The Day of the Lord
And bsound an alarm in My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble;
For cthe day of the Lord is coming,
For it is at hand:
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains.
bA people come, great and strong,
cThe like of whom has never been;
Nor will there ever be any such after them,
Even for many successive generations.
And behind them a flame burns;
The land is like athe Garden of Eden before them,
bAnd behind them a desolate wilderness;
Surely nothing shall escape them.
Over mountaintops they leap,
Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble,
Like a strong people set in battle array.
They climb the wall like men of war;
Every one marches in formation,
And they do not break aranks.
Every one marches in his own1 column.
Though they lunge between the weapons,
They are not1 cut down.
They run on the wall;
They climb into the houses,
They aenter at the windows blike a thief.
The heavens tremble;
bThe sun and moon grow dark,
And the stars diminish their brightness.
For His camp is very great;
bFor strong is the One who executes His word.
For the cday of the Lord is great and very terrible;
dWho can endure it?
A Call to Repentance
a“Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
Return to the Lord your God,
For He is cgracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm.
And leave ba blessing behind Him—
cA grain offering and a drink offering
For the Lord your God?
aSanctify the congregation,
Assemble the elders,
Gather the children and nursing babes;
bLet the bridegroom go out from his chamber,
And the bride from her dressing room.
Weep abetween the porch and the altar;
Let them say, b“Spare Your people, O Lord,
And do not give Your heritage to reproach,
That the nations should1 rule over them.
cWhy should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’ ”
The Land Refreshed
“Behold, I will send you agrain and new wine and oil,
And you will be satisfied by them;
I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.
And will drive him away into a barren and desolate land,
With his face toward the eastern sea
And his back ctoward the western sea;
His stench will come up,
And his foul odor will rise,
Because he has done1 monstrous things.”
For athe open pastures are springing up,
And the tree bears its fruit;
The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.
And arejoice in the Lord your God;
For He has given you the1 former rain faithfully,
And He bwill cause the rain to come down for you—
The former rain,
And the latter rain in the first month.
The crawling locust,
The consuming locust,
And the chewing locust,
My great army which I sent among you.
And praise the name of the Lord your God,
Who has dealt wondrously with you;
And My people shall never be put to bshame.
bI am the Lord your God
And there is no other.
My people shall never be put to shame.
God’s Spirit Poured Out
That bI will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
cYour sons and your ddaughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.
And the moon into blood,
bBefore the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
That awhoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be1 saved.
For bin Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be1 deliverance,
As the Lord has said,
Among cthe remnant whom the Lord calls.
Joel
JOEL (meaning "one to whom Jehovah is God," that is, worshipper of Jehovah) seems to have belonged to Judah, as no reference occurs to Israel; whereas he speaks of Jerusalem, the temple, the priests, and the ceremonies, as if he were intimately familiar with them (compare Joel 1:14; Joel 2:1, Joel 2:15, Joel 2:32; Joel 3:1-2, Joel 3:6, Joel 3:16-17, Joel 3:20-21). His predictions were probably delivered in the early days of Joash 870-865 BC; for no reference is made in them to the Babylonian, Assyrian, or even the Syrian invasion; and the only enemies mentioned are the Philistines, Phœnicians, Edomites, and Egyptians (Joel 3:4, Joel 3:19). Had he lived after Joash, he would doubtless have mentioned the Syrians among the enemies whom he enumerates since they took Jerusalem and carried off immense spoil to Damascus (II Chronicles 24:23-24). No idolatry is mentioned; and the temple services, the priesthood, and other institutions of the theocracy, are represented as flourishing. This all answers to the state of things under the high priesthood of Jehoiada, through whom Joash had been placed on the throne and who lived in the early years of Joash (II Kings 11:17-18; II Kings 12:2-16; II Chronicles 24:4-14). He was the son of Pethuel.
The first chapter describes the desolation caused by an inroad of locusts—one of the instruments of divine judgment mentioned by Moses (Deuteronomy 28:38-39) and by Solomon (I Kings 8:37). The second chapter (Joel 2:1-11): the appearance of them, under images of a hostile army suggesting that the locusts were symbols and forerunners of a more terrible scourge, namely, foreign enemies who would consume all before them. (The absence of mention of personal injury to the inhabitants is not a just objection to the figurative interpretation; for the figure is consistent throughout in attributing to the locusts only injury to vegetation, thereby injuring indirectly man and beast). Joel 2:12-17 : exhortation to repentance, the result of which will be: God will deliver His people, the former and latter rains shall return to fertilize their desolated lands, and these shall be the pledge of the spiritual outpouring of grace beginning with Judah, and thence extending to "all flesh." Joel 2:18-3:21 : God's judgments on Judah's enemies, whereas Judah shall be established for ever.
Joel's style is pre-eminently pure. It is characterized by smoothness and fluency in the rhythms, roundness in the sentences, and regularity in the parallelisms. With the strength of Micah it combines the tenderness of Jeremiah, the vividness of Nahum, and the sublimity of Isaiah. As a specimen of his style take the second chapter wherein the terrible aspect of the locusts, their rapidity, irresistible progress, noisy din, and instinct-taught power of marshalling their forces for their career of devastation, are painted with graphic reality.
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