The Invasion of Locusts
1This is the word of Yahweh that came to Joel son of Pethuel:
- JOEL 1:1[NOTE]JOEL. His name means Yahweh is God. We know nothing else about him but his father's name.
2Hear this, O elders;
and give ear, all who dwell in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
or in the days of your fathers?
3Tell it to your children;
let your children tell it to their children,
and their children to the next generation.
- JOEL 1:3[NOTABLE]What God does, and what He teaches us through hard times, is meant to be passed down from one generation to the next.
- JOEL 1:3[NOTE]TELL YOUR CHILDREN. A disaster to remember for generations, and a lesson to pass on.
4What the devouring locust has left,
the swarming locust has eaten;
what the swarming locust has left,
the young locust has eaten;
and what the young locust has left,
the destroying locust has eaten.
- JOEL 1:4[ARCHAEOLOGY]An Assyrian palace relief from Nineveh shows servants carrying locusts on sticks to a royal feast, see Locusts on a Stick Field Notes box
- JOEL 1:4[TEXT]FOUR KINDS OF LOCUSTS. Joel uses four Hebrew words for locusts. They may be different kinds, or stages of one locust's life, or just a way to say wave after wave.
5Wake up, you drunkards, and weep;
wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of the sweet wine,
for it has been cut off from your mouth.
- JOEL 1:5[NOTE]WAKE UP, YOU DRUNKARDS. The first ones to notice: no grapes, no wine.
6For a nation has invaded My land,
powerful and without number;
its teeth are the teeth of a lion,
and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness.
- JOEL 1:6[NOTE]MY LAND, MY VINE. God Himself breaks in to speak of His land, so these lines are red, like 2:1, My holy mountain. The nation is the locust swarm.
7It has laid waste My grapevine
and splintered My fig tree.
It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away;
the branches have turned white.
A Call to Mourning
8Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth,
grieving for the husband of her youth.
9Grain and drink offerings have been cut off
from the house of Yahweh;
the priests are in mourning,
those who minister before Yahweh.
10The field is ruined;
the land mourns.
For the grain is destroyed,
the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails.
11Be dismayed, O farmers,
wail, O vinedressers,
over the wheat and barley,
because the harvest of the field has perished.
12The grapevine is dried up,
and the fig tree is withered;
the pomegranate, palm, and apple—
all the trees of the orchard—are withered.
Surely the joy of mankind has dried up.
A Call to Repentance// Amos 5:4–15; Zephaniah 2:1–3; Luke 13:1–5
13Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
wail, O ministers of the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God,
because the grain and drink offerings
are withheld from the house of your God.
14Consecrate a fast;
proclaim a solemn assembly!
Gather the elders
and all the residents of the land
to the house of Yahweh your God,
and cry out to Yahweh.
15Alas for the day!
For the Day of Yahweh is near,
and it will come
as destruction from the Almighty.
- JOEL 1:15[NOTE]THE DAY OF YAHWEH. The day God steps in to judge. Joel names it five times.
16Has not the food been cut off
before our very eyes—
joy and gladness
from the house of our God?
17The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods;
the storehouses are in ruins;
the granaries are broken down,
for the grain has withered away.
18How the cattle groan!
The herds wander in confusion
because they have no pasture.
Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
19To You, O Yahweh, I call,
for fire has consumed the open pastures
and flames have scorched all the trees of the field.
- JOEL 1:19[NOTE]JOEL PRAYS. His own words to God, so they are black.
20Even the beasts of the field pant for You,
for the streams of water have dried up,
and fire has consumed the open pastures.