Joel

Name, Authorship, and Date of Composition

The book begins with a brief superscription stating that the word of the Lord came to Joel the son of Bethuel. No chronological formula is given to indicate the book's date, unlike the surrounding books of Hosea and Amos, which are both dated to the eighth century bce. There is good reason to think that the book of Joel derives from a much later period, probably the Persian era (539–333 bce), because it refers to the Greeks (3.6); it includes imagery attested elsewhere in late prophetic literature; it alludes to other biblical texts, some of which were written in the late monarchic period (Obadiah) or the Persian period (Malachi); and the name “Joel,” which means “Yahweh is God,” is prominent in Persian-period biblical literature. Of the prophet himself nothing is known except his father's name.

Location in Canon

In the Masoretic Text (and in English translations that follow its order) Joel comes between two books attributed to much earlier prophets, Hosea and Amos. That may be due to two similar verses, Joel 3.16a and Am 1.2a. In the Septuagint, however, Joel is the fourth book of the Minor Prophets, after Hosea, Amos, and Micah.

Structure, Contents, and Interpretation

The b!ook of Joel describes a crisis in harrowing terms. The crisis and its resolution are reported in 1.1–2.27. Scholars, however, often attribute 2.28–3.21 to another author or authors. In this section, described as late prophetic or early apocalyptic literature, the world of ritual disappears and is replaced by the return of prophecy, cosmic symbolism, conflict with foreign nations, and images of fertility. These later verses also include more allusions to other biblical texts than 1.1–2.27.

The book offers multiple images of agricultural ruin and its impact on life in Judah. The prophet speaks of drought in the land (e.g., 1.10,12,17,20), and envisions a locust plague in the language of military attack. Locusts were known for their destructive potential to strip all vegetation from the countryside (see Ex 10.15; Amos 7:1–2) and are compared with military forces in other ancient Near Eastern literature.

Although the book's rhetoric of destruction is comparable to that found in other prophetic books, the message is quite different. Rather than offering a critique of Israel's behavior, Joel summons the people to respond to the crisis by performing rituals. Plural imperative verbs—fast, lament, wail, blow (the trumpet), put on sackcloth—are a hallmark of this summons.

The book has a distinctive theological position. Though Joel clearly thinks that God was the ultimate cause of the disaster (2.19), the prophet offers no reason for the deity's action. Hence, it is not clear that the crisis should be conceived as judgment for the people's prior misdeeds. Nonetheless, the book affirms that Israel's God is sovereign.

David L. Petersen

¹ The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel:

²Hear this, O elders,

  give ear, all inhabitants of the land!

Has such a thing happened in your days,

  or in the days of your ancestors?

³Tell your children of it,

  and let your children tell their children,

and their children another generation.

⁴What the cutting locust left,

  the swarming locust has eaten.

What the swarming locust left,

  the hopping locust has eaten,

and what the hopping locust left,

  the destroying locust has eaten.

⁵Wake up, you drunkards, and weep;

  and wail, all you wine-drinkers,

over the sweet wine,

  for it is cut off from your mouth.

⁶For a nation has invaded my land,

  powerful and innumerable;

its teeth are lions’ teeth,

  and it has the fangs of a lioness.

⁷It has laid waste my vines,

  and splintered my fig trees;

it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;

  their branches have turned white.

⁸Lament like a virgin dressed in sackcloth

  for the husband of her youth.

⁹The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off

  from the house of the Lord.

The priests mourn,

  the ministers of the Lord.

¹⁰The fields are devastated,

  the ground mourns;

for the grain is destroyed,

  the wine dries up,

the oil fails.

¹¹Be dismayed, you farmers,

  wail, you vinedressers,

over the wheat and the barley;

  for the crops of the field are ruined.

¹²The vine withers,

  the fig tree droops.

Pomegranate, palm, and apple—

  all the trees of the field are dried up;

surely, joy withers away

  among the people.

¹³Put on sackcloth and lament, you priests;

  wail, you ministers of the altar.

Come, pass the night in sackcloth,

  you ministers of my God!

Grain offering and drink offering

  are withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁴Sanctify a fast,

  call a solemn assembly.

