Joel was probably a resident in Judah, as his commission was to that people. He makes frequent mention of Judah and Jerusalem (1:14; 2:1,15,32; 3:1,12,17,20,21).
He probably flourished in the reign of Uzziah (about B.C. 800), and was contemporary with Amos and Isaiah.
The contents of this book are,
A prophecy of a great public calamity then impending over the land, consisting of a want of water and an extraordinary plague of locusts ((1:1-2:11).).
The prophet then calls on his countrymen to repent and to turn to God, assuring them of his readiness to forgive (2:12-17), and foretelling the restoration of the land to its accustomed fruitfulness (18-26).
Then follows a Messianic prophecy, quoted by Peter (Acts 2:39).
Finally, the prophet foretells portents and judgments as destined to fall on the enemies of God (ch. 3, but in the Hebrew text 4).
1. Eldest son of Samuel the prophet, (1 Samuel 8:2; 1 Chronicles 6:33; 15:17) and father of Heman the singer. (B.C. 1094.)
2. In (1 Chronicles 6:36) Authorized Version, Joel seems to be merely a corruption of Shaul in ver. 24.
3. A Simeonite chief. (1 Chronicles 4:35)
4. A descendant of Reuben. Junius and Tremellius make him the son of Hanoeh, while others trace his descent through Carmi. (1 Chronicles 5:4) (B.C. before 1092.)
5. Chief of the Gadites, who dwelt in the land of Bashan. (1 Chronicles 5:12) (B.C. 782.)
6. The son of Izrahiah, of the tribe of Issachar. (1 Chronicles 7:3)
7. The brother of Nathan of Zobah, (1 Chronicles 11:38) and one of David’s guard.
8. The chief of the Gershomites in the reign of David. (1 Chronicles 15:7,11)
9. A Gershonite Levite in the reign of David, son of Jehiel, a descendant of Laadan, and probably the same as the preceding. (1 Chronicles 23:8; 26:22) (B.C. 1014.)
10. The son of Pedaiah, and a chief of the half-tribe of Manasseh west of Jordan, in the reign of David. (1 Chronicles 27:20) (B.C. 1014.)
11. A Kohathite Levite in the reign of Hezekiah. (2 Chronicles 29:12) (B.C. 726.)
12. One of the sons of Nebo, who returned with Ezra, and had married a foreign wife. (Ezra 10:43) (B.C. 459.)
13. The son of Zichri, a Benjamite. (Nehemiah 11:9)
14. The second of the twelve minor prophets, the son of Pethuel, probably prophesied in Judah in the reign of Uzziah, about B.C. 800. The book of Joel contains a grand outline of the whole terrible scene, which was to be depicted more and more in detail by subsequent prophets. The proximate event to which the prophecy related was a public calamity, then impending on Judah, of a two-plague of locusts --and continuing for several years. The prophet exhorts the people to turn to God with penitence, fasting and prayer; and then, he says, the plague shall cease, and the rain descendent in its season, and the land yield her accustomed fruit. Nay, the time will be a most joyful one; for God, by the outpouring of his Spirit, will extend the blessings of true religion to heathen lands. The prophecy is referred to in Acts 2.
