1. Joël 1:7 (NEG79)
  2. Explication du texte

Why is the destruction of vine and fig tree mentioned separately?

Joël 1:7 (NEG79)

7 Il a dévasté ma vigne; Il a mis en morceaux mon figuier, Il l'a dépouillé, abattu; Les rameaux de la vigne ont blanchi.

Sitting under your vine and fig tree is a picture of the rest and peace that God promised his people when they would serve him (cf. 1 Kings 4:25; 2 Kings 18:31; Micah 4:4; Zechariah 3:10). Through the all-destructive plague of locusts (Joel 1:6), God deprives his people of that rest and peace. It is war between God and his people, which is time for the greatest sorrow (Joel 1:8; Joel uses the image of a wrecked, newly begun marriage. The most beautiful expectation suddenly ends in a black hole). By bringing out the destruction of precisely the vine and fig tree, Joel shows that the misery is not merely a natural disaster, but that God as the covenant God is busy carrying out covenant judgments. He shakes the people so that they wake up.