The Book of Joel

Joel is one of the shortest books of the Old Testament, three chapters and seventy-three verses, yet few prophets are heard more often in the Church. Its call "rend your hearts, and not your garments" opens Lent every year. Its promise of the Spirit was the text of the first sermon St Peter ever preached. Its valley of Josaphat has given Christian tradition the place of the Last Judgment. Here we set out who Joel was, when he wrote, what the book says, and how the Church has read it; each chapter page sets the Vulgate beside the Douay-Rheims.

The prophet Joel, author of the book

The book names its author in its first verse: "The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Phatuel" (Joel 1:1). The Church has always received the prophecy as his. His name means "the Lord is God". He is the second of the twelve minor prophets, "minor" for the length of their writings, not their weight.

Scripture tells us nothing else about his life, and the Catholic Encyclopedia says plainly: "Nothing is known of his life." The book itself, though, shows where he worked. He speaks to Juda and Jerusalem, to "the children of Sion", and never to the northern kingdom. He returns again and again to the Temple and the altar. He addresses the priests directly, "Gird yourselves, and lament, O ye priests, howl, ye ministers of the altars" (1:13), and it is the priests who must weep "between the porch and the altar" (2:17). From these frequent appeals to the priests the Encyclopedia infers that Joel worked in Jerusalem and was himself of priestly descent.

The Pontifical Biblical Commission issued no decision on Joel. Some modern critics have parcelled out its discourses among different dates, but the Catholic Encyclopedia answers that the four discourses show "a closely united, compact scheme of thought", too closely knit to be pulled apart.

The date of the prophecy

Unlike Osee or Amos, Joel names no king in his title and mentions no datable event, so the date is the hardest question the book poses.

The early commentators, following St Jerome, placed Joel in the eighth century before Christ, as a contemporary of Osee and Amos. They gave two reasons. First, the canon sets Joel between Osee and Amos, both of whom prophesied in the days of King Ozias. Second, the enemies Joel names are the Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon, the Philistines, Egypt and Edom (3:4, 19), never Assyria, whom the later prophets denounce once she became the great power of the East.

Other commentators set him under King Josias, because his great theme, the day of the Lord, is also that of his contemporary Sophonias. Many later commentators, and most modern scholars, place the book after the Exile, because chapter 3 speaks of Juda scattered among the nations. The Catholic Encyclopedia weighs these views and concludes with candour that "none of the chronological hypotheses concerning Joel can claim to possess convincing proof." We follow St Jerome and the early commentators in placing Joel in Juda before the Exile, in the age of Osee and Amos, while acknowledging that the Church has never defined the date.

Summary of the Book of Joel, chapter by chapter

Joel's message has two halves. The first (1:2–2:17) threatens the day of judgment and calls the people to penance; the second (2:18–3:21) answers their penance with the day of grace. The Catholic Encyclopedia calls the whole "a typical presentation in miniature of the chief themes of prophetic discourse".

The plague of locusts (chapter 1)

Chapter 1 opens on a disaster without precedent: "did this ever happen in your days, or in the days of your fathers?" Swarm after swarm has stripped the land: "That which the palmerworm hath left, the locust hath eaten: and that which the locust hath left, the bruchus hath eaten: and that which the bruchus hath left, the mildew hath destroyed" (1:4). The vine is laid waste, the fig tree barked, the corn, the wine and the oil have failed. Worst of all, "sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of the Lord" (1:9), for there is nothing left to offer. Drought and fire follow the insects. Joel tells the priests to put on sackcloth, "sanctify ye a fast, call an assembly" (1:14), and cry to the Lord, "because the day of the Lord is at hand" (1:15).

The day of the Lord and the call to conversion (2:1–17)

Chapter 2 sounds the trumpet in Sion. The plague becomes an army marching in ranks, "a numerous and strong people", scaling walls and coming in at the windows "as a thief" (2:9), while "the sun and moon are darkened" (2:10). The scourge of the moment is the herald of a greater day: "the day of the Lord is great and very terrible: and who can stand it?" (2:11). Then comes the turn on which the whole book hinges: "Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning" (2:12). The whole people must gather, even the bridegroom on his wedding day, while the priests pray: "Spare, O Lord, spare thy people" (2:17).

The Lord answers: plenty and the Spirit (2:18–32)

"The Lord hath been zealous for his land, and hath spared his people" (2:18). He promises corn, wine and oil, the early and the latter rain, and the restoration of "the ears which the locust, and the bruchus, and the mildew, and the palmerworm have eaten" (2:25). Then the promise rises above the harvest: "I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh" (2:28), with wonders in heaven and earth before the great day, and salvation for "every one that shall call upon the name of the Lord" (2:32).

The judgment of the nations in the valley of Josaphat (chapter 3)

In chapter 3 the Lord brings back the captivity of Juda and summons all nations "into the valley of Josaphat" to plead with them for His people, whom they sold as slaves and whose Temple treasures they carried off. He calls them mockingly to war: "Cut your ploughshares into swords" (3:10). The judgment is a harvest and a winepress: "Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe" (3:13). The book ends in peace: the mountains "drop down sweetness", a fountain flows from the house of the Lord, "and the Lord will dwell in Sion" (3:21).

The message of Joel and the Catholic reading

Conversion of the heart, with fasting. Joel's central lesson is that outward penance must carry inward contrition: "rend your hearts, and not your garments" (2:13). He commands both the fast and the broken heart, for God is "gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy." The Church has made this her Lenten programme, and it is why Joel is the prophet of Ash Wednesday. Few pages of Scripture show more plainly what God says about fasting: a whole nation, priests at its head, fasting to turn away His anger.

The locusts. Challoner's note gives both readings: "Some understand this literally of the desolation of the land by these insects: others understand it of the different invasions of the Chaldeans, or other enemies." The Catholic Encyclopedia argues for a real plague in Joel's own day, since the prophet compares the locusts to an army ("like men of war they shall scale the wall"), not an army to locusts. From that real scourge Joel passes, in the manner of the prophets, to the judgment it foreshadows.

Pentecost. The promise of the Spirit was fulfilled when the Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles. To the crowd who thought them drunk, St Peter answered: "But this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel" (Acts 2:16), and he quoted the whole passage. St Paul makes its last verse a summary of the Gospel: "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13). The Vulgate of 2:23 adds a striking line: the Lord "hath given you a teacher of justice". The Church reads it on Ember Friday in Pentecost week, beside Our Lord's promise that the Holy Ghost "will teach you all things" (John 14:26). Our journal tells the story of Pentecost and the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost.

The day of the Lord and the end times. Challoner explains "the day of the Lord" as "the time when he will execute justice upon sinners", and Joel's darkened sun and blood-red moon return in Our Lord's discourse on the end (Matthew 24:29) and at the sixth seal, when "the whole moon became as blood" (Apocalypse 6:12). The Apocalypse echoes Joel's pictures too: locusts "like unto horses prepared unto battle" (9:7) and the ripe harvest of the earth (14:15).

The valley of Josaphat, whose name means "the Lord judges", became in Christian tradition the place of the Last Judgment. The Supplement to the Summa of St Thomas cites Joel 3:2 and judges it probable that Christ will come to judge near Mount Olivet, which overlooks that valley, since He ascended from there (Suppl. q. 88, a. 4). On what the Church teaches about that day, see the Four Last Things and what God says about the end times.

The fountain from the house of the Lord. Joel's closing image (3:18) meets the waters flowing from the Temple in Ezechiel 47 and the "living waters" that go out from Jerusalem in Zacharias 14. Challoner reads it of "the fountain of grace in the church militant, and of glory in the church triumphant", watering souls that before "brought forth nothing but thorns"; and the Jerusalem inhabited for ever is "the spiritual Jerusalem, viz., the church of Christ".

Famous verses in the Book of Joel

• Joel 1:4, the locusts: "That which the palmerworm hath left, the locust hath eaten" (Joel 1).
• Joel 2:12–13, the Lenten call: "Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning. And rend your hearts, and not your garments" (Joel 2).
• Joel 2:17, the priests' prayer: "Between the porch and the altar the priests the Lord's ministers shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, spare thy people."
• Joel 2:25, the restored harvest: "I will restore to you the ears which the locust, and the bruchus, and the mildew, and the palmerworm have eaten." Versions from the Hebrew read "the years".
• Joel 2:28, the outpouring of the Spirit: "I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy: your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions."
• Joel 2:31, the "blood moon" verse: "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood: before the great and dreadful day of the Lord doth come."
• Joel 3:10, the reversal of Isaias 2:4 and Micheas 4:3: "Cut your ploughshares into swords, and your spades into spears" (Joel 3).
• Joel 3:16, echoed at the opening of Amos: "The Lord shall roar out of Sion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem."

Joel in the canon, and its three chapters

Joel is in the Old Testament, the second of the twelve minor prophets, between Osee and Amos. That is the order of the Hebrew Bible and the Vulgate; the Greek Septuagint places it fourth, after Osee, Amos and Micheas. It is a protocanonical book, received by Jews, Catholics and Protestants alike, and the Council of Trent names it among "the twelve minor prophets" in its decree on the canon (Session IV, 1546). The name is the same in every Bible: Joel.

