The people of Israel looked forward to "the day of Yahweh" as a day that Yahweh would judge the nations around them. But Joel warns that Yahweh would also judge Israel for being unfaithful to him. After judging them, Yahweh will restore his people.
Joel's message applies to the people of God in the church age. For Yahweh says, "I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh" and "everyone who calls on Yahweh will be saved" (2:28 and 2:32, quoted by Peter in Acts 2:17 and 2:21).
The traditional title of this book is "The Book of Joel" or just "Joel." Translators may also call it the "The Book about Joel" or "The Sayings of Joel." (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/translate-names]])
Locust attacks occurred often in the ancient Near East. Certain kinds of grasshoppers would come in countless numbers. There would be so many that they would darken the sky like a black cloud that blocked the sunlight. They often came after a long period of no rain. They came down on whatever crops were surviving in the fields and stripped them bare of their leaves. The locusts could not be stopped and caused terrible damage. For this reason, locust attacks served as a powerful image of military attacks in the Old Testament. In Chapters 1 and 2, Joel described locust attacks using military terms. He may have been speaking of enemy invaders coming and destroying the land its people.
There are various names for locusts in the original language of the Old Testament. It is uncertain whether these refer to different kinds of locusts or to the same kind of locust in different stages of growth. For this reason, versions of the Bible differ in how they translate these terms.
Joel also described a drought in Chapter 2. It might have been a real lack of rain. Or Joel may have been speaking of either enemy invaders or Yahweh himself coming to punish his people and the other nations.
Joel prophesied that God will defeat Israel's enemies, rebuild the city of Jerusalem, and rule as victorious king over the whole world. At the same time, God will give his Spirit to all his people, and they will receive messages from him in dreams and visions. (See: [[rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/holyspirit]])
All of the text in the Book of Joel is poetry. The ULB presents it in this way. The UDB, however, presents the text as prose. Translators may choose to use prose in their versions. Translators who want to translate the book as poetry should read about poetry and parallelism. (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/writing-poetry]] and [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-parallelism]])
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