Lectionary Calendar
Saturday, November 29th, 2025
the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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Read the Bible

Hebrew Names Version

Joel 1:1

The Word of the LORD that came to Yo'el, the son of Petu'el.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Joel;   Nation;   Pethuel;   Scofield Reference Index - Day (of Jehovah);   Joel;   Thompson Chain Reference - Leaders;   Prophets;   Religious;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Prophets;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Word;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Pethuel;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Joel;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Joel, Book of;   Pethuel;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Gods;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Joel ;   Pethuel ;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Famine;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Scripture;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Pethu'el;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Kingdom of Judah;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Joel (1);   Pethuel;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Zephaniah;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel:
King James Version
The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
English Standard Version
The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
New American Standard Bible
The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
New Century Version
The Lord spoke his word to Joel son of Pethuel:
Amplified Bible
The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
Geneva Bible (1587)
The worde of the Lorde that came to Ioel the sonne of Pethuel.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
Legacy Standard Bible
The word of Yahweh that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
Berean Standard Bible
This is the word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel:
Contemporary English Version
I am Joel the son of Pethuel. And this is the message the Lord gave to me.
Complete Jewish Bible
The word of Adonai that came to Yo'el the son of P'tu'el:
Darby Translation
The word of Jehovah that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
Easy-to-Read Version
Joel son of Pethuel received this message from the Lord :
George Lamsa Translation
THE word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Bethuel:
Good News Translation
This is the Lord 's message to Joel son of Pethuel.
Lexham English Bible
The word of Yahweh that came to Joel son of Pethuel.
Literal Translation
The Word of Jehovah that was to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
American Standard Version
The word of Jehovah that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
Bible in Basic English
The word of the Lord which came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
King James Version (1611)
The word of the Lord that came to Ioel the sonne of Pethuel.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
The worde of the Lorde that came to Ioel the sonne of Pethuel.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
The word of the Lord which came to Joel the son of Bathuel.
English Revised Version
The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
World English Bible
The Word of Yahweh that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
The word of the Lord is this, that was maad to Joel, the sone of Phatuel.
Update Bible Version
The word of Yahweh that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
Webster's Bible Translation
The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
New English Translation
This is the Lord 's message that was given to Joel the son of Pethuel:
New King James Version
The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
New Living Translation
The Lord gave this message to Joel son of Pethuel.
New Life Bible
This is the word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
New Revised Standard
The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel:
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
The word of Yahweh, which came unto Joel, son of Pethuel.
Douay-Rheims Bible
The word of the Lord, that came to Joel, the son of Phatuel.
Revised Standard Version
The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethu'el:
Young's Literal Translation
A word of Jehovah that hath been unto Joel, son of Pethuel:
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
This is the worde of the LORDE, that came vnto Ioel the sonne of Phatuel:
THE MESSAGE
God 's Message to Joel son of Pethuel: Attention, elder statesmen! Listen closely, everyone, whoever and wherever you are! Have you ever heard of anything like this? Has anything like this ever happened before—ever? Make sure you tell your children, and your children tell their children, And their children their children. Don't let this message die out.

Contextual Overview

1 The Word of the LORD that came to Yo'el, the son of Petu'el. 2 Hear this, you Zakenim, And listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Has this ever happened in your days, Or in the days of your fathers? 3 Tell your children about it, And have your children tell their children, And their children, another generation. 4 What the swarming arbeh has left, the great arbeh has eaten. What the great arbeh has left, the khagav has eaten. What the khagav has left, the caterpillar has eaten. 5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; For it is cut off from your mouth. 6 For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he has the fangs of a lioness. 7 He has laid my vine waste, And stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

