JOEL CHAPTER 1 - 3

BOOK OF JOEL

The second prophet of twelve on the shelf
Is like Hasan who came to beat the elf
With fine diplomacy instead of war
And never one to settle angry score.
The book of Joel speaks of that great cloud
That fell upon the city and the crowd,
The horrible abomination’s spell,
And how the northern king came in to quell
And then without a hand to help him fell.
The warning trumpet sounds the judgement call
To bring the remnant into heavenly hall,
The secret place before Your ark and throne
Where Your commandments glow on heart and stone,
Where Your law stands in fragrance and alone.

JOEL 1

1 The word of YHWH that came to Joel
And he was the son of Pethuel.
2 Hear this, you elders, and give ear,
All you inhabitants appear
Upon the land! Has anything
Like this happened in all your spring,
Or even in your fathers’ days?
3 Tell your children about the ways,
Let your children tell their offspring,
And theirs a generation more.
4 What caterpillars left goes in
The stomach of locusts for sin,
And what the locusts leave is eaten
By crawling locusts still unbeaten,
And what the crawling locusts leave
The cankerworms at last receive.
5 Wake up, old drunks and shed a tear,
And howl aloud, who wine revere,
Because the sweet wine is cut off
From your mouths that have learned to scoff.
6 A nation’s arrived in my land,
Strong and without number in band,
Whose teeth are like the lion’s teeth,
With molars like young lions’ sheath.
7 He’s laid my vine waste, barked my fig,
He’s made it wholly bare of twig,
And thrown it out, made branches white,
And destroyed everything in sight.

Beloved, I’d think that when the locusts came
The folk would know how to avoid the shame
By filling barn with locust carcass till
There was enough grasshopper meat to fill
The stomach of each one till they were ill.
I’d eat the locusts that ate up the grain
That had grown for me under sun and rain.
I’d fry them in the stubble left to eat
By the consumer of barley and wheat.
When You, Beloved, lay on the world a shroud
Of punishment, there’s silver on each cloud,
And where Your hand destroys, You think aloud
Of mercy on the sinful, wicked crowd.
You are too good to us, more than is meet.

Fair John too saw the locusts rise in swarm
From the abyss, and along the smoke warm
To fill the earth with hissing and the storm.
When Abdul Malik finally came in power
To cut down the town with his judgement hour,
To build the caliphate upon the rock
Of holiness, it was a locust stock.
The Muslim hordes could have been messengers
Of sweetness and of righteousness that stirs,
They could have been, but were not, but brought tears
To those who kept Your law within the fears
Of prophets and divine guides. I still come
Into the temple with hands washed and hum
My prayers beneath Al-Aqsa’s marbled piers.

8 Lament like a virgin in sack
Cloth mourning for young husband’s back.
9 The meal offering, wine offering too,
Are cut off from the house of YHWH,
Mourn priests and ministers of YHWH.
10 The field is wasted, the land mourns,
The corn destroyed, the grape juice bourns
Are dried up, and the last oil scorns.
11 Be you ashamed, you farmer men,
And wail, you vineyard keepers then,
For wheat and barley, harvest lost
And out of every field now tossed.
12 The vine’s dried up, the fig tree too,
The pomegranate tree knows no dew,
The palm also and apple tree,
All the trees in both field and lea
Are withered, because joy is gone
From the children of men at dawn.
13 Tighten your belts and cry, you priests,
Howl, altar servants, like the beasts,
Come lie the night in sackcloth dressed,
My God’s servants and self-confessed,
Because the meal offering and drink
Offering is held off from the brink
Of the house of your Ælohim,
And all of you are lost in scheme.

Today I’d say the farmer should not be
Ashamed of what he tried to do and see.
It’s politicians and the marketplace
That have set noble farmer in disgrace.
Its economic laws of global range
That limit good prospects and foster strange
Fire on the altar of the betting house.
It’s humankind that’s worse than nibbling mouse.
In those days ancient when Joel preached, the act
Of God or earth’s disaster was the fact
That fated humankind to bite the dust.
But now it’s spoilers of the sacred trust
Of the world bank who mouse and locust-like
Eat all, but they’re not edible like shrike.

14 Make a fast holy, call to pray,
Gather the elders and the sway
Of all the dwellers in the land
To the house of YHWH your God’s stand,
And pray to YHWH to lend a hand.
15 Woe on the day! For YHWH’s day’s near,
Devastation shall soon appear
From the Almighty and for fear.
16 Is not food wasted in our sight,
Joy and gladness from our God’s right?
17 The seeds shrivel under their ploughs,
The garners destroyed and the cows’
Barns broken, for corn’s under blight.
18 The very animals groan loud,
The herds of cattle in a crowd
Stand there perplexed, because they’ve got
No pasture, flocks of sheep in lot
Are desolate before the plot.
19 To You, O YHWH, I cry aloud,
The fire’s consumed the pastures’ shroud
Upon the wilderness, the flame
Burned all the trees in the fields’ claim.
20 The beasts of the field cry to You
Also for the rivers of dew
Are dried up and the fire devoured
The desert pasture and unshowered.

