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Joel 1

ARC · Chapter 1/3

1Palavra do Senhor, que foi dirigida a Joel, filho de Pethuel.

2Ouvi isto, vós, anciãos, e escutae, todos os moradores da terra: Porventura isto aconteceu em vossos dias? ou tambem nos dias de vossos paes?

3Fazei sobre isto uma narração a vossos filhos, e vossos filhos a seus filhos, e os filhos d'estes á outra geração.

4O que ficou da lagarta o comeu o gafanhoto, e o que ficou do gafanhoto o comeu a locusta, e o que ficou da locusta o comeu o pulgão.

5Despertae-vos, bebados, e chorae e uivae, todos os que bebeis vinho, por causa do mosto, porque cortado é da vossa bocca.

6Porque uma nação subiu sobre a minha terra, poderosa e sem numero: os seus dentes são dentes de leão, e teem queixaes de um leão velho.

7Fez da minha vide uma assolação, e descortiçou a minha figueira: despiu-a toda, e a lançou por terra; os seus sarmentos se embranqueceram.

8Lamenta como uma virgem que está cingida de sacco, pelo marido da sua mocidade.

9Cortou-se a offerta de manjar, e a libação da casa do Senhor: os sacerdotes, servos do Senhor, estão entristecidos.

10O campo está assolado, e a terra triste; porque o trigo está destruido, o mosto se seccou, o oleo falta.

11Os lavradores se envergonham, os vinhateiros uivam, sobre o trigo e sobre a cevada; porque a sega do campo pereceu.

12A vide se seccou, a figueira se murchou; a romeira, tambem, e a palmeira e a macieira; todas as arvores do campo se seccaram, e a alegria se seccou entre os filhos dos homens.

13Cingi-vos e lamentae-vos, sacerdotes; uivae, ministros do altar; entrae e passae, vestidos de saccos, a noite, ministros do meu Deus; porque a offerta de manjares, e a libação, affastada está da casa de vosso Deus.

14Sanctificae um jejum, apregoae um dia de prohibição, congregae os anciãos, e todos os moradores d'esta terra, na casa do Senhor vosso Deus, e clamae ao Senhor.

15Ah! aquelle dia! porque o dia do Senhor está perto, e virá como uma assolação do Todo-poderoso.

16Porventura o mantimento não está cortado de diante de nossos olhos? a alegria e o regozijo da casa de nosso Deus?

17A novidade apodreceu debaixo dos seus torrões, os celleiros foram assolados, os armazens derribados, porque se seccou o trigo.

18Como geme o gado, as manadas de vaccas estão confusas, porque não teem pasto: tambem os rebanhos de ovelhas são destruidos.

19A ti, ó Senhor clamo, porque o fogo consumiu os pastos do deserto, e a chamma abrazou todas as arvores do campo.

20Tambem todas as bestas do campo bramam a ti; porque os rios de agua se seccaram, e o fogo consumiu os pastos do deserto.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

A devastating locust plague destroys the crops of Judah, cutting off food, joy, and even the offerings at the temple. Joel calls priests and people to a solemn fast in the face of this disaster.

Explanation

The book of Joel opens with a real and visible agricultural catastrophe: successive waves of locusts (palmerworm, locust, cankerworm, and caterpillar) devour everything in their path, like an invading army. In Judah's agrarian economy, this meant widespread famine, since wheat, wine, and oil were the foundation of daily food and also of the offerings brought to the temple. Joel interprets this natural disaster as a wake-up call from God, not merely an accident of nature. His response is not panic, but calling an assembly for fasting and prayer. The application for today is that material crises can be opportunities to reexamine our relationship with God, rather than simply causes for despair.

Fun facts

  • Locust swarms in the ancient Near East could cover areas of hundreds of square kilometers and devour all vegetation within hours — a phenomenon well documented by historians and still observed today in parts of Africa and the Middle East.
  • The sequence of four insect names in verse 4 likely describes stages of the same insect (from young to adult) or successive waves of infestation, intensifying the idea of total, repeated destruction.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Joel 1:1The book of Joel doesn't mention any king or name a foreign empire, so scholars don't even agree on which century it was written in, ranging from the ninth to the fifth century B.C. What can be said for certain is the setting: Judah and Jerusalem, hit by a locust plague so massive it became a symbol of God's own judgment.
  2. Joel 1:2Joel calls the elders to bear witness: a calamity of this magnitude — the locust plague — had never happened before, not even in the memory of their fathers.
  3. Joel 1:3Orders that this story be told from generation to generation, as a mark so serious that the people must never forget it.
  4. Joel 1:4The text uses four different words for locust (the palmerworm, the locust, the cankerworm, the caterpillar), which may be growth stages of the insect or names for successive swarms; either way, it is a plague that devastates in waves, leaving nothing behind for the next.
  5. Joel 1:5A direct call to the drunkards: wake up, because the locust plague even destroyed the wine they loved to drink.
  6. Joel 1:6The 'nation' here is the locust swarm itself, compared to an invading army with the teeth of a lion — as devastating as a real military invasion.
  7. Joel 1:7The plague wrecked the vineyards and fig trees, stripping even the bark off the plants and leaving the branches white and dead.
  8. Joel 1:8The land must mourn like a young widow who lost her husband right after the wedding — a deep, unexpected grief.
  9. Joel 1:9With no wheat and no wine, the priests could no longer make the temple's daily offerings — the famine became a religious crisis too, because normal worship simply stopped.
  10. Joel 1:10Summarizes the total agricultural devastation: wheat, wine, and oil, the three pillars of the era's economy, all destroyed at once.
  11. Joel 1:11Farmers and winemakers mourn publicly because the entire harvest, of wheat and barley, was lost.
  12. Joel 1:12A list of fruit trees all withered — the people's joy disappears along with the plants that sustained their lives.
  13. Joel 1:13A special summons to the priests to put on sackcloth, because without a harvest there is no way to keep making the daily offerings at the temple.
  14. Joel 1:14A call to a solemn fast, gathering everyone at the temple to cry out to God together in the face of the crisis.
  15. Joel 1:15'The day of the Lord' is a phrase that appears in almost every minor prophet: it isn't a date on a calendar, but any moment when God intervenes decisively to judge or to save — here, the locust plague itself is already treated as a preview of that day.
  16. Joel 1:16A rhetorical question: everyone can already see with their own eyes that the food is gone and the joy of the temple has vanished.
  17. Joel 1:17Even the seeds planted rot under the soil, and the barns stand empty and broken down for lack of wheat.
  18. Joel 1:18The animals suffer too, groaning for lack of pasture — the famine reaches even the cattle and the flocks of sheep.
  19. Joel 1:19The prophet himself cries out to God, describing the devastation as a fire that consumed everything — a strong image for the effect of the drought and the plague.
  20. Joel 1:20Even the wild animals 'cry' to God because the rivers have completely dried up — all of creation suffers along with the people.

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