Joel 1

Joel describes a terrible plague of locusts and a drought that strip the land bare. Everyone, from drunkards to farmers to priests, is called to mourn. The disaster is a warning of the greater Day of the LORD, and the people are told to turn to God in fasting and prayer.

Joel 1:1

Joel opens by stating that what follows is not his own idea. It is the word of the LORD, given to him. We know little about Joel except his father’s name, so the message itself is what matters.

BSA: word (“message from God, divine declaration”): What Joel speaks is a message from God, not human opinion. LORD (“Yehovah, the covenant God”): The speaker is the God who bound Himself by promise to Israel.

Joel 1:2

Joel calls first on the elders, the people with the longest memories, and then on everyone in the land. He asks whether anyone has ever seen anything like this. The disaster is so severe that even the oldest have no match for it.

BSA: Hear (“listen attentively, pay attention”): This is a call to listen closely, not to hear in passing.

Joel 1:3

The event must be remembered and retold across three generations. God’s dealings, even painful ones, are meant to teach those who come after. A hard lesson passed on can keep children from repeating their parents’ mistakes.

See also: Psalm 78:4-7.

Joel 1:4

Four kinds of locust come in wave after wave, each eating what the one before left behind. Nothing escapes. Some read these as four stages of one swarm, others as four separate attacks. Either way, the point is total ruin.

BSA: swarming (“great”): The name points to the sheer size of the swarm. destroying (“caterpillar, ravaging”): The last name stresses the stripping and ravaging of what remains.

Hebrew: גָּזָם (gazam, H1501) — “cutter, devouring locust.” The first of four Hebrew names for locusts. It sounds like ‘cutting’, and the other three names add to the picture of repeated, thorough destruction.

See also: Exodus 10:12-15.

Joel 1:5

Joel calls the wine-lovers out of their stupor. The grape harvest is gone, so the sweet wine they depend on has been cut off. The first people to feel the loss are those who lived for their pleasure. Loss can wake us up to what we have trusted in.

BSA: Wake up (“arise, from your spiritual stupor”): The call is to more than waking from sleep. It is to come out of a dulled and careless life. sweet wine (“new wine, freshly pressed grape juice”): The very freshest wine, the first fruit of the vintage, is what has been lost.

Joel 1:6

Joel describes the locusts as an invading army. They are a nation, mighty and past counting, with teeth like a lion’s. The land is called God’s own land, so this is not only a farming disaster. It happens to what belongs to Him.

BSA: nation (“Gentile, non-Hebrew people”): Joel uses the picture of a foreign army to show how fierce and organized the attack is. My land (“country, territory”): The land belongs to the LORD, so the attack is also against what is His.

See also: Revelation 9:7-8.

Joel 1:7

Vines and fig trees, the symbols of peace and plenty in Israel, are stripped to bare white wood. The locusts even eat the bark. Whatever bore fruit now stands as pale, lifeless sticks.

BSA: stripped off (“made bare, uncovered”): The trees are laid bare, with nothing left to cover them.

See also: 1 Kings 4:25.

Joel 1:8

Joel asks for the deepest kind of grief, that of a young bride who loses the husband of her youth before the marriage has had a chance to flourish. The loss is sudden and cuts deep, and he wants the people to feel it that way.

BSA: sackcloth (“coarse cloth”): Rough, scratchy cloth worn as a sign of deep grief or repentance.

Joel 1:9

The loss reaches the temple. The daily grain and drink offerings were made from the land’s produce, and now there is nothing to offer. The priests mourn because the regular worship of God cannot go on as it should.

BSA: Grain (“food offerings, meal offerings”): These were offerings of flour and oil, made from the harvest, and the harvest is gone. minister (“serve, worship”): The priests’ work is service before God, which now cannot be done.

See also: Numbers 28:3-8.

