Deeper Commentary

Joe 1:1 The Word of Yahweh that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel- There is no reference to this Joel in the historical books, no clue as to who Pethuel ["visions of God"] was, and no clear statement within Joel as to when exactly he lived and which invasion he was predicting. His references to Jerusalem and the temple suggest he was in Judah and predicting an invasion of Jerusalem. There is much internal evidence that Joel has in mind the Babylonian invasion, and he was living in Jerusalem and appealing desperately for repentance in order to avert it. This would mean that he was in Jerusalem whilst Jeremiah was imprisoned for uttering his similar prophecies; and that might explain the relative anonymity of Joel, and why Jeremiah doesn't specifically mention him.

 

But despite surface level similarities with some historical incidents, his prophecy doesn't fit the Babylonian invasion. We are left with an open question as to whether his call for prayer and repentance was heard, and whether Jerusalem fell or not. The descriptions of the "northern army" being turned away and destroyed (Joel 2:20) have some similarities with the Assyrian retreat in the time of Hezekiah, but the location of their destruction doesn't fit the historical record. There is much similarity between Joel's language and that used of Babylon's invasion. It could be that Joel lived just prior to the invasion and was urging a desperate repentance in order to change the outcome, in line with the appeals of Jeremiah. But these were unheeded, and so his prophecy applies to the final latter day invasion of the land; the potential salvation he predicted was not realized.

 

Commentators have offered various historical contexts for Joel, but they all seem to come unstuck on many verses in the prophecy. Harry Whittaker's attempt to prove that it all refers to the unsuccessful Assyrian invasion of Isaiah's time runs into difficulty with the repeated similarities between Joel's description of the invader, and the language of Amos and others about the Babylonian invasion. If indeed Judah repented, as Joel appeals for, then the invader would have been destroyed, the Spirit poured out and the Messianic kingdom established. And that didn't happen in Hezekiah's time; he himself turned away from faith straight afterwards. And yet indeed there are some points of contact with the Sennacherib / Hezekiah situation. We must also give due weight to Joel's insistence that the invasion was to be the unprecedented invasion of Judah, worse than anything before, and which would never be repeated (Joel 1:2,3 cp. Joel 2:2). This would point to the Babylonian rather than the Assyrian invasion. But ultimately the invasion in view is therefore that of the last days, before the Lord's return and the establishment of God's Kingdom on earth.

 

But why the points of contact with the invasions of Assyria and Babylon? I suggest that Joel's prophecy could have come true at those points, if Judah had repented as he appealed for. But they didn't, and so the prophecy was rescheduled and reapplied to the last days. Likewise the passage about the pouring out of the Spirit is applied to the first century gifting of the Spirit (Joel 2:28 = Acts 2:17). But Israel did not repent then as they should have done, neither was the Messianic Kingdom established on earth then. It could have been; but Israel would not. Yet Joel's words shall come true in the last days. Although even then, whether Jerusalem falls is left by Joel an open question, depending upon Israel's repentance. Other prophecies clearly show that Jerusalem will fall, Judah will not repent as required; but they shall do so finally, and Joel's Kingdom prophecies shall come true.


Joe 1:2 Hear this, you elders, and listen, all of you inhabitants of the land- As so often in the prophets, the leadership and ordinary people are bracketed together and jointly appealed to. God's call was and is to individuals; they were not to follow their leaders, and leave spiritual decision making to their leaders. This itself was a radical and unusual approach within the understanding of society in Joel's time. We can certainly learn from this; God's word calls to us as individuals.

Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?- The idea of this sentence couple with the reference to "generations" of the future in :3 is that the situation was unprecedented, both in the past and future- and just this language is used in Joel 2:2. This is the "time of trouble" for God's people which had never been and would never be repeated again; and that is unquestionably language of the very last days before the Lord's return (Dan. 12:1; Mt. 24:21). As noted on :1, Joel's prophecy could have potentially come true at various points in history, including his own time, perhaps just prior to the Assyrian or Babylonian invasion of Judah; but Judah did not repent as Joel appealed for, and so the prophecy has its main fulfilment in the last days.

Joe 1:3 Tell your children about it, and have your children tell their children, and their children tell another generation- See on :2. This may be a literary device meaning that the situation would not be repeated in future generations, rather than a literal appeal to pass on the details of the tragedy to future generations.

Joe 1:4 What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten- The original words all refer to locusts but in various forms of their growth. Perhaps there was or will be a literal series of locust devastations of the land, designed to bring Jewry to repentance without the need for the bloodshed of an invasion; see on :7. But they will not be heeded. Am. 4:9 uses the same language in an apparently literal sense concerning the situation in the land before the Babylonian invasion. We note that God therefore worked by all means to try to bring His people to repentance without the Babylonian invasion. He works likewise with us, having to up the intensity to bring our stubborn hearts to repentance.

 

However it is clear from Joel 2:25 that the locusts represented "my great army which I sent among you". "Eaten" is the same word used for how the invading army would "consume" the land (Joel 2:3,5), and how the Babylonians would "consume" Judah (Am. 1:4; 2:5; Jer. 15:3). Whatever the possible potential historical application, locusts are used in Revelation as symbolic of the latter day invaders to come upon the land of promise; see on Rev. 9:3,7. And that is the primary application. The numerical values of the terms for the various locus forms have been interpreted as referring to the number of years the various empires dominated Jerusalem. These however are questionable; the Romans dominated the area beyond AD70, but I include the claims for your perusal:

Palmerworm, Hebrew gazam, numerical value 50- Babylon 588BC - 538BC
Locust, Hebrew arbeh, numerical value 208- Persia 538BC - 330BC
Cankerworm, Hebrew yelek, numerical value 140- Greece 330BC - 190BC
Caterpillar, Hebrew hasil, numerical value 108- Rome 38BC - AD70.

The attraction of the suggestion, however, is that we as latter day readers would therefore be intended to understand that after the four dominations of Jerusalem as outlined in Dan. 2 and Dan. 7, there was to be one last attempt in the last days. And that is the burden of Joel's material.

 

However there is no reason to think that the various kinds of locusts were consecutive, chronological invasions. Hebrew thought is not the linear thought of the Greeks and Western Europe. Jeremiah and Ezekiel described the Babylonian invasion as four-fold judgment (Jer. 15:3; Ez. 14:21), and this may be similar.

Joe 1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth- The impression is that Jewry was obsessed with self-pleasure and luxury, and the invasion was to catch them unawares. This is precisely the Biblical picture we get of latter day Israel. The Lord's return will be when some of His people are drunken (Mt. 24:49). Such a scenario is hard to conclusively apply to the state of affairs in Jerusalem on the eve of the historical Babylonian and Assyrian approach to Jerusalem. It more aptly fits our last days, although there were drunkards in Judah prior to the Assyrian invasion (s.w. Is. 28:1,3). The 'weeping' commanded was weeping in repentance; this is the great theme of Joel, that repentance could avert the otherwise inevitable destruction, as Nineveh averted theirs. See on :11.

 

Joe 1:6 For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number- Joel appears to be speaking at a time when the invasion had already begun, although he may be using the present tense to emphasize that what God threatened was as good as done.  If the invasion had already begun, the drunkenness of :5 was due to a stubborn refusal to accept the reality of Divine judgment; and that is a human feature we see all around us and within our own psyche. The only other usage of "without number" about soldiers is about the Babylonian army, who are likened to locusts innumerable, just as here in Joel (Jer. 46:23).

 

His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness- Babylon and Assyria are both commonly likened to lions. Lam. 2:16 speaks of Jerusalem being devoured by the teeth of Babylon.

