The Prophet Joel

Little is known about the prophet Joel.   He was the son of Pethuel, but nothing is known about Pethuel.   It is guessed that Joel lived somewhere between 835 BC and 400 BC, and that he made many prophecies about the coming of the Lord.   Joel was definitely from Judah and, due to his multitude of references to Jerusalem, lived in Jerusalem.  


        The Book of Joel in the Bible stressed four main points.   Joel wanted to warn the people of Judah that the coming of the Lord was near.   Another key idea is that he wanted the people of Judah to repent their sins.   In his book, Joel proclaims a future time when complete restoration will come to the nation of Judah.   In the Book of Joel, God shows that He is willing to punish His people if they lose their faith in Him.   Over and over he demands repentance from various groups of people in Judah (Joel 1:8, 13-20.   Joel 2:12-13).


        In the Book of Joel, a plague of locusts is described (Joel 1:2-7).   This destruction of Judah by locusts is written in chapter one.   Four types of locust are mentioned in Joel 1:4, the cutter, locust, grasshopper, and devourer.   Some contextual readers believe that the four different names of the locust has a special meaning, but it is generally thought otherwise.   In Hebrew there are nine different names for locusts.   Knowing this, we can infer that the Hebrews suffered many plagues from locusts.   The plague described in Joel, however, was remarkably devastating.