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Joel 1: The Land Laid Waste

Wave after wave of locusts strips Judah bare, and the prophet calls every group to mourn, for the Day of the Lord is at hand.

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Joel 1 (WEB)

1 Yahweh’s word that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.

2 Hear this, you elders, And listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

3 Tell your children about it, and have your children tell their children, and their children, another generation.

4 What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten.

5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

6 For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.

7 He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.

8 Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!

9 The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh’s house. The priests, Yahweh’s ministers, mourn.

10 The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes.

11 Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished.

12 The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men.

13 Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house.

14 Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Yahweh, your God, and cry to Yahweh.

15 Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

16 Isn’t the food cut off before our eyes; joy and gladness from the house of our God?

17 The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.

18 How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

19 Yahweh, I cry to you, For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.

20 Yes, the animals of the field pant to you, for the water brooks have dried up, And the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Summary

The word of Yahweh comes to Joel, son of Pethuel, with news of a disaster unlike anything in living memory—one to tell children and grandchildren about. Wave after wave of locusts has devoured the land: what the swarming locust left, the great locust ate, and what it left, the grasshopper and caterpillar finished. Joel summons each group to grieve. He tells the drunkards to weep, for the wine is cut off; the farmers and vineyard keepers to wail, for the harvest has perished; and the priests to put on sackcloth, for the grain and drink offerings have ceased at God's house. The vine is dried up, the fig tree withered, and joy has withered away from the people. Even the animals groan and the livestock are perplexed, for there is no pasture. Joel reads the catastrophe as a sign: “the day of Yahweh is at hand.” So he calls the people to sanctify a fast, gather in solemn assembly at the house of the Lord, and cry out to him, while the prophet himself cries to God over the burned pastures and the dried-up brooks.

Main Characters

  • Joel son of Pethuel — The prophet who receives God's word, interprets the locust plague as a sign of the Day of the Lord, and calls every group in Judah to mourn and cry out to God.
  • The priests and ministers of the altar — The servants of God's house, called to put on sackcloth, lie all night in mourning, and grieve that the offerings have been cut off.
  • The people of the land — Elders, drunkards, farmers, and vineyard keepers summoned to wail over the ruined harvest and to gather for a sacred fast.
  • The locusts — The swarming, great, grasshopper, and caterpillar locusts—described as a strong, countless nation with the teeth of a lion—that devour the land.

Key Verse

Joel 1:15 (WEB)

Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

Lessons Learned

  • God can speak through disaster, turning a ruined harvest into a wake-up call.
  • When God's people drift, even their worship and offerings can be cut off.
  • Honest mourning over loss can be the first step back toward God.
  • The right response to crisis is to gather God's people and cry out to him together.
  • God's word interprets our circumstances. Joel does not merely report the plague; he names it as a sign that “the day of Yahweh is at hand” (Joel 1:15, WEB). Scripture teaches us to read our trials in light of God.
  • Spiritual famine follows physical ruin. When the crops fail, “the meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh's house” (Joel 1:9, WEB). Joel grieves most that fellowship with God is disrupted.
  • Mourning is meant to lead to God. Joel calls the people to “sanctify a fast,” “gather the elders,” and “cry to Yahweh” (Joel 1:14, WEB). Grief is not the end; it is the road to the house of God.
  • Even creation testifies to the crisis. “How the animals groan!” and “the water brooks have dried up” (Joel 1:18, 20, WEB). The whole land bears witness, and the prophet himself cries out to the Lord.
  1. How does Joel describe the locust plague, and why does he say it should be told to future generations?
  2. Why does the prophet call so many different groups—drunkards, farmers, priests—to mourn?
  3. What grieves Joel most about the destruction at God's house (verses 9, 13)?
  4. What does Joel mean when he says “the day of Yahweh is at hand” (1:15), and how does the plague point to it?
  5. When trouble comes into your life, do you tend to turn toward God or away from him? What might it look like to cry out to him as Joel urges?
  1. Joel describes successive waves of locusts, each finishing what the last left (1:4), a disaster without precedent in memory. He wants it remembered for generations (1:3) so that God's people will learn from it and seek him, treating it as a lasting lesson, not a passing misfortune.
  2. Each group has lost something dear—the drinkers their wine, the farmers their harvest, the priests their offerings (1:5, 11, 13). Joel summons them all because the whole community has been touched and the whole community must turn to God together in repentance.
  3. Joel grieves that “the meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh's house” (1:9). The deepest loss is not economic but spiritual: the people's fellowship with God through worship has been interrupted. That is why he calls the priests to lead in mourning.
  4. The “day of Yahweh” is the day when God comes to judge and to set things right. Joel sees the plague as a foreshadowing of that greater day (1:15). The present disaster is a warning meant to drive the people to repentance before the ultimate reckoning.
  5. This is a personal-application question. Joel's instinct is to gather and cry out to God (1:14), not to despair alone. Invite members to consider how they respond to hardship, and gently encourage turning toward God and his people rather than withdrawing.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB), the King James Version (KJV), and the American Standard Version (ASV), all of which are in the public domain.