The earth itself keeps Ramadhan to fast
From food and drink before the east wind’s blast.
The pastures rise before the blazing sun
To find the dry wind when the day is done.
The prophet may use the disastrous way
That nature sometimes takes from human sway
To call the folk to Your repentance when
The immoral of town and country men
Forget that justice is a divine law.
They’d rather live by sabre, tooth and claw.
Beloved, though all about me is Your glow,
And everything I see is divine show,
It is my choice, not Yours, that I return
In faith to You when leaves of pasture burn.

JOEL 2

1 Blow the trumpet in the fortress,
And sound an alarm of redress
In My holy mountain! Let all
The dwellers in the land tremble,
For the day of YHWH is coming,
For it is at hand, at the spring.
2 A day of darkness, gloominess,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
Like morning clouds spread on the hills.
A people, great and strong, distils
The like of whom has never been,
Nor will there ever be such seen
After their coming, even for
Many generations and more.
3 A fire devours before them, and
Behind them a flame burns, the land
Is like the Garden of the Lord,
As Eden before them, a sword
And wilderness behind them shows,
Surely nothing escapes that goes.
4 The likeness of them’s like the way
That horses look and horsemen’s sway,
And so like that they’ll run away.
5 And like the sound of chariots
On mountaintops they’ll jump like shots,
And like the noise of fiery flame
Devouring stubble, as the claim
Of a strong folk in battle aim.

When Omar’s armies swept across the land
The prophecy fulfilled in all that planned
The flaming hordes, and yet You stood to weep
That so soon Your own prophet’s people keep
The heathen power alive. No quicker sum
Of earth’s apostasy had ever come.
While Ali washed the body of the fair,
While it was still warm, they all gathered where
Apostasy was framed with pagan care.
That meeting in the back shed was the start
Of martyrdom and plague of war to part
The world in evil trinities of fate.
Hypocrisy’s to foster soon and late
Divine One to divided folk and state.

6 Before their face the folk shall be
Pained greatly, all faces shall see
Blackness. 7 They’ll come to run like great
Warriors, they’ll climb the wall and gate
Like men of war; and they shall march
Every one on his ways, through arch
They’ll not break their ranks or be late.
8 Neither shall one push on another,
In his own path shall walk each brother,
And when they fall upon the sword,
They shall not be wounded or gored.
9 They shall run back and forth into
The city; they shall run in crew
Upon the wall, and they shall climb
Up on the houses, in their time
They’ll enter windows like a thief.
10 The earth shall quake before them and
The sky shall tremble at the stand
Of sun and moon darkened, and stars
Shall stop their shining at the bars.
11 And YHWH shall send His voice before
His army, for His camp on shore
Is very large, for His word goes
Out in strength: as when YHWH’s day shows
Great and terrible. Who can close?

The trumpets blown on Zion in a call
Of warning echo from the city wall,
They rise in woes that John saw from the isle
Where he dispelled the veils and saw a while.
The prophecy of that dark century
That saw abomination set freely
Upon the temple mount that was laid bare
Appears here in such words that still seem fair
In all their cant and poetry on air.
Abomination on that hill is not
The golden dome or Aqsa to be sought,
But that gross dividing of lot from lot,
The trinity of faiths that should in plot
Be one who have one God, Beloved and rare.

12 “That’s now also why,” so says YHWH,
Turn back to Me with all your heart,
And with fasting and weeping too,
And with the mourning of your part.
13 “And tear your heart, and not your clothes,
And turn to YHWH your Ælohim,
For He is gracious and does seem
Merciful, slow to wrath and of
Great kindness and turns in His love
From evil worked out on the scene.

Ah my Beloved, here in the words You sent
Down on the prophet to tell what You meant
Begin with the great pair that is now known
From the Qur’an and each day must be shown
In prayer prostrating before Your great throne.
Rahiim Huu! As I hear the rising sound
My soul whirls like a spark up from the ground
As momentary sacrifice to You
The length that human breath can ever do.
Though I may fast and weep and tear my heart
As well as patched and woollen cloak unsmart,
My soul cannot remain downtrodden long,
It joins too quickly in the praise and song
That prophets and divine guides have made strong.

The true faith in this day calls for the sound
Of weeping and the beating breast around.
While pagan deities on earth abound,
And the din of their worship on the ground
Fill all the air of church and palace hall
Of grand cathedral and the quire stall,
My own heart bows beneath breast-beating hand,
And I weep for the sacrifice on land
Of good and true, Your own sent in the band.
Beloved, I can identify the faith
Of truth in contrast to the cult of wraith
By sound of weeping on Karbela’s sand.
I turn from sorrow and from joy at last
And find Your heart open to the outcast.

