A Disaster Like No Other
Study note
Joel begins by telling the people to pay attention to what has happened. Wave after wave of locusts have eaten everything in the land. The destruction was so total and so unusual that nothing like it had ever happened before. Joel says the people should tell their children and grandchildren about it for generations.
1 This message from the LORD was given to Joel, son of Pethuel. The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
2 Elders, listen closely to this! Everyone in the land, pay attention! Has anything this terrible ever happened during your lifetime — or even during your grandparents' time? 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 your children about it. Let your children tell their children, and let those children pass it on to the next generation. Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
4 What one swarm of locusts left behind, the next swarm ate. What that swarm missed, another swarm devoured. And whatever survived that, yet another swarm cleaned up completely. 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.
The Land Is Ruined
Study note
Joel describes the locust swarm as an invading army. The insects are so many they cannot be counted, and their jaws are as strong as a lion's teeth. They have stripped the grapevines bare and destroyed the fig trees, leaving nothing behind.
5 Get up, you drunkards, and sob! All you wine lovers, cry your eyes out, because the sweet grape juice has been ripped away from you. 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 A massive army of locusts has invaded my land — too many to count, impossibly strong. Their teeth are sharp like a lion's fangs, and their jaws crush like a lioness. 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 They have turned my grapevines into bare sticks. They stripped all the bark off my fig trees. The branches are left white and bare. 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.
Mourning and Loss
Study note
Joel calls the entire nation to mourn like a young bride who has lost her husband. The grain and wine needed for temple offerings are gone. The farmers and vine growers have nothing left. Every kind of fruit tree has dried up and died, and the people's joy has disappeared along with the harvest.
8 Weep bitterly, like a young bride dressed in black, mourning the death of the husband she was promised to when she was young. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
9 There are no more grain offerings or drink offerings at the LORD's temple. The priests who serve the LORD are heartbroken. 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 farmland is devastated and the ground itself seems to be grieving. The grain is destroyed, the new wine has evaporated, and the olive oil is gone. The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
11 Hang your heads in shame, you farmers! Cry out in grief, you vineyard workers — the wheat and barley crops are completely wiped out. 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 grapevines are shriveled. The fig trees are dead. Pomegranate trees, palm trees, apple trees — every tree in the fields has died. All the joy has dried up right along with them. 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.
A Call to Repent and Fast
Study note
Joel speaks directly to the priests, telling them to put on sackcloth, which was rough cloth people wore to show deep sorrow. He urges them to call all the people together for a time of fasting and prayer at the temple. In ancient Israel, a solemn assembly was a sacred gathering where the whole community came together to seek God.
13 Put on rough cloth and grieve, you priests! Weep out loud, you who serve at God's altar! Come spend the whole night in sackcloth, you servants of my God, because the grain and drink offerings have stopped coming to God's house. 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 Announce a day of fasting and call everyone together for a solemn meeting. Bring the elders and all the people into the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD for help. 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 Day of the Lord Is Near
Study note
Joel now connects the locust plague to something even bigger: the Day of the Lord. This phrase refers to a time when God acts in powerful judgment. The food supply is completely gone, the seeds have rotted in the ground, and even the animals are suffering because there is no grass left to eat. Joel ends the chapter by crying out to God himself, because fire and drought have burned up whatever the locusts did not eat.
15 What an awful day this will be! The Day of the LORD is almost here — it is coming like a devastating blow straight from the Almighty. Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
16 Our food supply has been cut off right before our eyes! Joy and gladness have vanished from God's house. Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 Seeds are rotting under clumps of dried-out soil. The storehouses stand empty and the barns are falling apart because there is nothing to store. The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
18 Listen to the animals groaning! The cattle herds stumble around confused because there is no grass left. Even the flocks of sheep are wasting away. 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 LORD, I am crying out to you! Fire has scorched the open pastures, and flames have burned every tree in the fields. 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 Even the wild animals are looking up to you for help. The streams have dried up, and fire has burned the grasslands. 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.