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Joel 1

BLIVRE · Chapter 1/3

1Palavra do SENHOR que veio a Joel, filho de Petuel.

2Ouvi isto, anciãos, e escutai, todos os moradores desta terra. Por acaso isto aconteceu em vossos dias, ou nos dias dos vossos pais?

3Contai disso aos vossos filhos, e vossos filhos aos seus filhos, e seus filhos à outra geração.

4O que restou do gafanhoto cortador o gafanhoto comedor comeu; e o que restou do gafanhoto comedor o gafanhoto devorador comeu, e o que restou do gafanhoto devorador o gafanhoto destruidor comeu.

5Despertai, vós bêbados, e chorai; gemei todos vós que bebeis vinho, por causa do suco de uva, porque foi tirado de vossa boca.

6Porque uma nação subiu sobre minha terra, poderosa e sem número; seus dentes são dentes de leão, e têm presas de leoa.

7Assolou minha videira, e devastou minha figueira; desnudou-a por completo e a derrubou; seus ramos ficaram brancos.

8Chora tu como a virgem vestida de saco por causa do marido de sua juventude.

9As ofertas de cereais e de bebidas se acabaram da casa do SENHOR; os sacerdotes, servos do SENHOR, estão de luto.

10O campo foi assolado, a terra está de luto; porque o trigo foi destruído, o suco de uva se secou, o azeite está em falta.

11Envergonhai-vos, trabalhadores; gemei, plantadores de vinhas, pelo trigo e pela a cevada; porque a colheita do campo pereceu.

12A vide se secou, a figueira definhou, assim como a romeira, a palmeira, e a macieira; todas as árvores do campo se secaram; por isso a alegria se secou entre os filhos dos homens.

13Cingi-vos e lamentai, sacerdotes; gemei, ministros do altar; vinde e deitai em sacos, trabalhadores de meu Deus; porque as ofertas de alimentos e de bebidas foram tiradas da casa de vosso Deus.

14Santificai um jejum; convocai uma reunião solene; congregai os anciãos e todos os moradores desta terra na casa do SENHOR vosso Deus, e clamai ao SENHOR.

15Ai daquele dia! Porque perto está o dia do SENHOR, e virá do Todo-Poderoso como destruição.

16Por acaso não foi tirado o alimento de diante de nossos olhos, a alegria e o prazer da casa de nosso Deus?

17As sementes se apodreceram debaixo de seus torrões, os celeiros foram assolados, os depósitos foram derrubados; porque o trigo se secou.

18Como geme o gado! As manadas dos vacas estão confusas, porque não têm pasto! Os rebanhos das ovelhas estão desolados.

19A ti, ó SENHOR, eu clamo; porque o fogo consumiu os pastos do deserto, e chama incendiou todas as árvores do campo.

20Até os animais do campo clamam a ti, porque os rios de águas se secaram, 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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