be followed by righteousness, good morals, an inclination towards everything related to the words of piety; Let us perform the rites of service, during which the elders will gather in the church, all the inhabitants of the earth will flock in, they will cry, and very intensely, all day long, being firmly convinced that God will have mercy on everyone, for He is “long-suffering and abounding in mercy and truth, putting away iniquity” (Num. 14:18) “and forsaking wickedness,” and in general, “not withholding his wrath to witness, for he is the master of mercy” (Micah 7:18). Joel.1:15–16. For the day of the Lord is near, and for trouble will come from trouble. ...Before your eyes there is food brought from the house of your God, joy and gladness. “The Day of the Lord” refers to the one in which punishment was to be carried out, or when locusts were sent against them, destroyed what was in the fields, aroused fears of hunger and poverty and even inspired the fear of death, or when the Babylonians destroyed everything, took cities and villages, caused one evil after another and constantly plunged the inhabitants of the earth from trouble to trouble, so that they, one might say, could not breathe for a short time, and there was no interval for anything good, in which one could, at least in part, have little peace for those unbearably exhausted by the continuity of disasters. But since the invasion of locusts happened, in all likelihood, when the fruits were already ripe and the fields were calling for the reaper, the grapes were ripe and awaiting squeezing, he says: “food was taken away” from their eyes, because what was taken away from them was what was before their eyes, lay as if in front of them and promised immediate pleasure. Then he claims that joy and joy were removed from the house of the Lord, because they made sacrifices, rejoicing in the fertility of the fields, and indulged in all kinds of fun, offered thanksgiving sacrifices for being generously showered with the blessings of the earth. We will find that we experienced something similar, and, moreover, to the highest degree, having violated Christ. In fact, they already had, so to speak, before their eyes “animal bread” that came “from heaven and gave life to the world” (John 6:35, 33), “grain of wheat” that fell to the ground and brought forth abundant fruit (John 12:24), spiritual wine that can gladden the heart of a person (Ps. 103:15): but since they, out of pride, did not put an end to disobedience, then he disappeared from their eyes and, as it were, spiritual “food” was taken away, because the sacrament of all good things had departed from them. And from the church that existed among them, “joy and joy” were taken, since they were given over to destruction and live miserable “neither being the king, nor being the prince, nor being the sacrifice, nor being the altar, nor the priest, below the manifestation” (Hos. 3:4). We think that in another sense, “food”, “merriment”, and “joy” were “taken away” from their eyes. Namely: the Lord said: “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4), but the food of the mind is the word, and everyone can fearlessly say what has been taken away from the congregation of the Jews: they lack spiritual food, they do not understand Moses, but “to this day... a veil rests upon their hearts” (2 Cor. 3:15), for they hate verbs Christ's. All spiritual food perished among them, not in the sense that it itself was destroyed, but in the sense that it was no longer offered to the victims, and in relation to them it did not exist at all. Meanwhile, the Lord gives those who believe in Him the necessary pleasure and consolation of heavenly blessings, for it is written that “the Lord will not kill a righteous soul with famine, but he will bring down the life of the wicked” (Prov. 10:3). Joel.1:17–18. The youths jumped up at their mangers, destroyed the treasures, dug up the winepress, like taller wheat. What should we set ourselves? The herd of oxen wept, for they had no pasture, and the sheep's pasture was destroyed. And divinely inspired scripture sometimes transfers its speech to dumb animals, skillfully decorating ordinary phenomena to attractiveness and grace and, as if with gentleness, describing those edifying thoughts that one should think about. Therefore, what a wonder it is if it is said that a heifer gallops (throws about) and herds of oxen cry? They are intolerably oppressed by hunger. Of course, the fields would start jumping and crying if they were aware of the misfortunes. “Perished,” he says, and “treasures,” “ploughed up” and “ground,” left without any supervision, because there is nothing to collect from the fields, the knife has nothing to do with the vineyard and vine, the ear leans to the ground 9, dry and barren; That’s why he says: “What shall we put in our minds?” And he clearly states that along with the cultivated fruits, the meadow grasses also perished, saying that the very “flock of sheep” perished, completely exterminated by the crop failure and deprived of the usual revival so characteristic of them. And this fits well with the deeds of the Jews who outraged Christ. Joel.1:19–20. To you, Lord, I will cry out, as the red desert has consumed fire, and the flame has consumed all the wood of Poland. And the beasts looked up to you, like a spring of water, and a red fire consuming the desert. “Red deserts” refers to what grows naturally in the fields, of course, unplowed ones, and “Polish trees” refers to the noble plants of vegetable gardens and orchards, at a certain time usually dotted with beautiful fruits. It was them, he says, that were devoured, as if in the form of fire, by “moss and sore throat” (Joel 1:4). Judiciously begins the most fervent prayer to God, teaching that it will be in vain to seek from anyone else an end to the trouble, but one must offer prayers to the One who can save and in anger sends all kinds of sorrows, because, as he very rightly says, one should not think that these disasters happened by themselves, on the contrary, that they were brought about by God’s rebuke against them. The God of all things himself tells us about this through the mouth of another prophet: “Will there be evil in the city that the Lord does not create?” (Am.3:6) This means that there is not a single disaster that befalls cities and countries that would have happened without God’s permission, because He saves whomever He wants and frees from disaster. Therefore, he convinces those who mourn to seek permission from God, driving away the idea that their affairs require the hand and help of false gods. “The springs of water dwindled,” he says, because the rain did not irrigate the land, and besides, when the siples attacked it, the locusts armed themselves, the mosses jumped and the caterpillars crawled, how was it possible to doubt that all means of life would probably be destroyed? When the grass is also destroyed, then, of course, it is absolutely necessary for the livestock to be destroyed. I would believe that the same speeches should be made, turning to God in the last times of the age, to the Jews, oppressed by the lack of goods and groaning because their mental goods were destroyed as if by fire - the spiritual locusts ate them, and “like the spring”, for He commanded the clouds not to shed ordinary rain on the earth (Is. 5: 6), and they became an impassable and waterless land ( Ps.62:2), which will not be inhabited (Jer.6:8). And about us, who are justified by faith, God foretold and, pointing out that the distribution of the gifts of Christ would be the most generous, said: “In that day the mountains will dry up the sweetness, and the hills will flow forth with milk, and all the springs of Judah will flow out of water: and a fountain will flow out from the house of the Lord, and will give water to the streams of the city” (Joel 3:18), or otherwise: “I will hear 10 God of Israel, and I will not forsake them, but will open rivers in the mountains, and in the midst of the fields... 11 into meadows... 12 and the thirsty land into streams of water" (Is. 41:17-18) So, here we are (the subject of speech). If they too turn to repentance, lift up their eyes to God and say: “To you, Lord, I will cry,” then they will receive springs of water, they will draw spiritual water with us and drink from the springs of salvation (Is. 12:3), they will have in their hearts a stream of pleasure from God and the Father and a source of life. The “red desert” will also be offered to them for delight, that is, good and extensive pasture, turning them to the divine and gospel knowledge comprehended in Christ. Lit.: “truth”, i.e. seem incredible. According to the Russian Synodal translation. Slav.: “His teeth [are] like the teeth of a lion, and his limbs are like a lion’s cub.” Slav.: “[shame] farmer, weep, you have grown in wheat and barley.” Slav.: “(and among the fields) springs, I will create a desert...” You might be interested in: