THE BOOK OF JOEL
LESSON 2: CHAPTERS 1-2
The Plague of Locusts and the Day of Yahweh
The Call to Repentance and Yahweh Takes Pity on His People
"But
now," declares Yahweh, "come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, mourning."
Tear your hearts and not your clothes, and come back to Yahweh your God, for he
is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, and he
relents about inflicting disaster.
Joel 2:12-13
Joel 1:1-4 ~ The Plague of Locusts
1 The word of Yahweh
that was addressed to Joel son of Pethuel. 2 Listen to this, you
elders; everybody in the country, attend! Has anything like this ever happened
in your day or in your ancestors' days? 3 Tell your children about
it and let your children tell their children, and their children, the next
generation! 4 What the nibbler has left, the grown locust has eaten,
what the grown locust has left, the hopper has eaten, and what the hopper has
left, the shearer has eaten.
Scholars point out that the first part of Joel is, for the most part, a poetic narrative. The vivid description of a plague of locusts (1:2-12) is understood as a judgment from God to urge the people of Judah to repentance, conversion, and penance (1:13-20) because the Day of Yahweh is near (2:1-2). The plague displays God's power and urges the covenant people to do penance that will convince the Lord to take pity on them. It also recalls the 8th Egyptian plague (Exodus 10:12-20). The people remember this devasting event and share its memory with their children and future generations.
The plague of locusts and the drought that follows is a prophetic liturgy of lamentations describing the terrible event (1:4-7, 10-12, 17; 2:2b-10) that is interspaced with lamentations (1:8, 19) and calls for fasting and repentance (1:13-16; 2:12-17). The liturgy of lamentation is answered by an oracle of deliverance delivered by the prophet in 2:18-27.
Question #1: What does the plague of locusts signify to the people? See Exodus 10:12-20.
The question is if the invading locusts are to be understood as a historical event or a symbolic image of the invasion of an enemy nation. The prophet Nahum compared the Assyrian people of Nineveh to locusts in Nahum 3:15b-17:Make yourselves as numerous as locusts, make yourselves as numerous as the hoppers, let your commercial agents outnumber the stars of heaven, your garrisons, like locusts, and your marshals, like swarms of hoppers! They settle on the walls when the day is cold. The sun appears, the locusts spread their wings, they fly away, away they fly, no one knows where (NJB). He compared Nineveh's many merchants, soldiers, and generals/princes to swarming grasshoppers who fly off without a fight. And in Revelation 9:3, St. John saw an invasion of locusts rising from the Abyss.
In the passages from Joel, four names appear for the insect in Hebrew, including arbeh, which in Hebrew means "destroyer;" one of the names for Satan in Revelation 9:11, translated into Greek as Abaddon and Apollyon. Other scholars point out that the four names, nibbler, locust, hopper, and shearer, could designate various sub-species or successive stages of growth in the locust population.
According to St. Jerome and Isho-Dad, Bishop of Merv (ca. 850), who supported an 8th century BC date for Joel, the Jews interpreted the four names of locusts as the historic, successive invading Gentile armies prophesized by Daniel in 2:31-45 (see the study on the Book of Daniel, Lesson 2 at and Commentarii in Ioelem, 1, 8). The great invaders of the Holy Land included the Assyrian kings Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, and Sennacherib, followed by Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, Persian king Cyrus, Greek king Alexander the Great, and the Romans. It is also possible that the plague of locusts and the drought are divine judgments that serve as a warning and a prelude to a human invasion by foreign armies. St. Gregory the Great proposed that the succession of insects signified the hierarchy of human vices (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: The Twelve Prophets, "Joel," pages 59-61),
Joel 1:5-12 ~ Lament Over the Ruin of the Country
5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! All you wine-bibbers, lament for the
new wine: it has been snatched from your lips. 6 For a
nation has invaded my country, mighty and innumerable, with teeth like a lion's
teeth, with the fangs of a lioness. 7 It has reduced my vines to a
desolation and my fig trees to splinters, stripped them and broken them down,
leaving their branches white. 8 Mourn, as a virgin-bride in
sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth! 9 Cereal offering and
libation are lost to Yahweh's Temple. The priests, the ministers of Yahweh, are
in mourning. 10 The fields are ruined, the land is in mourning, for
the grain has been ruined, the new wine has failed, of olive oil only a
trickle. 11 Stand dismayed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, for
the wheat, for the barley! The harvest of the fields has been lost! 12 The
vine has withered, the fig tree wilts away; pomegranate, palm tree, apple tree,
every tree in the countryside is dry, and for human beings, joy has run dry
too.
