Wild Apples - Penn State University

Wild Apples
to drink the cup and save our lappets from the overflowing “He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree; he
juice,—and grow more social with their wine. Was there one hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof
that hung so high and sheltered by the tangled branches that are made white.…
our sticks could not dislodge it?
“Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen! howl, O ye vine-dress-
It is a fruit never carried to market, that I am aware of,— ers! …
quite distinct from the apple of the markets, as from dried “The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth; the
apple and cider,—and it is not every winter that produces it pomegranate-tree, the palm tree also, and the apple-tree, even
in perfection.
all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered
“Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye in-habitants of away from the sons of men.”*
the land! Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of
your fathers? …
“That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust
eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm
eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath
the caterpillar eaten.
“Awake, ye drunkards, and weep! and howl, all ye drinkers
of wine, because of the new wine! for it is cut off from your
mouth.
“For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without
number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath
the cheek-teeth of a great lion.
*Joel, chapter i., verses 1-12.
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