 

Joe 1:7 He has laid My vine waste, and stripped My fig tree. He has stripped its bark- Judah was God's vine and fig tree, but clearly Joel is speaking. This confusion of pronouns between God and His prophet is quite common in the prophets, reflecting how closely identified the prophets were with God. Their spirit was His Spirit; they shared His urgency, passions and feelings. And this was confirmed by the whole process of Divine inspiration. The past tenses may be an example of the 'prophetic perfect', God's word being so sure of fulfilment in the future that it is spoken as already fulfilled. Being "waste" or 'desolate' was the punishment threatened at the hands of the Babylonians (2 Kings 22:19; 2 Chron. 29:8; 30:7; Jer. 4:7). Clearly Joel is alluding to the Babylonian invasion, but appealing for desperate repentance to avert it. But this was not forthcoming; and so his prophecy becomes descriptive of the latter day invasion of Israel which will be similar to the Babylonian invasion. The difference will be that it gives rise to Jewish repentance, the destruction of the invaders by the return of the Lord Jesus and the establishment of God's Kingdom on earth.

 

And thrown it away- "Cast away", which is what God did to Judah after the Babylonian invasion (Jer. 52:3 s.w.). And yet the paradox of God's love is that He cast them away, but didn't cast away His people (Rom. 11:1). This paradox is developed in Hosea especially. God has real emotions, real anger and speaks words in anger, and yet grace and passion which seeks to always have the beloved back. And this God is our God.

 

Its branches are made white- Perhaps the idea is that the bark was stripped from the branches, leaving them white (as GNB). But the language of complete destruction of the trees is such that we are to conclude that they were destroyed, even though their branches had been made white. For this is the language of pruning, so that a better harvest might be received. The impression could be that God had tried pruning them, without effect, but in the end just allowed them all to be destroyed; see on :4.

 

Joe 1:8 Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!- This was the intensity Joel hoped they would have in repentance. The husband Israel married in her youth was God at Sinai (see on Hos. 8:1). As Hosea explains, she hardly remained a virgin, and lost her husband because she left Him for other gods. But here we have the situation explained in terms which provoke sympathy for the woman; it was as if God had died. Although God is immortal, He was so pained by Israel's behaviour that He felt as if He had died. And that was how He could fully feel the death of His Son, whilst being immortal. Is. 54:6-8 uses a similar analogy, with God even taking blame which He need not have taken: "Israel, you are like a young wife, deserted by her husband and deeply distressed. But the LORD calls you back to him and says: "For one brief moment I left you; with deep love I will take you back. I turned away angry for only a moment, but I will show you my love forever." So says the LORD who saves you".

 

The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh’s house; the priests, Yahweh’s ministers, mourn- This could have been because they literally didn't have corn and wine to offer (:9). Or it could be that we have the frequently used 'prophetic perfect', whereby what is yet future is spoken of as having already happened. Judah are repeatedly condemned for mixing Yahweh worship with idol worship; their offerings were not pleasing to Yahweh (Is. 66:3; Jer. 6:20; 7:18-22). But the priests were so upset that they couldn't offer them. Their offerings were mere religion, even though they were done apparently sincerely and with true emotion. This is a solemn warning to us; emotion and enthusiasm about our religion is no guarantee of sincerity before God.

Joe 1:9 The field is laid waste, the land mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the new wine has dried up and the oil wastes away- Their 'mourning' was because they had lost their material blessings; Joel is urging them to instead mourn in repentance (:5,12). Oil, new wine and grain were the blessings for obedience; and these had been taken away.

 

Joe 1:10 Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley and the harvest of the field has perished- AV "the field is wasted", which is a play on Hebrew words: shadeh shadad. The same word is used in Jeremiah of how even just before the Babylonian invasion, the land was "wasted" (Jer. 4:13,20). This seems a case of the prophetic perfect tense; God utters His word and it is certain of fulfilment, but in the gap between the utterance and the fulfilment, there is the possibility of repentance and the changing of that word. This is what happened with Nineveh, and we too stand in that gap. It gives critical urgency and intensity to our repentance and prayers. And so the invitation to "wail" is to wail in repentance.

