1  The unheard of judgment of caterpillars and locusts, Joe 1:1-7.
All sorts us people are called on to lament it, Joe 1:8-13.
And to humble themselves before God, Joe 1:14-20.

1:14 Sanctify ye - Ye priests, set apart a day wherein to afflict yourselves, confess your sins, and sue out your pardon.Into the house - The courts of the temple, where the people were wont to pray.

1:15 The day of the Lord - A day of greater trouble than yet they felt, troubles which God will heap upon them.Shall it come - Unless fasting, prayers and amendment prevent.

2  A farther description of the desolation of the land, Joe 2:1-11.
An earnest call to repentance, Joe 2:12-17.
A promise of all good things to the penitent, Joe 2:18-27.
A prophecy of the Messiah's kingdom, Joe 2:28-32.

2:1 Blow ye - The prophet continues his exhortation to the priests, who were appointed to summon the solemn assemblies.

2:2 A day of darkness - A time of exceeding great troubles and calamities. And this passage may well allude to the day of judgment, and the calamities which precede that day. As the morning - As the morning spreads itself over all the hemisphere and first upon the high mountains, so shall the approaching calamities overspread this people.A great people - This seems more directly to intend the Babylonians.

11 

11:15 But some said, He casteth out devils by Beelzebub - These he answers, Luk 11:17. Others, to try whether it were so or no, sought a sign from heaven. These he reproves in Luk 11:29 and following verses. Beelzebub signifies the lord of flies, atitle which the heathens gave to Jupiter, whom they accounted the chief of their gods, and yet supposed him to be employed in driving away flies from their temple and sacrifices. The Philistines worshipped a deity under this name, as the god of Ekron: from hence the Jews took the name, and applied it to the chief of the devils. Mar 3:22.

11:16  Mat 12:38.

11:17 A house - That is, a family.

11:20 If I cast out devils by the finger of God - That is, by a power manifestly Divine. Perhaps the expression intimates farther, that it was done without any labour: then the kingdom of God is come upon you - Unawares, unexpected: so the Greek word implies.

11:21 The strong one armed - The devil, strong in himself, and armed with the pride, obstinacy, and security of him in whom he dwells.

11:26 The last state of that man becometh worse than the first - Whoever reads the sad account Josephus gives of the temple andconduct of the Jews, after the ascension of Christ and before their final destruction by the Romans, must acknowledge that no emblem could have been more proper to describe them. Their characters were the vilest that can be conceived, and they pressed on to their own ruin, as if they had been possessed by legions of devils, and wrought up to the last degree of madness. But this also is fulfilled in all who totally and finally apostatize from true faith.