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JOEL CHAPTER ONE
OBSERVATION STAGE
The purpose of
the observation stage is to maintain focus on the text at hand within the
normative rules of language, context and logic 
which limits the observer to the content offered by the book of Joel. This
will serve to avoid going on unnecessary tangents elsewhere; and more
importantly, it will provide the framework for a proper and objective
comparison with passages located elsewhere in Scripture.
Remember that something elsewhere may be true, but in the text at hand it may not be in view.
(Joel 1:1 NKJV) "The word of the LORD that [has come] to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
(Joel 1:2 NKJV) Hear this, you elders, And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, Or even in the days of your fathers?
(Joel 1:3 NKJV) Tell your children about it, Let your children tell their children, And their children another generation.
(Joel 1:4 NKJV) What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.
(Joel 1:5 NKJV) Awake, you drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you drinkers of wine, Because of the new wine, For it has been cut off from your mouth.
(Joel 1:6 NKJV) For a nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he has the fangs of a fierce lion.
(Joel 1:7 CBL) It [has made] My vine become [destroyed], And My fig-tree become [debranched], completely stripping [the branches] off; and they have thrown it down [to the ground]; Its branches have been made white.
(Joel 1:8 NASB) Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth, for the husband of her youth.
(Joel 1:9 NKJV) The grain offering and the drink offering Have been cut off from the house of the LORD; The priests [have mourned], who minister to the LORD.
(Joel 1:10 NASB) The field [has been] ruined, The land [has mourned]; For the grain [has been ravaged - ruined], The new wine [grape juice has dried], Fresh [olive] oil [has languished, in the sense of failed].
(Joel 1:11 NKJV) Be ashamed, you farmers, Wail, you vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the harvest of the field has perished.
(Joel 1:12 NKJV) The vine has dried up, And the fig tree has withered; The pomegranate tree, The palm tree also, And the apple tree - All the trees of the field [have] withered; [Because] joy has withered away from the sons of men [i.e., humankind].
(Joel 1:13 NASB) Gird yourselves with sackcloth And lament, O priests; Wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth O ministers of my God, For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God.
(Joel 1:14 NKJV) Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land Into the house of the LORD your God, And cry out to the LORD.
(Joel 1:15 NKJV) Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is at hand; It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
(Joel 1:16 NASB) Has not food been cut off before our eyes, Gladness and joy from the house of our God?
(Joel 1:17 NKJV) The seeds [have dried, i.e., shriveled up] under their [the farmers' shovels]; The storehouses [have deteriorated], The barns [have been broken] down, For the grain [has] dried up.
(Joel 1:18 NKJV) How the beasts [have groaned]! The herds of cattle [have wandered] aimlessly. Because there is no pasture for them; Even the flocks of sheep [have been inflicted].
(Joel 1:19 NKJV) To You, O LORD, I cry; For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.
(Joel 1:20 NKJV) The beasts of the field also cry out to You, For the water brooks are dried up, And fire has devoured the open pastures."
(Joel 1:1 NKJV) "The word of the LORD that [has come] to Joel, the son of Pethuel. (Joel 1:2 NKJV) Hear this, you elders, And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, Or even in the days of your fathers? (Joel 1:3 NKJV) Tell your children about it, Let your children tell their children, And their children another generation. (Joel 1:4 NKJV) What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten. (Joel 1:5 NKJV) Awake, you drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you drinkers of wine, Because of the new wine, For it has been cut off from your mouth. (Joel 1:6 NKJV) For a nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he has the fangs of a fierce lion. (Joel 1:7 CBL) It [has made] My vine become [destroyed], And My fig-tree become [debranched], completely stripping [the branches] off; and they have thrown it down [to the ground]; Its branches have been made white. (Joel 1:8 NASB) Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth, for the husband of her youth. (Joel 1:9 NKJV) The grain offering and the drink offering Have been cut off from the house of the LORD; The priests [have mourned], who minister to the LORD. (Joel 1:10 NASB) The field [has been] ruined, The land [has mourned]; For the grain [has been ravaged - ruined], The new wine [grape juice has dried], Fresh [olive] oil [has languished, in the sense of failed]. (Joel 1:11 NKJV) Be ashamed, you farmers, Wail, you vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the harvest of the field has perished. (Joel 1:12 NKJV) The vine has dried up, And the fig tree has withered; The pomegranate tree, The palm tree also, And the apple tree - All the trees of the field [have] withered; [Because] joy has withered away from the sons of men [i.e., humankind]." =
The Book of Joel begins with a declaration that it is the word of the LORD that has come to Joel, the son of Pethuel, establishing that the words written down by Joel originated from the LORD. The Hebrew name " 'el-yôEl" rendered Joel means "Yahweh is God." Note that there is no further information in the Book of Joel which provides the reader with a more specific historical setting, (Joel 1:1).
