Holy Bible - Obsidian Study Guide

Locust Plague and Lament

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Locust Plague and Lament

Overview

  • Testament: Old
  • Book: Joel
  • Chapters: Joel 1–2
  • Summary: An unprecedented locust invasion strips Judah bare, silencing the temple offerings and compelling Joel to call the entire nation — from drunkards to priests — to fast, mourn, and cry out to God, for the day of the LORD is at hand.

Details

Joel opens with an appeal to communal memory: “Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?” (1:2). The locust invasion is without historical parallel — four successive waves described with four different Hebrew words (gazam, arbeh, yeleq, chasil), each term suggesting a stage of locust development or a successive swarm, the cumulative effect being total agricultural destruction: “That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten” (1:4). No segment of the harvest escapes.

Joel summons different groups to lament in turn — the drunkards, because the wine is cut off (1:5); the nation as a whole, “for a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number” (1:6); the farmers who watch their wheat and barley fail (1:11); and especially the priests, because the grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the LORD (1:9). This last detail is the theological key: the locust plague is not merely an agricultural disaster but a covenantal rupture. When the offerings cease, the daily communication between God and his people — the ritual vocabulary of covenant relationship — falls silent. Joel calls the priests to “sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD” (1:14).

The second chapter amplifies the locust plague into an eschatological vision: “a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations” (2:2). The locust army moves with military precision — “they shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war” (2:7) — and before them the earth quakes and the heavens tremble (2:10). The call to repentance that follows is the book’s most famous passage: “Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments” (2:12–13). The image of tearing garments was the standard ancient Near Eastern mourning ritual; the prophet insists on the inward reality rather than the outward performance. God’s character is cited as the ground of hope: “for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil” (2:13).

Key People Involved

  • Joel — the prophet who interprets the plague as a divine call to repentance and leads the nation in lament
  • The Priests and Elders — summoned by Joel to lead the national fast and assembly before the LORD

Key Places

  • Edom — mentioned later in Joel 3 as one of the nations to be judged; the locust plague begins a sequence culminating in that universal reckoning

Important Verses

“Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.” — Joel 2:12–13

“Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.” — Joel 1:15

Cross-References

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