Joel
Locusts, the day of the LORD, and a Spirit for everyone.
Who wrote it: Joel son of Pethuel. Nothing else is known, and no king is named, so dates range from the 9th century BC to after the exile. Many scholars lean late, around 500 to 400 BC.
What it is
Something has eaten Judah. Joel describes a locust swarm in four waves, what one left the next finished, until the vines are stripped white, the fields are dry, the animals are groaning and the temple has nothing left to offer. He tells the old men to ask whether they've ever seen anything like it, and tells everyone to fast and cry out. Then he sees the locusts as an army and the army as the day of the LORD: near, dark, and coming for Judah itself.
What Joel is hopeful about is that it isn't too late. 'Yet even now,' says the LORD, come back to me with your whole heart. Tear your heart, not your clothes, because he's gracious, merciful, slow to anger, full of faithful love, and willing to relent. Who knows, Joel says, whether he'll turn and leave a blessing behind him. The people gather, and the answer comes: the years the locusts ate will be restored. Rain will come. You'll eat and be satisfied.
And then it goes bigger. Afterward, God says, I'll pour out my Spirit on all flesh: sons and daughters, old and young, even the servants. Whoever calls on the LORD's name will be saved. Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost and read this passage aloud as the explanation for what had just happened. The final chapter is judgment on the nations who scattered Israel, and a promise that the LORD lives in Zion.
Verses worth keeping
- Joel 2:12–13WEB
12“Yet even now,” says the LORD, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” 13Tear your heart and not your garments, and turn to the LORD, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
Gen Zsame meaning, your words'Even now,' says the LORD, 'come back to me with your whole heart, with fasting and crying and mourning.' Tear your heart, not your clothes, and come back to the LORD your God, because he's gracious and merciful, slow to get angry and full of faithful love, and he'd rather not send disaster.
'Even now' is the whole book. The locusts have already come. It's still not too late.
- Joel 2:25WEB
I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the great locust, the grasshopper, and the caterpillar, my great army, which I sent among you.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsI'll give you back the years the swarming locust ate, and the great locust, the grasshopper and the caterpillar, my great army that I sent among you.
Said to a nation about its harvests. People apply it to their own lost years, and that's fair as long as you notice it's a promise about God's generosity, not a refund policy.
- Joel 2:28WEB
“It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsAnd afterwards, I'll pour my Spirit out on everyone. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.
Everyone: both sexes, all ages, and in the next verse, the servants too. Peter quoted it at Pentecost. It's the passage that says the Spirit was never meant for a priestly few.
Read Joel
The full text, every chapter, from the World English Bible, a modern public-domain translation. Pick a chapter below. The highlighted verses are the place to start if you have never read it.
Joel 2
1Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD comes, for it is close at hand:
2A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn spreading on the mountains, a great and strong people; there has never been the like, neither will there be any more after them, even to the years of many generations.
3A fire devours before them, and behind them, a flame burns. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them, a desolate wilderness. Yes, and no one has escaped them.
4Their appearance is as the appearance of horses, and they run as horsemen.
5Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains, they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, like a strong people set in battle array.
6At their presence the peoples are in anguish. All faces have grown pale.
7They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like warriors. They each march in his line, and they don’t swerve off course.
8One doesn’t jostle another. They each march in their own path. They burst through the defenses and don’t break ranks.
9They rush on the city. They run on the wall. They climb up into the houses. They enter in at the windows like thieves.
10The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.
11The LORD thunders his voice before his army, for his forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for the day of the LORD is great and very awesome, and who can endure it?
12“Yet even now,” says the LORD, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”
13Tear your heart and not your garments, and turn to the LORD, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
14Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to the LORD, your God.
15Blow the trumpet in Zion! Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly.
16Gather the people. Sanctify the assembly. Assemble the elders. Gather the children, and those who nurse from breasts. Let the bridegroom go out of his room, and the bride out of her chamber.
17Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, “Spare your people, LORD, and don’t give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
18Then the LORD was jealous for his land, and had pity on his people.
19The LORD answered his people, “Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with them; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.
20But I will remove the northern army far away from you, and will drive it into a barren and desolate land, its front into the eastern sea, and its back into the western sea; and its stench will come up, and its bad smell will rise.” Surely he has done great things.
21Land, don’t be afraid. Be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great things.
22Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.
23“Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD, your God; for he gives you the early rain in just measure, and he causes the rain to come down for you, the early rain and the latter rain, as before.
24The threshing floors will be full of wheat, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
25I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the great locust, the grasshopper, and the caterpillar, my great army, which I sent among you.
26You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied, and will praise the name of the LORD, your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; and my people will never again be disappointed.
27You will know that I am among Israel, and that I am the LORD, your God, and there is no one else; and my people will never again be disappointed.
28“It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions.
29And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days, I will pour out my Spirit.
30I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke.
31The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes.
32It will happen that whoever will call on the LORD’s name shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the remnant, those whom the LORD calls.
Questions about Joel
Were the locusts real?
Almost certainly. Chapter 1 reads like eyewitness description of a plague that still hits the region, with the four stages named and the damage cataloged. Chapter 2 then describes an army in locust-like terms, and readers argue whether that's the same swarm seen as judgment or a human invasion pictured as a swarm. Either way, Joel takes a natural disaster and asks what it might be saying, without claiming to know for certain.
What is 'the day of the LORD'?
A phrase the prophets use for the moment God steps in directly to judge and set things right. People in Israel assumed it would be good news for them; Amos, Joel and Zephaniah all warn that it could land on Israel first. In Joel it's dark and near, and the only shelter is turning back. The New Testament reuses the phrase for Christ's return. It's never a date. It's a warning that history has an owner.
Does Joel 2:25 mean I get my wasted years back?
It was said to Judah about ruined harvests, promising that God would make the coming years so good they'd make up for the lost ones. Time doesn't run backwards for them or for you. What the verse does promise is that God's generosity can outweigh what was lost, and that the loss doesn't get the final word. That's honest hope for anyone looking back at years they can't retrieve.