Gather the elders

  and all the inhabitants of the land

to the house of the Lord your God,

  and cry out to the Lord.

¹⁵Alas for the day!

  For the day of the Lord is near,

and as destruction from the Almighty^a it comes.

¹⁶Is not the food cut off

  before our eyes,

joy and gladness

  from the house of our God?

¹⁷The seed shrivels under the clods,^b

  the storehouses are desolate;

the granaries are ruined

  because the grain has failed.

¹⁸How the animals groan!

  The herds of cattle wander about

because there is no pasture for them;

  even the flocks of sheep are dazed.^c

¹⁹To you, O Lord, I cry.

  For fire has devoured

the pastures of the wilderness,

  and flames have burned

all the trees of the field.

²⁰Even the wild animals cry to you

  because the watercourses are dried up,

and fire has devoured

  the pastures of the wilderness.

2

Blow the trumpet in Zion;

  sound the alarm on my holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,

  for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near—

²a day of darkness and gloom,

  a day of clouds and thick darkness!

Like blackness spread upon the mountains

  a great and powerful army comes;

their like has never been from of old,

  nor will be again after them

  in ages to come.

³Fire devours in front of them,

  and behind them a flame burns.

Before them the land is like the garden of Eden,

  but after them a desolate wilderness,

  and nothing escapes them.

⁴They have the appearance of horses,

  and like war-horses they charge.

⁵As with the rumbling of chariots,

  they leap on the tops of the mountains,

like the crackling of a flame of fire

  devouring the stubble,

like a powerful army

  drawn up for battle.

⁶Before them peoples are in anguish,

  all faces grow pale.^b

⁷Like warriors they charge,

  like soldiers they scale the wall.

Each keeps to its own course,

  they do not swerve from^d their paths.

⁸They do not jostle one another,

  each keeps to its own track;

they burst through the weapons

  and are not halted.

⁹They leap upon the city,

  they run upon the walls;

they climb up into the houses,

  they enter through the windows like a thief.

¹⁰The earth quakes before them,

  the heavens tremble.

The sun and the moon are darkened,

  and the stars withdraw their shining.

¹¹The Lord utters his voice

  at the head of his army;

how vast is his host!

  Numberless are those who obey his command.

Truly the day of the Lord is great;

  terrible indeed—who can endure it?

¹²Yet even now, says the Lord,

  return to me with all your heart,

with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

¹³rend your hearts and not your clothing.

  Return to the Lord, your God,

for he is gracious and merciful,

  slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,

and relents from punishing.

¹⁴Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,

  and leave a blessing behind him,

a grain offering and a drink offering

  for the Lord, your God?

¹⁵Blow the trumpet in Zion;

  sanctify a fast;

call a solemn assembly;

¹⁶gather the people.

  Sanctify the congregation;

assemble the aged;

  gather the children,

even infants at the breast.

  Let the bridegroom leave his room,

and the bride her canopy.

¹⁷Between the vestibule and the altar

  let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep.

Let them say, “Spare your people, O Lord,

  and do not make your heritage a mockery,

a byword among the nations.

  Why should it be said among the peoples,

‘Where is their God?’”

¹⁸Then the Lord became jealous for his land,

  and had pity on his people.

¹⁹In response to his people the Lord said:

  I am sending you

grain, wine, and oil,

  and you will be satisfied;

and I will no more make you

  a mockery among the nations.

²⁰I will remove the northern army far from you,

  and drive it into a parched and desolate land,

its front into the eastern sea,

  and its rear into the western sea;

its stench and foul smell will rise up.

  Surely he has done great things!

²¹Do not fear, O soil;

  be glad and rejoice,

for the Lord has done great things!

²²Do not fear, you animals of the field,

  for the pastures of the wilderness are green;

the tree bears its fruit,

  the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

²³O children of Zion, be glad

  and rejoice in the Lord your God;

for he has given the early rain^a for your vindication,

  he has poured down for you abundant rain,

the early and the later rain, as before.

²⁴The threshing floors shall be full of grain,

  the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

²⁵I will repay you for the years

  that the swarming locust has eaten,

the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,

  my great army, which I sent against you.

²⁶You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,

  and praise the name of the Lord your God,

who has dealt wondrously with you.

