Joel 1:13-20

A Call to Lamentation

13 Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
15 Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.[a]
16 Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes— joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods.[b]The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up.
18 How the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
19 To you, LORD, I call, for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.
20 Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.

Joel 1:13-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOEL

In some Hebrew Bibles this prophecy is called "Sepher Joel", the Book of Joel; in the Vulgate Latin version, the Prophecy of Joel; and in the Syriac version, the Prophecy of the Prophet Joel; and the Arabic version, the Prophet Joel; and so the Apostle Peter quotes him, Ac 2:16. His name, according to Hillerus {a}, signifies "the Lord is God"; but others derive it from lay, which in "Hiphil" is lyawh, and signifies "he willed, acquiesced, or is well pleased, so Abarbinei; and hence Schmidt thinks it answers to Desiderius or Erasmus. According to Isidorus {b}, he was born at Bethoron, in the tribe of Reuben, and died and was buried there; and so says Pseudo-Epiphanius {c}. In what age he lived is not easy to say. Aben Ezra expressly affirms there is no way to know it; and so R. David Ganz {d} says, his time we know not; and likewise Abarbinel. Some think he prophesied about the same time Hoses did, after whom he is next placed; and so Mr. Whiston {e} and, Mr. Bedford {f} make him to prophesy much about the same time with Isaiah and Hoses, about eight hundred years before Christ; but, in the Septuagint version, this book is in the fourth order, and not Hoses, but Amos and Micah, are placed before him; and so the author of Juchasin {g} puts the prophets in this order, first Hoses, then Amos, next Isaiah, then Micah, and after him Joel. Some of the Jewish writers, as Jarchi, Kimchi, and Abendana relate, make Joel contemporary with Elisha, and say he prophesied in the, lays of Jehoram the son of Ahab, when the seven years' famine called for came upon the land, 2Ki 8:1. Both in Seder Olam Rabba and Zuta {h} he is placed in the reign of Manasseh; and so in Hilchot Gedolot, as Jarchi observes. And it seems indeed as if he prophesied after the ten tribes were carried captive, which was in the sixth year of Hezekiah's reign, since no mention is made of Israel but with respect to future times, only of Judah and Jerusalem, But, be it when it will that he prophesied, there is no doubt to be made of the authenticity of this book, which is confirmed by the quotations of two apostles out of two: Peter and Paul, Ac 2:16, Ro 10:13.

{a} Onomast. Sacr. p. 856. {b} De Vita & Mart. Sanct. c. 4. {c} De Vita Proph. c. 14. {d} Tzemach David, par. 1. fol. 14. 2. {e} Chronological Tables, cent. 7. and 8. {f} Scripture Chronology, B. 6. c. 2. p. 646. {g} Fol. 12. 1, 2. {h} P. 55, 105. Ed. Meyer.

\\INTRODUCTION TO JOEL 1\\

This chapter describes a dreadful calamity upon the people of the Jews, by locusts and, caterpillars, and drought. After the title of the book, Joe 1:1; old men are called upon to observe this sore judgment to their children, that it might be transmitted to the latest posterity, as that the like to which had not been seen and heard of, Joe 1:2-4; and drunkards to awake and weep, because the vines were destroyed, and no wine could be made for them, Joe 1:5-7; and not only husbandmen and vinedressers, but the priests of the Lord, are called to mourn, because such destruction, was made in the fields and vineyards, that there were no meat nor drink offering brought into the house of the Lord, Joe 1:8-13; wherefore a general and solemn fast is required throughout the land, because of the distress of man and beast, Joe 1:14-18; and the chapter is concluded with the resolution of the prophet to cry unto the Lord, on account of this calamity, Joe 1:19,20.

Cross References 22

  • 1. S Genesis 37:34; S Jeremiah 4:8
  • 2. Joel 2:17
  • 3. ver 9; S Hosea 9:4; Joel 2:14
  • 4. S 2 Chronicles 20:3
  • 5. S Hosea 4:1
  • 6. John 3:8
  • 7. 2 Chronicles 20:4
  • 8. S Isaiah 2:12; Jeremiah 30:7; S Jeremiah 46:10; S Ezekiel 30:3; Malachi 4:5
  • 9. Isaiah 13:6,9; Joel 2:1,11,31; Joel 3:14; Amos 5:18; Zephaniah 1:14; Zechariah 14:1
  • 10. S Genesis 17:1
  • 11. Isaiah 3:7
  • 12. S Psalms 51:8
  • 13. Deuteronomy 12:7
  • 14. S Isaiah 17:10-11
  • 15. S Genesis 47:4
  • 16. S Jeremiah 9:10
  • 17. Psalms 50:15
  • 18. S Psalms 97:3; Amos 7:4
  • 19. S Jeremiah 9:10
  • 20. S Psalms 42:1; S Psalms 104:21
  • 21. 1 Kings 17:7
  • 22. Joel 2:22

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Hebrew "Shaddai"
  • [b]. The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
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