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Joel 1

VBL · Chapter 1/3

1El Señor envió un mensaje a través de Joel, hijo de Petuel.

2Escuchen esto, ancianos. Presten atención todos los que habitan la tierra. ¿Alguna vez ha ocurrido algo semejante a esto en su experiencia o la de sus antepasados?

3Enseñen esto a sus hijos, y que ellos también enseñen a sus hijos, y sus hijos a la siguiente generación.

4Lo que dejaron las langostas devastadoras, se lo han comido las langostas acaparadoras; lo que dejaron las langostas acaparadoras, se lo han comido las angostas saltamontes; y lo que han dejado las langostas saltamontes, se lo han comido las langostas destructoras.

5¡Despierten, borrachos, y lloren! ¡Giman, bebedores de vino, porque les han arrebatado el vino nuevo de la boca!

6Una nación ha invadido mi tierra: es poderosa y son tantos que no se pueden contar. Sus dientes son como de león, sus muelas como de leona.

7Han arruinado mis viñedos y ha desruído mis higueras, las ha pelado por completo, reduciéndolas a apenas unas cepas blancas y desnudas.

8Giman como una novia vestida de silicio, lamentando la muerte de su prometido.

9Ha cesado la ofrenda de grano y de vino en el Templo. Los sacerdotes y ministros se lamentan ante el Señor.

10Los campos están devastados, y la tierra gime porque el grano está arruinado, el nuevo vino se seca, y escasea el aceite de oliva.

11Sientan pena, granjeros, y lloren ustedes, viñadores, porque las cosechas han quedado destruidas.

12Los viñedos están resecos, y la higuera se marchita; los árboles de granada, palma y durazno, todos los árboles frutales se han secado, al tiempo que la felicidad del pueblo.

13¡Vístanse de silicio sacerdotes, y giman! ¡Lloren ustedes, los que ministran ante el altar! Vayan y pasen la noche vestidos con silicio, ministros de mi Dios, porque las ofrendas de grano y vino han cesado en el Templo.

14Proclamen ayuno, y convoquen una reunión santa. Llamen a los ancianos y al pueblo para que se reúnan en el Templo, y clamen a su Dios, al Señor.

15¡Oh qué día terrible! Porque el día del Señor está cerca, y vendrá como destrucción del Todopoderoso.

16¿No hemos visto como se han llevado la comida frente a nuestros ojos? No hay gozo ni alegría en el Templo de Dios.

17Las semillas plantadas en el suelo se marchitan; los galpones están vacíos, y los graneros están destruidos porque el grano se ha secado.

18Los animales de la granja gimen de hambre. Los rebaños de ganado deambulan por todas partes porque no encuentran hierba para comer, y el rebaño de ovejas sufre.

19¡A ti, Señor, clamo! Porque el fuego ha destruido la hierba en el desierto. Las llamas han quemado las huertas.

20Hasta los animales en las granjas anhelan tu ayuda porque los arroyos se han secado, y el fuego ha destruido los pastizales en el desierto.

📖 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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