  And my people shall never again be put to shame.

²⁷You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,

  and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is no other.

And my people shall never again be put to shame.

^28b Then afterward

  I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;

your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

  your old men shall dream dreams,

and your young men shall see visions.

²⁹Even on the male and female slaves,

  in those days, I will pour out my spirit.

³⁰I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. ³¹The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. ³²Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

^3c For then, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, ²I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations. They have divided my land, ³and cast lots for my people, and traded boys for prostitutes, and sold girls for wine, and drunk it down.

⁴What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will turn your deeds back upon your own heads swiftly and speedily. ⁵For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.^{a 6}You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, removing them far from their own border. ⁷But now I will rouse them to leave the places to which you have sold them, and I will turn your deeds back upon your own heads. ⁸I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away; for the Lord has spoken.

⁹Proclaim this among the nations:

  Prepare war,^b

stir up the warriors.

  Let all the soldiers draw near,

let them come up.

¹⁰Beat your plowshares into swords,

  and your pruning hooks into spears;

  let the weakling say, “I am a warrior.”

¹¹Come quickly,^c

  all you nations all around,

gather yourselves there.

  Bring down your warriors, O Lord.

¹²Let the nations rouse themselves,

  and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat;

for there I will sit to judge

  all the neighboring nations.

¹³Put in the sickle,

  for the harvest is ripe.

Go in, tread,

  for the wine press is full.

The vats overflow,

  for their wickedness is great.

¹⁴Multitudes, multitudes,

  in the valley of decision!

For the day of the Lord is near

  in the valley of decision.

¹⁵The sun and the moon are darkened,

  and the stars withdraw their shining.

¹⁶The Lord roars from Zion,

  and utters his voice from Jerusalem,

  and the heavens and the earth shake.

But the Lord is a refuge for his people,

  a stronghold for the people of Israel.

¹⁷So you shall know that I, the Lord your God,

  dwell in Zion, my holy mountain.

And Jerusalem shall be holy,

  and strangers shall never again pass through it.

¹⁸In that day

the mountains shall drip sweet wine,

  the hills shall flow with milk,

and all the stream beds of Judah

  shall flow with water;

a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord

  and water the Wadi Shittim.

¹⁹Egypt shall become a desolation

  and Edom a desolate wilderness,

because of the violence done to the people of Judah,

  in whose land they have shed innocent blood.

²⁰But Judah shall be inhabited forever,

  and Jerusalem to all generations.

²¹I will avenge their blood, and I will not clear the guilty,^a

  for the Lord dwells in Zion.

1.1: Superscription. Unlike Hos 1.1 and Am 1.1, there is no reference to a king during whose reign Joel prophesied. This probably suggests a date when Israel was no longer a monarchy.