Joe 1:11 The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered away; for joy is withered away from the sons of men- This is very similar to Jer. 12:4, about the situation just prior to the Babylonian invasion. Although "joy" was withered away from the people, they were getting drunk (:5). God intends His obedient people to live in "joy"; and when their disobedience precludes that, they instead turn to fleshly joy. The withered state of the land was directly reflective of the withered state of the people in the land. This parallel between land and people is common; the oft presented fecundity and prosperity of the natural creation in the Kingdom of God are all going to be reflections of the spiritual state of the inhabitants of the earth.


Joe 1:12 Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar- The Levites and priests were called to repentance just as much as land owners and farm labourers (:11); continuing the theme of :2, that ordinary people cannot leave spirituality to their elders. All were to repent. By wearing sackcloth and admitting they had sinned, the priests could not wear their priestly clothing. This command was tantamount to asking them to seek forgiveness through the Mosaic rituals; instead they were to mourn in repentance and throw themselves directly upon God's mercy.

 

Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house- The offerings were "withheld" in the sense that they were debarred, not accepted. As noted on :8, the idea could also be that the wine and grain were simply unavailable due to the famine or locust swarms. The temple was going to be destroyed and the sacrifices made impossible to offer in captivity- because even when Judah could have offered them, they did not do so acceptably.

 

"Your God's house" recalls how the Lord spoke of the temple as "your house" and the feasts are described as 'feasts of the Jews'. They had hijacked God's religion, and turned His house and feasts into their own. And organized religion always runs the risk of doing this. Especially has "the Lord's table" been turned into "our table".

 

Joe 1:13 Sanctify a fast- Joel prophesies how latter day Israel will be exhorted to howl in their prayers, clothing themselves with sackcloth; exactly as Jeremiah had pleaded with Israel in the last moments before the first Babylonian onslaught: "Gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl" (Jer. 4:8). There will be a call to Israel to repent in the last days, and a remnant will respond in fervent prayer. This Elijah ministry [and maybe our present witness to Jewry prepares the way for this?] must occur “before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord”. We could interpret the putting forth of leaves on the fig tree as the signs of an initial repentance and indication that real spiritual fruit is developing. The call to hold a fast and a solemn gathering could be a call to keep the day of atonement feast as it should have been kept; maybe it was even a call to keep such a feast outside of the law of Moses.

 

Call a solemn assembly- Judah had kept such solemn assemblies or feasts, but God was deeply irritated by them (s.w. Is. 1:13). Keeping external rituals without deep seated, desperate repentance is abhorrent to God. And all who are involved in attending religious meetings need to probe themselves deeply about this.

 

Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land- As noted on :2 and :12, the appeal was for all sectors of society to repent; for ordinary people to take full spiritual responsibility.

 

To the house of Yahweh your God, and cry to Yahweh- This was clearly spoken whilst the temple was still standing, and all Judah had the possibility of travelling up to Jerusalem. This would suggest that the Babylonian incursions were yet future. They are spoken of in the present tense because God's words are so certain of fulfilment that they are spoken of as if they have already happened. And yet there is the chance to change them by repentance, in the gap between the words and their fulfilment. But Joel is talking of the need for true repentance, rather than a mere crying out to God in pain and desperate request for help in need. That is a reaction common to all men. But crying out in true repentance is different, and that is Joel's burden. 

Joe 1:14 Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is at hand, and it will come as a destruction from the Almighty- Joel has just appealed to Judah to keep the feast or day of atonement (:13) with true repentance. The feasts were each "the day of Yahweh", and the final judgment will likewise be the ultimate "day of Yahweh". We might conjecture that the Lord will return on a Jewish feast day, but that is perhaps mere literalism. The more essential idea is that by keeping the Lord's day or feast as asked, with deep repentance, then they would have a foretaste of the final day of the Lord. It's why the breaking of bread service, the Lord's feast of our times, is a preview of judgment day, an assurance of acceptance then if our souls are contrite before the cross now.

