NOTES for Joe 1:1-9

One of the last writing prophets, Joel most probably lived around the turn of the fifth and fourth centuries BC. We know virtually nothing about the prophet as a person; we may suppose that he was a Temple prophet whose entire ministry was devoted to proclaiming God's word. His short but very important book contains only a reference to an invasion of locusts, the event that prompted him to speak. This event cannot, however, be dated precisely. At the same time, certain details of his prophecy allow it to be placed in the period after the Jews' return from Babylonian captivity, the era of the Second Temple.

In the first part of chapter 1, the prophet speaks with fear and sorrow of the disaster that has struck the country. The insects have destroyed everything living on the land of Israel, turning it into a desert. Lament over disaster is a common genre of biblical poetry and of ancient Near Eastern poetry generally; following its conventions, the prophet tells how all-encompassing this affliction has proved. The land and its inhabitants have been deprived of everything: grain and grapes, oil and every other kind of food. Weep, lament, inhabitants of the land: this is the prophet's main call in this part of the book. He calls everyone who hears or reads his words to feel the spectre of famine and death looming over his country.

How fragile the people's prosperity has proved, with what astonishing ease and speed ruin spreads everywhere! Recognising this matters to the prophet, because he will go on to speak of life's true foundations. For him, grief over suffering and loss is inseparable from reflection on why this disaster has befallen people. Beyond all this, however, the description of this suffering matters within the wider biblical context. One of the Old Testament's central revelations is that God hears His people's cry, and the tragedy Joel describes becomes the place of God's saving intervention in people's lives.