5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! All you wine-bibbers, lament for the new wine: it
has been snatched from your lips.
The prophets used the abuse of God's blessing of wine to illustrate the evil choices made by
rebellious people that led them not to what they thought would be freedom but
instead to the loss of freedom and slavery to sin. This is why the prophet Joel
wrote that the one who abuses wine bears the judgment of becoming a drunkard: Wake
up, you drunkards, and weep! All you wine-bibbers lament for the new wine: it
has been snatched from your lips (Joel 1:5). Other prophets like
Joel sternly warned if God's covenant people chose to reap His gifts without
acknowledging Him as Lord, they would experience a harvest of regret: Ply
the sickle for the harvest is ripe; come and tread, for the winepress is full;
the vats are overflowing, so great is their wickedness! (Joel 4:13).
Joel 1:8 compares the nation of Judah to a young virgin wearing sackcloth and grieving for her lost bridegroom, who is the Lord. St. Jerome wrote: "No one other than God is meant here, who, in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, took as his bride a virgin who was free from any taint of idolatry [...]. Thus, the Apostle says to all believers: I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride to her one husband (2 Cor 11:2). While the bridegroom is with his bride, there will be no fasting (cf. Mt 9:15), nor lamenting, nor tears wept for the absent groom. But when the bridegroom is attacked, the bride will cry and wail, and dress in sackcloth and ashes and wear a belt of rope around her waist" (Commentarii in Ioelem, 1, 8; Navarre, Minor Prophets, Joel, page 90).
Verse 12 suggests a severe drought followed the plague of locusts. Although droughts were frequent in the ancient world, long periods of drought could strain agricultural and administrative systems to the breaking point. The prophet uses imagery from agriculture. Judah is devastated, and the crops are destroyed. There is insufficient grain or wine for the twice-daily Temple liturgical offerings (verses 9 and 13).
Joel 1:13-20 ~ A Call to Repentance and Prayer
13 Priests, put on sackcloth and lament! You ministers of the altar, wail!
Come here, lie in sackcloth all night long, you ministers of my God! For the
Temple of your God has been deprived of cereal offering and libation. 14 Order
a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly; you elders, summon everybody in the country
to the Temple of Yahweh your God. Cry out to Yahweh: 15'Alas for the day! For the Day of Yahweh is near, coming as destruction
from Shaddai.' 16 Has not the food disappeared before our very
eyes? Have not joy and gladness vanished from the Temple of our God? 17 The
seeds shrivel under their clods; the granaries are deserted, the barns are in
ruins, because the harvest has dried out. 18 Loudly the cattle
groan! The herds of oxen are bewildered because they have no pasture. The
flocks of sheep bear the punishment too. 19 Yahweh, to you I cry:
for fire has devoured the desert pastures, flame has burnt up all the trees in
the countryside. 20 Even the wild animals pant loudly for you, for
the watercourses have run dry, and fire has devoured the desert pastures.
The chief priests were descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses. Aaron was the first High Priest, and his sons served as the first chief priests (Exodus 28:1, 36-39, 41-). Only certain chief priests were assigned to serve at the bronze Altar of Sacrifice, where they offered not only the daily holocaust of the Tamid sacrifice but also cereal and wine libations (Ex 29:38-43; Lev 1-7). Evidently, because of the disaster of the plague or invasions, Temple liturgy had ceased.
The poetry continues as the prophet urges the people to publicly display conversion and penance to beg God to take pity on them and the land. In verse 13b, he writes, "Come here, lie in sackcloth." Similar language is used to describe David's penance when his son was dying (cf. 2 Samuel 12:16), as a sign of mourning when King Ahab was warned of his fate (cf. 1 Kings 21:27), and when Judith spoke of the priests, people, and livestock wearing sackcloth (cf. Judith 4:8ff). The command to order a communal fast in verse 14 was intended to move Yahweh to have mercy on His repentant people (also see 1 Kings 21:9 and Jonah 3:5-9).
Question #2: What group is the first called to penance in verse 13? Why?