Joel emphatically addressed the elders - evidently the civic leaders / men of wisdom and all the inhabitants of the land of Israel. He commanded them to pay attention to what he had written. He asked an attention getting, rhetorical question referring to an unparalleled locust plague which had recently occurred in the land of Judah, which answer was an emphatic "No!"- "Has anything like this happened in your days, Or even in the days of your fathers?" Joel wrote, "Tell your children about it, Let your children tell their children, And their children another generation," in the sense that this monstrous plague would serve as a warning to generations of Judahites to come of the consequences of turning away from the LORD. Note that historically speaking no such plague of locusts had occurred since the plagues in Egypt up to the time of Joel's account. But the locust plague in Judah did not contradict the one which occurred earlier in Egypt by surpassing it or being surpassed by it since the view of the context of both accounts is restricted to its particular nation. Note that the timeframe and detailed descriptions of this locust plague in four waves does not support the conquest of Judah of the four empires, Assyria, Babylon, Greece and Rome as some contend. For they were not literally as devastating as the locust plague was were, nor did these invasion occur close enough in time to be considered waves of conquest / destruction. Furthermore, literal locust plagues were one of the judgments of the LORD upon His people when they disobeyed and broke His covenant with them, (cf. Dt 28:38-42).
The unparalleled locust plague in Judah left nothing in its wake: "What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten." The four Hebrew words, "haggAzAm," (lit., locust swarm); "hA'arbeh," (lit., great locusts); "haAyyleq," (young locusts); and "hehAsîl," (other locusts) in verse 4. They do not necessarily refer to four different stages of the growth of locusts; or four of the eight varieties of locusts, i.e., grasshoppers. For locusts can change drastically depending upon conditions. Hence it is more logical to consider verse four as providing four snapshots of waves of a plague of locusts which consume vegetation: one wave chews up everything the locusts come upon; and yet another wave flies down upon the earth in swarms, consuming everything in its path; and yet another wave eats everything in its path as they crawl, and another wave consumes every living bit of vegetation in sight, leaving nothing of value - emphasizing the thorough destructive nature of the plague, (Joel 1:2-4).
The prophet Joel continued to picture the effect upon the people of Judah of such an unparalleled plague upon the people of Judah. Drunkards were told to awaken and weep and wail because new wine would not be available due to the total destruction of the vineyards - implying a commentary on the dissipation of the society in Judah. Note that the Hebrew word "asîs" rendered "new wine," (lit., sweet wine referring to unfermented grape juice), in verse 5: "Awake, you drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you drinkers of wine, Because of the new wine, For it has been cut off from your mouth," (Joel 1:5).
The prophet Joel then provided a metaphor for the locust plague: a massive invasion of "My land" referring to the land of the LORD - the land of His people Israel - by a "nation" - by an army which comprised numbers so great that they were "without number," i.e., uncountable. Joel likened each "soldier's" power and weaponry to that of the fangs of a fierce lion in the sense of portraying the devastating, devouring effect of the lion's teeth upon whatever they eat. In view is the way they rip and chew into their prey so thoroughly, all the way through the bones - highly comparable to the effect of a plague of innumerable locusts upon all the vegetation it encounters, "For a nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he has the fangs of a fierce lion. It [has made] My vine become [destroyed], And My fig-tree become [debranched], completely stripping [the branches] off; and they have thrown it down [to the ground]; Its branches have been made white." The devastation of plant life by the locust plague was so overwhelming in such a short amount of time, that famine and death through starvation became imminent. Even the branches of trees were so completlely stripped of all their bark that they were all white, (Joel 1:6-7).
Joel declared that the land, (Heb. "hA'Ares," feminine, singular, (cf. Joel 1:2) of Judah, personified as a young virgin, (feminine singular), was to "wail girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth." Note that drunkards, (v. 5), and farmers, (v. 11), are masculine plural, hence are not in view in v. 8. The sackcloth implied mourning. And the image of a virgin girded with sackcloth in mourning for her dead husband - implied a mourning of extreme intensity. For she was mourning the unexpected death of the man, whom she had known from her youth - comparable to the reaction to the devastation of the unparalleled plague of locusts upon that land: "The field [has been] ruined, The land [has mourned]; For the grain [has been ravaged - ruined], The new wine [grape juice has dried], Fresh [olive] oil [has languished, in the sense of failed]. Furthermore, "The grain offering and the drink offering Have been cut off from the house of the LORD; The priests [have mourned], who minister to the LORD," for the priesthood would not have food or drink because there would not be tithing, or grain or drink offerings due to the plague, which they used for their sustenance, (Lev. 27:30f; Deut. 12:17; 14:22f, 28; 2 Chr. 31:5), (Joel 1:8-10). Note that Joel stipulated that the land "[has mourned]" in the sense that it what it produced of value for nourishment was destroyed, (Joel 2:8-10).
