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Joel 1

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Superscription and Call to Attention 1–3

1
The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. ​
2
Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? ​
3
Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

The Devastation of the Locust Plague 4–7

4
That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten. ​
5
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. ​
6
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. ​
7
He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

A Call to Widespread Lamentation 8–12

8
Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. ​
9
The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD'S ministers, mourn. ​
10
The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
11
Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. ​
12
The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men. ​

Priests Commanded to Lead Repentance 13–14

13
Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God. ​
14
Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD, ​

The Prophet's Prayer and the Day of the LORD 15–20

15
Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. ​
16
Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17
The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. ​
18
How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. ​
19
O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. ​
20
The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Joel 1

Verse 1

Joel the son of Pethuel — Pethuel is named nowhere else in Scripture. Unlike Hosea's opening (Hos 1:1), this verse names no king and gives no date. Peter on the day of Pentecost says of what was happening, 'this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel' (Acts 2:16), quoting from chapter 2.

Verse 2

ye old men — Joel calls first on the zaqen, the elders, and 'all ye inhabitants of the land'. The two groups are named again in v.14, where the same elders and inhabitants are to be gathered 'into the house of the LORD your God'. The question 'Hath this been in your days?' is followed in v.3 by the charge to tell it down the generations.

Verse 4

palmerworm… locust… cankerworm… caterpiller — The four names are gazam, arbeh, yeleq and chasil; each eats what the one before 'hath left'. Gazam occurs only here, in Joel 2:25 and in Amos 4:9. Arbeh is the locust of Egypt (Ex 10:14), and Joel 2:25 gives all four back as 'my great army which I sent among you'.

Verse 5

the new wine — Asis, freshly pressed juice. It is 'cut off' (karath) from the drinkers' mouth, the same verb that cuts the offerings from the house of the LORD in v.9. The word returns in 3:18, where 'the mountains shall drop down new wine', and in Amos 9:13.

Verse 6

a nation is come up upon my land — The speaker is the LORD ('my land'), and the invader is called a goy, a nation. Proverbs says of locusts, 'The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands' (Prov 30:27). Revelation uses the likeness for its locusts: 'their teeth were as the teeth of lions' (Rev 9:8).

Verse 8

a virgin girded with sackcloth — Betulah, a virgin, mourns for the ba'al of her youth, a word that means husband or master. The LORD speaks of his people in similar terms: 'a wife of youth, when thou wast refused' (Isa 54:6). Sackcloth is the cloth of mourning, as the priests are told in v.13.

Verse 9

the meat offering and the drink offering — The minchah (the grain offering, called 'meat' in the KJV) and the nesek (the drink offering) accompanied the daily lamb, morning and evening (Num 28:7–8). Both are 'cut off', and the priests, 'the LORD'S ministers', mourn. Joel 2:14 asks if he will 'leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering'.

Verse 11

wheat… barley — The two grains lead the list of the land's good things in Deut 8:8: 'wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates'. Yavesh, to dry up, runs through vv.10–12, 17 and 20; in v.11 the KJV takes its form as 'Be ye ashamed'. The farmers and vinedressers are called on to howl.

Verse 12

the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree — The vine, fig and pomegranate are three of the products named in Deut 8:8; Joel adds the palm (tamar) and the apple (tappuach). Yavesh, to dry up, is used of the vine, of the trees, and of 'joy' (sasson), which is 'withered away from the sons of men'.

Verse 13

lie all night in sackcloth — The priests are told to gird, lament and howl, and to spend the night in sackcloth as Ahab did when he 'put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth' (1 Kgs 21:27). The reason given is that the offerings are 'withholden' (mana) from the house of their God, so the priests' ordinary service has stopped.

Verse 14

Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly — The call is repeated almost word for word at Joel 2:15–16, 'Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly', where it is also followed by gathering the elders. The 'solemn assembly' (atsarah) is the word for the closing day of the feast in Lev 23:36. All are to 'cry unto the LORD'.

Verse 15

a destruction from the Almighty — 'Destruction' is shod, 'Almighty' Shaddai, and the two words sound alike. Isaiah has the identical sentence in Isa 13:6: 'the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty'. 'The day of the LORD' recurs in Joel in 2:1, 2:11, 2:31 and 3:14.

Verse 17

The seed is rotten under their clods — Four words in the verse occur nowhere else: perudah (seed), abash (rotten), megrapha (clods) and maggurah (barn). The 'garners' are 'laid desolate' and the 'barns' 'broken down' because 'the corn is withered', with yavesh, to dry up, as in vv.10–12.

Verse 18

the herds of cattle are perplexed — The beasts 'groan' (anach), and the herds are 'perplexed' (buk), the word for Israel 'entangled in the land' in Ex 14:3. They 'have no pasture'. At Nineveh 'man and beast' were covered with sackcloth (Jon 3:8), and the LORD there names the 'much cattle' (Jon 4:11).

Verse 19

the fire hath devoured the pastures — 'Fire' (esh) and 'flame' (lehavah) are also the words of the invading army in Joel 2:3, 'A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth'. The verse does not say what the fire is. The prophet turns from describing to praying: 'O LORD, to thee will I cry'.

Verse 20

The beasts of the field cry also unto thee — The verb is arag, to pant, found only here and in Ps 42:1, 'As the hart panteth after the water brooks'. 'Rivers of waters' is the same word as Ps 42:1's 'water brooks', afiq, a stream-bed; they are 'dried up'. In 3:18 the same word returns: 'all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters'.