Question #3: In what ways has the disaster caused suffering to the people and animals?
15 'Alas for the day! For the Day of Yahweh is near, coming as destruction [shod] from Shaddai.'
These acts of penance in verse 15 were to delay Yahweh's day of divine judgment in the deserved
destruction of Shaddai, a name of God usually translated as "Almighty." There
is a play on the words shod (destruction) and Shaddai. The phrase
"Day of Yahweh" is repeated five times in the Book of
Joel in 1:15, 2:1, 11, 3:4, and
4:14 (1:15, 2:1, 11, 31, and 3:14 in other translations). It usually refers
to a day of terror (see 2:1-11 and Amos 5:18), but in the context of
Joel chapters 3-4, it relates to the ultimate triumph of the covenant people of
Israel. For Christians, the Day of Yahweh will be the Final or Last Judgment
when Jesus returns in glory (CCC 1038-41).
The Final Judgment warns humankind to come to Christ in repentance and conversion while God still gives them time. Inspiring a "holy fear of God" the inevitability of the Day of Yahweh in a last judgment, it commits us to the "blessed hope" of our Savior's return "to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at in all who have believed" (Titus 2:13; 2 Thessalonians 1:10).
Question #4: What do the people admit in verses 16-18?
What the people admit in verses 16-18 prepares the way for Joel's prayer in verses 19-20 for the Lord to end the drought that followed the plague of locusts.
Joel 2:1-9 ~ A Warning About the Day of Yahweh and an Invasion
2:1 Blow the ram's horn in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let everybody in the country
tremble, for the Day of Yahweh is coming, yes, it is near. 2 Day of darkness
and gloom, Day of cloud and blackness, Like the dawn, across the mountains
spreads a vast and mighty people, such as has never been before, such as will
never be again to the remotest ages. 3 In their van, a fire devours, in their
rear, a flame consumes. The country is like a garden of Eden ahead of them and
a desert waste behind them. Nothing escapes them. 4 They look like horses, like
charges they gallop on, with a racket like that of chariots they spring over
the mountain tops, with a crackling like a blazing fire devouring the stubble,
a mighty army in battle array. 6 At the sight of them, people are appalled, and
every face grows pale. 7 Like fighting men, they press forward, like warriors,
they scale the walls, each marching straight ahead, not turning from his path;
8 they never jostle each other, each marches straight ahead; arrows fly, they
still press forward, never breaking ranks. 9 They hurl themselves at the city,
they leap on to the walls, swarm up the houses, getting in through the windows
like thieves.
Joel 2:1 particularly recalls Revelation Chapters 8 and 9. This interpretation is only possible in an 8th-century BC setting. The Assyrians invaded the Northern Kingdom in 732 BC, conquering Galilee, and again in 722 BC, completing the conquest of the Northern Kingdom and its capital city of Samaria. A little more than a century later, the armies of the Babylonians and Medes invaded the Southern Kingdom and finally, after three years, conquered Jerusalem in 587 BC. If Joel's mission occurred after the return from the Babylonian exile during or after Nehemiah's service as the Persian governor, Judah was no longer threatened by an angry, invading, destructive foreign army. The Greeks, led by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC, were seen as a liberating force since they ended Persian rule.
After the prophecy of the invading armies of locusts in Chapter 1, Yahweh told Joel to give the warning: "Blow the ram's-horn in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy mountain: Let everybody in the country tremble, for the Day of Yahweh is coming, yes, it is near." And then in verses 4-5: They (the locusts) look like horses, like chargers they gallop on with a racket like that of chariots they spring over the mountain tops, with a crackling like a blazing fire devouring the stubble, a mighty army in battle array.
Keep in mind what Joel first wrote about the locusts: They look like horses, like chargers they gallop on with a racket like that of chariots ... a mighty army in battle array (Joel 2:4-5). Now, read Revelation 9:7-9: These locusts looked like horses armored for battle; they had what looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces looked human, and their hair was like women's hair, and teeth like lion's teeth. They had body-armor like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings sounded like the racket of chariots with many horses charging. The Greek word for horses (hippos) may mean either "horse" or "cavalry" (mounted horsemen). Perhaps John saw Roman soldiers on horseback coming down on Judea like a swarm of locusts. They are human soldiers who are driven onward or influenced by the demons of Satan so that in John's vision, their human form and the form of their horses appear distorted by this unearthly, evil influence. One of the clues to this demonic influence is the "sound of their wings." It is the same description as the sound made by the wings of the angels in the Glory Cloud (see Ezekiel 1:24; 3:13; 2 Kings 7:5-7). The difference is that the sound John heard came from the wings of fallen angels from the Abyss!
