o extend even to the destruction
of the temple, proves how deep the apostasy was at the time of Joel.
Where a judgment is thus threatened, which, in its terrors, far
surpasses all former judgments, the "ancient faith" certainly cannot
have been very vigorous.

"The Messianic idea appears here in its generality and indefiniteness,
without being as yet concentrated in the person of an ideal king,"
_Hitzig_ remarks. But if this argument were at all [Pg 296] valid, we
should have to go back even beyond the time of Joash. Solomon, David,
and Jacob already knew the personal Messiah. The prophets, however, do
not everywhere proclaim everything which they know. Even in Isaiah,
there occur long Messianic descriptions, in which the Messiah Himself
is not to be found. In Joel, moreover, everything is collected around
the person of the "Teacher of righteousness."

"Joel," it is further remarked, "must have prophesied at a time when
the Philistine and other nations, who had become so haughty under
Jehoram, had but lately ventured upon destructive plundering
expeditions as far as Jerusalem, 2 Chron. xxi. 10 ff." This argument
would be plausible, if the injuries inflicted by the Philistines and
the inhabitants of Tyrus had not appeared in equally lively colours
before the mind of Amos (chap. i. 6-10), who, at all events, prophesied
between seventy and eighty years after these events. It is just this
fact which should teach caution in the application of such arguments.
The recollection of such facts could not be lost, as long as the
disposition continued from which they originated. It was as if they had
happened in the present; for, under similar circumstances, similar
events would have again immediately taken place. The passage chap. iv.
19, "Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate
wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because
they have shed innocent blood in the land," shows also how lively was
the recollection of injuries sustained long ago. Egypt and Edom in that
passage are mentioned individually, in order to designate the enemies
of the people of God in general, and yet with an allusion to deeds
perpetrated by the Egyptians and Edomites properly so called. As the
suffix in [Hebrew: arcM] must be referred to the sons of Judah--for we
have no historical account of a bloody deed perpetrated against Judah
by the Edomites in their own land, and it was the land of Judah which
was invaded and de