Joel addressed the farmers, and vine growers: "Be ashamed, you farmers, Wail, you vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the harvest of the field has perished." The farmers and vinedressers had suffered great loss. Implied is the people of Judah's shame and ultimate responsibility for this devastation brought about by the LORD for Judah's unfaithfulness. Note that the loss of the vineyards is eventually referred to in verse 12, (Joel 1:11).
And the cause of this locust plague was Judah's unfaithfulness to the LORD: "The vine has dried up, And the fig tree has withered; The pomegranate tree, The palm tree also, And the apple tree - All the trees of the field [have] withered; [Because] joy has withered away from the sons of men [i.e., humankind]," in the sense that the devastation of the land of Judah had taken away the joy from the people - their expectation of the joy of the harvest withered by the locust plague. And God through His prophet Joel had instructed His people to express their sorrow and shame to Him -to repent and trust in Him for His mercy and salvation from further harm, (Joel 1:5, 8, 11); evidently so that He may offer His loving kindness and grace and remedy the situation caused by their turning their backs on Him, (Joel 1:12).
(Joel 1:1 NKJV) "The word of the LORD that [has come] to Joel, the son of Pethuel. (Joel 1:2 NKJV) Hear this, you elders, And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, Or even in the days of your fathers? (Joel 1:3 NKJV) Tell your children about it, Let your children tell their children, And their children another generation. (Joel 1:4 NKJV) What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten. (Joel 1:5 NKJV) Awake, you drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you drinkers of wine, Because of the new wine, For it has been cut off from your mouth. (Joel 1:6 NKJV) For a nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he has the fangs of a fierce lion. (Joel 1:7 CBL) It [has made] My vine become [destroyed], And My fig-tree become [debranched], completely stripping [the branches] off; and they have thrown it down [to the ground]; Its branches have been made white. (Joel 1:8 NASB) Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth, for the husband of her youth. (Joel 1:9 NKJV) The grain offering and the drink offering Have been cut off from the house of the LORD; The priests [have mourned], who minister to the LORD. (Joel 1:10 NASB) The field [has been] ruined, The land [has mourned]; For the grain [has been ravaged - ruined], The new wine [grape juice has dried], Fresh [olive] oil [has languished, in the sense of failed]. (Joel 1:11 NKJV) Be ashamed, you farmers, Wail, you vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the harvest of the field has perished. (Joel 1:12 NKJV) The vine has dried up, And the fig tree has withered; The pomegranate tree, The palm tree also, And the apple tree - All the trees of the field [have] withered; [Because] joy has withered away from the sons of men [i.e., humankind]. (Joel 1:13 NASB).Gird yourselves with sackcloth And lament, O priests; Wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth O ministers of my God, For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God. (Joel 1:14 NKJV) Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land Into the house of the LORD your God, And cry out to the LORD. (Joel 1:15 NKJV) Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is at hand; It shall come as destruction from the Almighty." =
In light of the unsurpassed, devastating locust plague which had recently occurred in Judah, the prophet Joel exhorted the people of Judah and the priests of the temple to wear mourning sackcloth, and lament the devastation of the plague which destroyed the grain and vineyard crops. For there were no grain or drink offerings to present in the house of God, causing the priests to suffer the loss of their sustenance along with the people. Joel also exhorted the priests to consecrate a fast and call a sacred assembly in the house of the LORD for the elders and all the inhabitants of the land; for all Israel was exhorted to cry out to the LORD in national repentance. Joel's exhortations were immediately followed by his emphatic declaration, "Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is at hand; It shall come as destruction from the Almighty!!" Joel wrote that the Day of the LORD was at hand in the sense of it being imminent - that is, it would commence when all Israel repented unto faith in the LORD to provide deliverance from the worldwide destruction from the Almighty and eternal life in the Kingdom of God. So the judgment which the Almighty LORD brought upon the land of Judah via the destructive plague of locusts was to be pre-imminent to the commencement of the judgment of the Day of the LORD, conditional upon all Israel's national repentance. For key to the commencement of the Kingdom of God was the preservation of God's chosen people so that, according to the promises of the LORD, they can enter it and rule. This plague in Judah was one of a number of judgments upon the people of the LORD which was designed to bring them back to their God in repentance in order to usher in the Day of the LORD; but the people did not all repent, so the Day of the LORD did not occur in Joel's time. Scripture has repeatedly presented the phrase rendered "the Day of the LORD" with the definite article "the" and the singular word, "Day" as a unique, one of a kind and imminent event - the last event in history, moving on into the eternal Kingdom of God; and predicated upon the moment of Israel's national repentance. The Day of the LORD was never something that was to be repeated in history every time the LORD brought judgment upon His people, as some contend. Nor was it something that history was to be moving toward, as others contend. It has always been ready to break into history at the moment that a generation of Israel expressed national repentance.