The interpretation depends on whether the plague of locusts is understood as a historical event, a metaphorical description of a foreign invasion, or an apocalyptic prophecy of the future. Most modern scholars think the locust plague is a historical event. Pre-exilic prophets described the armies of Assyria and Babylon as a plague of locusts. However, in the post-exile period, there were no longer threats from those nations.
Joel 2:10-11 ~ A Vision of the Day of Yahweh
10 As they come on, the earthquakes, the skies tremble, sun and moon grow dark, the stars lose
their brilliance. 11 Yahweh's voice rings out at the head of his troops! For
mighty indeed is his army, strong, the enforcer of his orders, for great is the
Day of Yahweh, and very terrible "who can face it?
Cosmic phenomena mark the Day of Yahweh (also see Amos 8:9). The description in Joel 2:10 is like what the crowd observed as Jesus Christ hung dying on the Roman cross in Matthew 27:45, 51-54, and Luke 23:44-45. Yahweh's voice rings out like thunder (cf., 4:16; Exodus 19:16; Job 37:4, 5; Psalm 18:13; 29:3-9; Amos 1:2).
Joel 2:12-17 ~ A Call to Repentance
12 "But now, declares Yahweh, come back to me with all your heart, fasting,
weeping, mourning." 13 Tear your hearts and not your clothes, and come back to
Yahweh your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in
faithful love, and he relents about inflicting disaster. 14 Who knows if he
will not come back, relent and leave a blessing behind him. A cereal offering
and a libation to be presented to Yahweh your God? 15 Blow the ram's horn in
Zion! Order a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, call the people together,
summon the community, assemble the elders, gather the children, even infants at
the breast! Call the bridegroom from his bedroom and the bride from her bower!
17 Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, stand weeping between portico and
altar, saying, "Spare your people, Yahweh! Do not expose your heritage to the
contempt, to the sarcasm of the nations! Why give the peoples cause to say,
"Where is their God?"
Joel has given two key areas of revelation. The first part is summarized in Joel 2:13: Tear your hearts and not your clothes, and come back to Yahweh your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, and he relents about inflicting disaster. The second part is in Joel 3:1-2 (2:28-29 in some translations), quoted by St. Peter after the miracle of Pentecost in Acts 2:16-21, and by Paul in Romans 10:13.
17 Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, stand weeping between portico and
altar, saying, "Spare your people, Yahweh! Do not expose your heritage to the
contempt, to the sarcasm of the nations! Why give the peoples cause to say,
"Where is their God?"
The priests stood in the courtyard between the Altar of Burnt Offerings and the
porch or portico of the Sanctuary that housed the Holy Place and the Holy of
Holies. The imminent danger is so great that the call to repentance must start
with the priestly ministers representing the people to God and continue through
the population, even those usually excused from fasting: the elderly, infants,
the bridegroom, and the bride (verse 16).
True repentance, conversion, and the gift of the Spirit of God are central to Joel's message to the covenant people. The theme of the Day of Yahweh (translated as "the Day of the Lord" in some versions), as mentioned previously, is a phrase that appears five times in the Book of Joel (1:15; 2:1, 11, 3:5/2:31; 3:14). In general, the "Day of Yahweh" or "Day of the LORD" refers to a decisive divine intervention in human affairs. The phrase also occurs in Amos 5:18-20 where the prophet uses it for an act of divine judgment when Israel experiences defeat and disaster because of the LORD's anger/wrath (cf. Ezekiel 7:19; 13:5; Zephaniah 1:7, 8, 18; 2:2-3).
Joel calls upon the people to demonstrate their repentance in the liturgy of worship, petitioning Yahweh to spare the people He has chosen as His own and not to give them cause to ask, "Where is their God?" (verse 17).
Joel 2:18-27 ~ Yahweh Answers, the Plague Stops and a Vision of Plenty
18 Then, becoming jealous over his country, Yahweh took pity on his people.
19 Yahweh said in answer to his people, "Now I shall send you wheat,
wine and olive oil until you have enough. Never again will I expose you to the
contempt of the nations. 20 I shall take
the northerner far away from you and drive him into an arid, desolate land, his
vanguard to the eastern sea, his rearguard to the western sea. He will give off
a stench, he will give off a foul stink (for what he made bold to do).'