word: Jeremiah 1:2, Ezekiel 1:3, Hosea 1:1, 2 Peter 1:21

to: Acts 2:16

Cross-References

Genesis 1:4
God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness.
Genesis 1:5
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. There was evening and there was morning, one day.
Genesis 1:11
God said, "Let the eretz put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with its seed in it, on the eretz," and it was so.
Genesis 1:12
The eretz brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with its seed in it, after their kind: and God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:16
God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars.
Genesis 1:17
God set them in the expanse of sky to give light to the eretz,
Genesis 1:19
There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
Genesis 1:20
God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the eretz in the open expanse of sky."
Genesis 1:22
God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the eretz."
Genesis 1:30
To every animal of the eretz, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the eretz, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food." And it was so.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Who this Pethuel was is not known; Jarchi takes him to be the same with Samuel the prophet, who had a son of this name, 1 Samuel 8:2; and gives this reason for his being called Pethuel, because in his prayer he persuaded God; but the long span of time will by no means admit of this, nor the character of Samuel's son agree with Joel; and therefore is rightly denied by Aben Ezra, who observes, however, that this man was an honourable man, and therefore his name is mentioned; and gives this as a rule, that whenever any prophet mentions the name of his father, he was honourable. Perhaps, it is here observed, to distinguish him from another of the same name; and there was one of this name, Joel, a high priest in the reigns of Uzziah and Jotham, according to Seder Olam Zuta i and Abarbinel k; in whose time Joel is by some thought to prophesy.

i Fol. 104. k In Meyer. Anotat. in ib. p, 626.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The word of the Lord that came to Joel - Joel, like Hosea, mentions the name of his father only, and then is silent about his extraction, his tribe, his family. He leaves even the time when he lived, to be guessed at. He would be known only, as the instrument of God. “The word of the Lord came to” him (see the note at Hosea 1:1), and he willed simply to be the voice which uttered it. He was “content to live under the eyes of God, and, as to people, to be known only in what concerned their salvation.” But this he declares absolutely, that the Word of God came to him; in order that we may give faith to his prophecy, being well assured that what he predicted, would come to pass. So the Saviour Himself says, ““My words shall not pass away” Matthew 24:35. For truth admits of nothing false, and what God saith, will certainly be. For “He confirmeth the word of His servant, and performeth the counsel of His messengers” Isaiah 44:26. The prophet claimeth belief then, as speaking not out of his own heart, but out of the mouth of the Lord speaking in the Spirit.” Joel signifies, “The Lord is God.” It owns that God who had revealed Himself, is alone the God. The prophet’s name itself, embodied the truth, which, after the miraculous answer to Elijah’s prayer, all the people confessed, “The Lord He is the God, The Lord He is the God.” Pethuel signifies, “persuaded of God.” The addition of his father’s name distinguished the prophet from others of that name, as the son of Samuel, of king Uzziah, and others.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JOEL

Chronological Notes relative to the commencement of Joel's

prophesying, upon the supposition that this event took place

about six hundred and ninety years before the commencement of

the Christian era.

-Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3314.

-Year of the Julian Period, 4024.

-Year since the Flood, 1658.

-Year from the foundation of Solomon's temple, 322.

-Year since the division of Solomon's monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 285.

-Year since the extinction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, 31.

-Third year of the twenty-second Olympiad.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to the Varronian computation, 64.

-Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 690.

-Cycle of the Sun, 20.

-Cycle of the Moon, 15.

-Third year of Eryxias, the last decennial archon of the Athenians.

-First year of Anaxidamus, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Proclidae.

-Thirty-fifth year of Eurycrates I., king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Eurysthenidae.

-Eleventh year of Deioces, the first king of the Medes.

-Fortieth year of Perdiccas I., king of Macedon.

-Twenty-ninth year of Gyges, king of Lydia.

-Ninth year of Manasseh, king of Judah.

CHAPTER I

This and the beginning of the next chapter contain a double

prophecy, applicable in its primary sense to a plague of

locusts which was to devour the land, and to be accompanied

with a severe drought and famine; and in its secondary sense

it denotes the Chaldean invasion. Both senses must be admitted:

for some of the expressions will apply only to the dearth by

insects; others to the desolation by war. The contexture of

both is beautiful and well conducted. In this chapter the

distress of every order of people is strongly painted; and not

only does the face of nature languish when the God of nature

is displeased, 1-19;

but the very beasts of the field, by a bold figure, are

represented as supplicating God in their distress, and

reproaching the stupidity of man, 20.

NOTES ON CHAP. I

Verse Joel 1:1. The word of the Lord that came to Joel — See the introduction for some account of this prophet, whose history is very obscure. Bishop Newcome thinks that he prophesied while the kingdom of Judah subsisted, and refers to Joel 2:1; Joel 2:15, (see also Joel 1:14, and the note there,) but not long before its subversion as his words, Joel 3:1, seem to imply that its captivity was approaching. See 2 Kings 21:10-15. He therefore favours the conjecture of Drusius, that this prophet lived under Manasseh, and before his conversion, 2 Chronicles 33:13; that is, some time from before Christ 697 to (suppose) 660.


 
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