Joel 1:9

have been cut off Heb. הָכְרַת, like נִכְרַת. The “hey” vowelized with a short “kamatz” takes the place of a “nun.” Comp. (Job 5:23), “And the beast of the field made peace (הָשְׁלְמָה) with you.”

1. And after discussing the destruction of the land and the exile of the people, it speaks about the destruction of the temple. About this, the pasuk says, "mourn priests who serve Gd" because the enemy has destroyed the land and exiled the nation and destroyed the house of Gd. And the Radak asks a question how the prophet can call the locust a "nation" and he brings a proof from Misheli (30:25) that a nation can be for small creatures when the ants are called "a nation without strength". But the midrash on that Mishlei (30:10) actually compares the ants to the 4 nations. There are 4 animal species mentioned in Mishlei. The ants who are called "without strength" refers to Bavel. "The badger without might" is Persia and Media. "The locusts have no king" is Greece. "You catch the lizard in your hand" this refers to Rome. This is further evidence that the pasuk here is not referring to locusts simply.

2. And after mentioning the destruction of the land and the exile of the people and the destruction of the Temple, he begins to give a dirge on the land as it says in pasuk 10- "the country is ravished. The ground must mourn. For the new grain is ravaged. The new oil has dried up. The new wine has failed." This means that Eretz Yisrael is cursed in its grain, wine and oil and the other fruits that are mentioned from the time that the enemy came upon them. (pasuk 11)- and therefore "farmers are dismayed" because they work the land. and "vine dressers wail" and both these are wailing because of the loss of the land's harvest. (pasuk 12)- and if the vine dressers and those who serve in the vineyards and the trees are upset becasue the grapes have dried up and the figs are wasted and the rest of the good fruits including pomegranate, dates, apples and all the trees of the field are gone. And because the grape and figs are a parable for the nation, therefore the metaphorical understanding of this pasuk is that the joy has dried up from men. Meaning that the people have gone into exile and left with depressed spirits. And if the prophecy was only talking about the wine that the locuts ate it would have not said that the grapes are figs are dried. Because the locuts would have eaten them, not that they would be dried up.