Joel 1:14

1:14 Announce a holy fast; ¹ 

proclaim a sacred assembly.

Gather the elders and ²  all the inhabitants of the land

to the temple of the Lord your God,

and cry out to the Lord.

Joel 1:1

Introduction

1:1 This ³  is the Lord’s message ⁴  that was given ⁵ 

to Joel ⁶  the son of Pethuel:

Joel 1:9

1:9 No one brings grain offerings or drink offerings

to the temple ⁷  of the Lord anymore. ⁸ 

So the priests, those who serve the Lord, are in mourning.

Joel 1:12

1:12 The vine has dried up;

the fig tree languishes –

the pomegranate, date, and apple ⁹  as well.

In fact, ¹⁰  all the trees of the field have dried up.

Indeed, the joy of the people ¹¹  has dried up!

Joel 1:2

A Locust Plague Foreshadows the Day of the Lord

1:2 Listen to this, you elders; ¹² 

pay attention, ¹³  all inhabitants of the land.

Has anything like this ever happened in your whole life ¹⁴ 

or in the lifetime ¹⁵  of your ancestors? ¹⁶ 

Joel 1:20

1:20 Even the wild animals ¹⁷  cry out to you; ¹⁸ 

for the river beds ¹⁹  have dried up;

fire has destroyed ²⁰  the grassy pastures. ²¹ 

Jeremiah 36:9

36:9 All the people living in Jerusalem ²²  and all the people who came into Jerusalem from the towns of Judah came to observe a fast before the Lord. The fast took place in the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah. ²³ 

¹ tn Heb “consecrate a fast” (so NASB).

² tc The conjunction “and” does not appear in MT or LXX, but does appear in some Qumran texts (4QXII^c and 4QXII^g).

³ sn The dating of the book of Joel is a matter of dispute. Some scholars date the book as early as the ninth century b.c., during the reign of the boy-king Joash. This view is largely based on the following factors: an argument from silence (e.g., the book of Joel does not mention a king, perhaps because other officials de facto carried out his responsibilities, and there is no direct mention in the book of such later Israelite enemies as the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians); inconclusive literary assumptions (e.g., the eighth-century prophet Amos in Amos 9:13 alludes to Joel 3:18); the canonical position of the book (i.e., it is the second book of the Minor Prophets); and literary style (i.e., the book is thought to differ in style from the postexilic prophetic writings). While such an early date for the book is not impossible, none of the arguments used to support it is compelling. Later dates for the book that have been defended by various scholars are, for example, the late seventh century or early sixth century or sometime in the postexilic period (anytime from late sixth century to late fourth century). Most modern scholars seem to date the book of Joel sometime between 400 and 350 b.c. For a helpful discussion of date see J. A. Thompson, “The Date of the Book of Joel,” A Light unto My Path, 453-64. Related to the question of date is a major exegetical issue: Is the army of chapter two to be understood figuratively as describing the locust invasion of chapter one, or is the topic of chapter two an invasion of human armies, either the Babylonians or an eschatological foe? If the enemy could be conclusively identified as the Babylonians, for example, this would support a sixth-century date for the book.

⁴ tn Heb “the word of the Lord.”

⁵ tn Heb “that was.” The term “given” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

⁶ sn The name Joel means in Hebrew “the Lord is God.” There are a dozen or so individuals with this name in the OT.

⁷ tn Heb “house.” So also in vv. 13, 14, 16.

⁸ tn Heb “grain offering and drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord,”

⁹ tn This Hebrew word וְתַפּוּחַ (vÿtappuakh) probably refers to the apple tree (so most English versions), but other suggestions that scholars have offered include the apricot, citron, or quince.

¹⁰ tn These words are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ tn Heb “the sons of man.”

¹² sn Elders here refers not necessarily to men advanced in years, but to leaders within the community.

¹³ tn Heb “give ear.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “days.” The term “days” functions here as a synecdoche for one’s lifespan.

¹⁵ tn Heb “days.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “fathers.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “beasts of the field.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “long for you.” Animals of course do not have religious sensibilities as such; they do not in any literal sense long for Yahweh. Rather, the language here is figurative (metonymy of cause for effect). The animals long for food and water (so BDB 788 s.v. עָרַג), the ultimate source of which is Yahweh.

¹⁹ tn Heb “sources of water.”

²⁰ tn Heb “consumed.”

²¹ tn Heb “the pastures of the wilderness.”

²² map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

²³ tn There is some debate about the syntax of the words translated “All the people living in Jerusalem and all the people who came into Jerusalem from the towns in Judah.” As the sentence is structured in Hebrew it looks like these words are the subject of “proclaim a fast.” However, most commentaries point out that the people themselves would hardly proclaim a fast; they would be summoned to fast (cf. 1 Kgs 21:9, 12; Jonah 3:7). Hence many see these words as the object of the verb which has an impersonal subject “they.” This is most likely unless with J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 180) the word “proclaim” is used in a looser sense as “observed.” The translation has chosen to follow this latter tack rather than use the impersonal (or an equivalent passive) construction in English. For a similar problem see Jonah 3:5 which precedes the official proclamation in 3:7. The Hebrew text reads: “In the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month they proclaimed a fast before the Lord, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah into Jerusalem.” The sentence has been broken down and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style.