Joel

Joel is a Hebrew personal name meaning "Yahweh is God," borne in Scripture by several individuals but chiefly by the prophet whose oracles form the book that carries his name. The book itself gives him only a single line of identification: "The word of Yahweh that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel" (Joel 1:1). Nothing further about his family, hometown, or occupation is recorded, and the text says nothing about when he prophesied.

What the book attributes to him is a proclamation of the day of Yahweh. He is commanded to "Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain!" because "the day of Yahweh comes, for it is close at hand" (Joel 2:1) — "A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness" (Joel 2:2), heralded by a "great and strong people" whose advance shakes earth and sky, so that "the sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining" (Joel 2:10). That army is called Yahweh's own — "Yahweh thunders his voice before his army… for the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome, and who can endure it?" (Joel 2:11). The oracles then turn to the nations: they are gathered into "the valley of Jehoshaphat" and judged "for my people, and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations" (Joel 3:2); the summons goes out, "Prepare for war!" (Joel 3:9), and the cry is "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Yahweh is near in the valley of decision" (Joel 3:14). Against that backdrop Yahweh "will roar from Zion… but Yahweh will be a refuge to his people" (Joel 3:16), Jerusalem will be holy (Joel 3:17), and "a fountain will flow out from Yahweh's house" (Joel 3:18).

In the New Testament the prophet is named at Pentecost, where Peter explains the outpouring of the Spirit by saying, "But this is what has been spoken through the prophet Joel" (Acts 2:16), and then quotes material from Joel 2:28–32, including the darkening of sun and moon before "the day of Yahweh." Other men named Joel appear in the ancestral and administrative lists, including Samuel's firstborn (1 Samuel 8:2); at 1 Chronicles 6:28 some translations read the firstborn's name as "Vashni," which most textual scholars take to be the Hebrew phrase "and the second" mistakenly heard as a proper name, with Joel supplied from the parallel in Samuel.

Traditions read Joel differently without disagreeing about the text. Jewish and Christian interpreters alike have debated whether the "great and strong people" of Joel 2:2 is a locust plague described in heightened imagery, a human army, or both, and whether the book belongs to the ninth century BC or the Persian period; no consensus exists. In Christian interpretation, Acts 2:16 has been read by Pentecostal and much evangelical tradition as showing the prophecy fulfilled in the church's experience of the Spirit, while other traditions treat the Pentecost citation as one stage in a fulfillment that still awaits the final judgment of the nations depicted in Joel 3.

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.