Naravist

The Prophets · Old Testament

Joel 1

Joel 1: four devourers, a withered land and a call to fast

General context

The chapter opens, "The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel." Old men and all inhabitants of the land are asked whether such a thing happened "in your days, or even in the days of your fathers," and told to tell their children, who will tell theirs. Four devourers follow one another: "That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten," then the cankerworm, then the caterpiller. Drunkards are told to weep because the new wine "is cut off from your mouth." "For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number," with the teeth of a lion; it has laid "my vine" waste and barked "my fig tree." A command follows, "Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth." The meat and drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord, and the priests mourn. The field is wasted; corn, new wine and oil fail. Husbandmen are told to be ashamed and vinedressers to howl for the harvest; the trees are withered, "because joy is withered away from the sons of men." Priests are told to gird themselves, lament and lie all night in sackcloth. "Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly," gathering elders and all inhabitants into the house of the Lord to cry to him. "Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand." A question asks whether meat is not "cut off before our eyes." Seed rots, garners and barns are broken, beasts groan and flocks are desolate. A voice cries, "O Lord, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness," and the beasts of the field also cry, because rivers are dried up.

Cited passages: Joel 1:1, Joel 1:2, Joel 1:3, Joel 1:4, Joel 1:5, Joel 1:6, Joel 1:7, Joel 1:8, Joel 1:9, Joel 1:10, Joel 1:11, Joel 1:12, Joel 1:13, Joel 1:14, Joel 1:15, Joel 1:17, Joel 1:18, Joel 1:19, Joel 1:20

Joel 1 (KJV)

1The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

2Hear 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?

3Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

4That 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.

5Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

6For 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.

7He 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.

8Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

9The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn.

10The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

11Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.

12The 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.

13Gird 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.

14Sanctify 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,

15Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

16Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

17The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.

18How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

19O 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.

20The 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.

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Historical context

The heading gives one name and one relation, "Joel the son of Pethuel," and nothing else: no king, no reign, no place, no event. That is less than the headings of Hosea and Amos, which name kings. After the heading the speaker is not labelled. The voice says "my land," "my vine" and "my fig tree" in verses 6 and 7, then "ministers of my God" in verse 13 and "to thee will I cry" in verse 19, and the printed text does not mark where words of the Lord end and words of the prophet begin. Four devourers are named, palmerworm, locust, cankerworm and caterpiller; the text does not say whether these are four creatures or stages of one. Verse 6 calls the devourer "a nation" with "the teeth of a lion" without naming any people, and verses 19 and 20 add fire that "hath devoured the pastures," stated alongside the insects without explanation. What the chapter shows of worship is a "house of the Lord" with a meat offering, a drink offering, priests called "the Lord’s ministers" and elders who can be gathered. The phrase "the day of the Lord" is first used in verse 15, where it is "at hand." The chapter does not say what year the loss happened or how long it lasted.

Cited passages: Joel 1:1, Hosea 1:1, Amos 1:1, Joel 1:6, Joel 1:7, Joel 1:13, Joel 1:19, Joel 1:4, Joel 1:20, Joel 1:9, Joel 1:14, Joel 1:15

Literary context

Verse 4 is a chain: whatever one devourer leaves, the next eats, four links long. Verse 3 makes a chain of another kind, four generations of telling. The chapter then addresses groups one at a time, old men, drunkards, husbandmen, vinedressers, priests, before gathering everyone in verse 14, and the command to "howl" is given to the drinkers of wine, the vinedressers and the ministers of the altar in turn. The phrase "cut off" recurs: wine cut off from the mouth, the offering cut off from the house of the Lord, meat cut off "before our eyes." The loss moves outward from crops to worship to animals, and verse 12 joins the two registers in one line, trees withered "because joy is withered away from the sons of men." Sackcloth appears twice, on a virgin girded "for the husband of her youth" and on priests told to "lie all night" in it. The chapter ends with a first-person cry and with beasts that "cry also unto thee," so that the last voices are a person and animals, and chapter 2 answers with a trumpet in Zion.

Cited passages: Joel 1:4, Joel 1:3, Joel 1:5, Joel 1:11, Joel 1:13, Joel 1:9, Joel 1:16, Joel 1:12, Joel 1:8, Joel 1:20, Joel 2:1

Key moments

  1. The word comes to Joel (Joel 1:1). The word of the Lord comes to Joel the son of Pethuel.
  2. Four devourers (Joel 1:4). Palmerworm, locust, cankerworm and caterpiller each eat what the last left.
  3. A nation with lion's teeth (Joel 1:6). A strong, numberless nation with a lion's teeth has come up on the land.
  4. The offering cut off (Joel 1:9). Meat and drink offerings stop at the house of the Lord and the priests mourn.
  5. Sanctify a fast (Joel 1:14). Elders and all inhabitants are to be gathered to the house of the Lord to cry to him.
  6. The day of the Lord at hand (Joel 1:15). The day of the Lord is announced as near and as destruction from the Almighty.
  7. To thee will I cry (Joel 1:19). A voice cries to the Lord because fire has devoured the pastures and the beasts cry too.

For reflection

The old men are asked whether anything like this happened in their days or their fathers' days, and then told to make their children tell it for generations. What does the chapter want carried forward, the loss itself or the cry that ends it?

People in this chapter

Also indexed here:

  • Pethuel