Joel

Joel (Heb. Yo’el, “the LORD is God”) is the son of Pethuel and a prophet to Judah, addressed especially to the priests of Jerusalem (Joel 1.13–14). His book gives no king’s name, and evangelical opinion places him either in the early pre-exilic period (c. 835 BC, under the young Joash) or in the early post-exilic period (c. 500 BC); the older and still common evangelical position is the early dating. The occasion of his ministry is a devastating locust invasion, described in four waves that strip the land bare (Joel 1.4). Joel reads the plague as a foretaste of the Day of the LORD and calls for a solemn assembly, a fast, and a rending of the heart and not the garments (Joel 2.12–13). The second half of the book turns to restoration: the rains return, the threshing-floors are full, and the LORD repays the lost years (Joel 2.25). Then comes the great promise: “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (Joel 2.28), quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost (Act.2.16–21) as fulfilled in the gift of the Holy Spirit.