Exposition

 I. Introduction 1:1

Yahweh's word (message) came to Joel (lit. "Yahweh is God"), the son of Pethuel.⁷Therefore what follows demands careful attention and appropriate response. We do not know anything about Joel or Pethuel's personal backgrounds, even when they lived. This title does not tell where they lived either, though references that follow suggest that Joel lived in Judah. Hosea, Micah, and Zephaniah introduced their prophecies similarly.

 II. A past day of the Lord: a locust invasion 1:2-20

The rest of chapter 1 describes the effects of a severe locust plague that had recently destroyed the agriculture of the land.

 III. A near future day of the Lord: A human invasion 2:1-27

Joel had spoken briefly of a coming day of the Lord in 1:15, but now he said more about it.

The term "the day of the Lord"seems to have arisen from the popular concept, in the ancient Near East, that a really great warrior king could consummate an entire military campaign is one single day.¹⁶Thus, as the Israelites used the term in relation to Yahweh, it reflected His greatness and pointed to His swift and effective dispatch of His enemies on a given occasion. Sometimes the term refers to such a judgment in the near past or future, and sometimes it refers to one in the distant future (eschaton).¹⁷

 IV. A far future day of the Lord: another human invasion and deliverance 2:28--3:21

The preceding promises foreshadowed even greater deliverance and blessing for the Israelites in their far distant future. The clues to a leap to the distant future in the prophet's perspective are the words "after this"(2:28), "in those days"(2:29), "the great and awesome day of the Lord"(2:31; cf. 2:11), "in those days and at that time"(3:1), and "in that day"(3:18).