Books of the Bible

The Book of Joel

Old Testament · Minor Prophets · Genre: Prophecy · Author: The prophet Joel · Chapters: 3

Joel uses a devastating locust plague to call God's people to repentance and to announce the day of the Lord. It warns of judgment but overflows with promise, above all the pledge that God will one day pour out his Spirit on all people.

Start reading: Joel chapter 1

A key verse

And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.Joel 2:13 (KJV)

The setting and background of Joel

Joel is among the twelve Minor Prophets, a short book prompted by a specific disaster, a plague of locusts that devastated Judah. The precise time of Joel's ministry is uncertain, but his message is timeless: he reads the catastrophe as a summons from God to repent before the greater day of the Lord.

The book moves from the locust plague to a call for wholehearted repentance, appealing to a God who is gracious and merciful, and then to promises of restoration and, most famously, of the outpouring of God's Spirit on all flesh. It gathers up its themes around the day of the Lord, a day of both judgment and salvation.

Joel was written to call God's people to genuine repentance and to hold out hope of restoration and of the Spirit poured out. Its promise of the Spirit is one of the most important in the Old Testament. In the sweep of Scripture, the apostle Peter stands up at Pentecost and declares that Joel's words are being fulfilled through the risen Jesus, so that all who call on the Lord may be saved.

The story and structure of Joel

Joel prophesied to Judah, though the precise time of his ministry is uncertain. His occasion was a catastrophe: a plague of locusts had swept over the land in successive waves, stripping the fields bare, ruining the harvest, and bringing the whole community to its knees. Joel reads this disaster not as mere misfortune but as a summons from God.

He calls the people to wake up and mourn, to gather the whole community, from the elders to the nursing infants, to fast and cry out to God. Above all he urges them to rend their hearts and not their garments, to return to the Lord with genuine repentance, for God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

Joel announces the day of the Lord, a day of reckoning when God will act decisively, both in judgment against sin and in salvation for his people. The locust plague becomes a warning of that greater day, and the prophet holds it before the people to move them to return before it comes.

To those who repent, Joel promises restoration: God will drive away the destroyer, send the rains, and restore the years that the locusts have eaten, a picture of God's power to redeem even our losses. The land will overflow again, and the people will know that the Lord is in their midst and that there is no other God.

The brightest promise of the book is the outpouring of the Spirit. God pledges to pour out his Spirit on all flesh, so that sons and daughters, old and young, servants and free, will prophesy and know him, and that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This is the very promise the apostle Peter declares fulfilled at Pentecost.

The great themes of Joel

Key passages in Joel

Joel in the sweep of Scripture

Joel takes its place among the twelve Minor Prophets as a concentrated call to repentance in the face of the day of the Lord. Its promise of the outpouring of the Spirit is one of the most important in the Old Testament, for the apostle Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost and declares that Joel's words are being fulfilled before the crowd's eyes. Its call that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved is echoed in the New Testament as the heart of the gospel invitation.

Where Christ is in Joel

Joel's promise that God would pour out his Spirit on all flesh is fulfilled at Pentecost through the risen Jesus, who having ascended pours out the Spirit on his church. His call for all who call on the name of the Lord to be saved is taken up by the apostles and applied to Christ, so that the salvation Joel foresaw is now offered to everyone who calls on Jesus as Lord.

How to read Joel well

Read Joel as a call to return to God with your whole heart, not with empty outward gestures but with genuine repentance, trusting in a God who is gracious and merciful. Let its picture of restoration assure you that God can redeem even the years that sorrow and sin have eaten. And rejoice that the Spirit Joel promised has been poured out through Jesus, so that all who call on the name of the Lord, including you, may be saved.

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