An Invasion of Locusts, an Introduction to Joel

The short book of Joel is a fascinating example of the minor prophetic books, with a recent disaster (a plague of locusts) used to make a statement about the need of the nations of Israel/Judah to repent (with images of locusts swarms turning into images of swarms of soldiers), followed by statements about a future day at the other end of upcoming judgment.  

The Date and Setting

The Ligonier ministry says (here): 

"While most of the other prophets can be dated with some degree of accuracy, it is notoriously difficult to date the book of Joel. Suggestions have been offered ranging from the ninth century to the second century B.C. Among conservative scholars, three main views are suggested. Some suggest an early pre-exilic date in the late ninth or early eighth century. Others suggest a late pre-exilic date in the seventh century. Still others argue that a post-exilic date in the late sixth to the mid-fifth century best explains the content of the book. While evidence for each of these views has been presented, no one has yet established a decisively compelling argument for any of them."

Tradition has dated the book to a pre-exilic period during which both kingdoms (Israel/Samaria and Judah) were both in existence. Indeed, some suggest that the locust swarm of chapter 1 coincides with the drought experienced by Elijah in 1 Kings 17-18.

Outline

The book of Joel falls naturally into four parts, Indeed those four parts are four chapters (not three!) in the Hebrew medieval scrolls.  Those four parts are

Joel 1, The invasion of locusts

Joel 2:1-27, An invasion of soldiers

Joel 2:28-32, A future Day of the Lord

Joel 3, A future judgment of all nations

Resources and References

My practice is to read through the text from the New International Version (NIV), copied into the blog and italicized in blue.  At the head of each blue paragraph of text I place a short title; after the text I place my thoughts or comments in black.  I begin this process with my own reactions and thoughts and then supplement these comments with gleanings from a commentary or two.

The real goal of this blog is to force me to read every verse thoughtfully. I hope that you, too, read the passages thoughtfully!   Feel free to disagree -- or to react in other ways! (I place hyperlinks in pink, created so that one can click on a link and see the linked site open in another window... and go down a rabbit hole if you wish!)

For the book of Joel, I have relied mainly on a commentary in The Expositors Bible Commentary series, edited by Frank E. Gaebelein, volume 7, the chapter by Richard Patterson. A list of additional commentaries recommended by Ligonier ministries is here.

There are other resources online.

• Amongst the online commentaries provided by EasyEnglishBible, is an online commentary on Joel. (The Easy English Bible commentaries are easy to read, with deliberately simple language intended for those for whom English is a second language. The Old Testament text is included in the commentary.) 
• The Gospel Coalition now has a set of online commentaries. Here is their commentary on Joel.

As always, I recommend the Bible Project video on Joel. The Bible Project also includes a written guide to the book of Joel.

The book of Joel, in our modern bibles, is only three chapters. So we will race through it in three days. Don't blink!