14 Who knows if he’ll return, repent
And leave a blessing with the sent,
A food offering and drink one too
BeforeYHWH your Ælohim’s view?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion and
Set apart a fast, call the band
In solemn assembly to stand.
16 Gather the folk and sanctify
The congregation, and bring by
The elders, gather all the sons
And those that suck the breast in tons,
Let the bridegroom go from his room
And the bride from her closet’s doom.
17 Let the priests, ministers of YHWH,
Weep between the porch and the view
Of the altar, and let them say,
“Spare Your folk, O YHWH, in Your way,
And do not give Your heritage
To be reproached by pagan rule,
So they should say among the school
Of people, where’s their God in age?”
18 Then YHWH will be jealous before
His land and pity His folk more.
19 Indeed, YHWH will answer and say
To His folk, “See now on that day
I’ll send you corn and wine and oil,
And you’ll be satisfied for toil,
And I’ll make you no more reproach
Among the heathen in their broach.
20 “But I’ll remove far off from you
The northern army, and will strew
Him in a land barren in view,
And desolate, with his face on
The east sea, and his back at dawn
Toward the western sea, the smell
Of his spoil and rot shall rise well,
Because he’s done awful things drawn.

The great fall of the northern king without
Help of any is prophesied, no doubt,
In Daniel and we saw the Ottoman
Fall without help and without any plan
By Arab and the hand of Englishman.
That prophecy was great and clearly seen
By old Uriah Smith with vision keen,
And caught up in a book and spread abroad,
And then denied by his assembly’s laud.
Beloved, if I had held that clear-eyed way,
It would have kept me from the form and sway
Of evil masquerading for the good,
It would have kept me in the way I should.
I take just Your big ten to guide through wood.

21 Fear not, O land; be glad, rejoice:
For YHWH will do great things and choice.
22 Don’t be afraid, beasts of the field,
For desert pastures spring, trees yield
Their fruit, the fig tree and the vine
Give of their strength to wine and dine.
23 Be glad, sons of the fortress, and
Rejoice in YHWH your Ælohim;
He’s given the early rain as planned,
And He’ll surely bring down on beam
The early rain, and then at last
The latter rain before is passed
The first month in the spring amassed.
24 And the floors shall be full of wheat,
The vats shall overflow on feet
With grape juice and with oil to beat.
25 I’ll make a restitution for
The years the locust ate the store,
The cankerworm’s destruction and
The caterpillar and the band
Of palmerworm, My great army
I sent among you on a spree.
26 You’ll eat in plenty satisfied,
And praise the name of YHWH beside,
You Ælohim that has done great
Wonders for you, and My folk late
Shall never be shamed in the gate.
27 And you will know that I’m among
Israel, YHWH you Ælohim sung,
And no other, and My folk’s fame
Shall never enter into shame.

The ones who tire of waiting for the gift
The promise of Your word contrives to lift
Forget the first month and the promised rain,
The harvest and the hope of honest gain.
Instead they set the year back in the grade
Of winter and of autumn in parade,
And set up thrones to fill the earth with crass
And reign as men ignoring You en masse.
Beloved, I wait the equinox and then
Count to the fourth day of the week again
And start my year of Sabbaths and the time
To meet with you in rain or sunny clime.
The sweetness of Your harvest rises while
I count Your Sabbaths off mile after mile.

28 It will happen after that I
Will pour out upon every guy
My spirit, and your sons and lasses
Shall prophesy, your old men’s passes
Shall be in dreams and your young men
Shall come to see visions again.
29 Also on man-servants and on
Maid-servants in those days I’ve drawn
My spirit from the dawn to dawn.
30 And I’ll show wonders in the sky,
And in the earth, blood, fire and high
Pillars of smoke. 31 The sun shall be
Turned into darkness, and the moon
To blood, before great horror’s noon
Of YHWH to come for woe and boon.
32 And it shall happen every one
Who cantillates YHWH’s name when done
Shall be saved, for in fortress mount
And in Jerusalem to count
Shall be deliverance, as YHWH
Has promised, and the remnant crew
That YHWH shall call out into view.

The centuries have seen the rise of those
Who prophesied in poverty of clothes,
The wonders of the sky once all arose
In dark days and in bloody moons that froze
The heart of people who had read or not
Your words of comfort and of fearful plot.
And so today I live upon the shore
Of judgement waiting for the sword in store
To set of justice on the fated earth,
And as I wait I cantillate Your worth
And so join in the remnant that is sealed
To Your obedience for their faith’s yield.
The few are scattered all about the earth,
Yet drink Your hidden waters in the dearth.

