---
title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation"
author: "Adam Clarke"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 100 of 769
url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/100/
cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 100. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/100/"
---

# Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation

*Adam Clarke*

Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 2 of 2.

## 100. Joel · 5 of 5

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/100/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/100/#p-N

### Verse 17

[¶1] So shall ye know - By the judgments I execute on your enemies, and the support I give to yourselves, that I am the all-conquering Jehovah; and that I have again taken up my residence in Jerusalem. All this may refer, ultimately, to the restoration of the Jews to their own land; when holiness to the Lord shall be their motto; and no strange god, or impure people, shall be permitted to enter the city, or even pass through it; they shall have neither civil nor religious connections with any who do not worship the true God in spirit and in truth. This, I think, must refer to Gospel times. It is a promise not ye fulfilled.

### Verse 18

[¶3] In that day - After their return from their captivities.

[¶4] The mountains shall drop down new wine - A poetic expression for great fertility. Happy times: peace and plenty. The vines shall grow luxuriantly on the sides of the mountains; and the hills shall produce such rich pastures that the flocks shall yield abundance of milk.

[¶5] And all the rivers of Judah - Far from being generally dry in the summer, shall have their channels always full of water.

[¶6] And a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord - See the account of the typical waters in Ezekiel 47, to which this seems to have a reference; at least the subject is the same, and seems to point out the grace of the Gospel, the waters of salvation, that shall flow from Jerusalem, and water the valley of Shittim. Shittim was in the plains of Moab beyond Jordan; [Num 33:49]; [Jos 3:1]; but as no stream of water could flow from the temple, pass across Jordan, or reach this plain, the valley of Shittim must be considered symbolical, as the valley of Jehoshaphat. But as Shittim may signify thorns, it may figuratively represent the most uncultivated and ferocious inhabitants of the earth receiving the Gospel of Christ, and being civilized and saved by it. We know that briers and thorns are emblems of bad men; see [Eze 2:6]. Thus all the figures in this verse will point out the happy times of the Gospel: the mountains shall drop down new wine; the hills flow with milk; the thorny valleys become fertile, etc. Similar to those almost parallel words of the prince of poets: -

[¶7] Mistaque ridenti colocasia fundet acantho.

[¶8] Ipsae lacte domum referent destenta capellae

[¶9] Ubera: nec magnos metuent armenta leones.

[¶10] Molli paullatim flavescet campus arista,

[¶11] Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva:

[¶12] Et durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella.

[¶13] Virg. Ed. 4:20.

[¶14] Unbidden earth shall wreathing ivy bring,

[¶15] And fragrant herbs the promises of spring.

[¶16] The goats with streaming dugs shall homeward speed;

[¶17] And lowing herds, secure from lions, feed.

[¶18] Unlabour'd harvests shall the fields adorn,

[¶19] And cluster'd grapes shall grow on every thorn:

[¶20] The knotted oaks shall showers of honey weep.

[¶21] Dryden.

### Verse 19

[¶23] Egypt shall be a desolation - While peace, plenty, and prosperity of every kind, shall crown my people, all their enemies shall be as a wilderness; and those who have used violence against the saints of God, and shed the blood of innocents (of the holy Martyrs) in their land, when they had political power; these and all such shall fall under the just judgments of God.

### Verse 20

[¶25] But Judah shall dwell for ever - The true Church of Christ shall be supported, while all false and persecuting Churches shall be annihilated. The promise may also belong to the full and final restoration of the Jews, when they shall dwell at Jerusalem as a distinct people professing the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.

### Verse 21

[¶27] For I will cleanse their blood - נקיתי nikkeythi, I will avenge the slaughter and martyrdom of my people, which I have not yet avenged.

[¶28] Persecuting nations and persecuting Churches shall all come, sooner or later, under the stroke of vindictive justice.

[¶29] For the Lord dwelleth in Zion - He shall be the life, soul, spirit, and defense of his Church for ever. This prophet, who has many things similar to Ezekiel, ends his prophecy nearly in the same way:

[¶30] Ezekiel says of the glory of the Church, יהוה שמה Yehovah shammah, The Lord Is There.

[¶31] Joel says, יהוה שכן בציון Yehovah shochen betsiyon, The Lord Dwelleth in Zion.

[¶32] Both point out the continued indwelling of Christ among his people.

### Verse 1

[¶34] For, behold, in those days - According to the preceding prophecy, these days should refer to Gospel times, or to such as should immediately precede them. But this is a part of the prophecy which is difficult to be understood. All interpreters are at variance upon it; some applying its principal parts to Cambyses; his unfortunate expedition to Egypt; the destruction of fifty thousand of his troops (by the moving pillars of sand) whom he had sent across the desert to plunder the rich temple of Jupiter Ammon; his return to Judea, and dying of a wound which he received from his own sword, in mounting his horse, which happened at Ecbatane, at the foot of Mount Carmel. On which his army, composed of different nations, seeing themselves without a head, fell out, and fought against each other, till the whole were destroyed. And this is supposed to be what Ezekiel means by Gog and Magog, and the destruction of the former. See Ezekiel 38 and 39.

[¶35] Others apply this to the victories gained by the Maccabees, and to the destruction brought upon the enemies of their country; while several consider the whole as a figurative prediction of the success of the Gospel among the nations of the earth. It may refer to those times in which the Jews shall be brought in with the fullness of the Gentiles, and be re-established in their own land. Or there may be portions in this prophecy that refer to all the events; and to others that have not fallen yet within the range of human conjecture, and will be only known when the time of fulfillment shall take place. In this painful uncertainty, rendered still more so by the discordant opinions of many wise and learned men, it appears to be my province, as I have nothing in the form of a new conjecture to offer, to confine myself to an explanation of the phraseology of the chapter; and then leave the reader to apply it as may seem best to his own judgment.

[¶36] I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem - This may refer to the return from the Babylonish captivity; extending also to the restoration of Israel, or the ten tribes.