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Old Testament

Joel

3 chapters

Start reading: Joel 1

About this book

Joel opens with a disaster the whole land can see: swarms of locusts have stripped the fields, the harvest is gone, and even the temple offerings have run dry. The prophet treats the plague as a warning and calls everyone, from elders to children, priests included, to fast, gather and cry out to the Lord with sincere hearts, not only torn clothes. He then looks ahead to the day of the Lord, a day of judgment pictured as an invading army. But the mood shifts when the people turn back. God promises to restore the lost years, to answer with grain, wine and oil, and to remove the shame of his people. The book's best-known promise is that God will pour out his Spirit on all kinds of people, sons and daughters, old and young, servants as well as free. In the book's closing scenes God judges the nations and dwells with his people. Peter points to this promise on the day of Pentecost, and Christians read the book as a call to repentance and a hope of renewal.

Author
The prophet Joel, son of Pethuel; nothing else is told about him.
Date
Uncertain; scholars propose dates from the ninth century to the fifth century BC, and the book names no king.
Audience
The people of Judah and Jerusalem, including priests and elders, after a devastating plague of locusts.

Themes

The day of the LordRepentance from the heartGod's mercy and restorationThe outpouring of the SpiritGod's judgment on the nations

Outline

  1. 1:1–1:20The locust plague and a land in mourning
  2. 2:1–2:11The army of the day of the Lord
  3. 2:12–2:17A call to return with all your heart
  4. 2:18–2:27God answers and restores
  5. 2:28–2:32The Spirit poured out
  6. 3:1–3:21The nations judged and God among his people

Key verses

Joel 2:12-13Joel 2:25Joel 2:28-29

Chapters of Joel

  1. 1Joel 1A devastating locust plague has stripped the land, and Joel calls everyone, from elders to drunkards, to listen and tell their children about it.
  2. 2Joel 2Joel describes an advancing army, likely locusts or a foe compared to them, darkening the sky and consuming everything before it, at the head of which the Lord himself thunders.
  3. 3Joel 3The last chapter looks ahead to a day when God restores Judah and Jerusalem and gathers all nations to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, whose name means the Lord judges, to hold them to account for scattering his people and selling them into slavery.
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