• Title Page
• Pentateuch
• History
• Poetry
• Prophets
  • Lesson 23: Introduction to the Prophetic Scriptures
  • Lesson 24: Joel
  • Lesson 25: Jonah
  • Lesson 26: Amos
  • Lesson 27: Hosea
  • Lesson 28: Micah
  • Lesson 29: Isaiah
  • Lesson 30: Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk and Obadiah
  • Lesson 31: Jeremiah
  • Lesson 32: Ezekiel
• Post Captivity Prophets
• Gospels, Acts
• Pauline Epistles
• General Epistles

His own chosen nation, through whom He will reveal Himself to the nations, the Jews hold through all historical time an official position, and have a sacred character, and in the day of their restoration and of the judgment of the nations, the great question will be, How far have the other nations regarded them as His people, and so treated them?”

Joel

Joel was probably the earliest of all the prophets whose writings have descended to us. His personal history is unknown further than the bare statement (Joel 1:1). His field of labor, however, was presumably Judah rather than Israel, the southern rather than the northern kingdom, because of allusions to the center of public worship which was at Jerusalem, (Joel 1:9, 13-14; 2:15), and because of non-allusions to Israel distinctively. Such places as Joel 2:27, and 3:16, which you may have noticed, are thought by most expositors to mean Israel as inclusive of Judah, i.e., the whole united nation. Although it is assumed, that Joel was the earliest of the prophets, yet the evidence therefore is inferential rather than direct. He is presumably earlier than Amos who is known to have prophesied somewhere about the close of the eighth century B.C., because he seems to be quoted by Amos 5:16-18. He also refers to the same heathen nations as Amos 3:4-6, and to the same physical scourges as prevalent in the land, (Joel 1:4, 17, 20). All the foregoing references are to Joel, a comparison of whose marginal notes will show the corresponding passages in Amos.

General Outline of the Book

As to the book itself we might outline the contents of its chapters thus:

• Joel 1
  • Introduction, Joel 1:1-3
  • Announcement of the coming judgment of locusts, Joel 1:4-5
  • Announcement of a coming judgment from the heathen nations, of which that of the locusts is a kind of type, Joel 1:6-7
  • A lamentation of sorrow, Joel 1:8-12
  • A call to repentance, Joel 1:13-20