Albert Barnes Commentary Joel 1:4

"That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten." — Joel 1:4 (ASV)

That which the palmerworm hath left, hath the locust eaten - The creatures mentioned here are different kinds of locusts, so named from their number or voracity. We, who are free from this scourge of God, know them only by the generic name of locusts. But the Law mentions several kinds of locusts, each after its kind, which might be eaten. In fact, above eighty different kinds of locusts have been observed, some of which are twice as large as that which is the ordinary scourge of God. Slight as they are in themselves, they are mighty in God’s Hand; beautiful and gorgeous as they are, floating in the sun’s rays, they are a scourge, including other plagues, famine, and often, pestilence.

Of the four kinds named here by the prophet, that rendered “locust” is so called from its multitude (from which Jeremiah says they are more numerous than the locust; Judges 7:12; Psalms 105:34; Nahum 3:15), and is, probably, the creature which desolates whole regions of Asia and Africa. The rest are named from their voracity—the “gnawer,” “licker,” “consumer”—but they are, beyond doubt, distinct kinds of that destroyer. And this is the characteristic of the prophet’s threatening: that he foretells a succession of destroyers, each more fatal than the previous; and that, not according to the order of nature. For in all the observations which have been made of the locusts, even when successive flights have desolated the same land, they have always been successive clouds of the same creature.

Besides the fact, then, that locusts are a heavy chastisement from God, these words of Joel form a sort of sacred proverb. They are the epitome of his whole prophecy. It is this which he called the old men to hear, and to say whether they had known anything like this: that scourge came after scourge, judgment after judgment, until man yielded or perished. The visitation of locusts was one of the punishments threatened in the Law: You shall carry much seed out into the field, and shall gather but little in, for the locust shall consume it (Deuteronomy 28:38).

It was one of God’s ordinary punishments for sin in that country, like famine, or pestilence, or blight, or mildew, or livestock disease, or (in this country) potato disease. Solomon, accordingly, at the dedication of the temple mentions the locust among the other plagues, which he then solemnly entreated God to remove, when individuals or the whole people should stretch out their hands in penitence toward that house (1 Kings 8:37–38).

But the characteristic of this prophecy is the successiveness of the judgments, each in itself desolating, and the later following quickly upon the earlier, and completing their destructiveness. The judgments of God are linked together by an invisible chain, each drawing on the other; yet, at each link of the lengthening chain, allowing space and time for repentance to break it through. So in the plagues of Egypt, God, executing His judgments upon them by little and little, gave them time for repentance ; yet, when Pharaoh hardened his heart, each followed on the other, until he perished in the Red Sea. In the same way God said, him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay; and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay (1 Kings 19:17).

So, in Revelation, the trumpets are sounded (Revelation 8:1–13; Revelation 9; Revelation 11:15), and the vials of the wrath of God are poured out upon the earth, one after the other (Revelation 16). Actual locusts were very likely one of the scourges intended by the prophet. They certainly were not the whole, but pictured others fiercer, more desolating, more overwhelming.

The proverbial dress gained and fixed people’s attention on the truth, which, if it had been presented to the people nakedly, they might have turned from. Yet as, in God’s wisdom, what is said generally is often fulfilled specially, so here there were four great invaders which in succession wasted Judah: the Assyrian, Chaldean, Macedonian, and Roman.

Morally, also, four chief passions successively desolate the human heart.

“For what is designated by the “palmerworm,” which creeps with all its body on the ground, except lust, which so pollutes the heart it possesses that it cannot rise to the love of heavenly purity? What is expressed by the “locust,” which flies by leaps, except vainglory, which exalts itself with empty presumptions? What is typified by the “cankerworm,” almost the whole of whose body is gathered into its belly, except gluttony in eating? What is indicated by mildew but anger, which burns as it touches?

“What the “palmerworm” then hath left, hath the locust eaten, because when the sin of lust has retired from the mind, vainglory often succeeds. For since it is no longer subdued by the love of the flesh, it boasts of itself, as if it were holy through its chastity.

“And that which the locust hath left, the cankerworm hath eaten, because when vainglory, which came, as it were, from holiness, is resisted, either the appetite or some ambitious desires are indulged too immoderately. For the mind that does not know God is led all the more fiercely to any object of ambition, insofar as it is not restrained by any love of human praise.

“That which the cankerworm hath left, the mildew consumes, because when the gluttony of the belly is restrained by abstinence, the impatience of anger holds fiercer sway, which, like mildew, eats up the harvest by burning it, because the flame of impatience withers the fruit of virtue.

“When, then, some vices succeed others, one plague devours the field of the mind, while another leaves it.”