 

This verse is an exact repeat of Is. 13:6, which could support the idea that Joel was prophesying at the time of the Assyrian invasion in Hezekiah's time. But I would suggest that the overwhelming inter-textual evidence is that Joel has the Babylonian invasion in view, and by quoting Isaiah he is pointing out that as the repentance of a remnant in Jerusalem averted destruction by the Assyrians, so it would be true with the Babylonian threat. Isaiah of course had told Hezekiah that although the Assyrian threat had been averted, Babylon would destroy Jerusalem. But even this clear word of prophecy could be changed, so sensitive is God to genuine repentance. The word for "destruction" is used of what the Jews had done to themselves by their 'spoiling' of their own brethren (Ez. 45:9; Hos. 12:1). Divine judgment was therefore a bringing upon His people what they themselves had done. Sin is its own judgment.

Joe 1:15 Isn’t the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?- Again we get the impression that there had been literal drought and locust swarms, leaving them without food and drink for the daily temple offerings. If indeed Joel was prophesying in the last days before Babylon took Jerusalem, then we can connect this with the chronic lack of food within the city recorded in Jer. 37:21; 38:9; 52:6. "The house of our God" contrasts with "the house of your God" in :13. In any appeal for others to repent, it's appropriate that we demonstrate our solidarity with them; and the prophets certainly did that. We think of Daniel fully identifying with Judah's sins in Dan. 9. The old covenant promised "joy" at time of harvest for those who remained in the covenant (Dt. 12:6,7,12; 16:11,14,15). The lack of joy and harvest therefore implies they had broken covenant with God. 

Joe 1:16 The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered- The lack of harvest over a period of years (see Joel 2:25), to the point that barns had decayed through lack of use (s.w. Prov. 24:31), all pointed to the withdrawal of covenant blessings explained on :15. "Desolate" is the word used about the curses for disobedience (Lev. 26:22,31,32,34). The land was to lie desolate for 70 years (Lev. 26:34,35 cp. Jer. 25:11). Again we have the impression that Joel is speaking just prior to the Babylonian invasion and the start of the 70 years.

 

Joe 1:17 How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are confused because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate- The groaning of the animals because of lack of pasture was reflected in the crying of Joel for the same reason (:18). The idea is that as the famine made the animals groan to God, so should the inhabitants of the land groan to God in repentance. But the word is often used of the groaning of the people of Jerusalem after the Babylonian invasion (Lam. 1:8,11,21). They groaned to God about their situation, but not the groan of repentance. All spiritual practices and attributes have a fake appearance of the real thing; and repentance is particularly an example.

Joe 1:18 Yahweh, I cry to you because the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned up all the trees of the field- Joel has been appealing for mass repentance and groaning to God in sorrow for their sins. He does so himself, perhaps hoping that the repentance of a minority would be acceptable to avert the destruction of Jerusalem, as it had been in the time of Hezekiah. The emphasis upon fire destroying the land is strange; the Babylonians burned Jerusalem with fire and some other towns afterwards, but there is no evidence they used a scorched earth policy upon Judah generally before the fall of Jerusalem. As noted on :1, Joel's prophecy could potentially have come true at the time of the Babylonian invasion, but it points ahead particularly to the last days. And it is likely that fire, perhaps as a result of nuclear warheads, will be used by the land's latter day invaders.

Joe 1:19 Yes, the animals of the field pant to You, for the water brooks have dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness- As noted above, "pant to you" suggests that the turning of the animals to God was to serve as a pattern for Judah's panting to God in repentance. The description of the water sources drying up is very much the language of the situation in Elijah's time; and again, the drought was intended to elicit repentance. The bush fires which broke out in the pasture lands were intended to provoke repentance, so that the fire of the Babylonians as they burnt Jerusalem and the temple would not have been necessary. God likewise works with us, seeking to elicit repentance from His hand in our lives, and then having to increase the intensity if we don't respond. This would then explain Joel 2:3 "A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns".