Prophet Joel (Judah)

Joel son of Pethuel opens his book with a catastrophic locust plague, swarm after swarm ("what the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten"), followed by drought, and reads it as a warning of "the Day of the Lord." He calls priests and people to "blow the shofar in Zion, sanctify a fast," and to "rend your hearts and not your garments" (Joel 2:13). God answers with restored harvests and a promise: "I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions." The book ends with the nations gathered for judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat and Jerusalem inhabited forever.

The book gives no date. The early placement here, around the reign of Joash of Judah, rests partly on its position among the Twelve Prophets; rabbinic chronology (Seder Olam) puts Joel in the days of Manasseh, and many modern scholars date him after the Exile. Joel 2:15–27 is read in many communities in the haftarah of Shabbat Shuvah, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and his reversal of Isaiah's image, "beat your plowshares into swords," is one of prophecy's starkest lines.