Joel 1:1-14*

Note: After further consideration I have departed from the proposal of  Dorsey. He suggests the organising principle is exhortation – A (v2) A'(14), instruction – B(vv3-4) B’ (v13), call to wail – C(vv5-7) C’ (vv11-12), and a centre  (vv8-10) of mourning because the house of the LORD is affected. I think the parallels indicate an ABCB’C’A’ structure.

1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

A. Elders and people
2 Hear this, you elders;
give ear, all inhabitants of the land!
Has such a thing happened in your days,
or in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation.
4 What the cutting locust left,
the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
the destroying locust has eaten.

B. the consumers of wine
5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
and 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 against my land,
powerful and beyond number;
its teeth are lions’ teeth,
and it has the fangs of a lioness.
7 It has laid waste my vine
and splintered my fig tree;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
their branches are made white.

C. the priests
8 Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth
for the bridegroom of her youth.
9 The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
from the house of the LORD.
The priests mourn, the ministers of the LORD.
10 The fields are destroyed,
the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed,
the wine dries up, the oil languishes.

B’. the producers of wine and food
11 Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil;
wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley,
because the harvest of the field has perished.
12 The vine dries up;
the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
all the trees of the field are dried up,
and gladness dries up from the children of man.

C’. the priests
13 Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God!
Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

A’.  Elders and people
14 Consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the LORD your God,
and cry out to the LORD.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.