1.2–2.17: Crisis and call to action. A series of staccato-like poems, some of which depict the crisis (e.g., 1.17–18), more of which call people to act (e.g., 1.14). 1.2: Different groups are commanded to undertake various rituals of lament and petition to the Lord. 2–3: The prophet strikes an intergenerational note, which involves both hearing and telling. Elders, probably village or regional officials (cf. Ezra 5.9; 6.8,14; 10.8,14), stand in parallel with the hyperbolic all inhabitants of the land. Ancestors, lit., “fathers.” The rhetorical question, which has an obvious negative answer, does not reveal the nature of such a thing. 4: Rather than different species, these nouns probably refer to the developmental stages of the locust. For Joel, the four forms represent four attacks on the vegetation (cf. Am 4.9). For other references to locust plagues see Ex 10.12; Pss 78.46; 105.34–35. 5–7: Drunkards may be too negative a translation. In these speeches Joel does not regularly indict Israelites, so here he may simply be referring to those who enjoy wine. Joel 3.18 promises the return of sweet wine. The admonition to wail may involve ritual lament as in Jer 4.8, not simply crying. 6–7: The reference to my land (cf. 2.18; Lev 25.23) suggests that God is speaking. The poem offers the reason for the commands: a nation of vast numbers is ferocious; it is destroying Israel's vines (note the earlier reference to wine) and fig trees, both of which must grow for a long time before they bear fruit. 8–10: Virgin may mean a young woman who is grief-stricken at the death of her husband. Again, the reason for the command follows the command itself. Rituals at the Temple—grain offering, drink offering—could not take place because wine, grain, and oil (cf. 2.19, which promises their return) were no longer available. 11–12: Now farmers must lament the demise of eight different harvests, divided into crops and trees. 11: Vinedresser, a person who prunes grape vines. 13–14: Priests (cf. 1.9–11) are now commanded to lament and put on sackcloth, which was worn during mourning rites (e.g., Am 8.10) and other difficult times (e.g., Ps 35.13); see 2 Sam 12.16 for passing the night in a comparable ritual. A fast could be a public event (cf. Zech 7.3–5; 8.18–19; Ezra 8.21–23; Neh 1.4–11). For a different perspective on a solemn assembly, see Am 5.21; Isa 1:13. Elders and all the inhabitants of the land echo 1.2. 15–20: These verses may be a single lament, spoken by the prophet, the people, or their priests. The day of the Lord (see also 2.1,11,31; 3.14) symbolizes God's theophanic and judging presence (cf. Am 5.18; Ob 15; Zeph 1.7,14–15; Isa 13.6; Ezek 13.5). 16: A rhetorical question, with an obvious affirmative response. 18: Domestic animals also suffer. 20: Even the wild animals completes the picture of all life—plant and animal—suffering through the attack, fire, and drought.

2.1–17: Though similar to ch 1, these poems focus more on describing the calamity than commanding a response. 1–2: The day of the Lord … is near (see 1.15n.), even though catastrophe has already struck. Darkness is an anticipated feature of the day (see also Am 5.18; Zeph 1.15), highlighted in the advent of a great and powerful army. 3–4: The scene before the onslaught (2.3,6,10), like the garden of Eden (see Gen 2.8–9; 13.10; Isa 51.3), stands in contrast with the devastation afterward, a desolate wilderness. 5–7: The similes like a powerful army and like warriors make it clear that locusts, not an army with chariots, are meant. 10–11: The earth quakes is typical of a theophany (e.g., Ps 77.18), as is the darkening of astral objects (cf. Isa 13.10). God is the general of his army, which may describe the locusts, and thus explains why the locusts are related to the day of the Lord. 12–13: Language from ch 1 reappears, calling for a ritual response. The reference to heart reflects Deuteronomic idioms (Deut 10.16; 30.2). The characterization of the Lord in v. 13b appears elsewhere, though Joel omits mention of God's judgment (see, e.g., Ex 34.6–7; Num 14.18). 14: Who knows …, cf. Jon 3.9. The Lord may leave an offering for himself. 15–16: Cf. 1.14. 17: Vestibule refers to the entry hall of the Temple (see 1 Kings 6.3). The altar was in the Temple courtyard. The priests, stationed between the altar and the vestibule, are to utter the prayer given to them by Joel. Cf. Ex 32.12; Deut 9.26–28 for similar logic.

2.18–27: The Lord responds. Since the deity responds, one may infer that the people, especially the priests, complied with Joel's commands, though the book does not report the people's actual response to Joel's admonitions. 18–19: Jealous, better “zealous”; cf. Zech 1.14; Isa 9.7. God's first concern, even before the people, was his land (see 1.6–7n.). Grain, wine, and oil, mentioned as absent in 1.10. The reference to mockery among the nations suggests that God responded directly to the prayer in 2.17. 20: Northern army is probably an allusion to the mythic enemy from the north (cf. Jer 1.13–15; 4.6; 6.1). Eastern sea, the Dead Sea; western sea, the Mediterranean. Stench and foul smell may reflect the plague traditions, cf. Ex 7.18; 8.14. 21: The land is now personified as soil. 22: The imagery represents a reversal of the earlier situation. Animals of the field will have pastureland (cf. 1.18), and fig tree and vine will bear fruit (cf. 1.12). 23: Abundant rain replaces the earlier drought (1.20). Children of Zion, cf. Ps 149.2. Human life focuses on Jerusalem. Early rain, in late fall; later rain, in early spring. 25: Repay often has legal connotations; cf. Ex 21.34. Years is much longer than the attack earlier described. The four forms of locust appear here in a different order from that in 1.4. 26–27: The promise of restoration is confirmed by allusion to the covenantal relationship with the only true God; cf. Isa 45.5,6,18.

