Matthew Henry Commentary Joel 1:14-20

"Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the old men [and] all the inhabitants of the land unto the house of Jehovah your God, and cry unto Jehovah. Alas for the day! for the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Is not the food cut off before our eyes, [yea], joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seeds rot under their clods; the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the grain is withered. How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. O Jehovah, to thee do I cry; for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. Yea, the beasts of the field pant unto thee; for the water brooks are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness." — Joel 1:14-20 (ASV)

The sorrow of the people is turned into repentance and humiliation before God. With all the marks of sorrow and shame, sin must be confessed and lamented. A day is to be appointed for this purpose; a day in which people must be kept from their common work, so that they may more closely attend God's services; and there is to be abstaining from food and drink.

Everyone had added to the national guilt, and all shared in the national calamity; therefore, everyone must join in repentance. When joy and gladness are cut off from God's house, when serious godliness decays, and love grows cold, then it is time to cry to the Lord. The prophet describes how grievous the calamity.

See even the animals suffering for our transgression. And how are they any better than animals, those who never cry to God except for corn and wine, and complain of the lack of the pleasures of the senses? Yet their crying to God in those cases shames the foolishness of those who do not cry to God in any case. Whatever may become of the nations and churches that persist in ungodliness, believers will find the comfort of acceptance with God, when the wicked shall be burned up with his indignation.