Joel 1:10

The land itself seems to grieve. Grain, new wine and oil were Israel’s three staples, and all three fail. The language is poetic, but the loss behind it is real: food, drink and the basics of daily life are gone.

BSA: mourns (“laments, is sorrowful”): The land itself is pictured as sorrowing over the ruin.

Joel 1:11

Farmers and vinedressers, who spend the year working for this harvest, are told to be dismayed and wail. Their work has come to nothing. Wheat and barley, the two main grains, have perished before they could be gathered.

BSA: dismayed (“be ashamed, confounded”): They are stunned and put to shame, because everything they hoped for has failed.

Joel 1:12

Vine, fig, pomegranate, palm and apple all wither. The list sweeps across the whole orchard. Then comes the sad summary: human joy itself has dried up. When the land fails, ordinary happiness and festivity fail with it.

BSA: joy (“rejoicing, celebration”): Harvest and vintage were times of public celebration, and that celebration is gone.

Joel 1:13

Now Joel turns to the priests. They are to put on sackcloth and spend the whole night in it, leading the people in mourning. They are called ministers of my God, so the plea comes from one who shares their calling and their loss.

BSA: spend the night (“lie all night, pass the evening”): They are to lie in sackcloth through the night, a sign of earnest, long mourning. withheld (“cut off, stopped”): The offerings are held back from the temple, not by choice but by loss.

Joel 1:14

Joel gives the remedy: a holy fast, a solemn assembly, and everyone gathered at the temple to cry out to the LORD. Grief is not enough. It is to be turned toward God in prayer, with young and old, leaders and people, together.

BSA: Consecrate (“set apart, dedicate”): The fast is to be set apart as holy to God, not treated as a mere custom. cry out (“shout, plead”): The people are to plead aloud to God, not just feel sorry.

See also: 2 Chronicles 20:3-4; Joel 2:15-17.

Joel 1:15

Joel sees more than a locust plague. This disaster is a sign that the Day of the LORD, when God steps in to judge, is near. The people are warned to take it seriously. The ruin they see is a small picture of something far greater.

BSA: Almighty (“Shadday, the all-powerful One”): The name stresses God’s power. The destruction comes from the One no one can resist. near (“at hand, approaching quickly”): The danger is close, and there is no time to waste.

See also: Isaiah 13:6; Zephaniah 1:14.

Joel 1:16

Joel asks a question the people can answer from what they see. Food has gone before their eyes, and with it the joy and gladness of worship at the temple. Physical loss and spiritual loss go together here.

BSA: joy (“happiness, gladness”): The feasting and thanksgiving that belonged to worship have ended.

Joel 1:17

The picture moves to the farms. Seeds shrivel in dry ground, and storehouses and granaries stand empty and broken, because there is no grain to fill them. The people cannot even plant again, so the loss reaches into the future.

BSA: storehouses (“treasure houses, granaries”): These were places where the harvest was kept safe, and now they have nothing to hold.

Joel 1:18

Animals suffer too. Cattle groan and wander with no pasture, and even the sheep are in distress. They cannot understand what has happened. Joel shows that the damage touches every living thing under human care.

BSA: wander in confusion (“perplexed, at a loss”): The herds mill about, lost and without direction, because there is nothing to graze on.

Joel 1:19

Joel himself now prays aloud, and he calls to the LORD. Fire, which may mean the heat of drought, has burned up the pastures and trees. In the midst of ruin he shows the people what to do: turn to God.

BSA: call (“cry out to”): Joel does not only describe the trouble. He cries out to God about it. open pastures (“habitations, pleasant places”): The word also suggests pleasant, settled places, which are now burned bare.

See also: Psalm 50:15.

Joel 1:20

Even wild animals pant for God, as a thirsty deer looks for water. The streams are dry. The chapter ends with creation itself looking to the LORD for help, and with the people shown the same dependence.

BSA: pant (“long, yearn”): The word carries a deep longing, as if the animals themselves were reaching out to God.

See also: Psalm 42:1.