2.28–3.21. A future of well-being for Israel. Poetic and prose oracles focusing on Israel and their human enemies. God will again bring victory that will result in marvelous fertility. 2.28: Pour out my spirit here implies enabling various forms of prophetic revelation (cf. Ezek 39.29). What had been limited to the house of David (Zech 12.10) or the prophets is now available to all Israel. Cf. Acts 2.16–21. 30–32: These verses are probably poetic. Portents are cosmic events. On the sky darkening, cf. Isa 13.10; 34.4; Jer 4.23; Ezek 32.7–8; Am 8.9. In Joel 2.10, the locusts had darkened the sky; now God is the cause. Calls on the name of the Lord, i.e., worships the Lord. Those who escape and survivors probably refer to those not killed in an eschatological battle; cf. Zech 14.16, which includes non-Israelites. 3.1: These verses are probably poetic. They depict an eschatological tradition that the Lord will judge the nations. 2: Valley of Jehoshaphat, probably not the Kidron Valley in Jerusalem, but a symbolic place, a plain broad enough for the nations to be gathered and defeated, but cf. 2 Chr 20.20–26. 3: On charges of enslavement, cf. Am 2.6; 8.6. On foreign nations that cast lots, see Ob 11; Nah 3.10.

3.4–21: Punishment of foreign nations and weal for Judah: In the tradition of oracles against foreign nations, coastal territories are initially indicted. Verses 4–8, which may be intrusive, may refer to events dating to the mid-fourth century bce, a time when these regions could have worked in concert. 5: According to 2 Kings 25.13–17, the Babylonians removed the gold from Jerusalem's Temple. 6: On sale of children to Greece, cf. Ezek 27.13 (“Javan” = Ionia). 7–8: The Lord will requite the coastal regions by selling their children to Judah. Sabeans, or the land of Sheba, in the southern Arabian peninsula. 9–13: The oracle begun in vv. 1–3 resumes. Plural imperative verbs predominate in vv. 9–11, though speakers and audiences are ambiguous. The nations, or perhaps the divine council, are commanded to prepare for war. Verse 11b is directed to the Lord whereas in v. 12 the deity is speaking. Verse 13 is addressed either to the divine council or to Israel. 10: A reversal of the imagery in Isa 2.4 and Mic 4.3. 12: Jehoshaphat is a wordplay on judge (Heb “shaphat”). 13: Images of fertility, as in ch 2, reappear. 14–21: A series of poetic fragments (vv. 14–15,16,17,18,19–21) now ensues. 14–15: The motif of darkening before the day of the Lord echoes 2.30–31; cf. 2.1–2n. The motif of valley (see 3.2,12) may explain why this oracle appears here. 16a: This part of the verse is identical with Am 1.2 and may be why these two books are situated next to each other; see the Introduction. 17: You shall know, cf. 2.27. 18: The first part of this verse is almost identical with the last part of Am 9:13. For such preternatural fertility, cf. Isa 65.17–25; Zech 14.6–11. On a fountain and river flowing from the Temple, see Ezek 47.1–12; Zech 14.8. Wadi Shittim, literally “Wadi of Acacias”; as with the valley of Jehoshaphat (v. 12), the location is unknown. It may symbolize fertility. 19–21: A final punitive oracle against Egypt and Edom (cf. Ob; Ps 137; Mal 1.3–4; Sir 50.26), an unusual combination of an empire and a small state. That the Lord dwells in or is located at Zion is an important motif near the end of the book (vv. 16,17,18,21).

^a Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai

^b Meaning of Heb uncertain

^c Compare Gk Syr Vg: Meaning of Heb uncertain

^d Gk Syr Vg: Heb they do not take a pledge along

^a Meaning of Heb uncertain

^b Ch 3.1 in Heb

^c Ch 4.1 in Heb

^a Or palaces

^b Heb sanctify war

^c Meaning of Heb uncertain

^a Gk Syr: Heb I will hold innocent their blood that I have not held innocent