Joel 1

Joel 1 is the first chapter of the Book of Joel. Verse 1 serves as a superscription and is followed immediately by a lament depicting a land laid waste by a plague of locusts.

Outline

• Verse 1 Superscription. The book identifies itself as the word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
• Verses 2–4 The old men and all the inhabitants of the land are told to recount this unprecedented event to their children from generation to generation. The palmerworm, the locust, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar each in turn devour what the previous one left.
• Verses 5–7 Drunkards are told to weep. "A nation" with teeth like a lion's has stripped the vine and the fig tree, making their branches white.
• Verses 8–12 The people are told to lament like a virgin mourning the loss of her betrothed husband. The meat offering (grain offering) and the drink offering (poured-out wine offering) are cut off; the grain, the new wine, and the oil fail; and the husbandmen and vinedressers are ashamed.
• Verses 13–14 The priests are commanded to put on sackcloth and lament, to sanctify a fast, to call a solemn assembly, and to gather all the people into the house of the LORD to cry out to Him.
• Verses 15–18 The prophet cries out that the day of the LORD is at hand. The seed rots, the storehouses lie empty, and the livestock groan for lack of pasture.
• Verses 19–20 The prophet cries out to the LORD. Fire has devoured the pastures and trees, the streams have dried up, and even the beasts of the field pant toward Him.

Key Verses

• Joel 1:4 "That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten…" This verse shows the thoroughness of the devastation and is echoed in the promise of restoration in Joel 2:25.
• Joel 1:14 "Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly…" This passage calls the entire community to repentance.
• Joel 1:15 "For the day of the LORD is at hand." The book's central theme appears here for the first time.

People and Places

• Joel: the prophet of this book.
• Pethuel: Joel's father, of whom nothing is known beyond his name.
• "The house of the LORD" in the text is generally understood to be the Temple in Jerusalem.

Points for Reflection

• Some interpret the four names in verse 4 as stages in the growth of the locust, while others take them as different species or as successive waves of attack. The Revised New Korean Version renders them with updated Korean names (팥중이, 메뚜기, 느치, 황충); the KJV has "palmerworm, locust, cankerworm, and caterpillar."
• Some view the "nation" in verse 6 as a figure comparing the locust swarm to an army, while others hold that it also points to a future invasion by foreign enemies.
• Because the text does not state when the Book of Joel was written, scholars differ on its date, with proposals ranging from the early monarchy to the post-exilic period.
• Chapter 1 itself is not directly quoted in the New Testament. However, the theme of the day of the LORD introduced in this chapter leads into the promise in chapter 2 of the outpouring of the Spirit, which Peter quotes in Acts 2.

In the Korean Church

Verse 14, together with Joel 2:12–14, is frequently cited in sermons calling for repentance and fasting and at fasting assemblies.