“The fig trees
Do not blossom.
There is no fruit
On the vines.
The produce
Of the olive tree fails.
The fields yield
No food.
The flock is cut off
From the fold.
There is no herd
In the stalls.”
These farmers have hit bad times. The fig trees were not blossoming, while there were no fruits of grapes on the vines in the vineyard. The fields were not yielding any kind of food. The flocks were running aimlessly, while the herd was not in its stalls. Things were in bad shape.
“Wake up!
You drunkards!
Weep!
Wail!
All you wine-drinkers!
The sweet wine
Is cut off
From your mouth.
A nation has invaded
My land.
It is powerful.
It is innumerable.
Its teeth are
Lions’ teeth.
It has the fangs
Of a lioness.
It has laid waste
My vines.
It has splintered
My fig trees.
It has stripped off
Their bark.
It has thrown it down.
Their branches
Have turned white.”
Joel noted that the attack of the locust grasshoppers was very severe, like the invasion of another country. He wanted the drunkards to wake up and weep. All those wine-drinkers should wail. They were going to have their sweet wine cut off from them. The powerful, innumerable invasion of the grasshoppers in his land was like the fangs of a lion’s teeth. This attack had laid waste the vines and the fig trees. This plague of locusts had splintered and stripped off the bark of the trees. They had thrown the trees to the ground, as the branches of the trees turned white.
“Now I will uncover
Her shame
In the sight
Of her lovers.
No one shall rescue her
Out of my hand.
I will put an end
To all her mirth,
Her festivals,
Her new moons,
Her sabbaths,
All her appointed festivals.
I will lay waste
Her vines
With her fig trees.
She said.
‘These are my pay.
My lovers
Have given me
These vines,
These fig trees.’
I will make them
A forest.
The wild animals
Shall devour them.”
Hosea was going to shame Gomer. He was going to uncover her nakedness in the sight of her lovers. Nudity was considered shameful, not glorified. No one would be able to save her from his hands. He was going to put an end to all her merry ways. Strangely enough, this included the various Israelite religious holidays, such as the festivals, the new moon observance, the Sabbath observance, as well as the other religious appointed festival days. Hosea was also going to destroy the vines and the trees that her lovers had given her as payment for her various sexual activities. Hosea was going to make them like a overgrown forest, so that the wild animals would devour and destroy them. Gomer was then a symbol of what was going to happen to Israel.
“Now!
Inhabitants of Jerusalem!
People of Judah!
Judge between me
And my vineyard!
What more was there
To do for my vineyard,
That I have not done in it?
When I expected it
To yield grapes,
Why did it yield wild grapes?”
This song is clearly directed at the people of Jerusalem and Judah, not the northern tribes of Israel with its capital in Samaria. The vineyard is no longer that of a beloved friend. It is now the vineyard of Isaiah himself, who wanted them to judge between him and his vineyard. Who was at fault? Was it him the gardener or the vines themselves? Could he have done more? While he expected good grapes, he only got wild grapes. Why did this happen?
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 