Note that the
locust plague in Judah was not the Day of the LORD, as
some contend, for it was not the worldwide judgment of the LORD as
portrayed in Joel chapters two and three. It was one of the many judgments
upon God's people - each one of which was to be pre-imminent to the Day of
the LORD had all Israel repented at any of these times. When the Day of
the LORD does commence, there will be far greater and worldwide
devastation upon the earth than the plague in Judah. After which the LORD
would establish His eternal Kingdom on earth with His people as ruling
nation via the pouring out of the spirit of God upon all mankind, (Joel
chapters 2-3 ).
Note that the arrival of the Day of the LORD in the time of Joel would in
no way change any of the Old Testament prophecies, especially those of the
Son of God atoning for the sins of the whole world. For there would be no
hindrance to their perfect fulfillment by the arrival of the Day of the
LORD at any time in the history of Israel as God's chosen people. On the
other hand, the eternal Kingdom of God would then have arrived before the
occurance of the times and events - not the unfulfilled prophecies
- portrayed in the "New Testament" books - a history that then
would not have occurred as stipulated, (Joel 1:13-15).
(Joel 1:1 NKJV) "The word of the LORD that [has come] to Joel, the son of Pethuel. (Joel 1:2 NKJV) Hear this, you elders, And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, Or even in the days of your fathers? (Joel 1:3 NKJV) Tell your children about it, Let your children tell their children, And their children another generation. (Joel 1:4 NKJV) What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten. (Joel 1:5 NKJV) Awake, you drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you drinkers of wine, Because of the new wine, For it has been cut off from your mouth. (Joel 1:6 NKJV) For a nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he has the fangs of a fierce lion. (Joel 1:7 CBL) It [has made] My vine become [destroyed], And My fig-tree become [debranched], completely stripping [the branches] off; and they have thrown it down [to the ground]; Its branches have been made white. (Joel 1:8 NASB) Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth, for the husband of her youth. (Joel 1:9 NKJV) The grain offering and the drink offering Have been cut off from the house of the LORD; The priests [have mourned], who minister to the LORD. (Joel 1:10 NASB) The field [has been] ruined, The land [has mourned]; For the grain [has been ravaged - ruined], The new wine [grape juice has dried], Fresh [olive] oil [has languished, in the sense of failed]. (Joel 1:11 NKJV) Be ashamed, you farmers, Wail, you vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the harvest of the field has perished. (Joel 1:12 NKJV) The vine has dried up, And the fig tree has withered; The pomegranate tree, The palm tree also, And the apple tree - All the trees of the field [have] withered; [Because] joy has withered away from the sons of men [i.e., humankind]. (Joel 1:13 NASB).Gird yourselves with sackcloth And lament, O priests; Wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth O ministers of my God, For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God. (Joel 1:14 NKJV) Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land Into the house of the LORD your God, And cry out to the LORD. (Joel 1:15 NKJV) Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is at hand; It shall come as destruction from the Almighty. (Joel 1:16 NASB) Has not food been cut off before our eyes, Gladness and joy from the house of our God? (Joel 1:17 NKJV) The seeds [have dried, i.e., shriveled up] under their [the farmers' shovels]; The storehouses [have deteriorated], The barns [have been broken] down, For the grain [has] dried up. (Joel 1:18 NKJV) How the beasts [have groaned]! The herds of cattle [have wandered] aimlessly. Because there is no pasture for them; Even the flocks of sheep [have been inflicted]. (Joel 1:19 NKJV) To You, O LORD, I cry; For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field. (Joel 1:20 NKJV) The beasts of the field also cry out to You, For the water brooks are dried up, And fire has devoured the open pastures." =
Before proceeding in chapter two to the details of the Day of the LORD, the prophet Joel provided further details of the devastation of the countryside of Judah to remind the people to return to their God in national repentance, "Has not food been cut off before our eyes, Gladness and joy from the house of our God? The seeds [have dried, i.e., shriveled up] under their [the farmers' shovels]; The storehouses [have deteriorated], The barns [have been broken] down, For the grain [has] dried up. How the beasts [have groaned]! The herds of cattle [have wandered] aimlessly. Because there is no pasture for them; Even the flocks of sheep [have been inflicted]. To You, O LORD, I cry; For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field also cry out to You, For the water brooks are dried up, And fire has devoured the open pastures." Notice that the aftermath of the locust plague had caused further devastation - loss of livestock, drought and pervasive wildfires in the fields and forests. The seeds in soil clods were discovered by the farmers digging with their shovels (Hebrew: "megepOtêhem") to have dried up, making planting useless. The devastation was so pervasive that the prophet Joel cried out to the LORD for mercy on behalf of the people of the LORD. And even the beasts of the field - with no water to drink and facing starvation - were characterized as crying out to the LORD, (Joel 1:16-20).
Joel
chapter 2