21 Land, do not be afraid; be glad, rejoice, for Yahweh has done great
things. 22 Wild animals, do not be afraid; the desert pastures are
green again, the trees bear fruit, vine and fig tree yield their richness.
23 Sons of Zion, be glad, rejoice in Yahweh your God; for he has given you
autumn rain as justice demands, and he will send the rains down for you, the
autumn and spring rain as of old. 24 The threshing-floors will be
full of grain, the vats overflow with wine and oil. 25 'I will make
up to you for the years devoured by grown locust and hopper, by shearer and
young locust, my great army which I sent to invade you. 26 'You will
eat to your heart's content, and praise the name of Yahweh your God who has
treated you so wonderfully. 27 'And you will know that I am among
you in Israel, I, Yahweh your God, and no one else. My people will never be
humiliated again!"
The center of the Book of Joel is 2:18, which moves from speeches of disaster to salvation. Before this midpoint, the calls for lamentations and repentance are followed by oracles that assure divine intervention and restoration. This structure is standard with Old Testament prophetic books, which usually begin with oracles of judgment and conclude with oracles that promise salvation. Joel 2:18-27 delivers an oracle of deliverance.
18 Then, becoming jealous over his country, Yahweh took pity on his people.
"Jealous" in verse
18 expresses Yahweh's passionate love and empathetic bond with Israel and why
He will not tolerate Israel worshiping other gods. The people's repentance,
fasting, and prayer moved God to remember His love for His covenant people and
to protect them.
20 I shall take the northerner far away from you and drive him into an arid,
desolate land, his vanguard to the eastern sea, his rearguard to the western
sea. He will give off a stench, he will give off a foul stink (for what he made
bold to do).'
Locusts were not
an annual threat in the Levant, nor did they come from the North. However,
Jeremiah and Ezekiel described invading foreign armies as coming from the North
(Jeremiah 1:14-15;
Ezekiel 26:7; 38:6, 15).
The western sea is the Mediterranean, and the eastern sea is the Dead Sea.
Bishop Isho'Dad identified the enemy in verse 20 as the northerners that the Lord would remove far from Israel. Both the Assyrians and Babylonians are described in the Old Testament as "northerners." Cassiodorus, a Roman Christian, politician, writer, and monk (ca. 490-585), wrote that, like the northerners, the devil would be removed from influencing God's people. Tertullian, an early Roman Christian apologist (ca. 155-220) and Methodius, Christian bishop and martyr (m. 311), wrote that Christ's fruitful work on the tree of the Cross would bring salvation and goodness to those who believe and partake of the "tree" of the Cross and the "vine" that nourishes in the Eucharist (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: The Twelve Prophets, "Joel," page 72).
In verses 18-27, we hear about God's compassion through the message He sends Joel to the people in response to their repentance and conversion (verse 19). Earlier, the people pleaded with God to relieve their suffering. Joel tells the people and the animals they have no reason to fear because Yahweh, their God, will deliver them from their suffering and provide them with all the earthly goods they need (verses 23-26). Now, Yahweh promises to bless them, the fields, and the animals. The best news is revealed in the last verse since God's actions show that the people can confidently say that God is present in their lives (verse 27). However, the greatest good will come when He pours out His Spirit on all flesh, which will be announced in the next chapter. That outpouring will be the definitive sign that "the Day of Yahweh" has come!
Catechism references
(*indicates Scripture quoted or paraphrased in the citation):
2:12-13 (CCC 1430*)
Answers to questions:
Answer #1: The plague announced God's judgment on the covenant people for their disobedience and apostasy from the Sinai Covenant. God also intended for the people to recall God's judgment of the plague of locusts in Exodus 10:12-20 that fell on the Egyptians as well as the Israelites.
Answer #2: The priests were the first called to an act of penance. They should be the first to offer repentance and lament before calling upon others, including elders, ordinary people, and even children, to do so (verse 14). The priesthood should always be the first to set a good example, then and now.
Answer #3: The disaster caused suffering to the people and animals:
Answer #4: The people admit that they deserve their punishment.
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