One difference catches readers out. The Vulgate, the Septuagint, the Douay-Rheims and the King James Version all divide the book into three chapters. The Hebrew text, and modern versions that follow it, use four: their chapter 3 is our 2:28–32, and their chapter 4 is our chapter 3. Our pages follow the Vulgate numbering, as the Douay-Rheims Bible and the Latin Vulgate always have.

Joel in the liturgy

The Roman Missal hears Joel at its two great hinges of penance and grace. On Ash Wednesday, while the ashes are imposed, the choir sings the antiphons "Immutemur habitu" and "Juxta vestibulum et altare plorabunt sacerdotes", drawn from Joel 2:13–17, and the Lesson of the Mass is Joel 2:12–19, the call to "sanctify a fast" with which Lent begins.

In Ember week of Pentecost, the Wednesday Lesson is St Peter's sermon quoting Joel (Acts 2:14–21), the Friday Lesson is Joel 2:23–24, 26–27, "rejoice, O children of Sion", and the Saturday's first Lesson is Joel 2:28–32, "I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh". In the Roman Breviary the minor prophets, Joel among them, are read at Matins in November, as the year turns towards the Last Things. You can follow the readings day by day in the liturgical calendar and pray the Office in our Breviary.

How to read the Book of Joel

Joel can be read whole in a quarter of an hour, and it should be, at least once, in one sitting: its movement from desolation to penance to mercy is the point. Read chapter 1 as a real disaster, chapter 2 with Acts 2 open beside it, and chapter 3 with the Last Judgment in mind. On Ash Wednesday, read 2:12–19 before Mass. In the Latin facing the English, parce, Domine, parce populo tuo is the very phrase the Church still sings.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who wrote the Book of Joel?

The prophet Joel, the son of Phatuel, as the first verse states. Nothing more is known of his life. He prophesied in Juda, probably at Jerusalem, and his close concern with the Temple and its priests suggests he may himself have been of priestly family.

When was the Book of Joel written?

The book gives no date. St Jerome and the early commentators placed it in the eighth century before Christ, making Joel a contemporary of Osee and Amos, because it stands between them among the minor prophets and does not mention Assyria among Juda's enemies. Others have proposed the reign of Josias or a time after the Exile, and the Catholic Encyclopedia judges that no hypothesis has convincing proof.

What is the Book of Joel about?

It begins with a devastating plague of locusts, which Joel treats as the forerunner of "the day of the Lord", and calls the people to fasting and wholehearted conversion. God answers their penance with restored harvests, the promise to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, and the judgment of the nations in the valley of Josaphat. Its message is that true penance, "rend your hearts, and not your garments", obtains God's mercy.

What are the locusts in the Book of Joel?

Challoner notes two traditional readings: a literal plague of insects devastating the land, or a figure of successive invasions by the Chaldeans and other enemies. The Catholic Encyclopedia holds that Joel describes a real plague of his own day, compared to an invading army, and that he passes from it to the greater judgment it foreshadows.

How many chapters are in the Book of Joel?

In the Vulgate, the Douay-Rheims and the King James Version, Joel has three chapters and seventy-three verses. Bibles that follow the Hebrew text divide the same material into four chapters, splitting off 2:28–32 as a chapter of its own.

Is the Book of Joel in the Catholic Bible?

Yes. Joel is a book of the Old Testament in every Bible, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish, and the Council of Trent lists it among the twelve minor prophets. In Catholic Bibles it stands after Osee and before Amos.

Who was the Book of Joel written to?

Joel speaks to the people of Juda and Jerusalem, "the children of Sion", and above all to their priests and elders. He wrote in the wake of a ruinous plague of locusts and drought, to call the whole nation to a solemn fast and a return to God with all their heart. Through them the prophecy is addressed to the Church, which hears it again each Lent.

Is the Book of Joel about the end times?

Partly. Joel's "day of the Lord", with the sun darkened and the moon turned to blood, is taken up by Our Lord in Matthew 24 and by the Apocalypse, and his valley of Josaphat became in Christian tradition the place of the Last Judgment. But St Peter teaches that its promise of the Spirit was fulfilled at Pentecost, so the book speaks both of the Church's beginning and of the world's end.

Read the whole Book of Joel verse by verse, in Latin and English side by side, in the Iter Fidei Catholic Bible app.

Sources. The Prophecy of Joel, Acts 2, Romans 10, Matthew 24 and Apocalypse 6, 9 and 14 (Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision, with Challoner's notes; Latin Vulgate); Council of Trent, Session IV, Decree on the Canonical Scriptures (1546); St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Supplement, q. 88, a. 4; M. Faulhaber, "Joel", Catholic Encyclopedia (1910); Missale Romanum (1962): Ash Wednesday, Ember Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of Pentecost; Breviarium Romanum, Matins of November.