JOEL 3

1 See, in those days and in that time
When I shall bring back from the crime
Of their captivity Judah
And Jerusalem, 2 I will draw
Also all nations and will bring
Them down into the valley’s spring
Of Jehoshaphat, and will plead
With them there for My folk in need
And for My heritage Israel,
Whom they have scattered hill from dell
Among the nations and in plot
Divided up My land they got.
3 And they have cast lots for My folk,
And have traded a boy in stroke
For prostitute’s and sold a girl
For wine to drink in bout and swirl.
4 So what do you have in My way,
O Tyre and Sidon and the sway
Of all the coasts of Palestine?
Will you give back recompense fine?
And if you recompense me then
I’ll quickly turn your pay again
Upon your own head and your men.
5 Since You’ve received silver and gold
From me, and carried as in fold
Into your temples my good things,
6 And Judah’s children and the wings
Of fair Jerusalem you’ve sold
Out to the Grecians, so you might
Remove them from their borders’ right.
7 See, I shall raise them from the place
Where you have sold them, and the pace
Return on your own head and face.

I guess this is the prophetic record
By which the Maccabees once could afford
To claim the Spartans as their kith and kin,
Unless it was by contrast to the din
Of Hellenistic fascination with
The gymnast and checkered Athenic myth.
Beloved, Your own are bought and sold today
In hardly a less mercantilic way,
And served up on the altar of high style,
And portioned out to make a buck a mile.
The weathered artefacts offered in aid
Of ancient civilizations well paid
Offer a veil and opening in glade:
The more things change the more they are waylaid.

8 I’ll sell your sons and daughters too
Into the hand of Judah’s crew,
And they’ll sell them to Sabeans,
To a far folk, and by YHWH’s plans.
9 Proclaim this among the Gentiles,
Prepare for war, wake up the files
Of mighty men, let soldiers come
Near and let them rise up and hum.
10 Beat your ploughshares in swords and your
Pruning hooks into spears by score,
Let the weak say ”I’m strong in corps.”
11 Gather together and come all
You pagan people to the ball,
And bring your mighty ones in stall
To come down by YHWH at His call.
12 Let the heathen awake and come
Up to Jehoshaphat’s vale’s sum,
For there I’ll sit to judge them all,
The heathen round about the kraal.
13 Turn in the sickle, harvest’s ripe;
Come down, the press is full to swipe,
The vats are running over, mate,
See how their wickedness is great.
14 The crowds, the crowds stand in the vale
Of the decision: for the wail
Of YHWH’s day is near in the vale
Of their decision to regale.

How can You judge the nations at the stall
Unless You gave them laws on which to call?
Justice demands the judge be backed by what
The royal legislation has to shut.
The divine right to judge is proof enough
That there’s a divine law, benign or gruff,
By which to live and by which to judge call
Beneath the ivory throne and marble wall.
Beloved, I know commandments once proclaimed
On Sinai have passed round a world enflamed
To be the moral ground in every place.
Beloved, I know Your law is found in trace
In every faith that springs along the fence
Of fortunes and of platitudes in tents.

15 The sun and moon shall become dark,
The stars withdraw shining on park.
16 And YHWH shall shout from fortress hill,
And send voice from Jerusalem;
And heavens and earth shall shake, but still
YHWH shall be His folk’s hope and gem,
The strength of Israel’s people’s hem.
17 So you shall know that I am YHWH
Your Ælohim who lives in view
Of the fortress, My holy mount.
Holy Jerusalem shall count,
And there’ll be no strangers to pass
Through her again to say alas.

18 And it shall come to pass that day
The mountains shall drop in the way
New grape juice and the hills shall flow
With milk, and all the rivers show
Judah waters in plenty, and
A spring shall come out of the grand
House of YHWH and water the vale
Of Shittim and to great avail.
19 Egypt shall be a desolation,
And Edom a desert for nation,
Because of violence they brought
Against the sons of Judah sought,
Because they shed innocent blood
In their land to flow like a flood.
20 But Judah shall stay evermore,
Jerusalem in every score
Of generations more and more.
21 I’ll make enquiry for their blood
That I have left as in a flood
And unavenged, for YHWH shall dwell
In the fortress of Israel.

I’ve seen the hills of Edom in distress
Of poverty and in the humble dress
Of dearth, while on the high Judean shore
The blossoms of the almonds fade no more.
The fifth kingdom after the ragged tear
Made in the tent of David not to spare
Arises in the heart and hope to bear
The fruit of righteousness upon the air.
Beloved, take vengeance on the lands and sea
That have in devastation tragically
Left hate and sorrow in the gate of Gath
And wiped across the hills a sullen path.
When time has failed to bring Your kingdom on,
Let purpose in uprightness speed the dawn.

AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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