The position which has been assigned to Joel in the collection of the
Minor Prophets, furnishes an external argument for the determination of
the time at which Joel wrote. There cannot be any doubt that the
Collectors were guided by a consideration of the chronology. The
circumstance, that they placed the prophecies of Joel just between the
two prophets who, according to the inscriptions and contents of their
prophecies, belonged to the time of Jeroboam and Uzziah, is thus
equivalent to an express testimony that he also lived, and exercised
his ministry, during that time.
By this testimony we have, in the meanwhile, obtained a firm
standing-point; and it must remain firm, as long as it is not
overthrown by other unquestionable facts, and the Collectors are not
convicted of an historical error. But, as regards the latter point,
there is the greater room for caution, because all the other statements
which they have made are, upon a careful examination, found to stand
the test; for none of the other Minor Prophets is found to occupy a
place to which he is not entitled. But no such facts are to be found;
on the contrary, everything serves to confirm their testimony.
It will not be possible to assign the prophecies of Joel to a later
period; for Amos places at the head of one of his prophecies one of the
utterances of Joel (compare Amos i. 2 with Joel iv. 16 [iii. 16]), as
the text, as it were, on which he is to comment. That we are not
thereby precluded from considering the two prophets as contemporaneous,
is shown by the altogether similar case of Isaiah, in his relation to
Micah. Isaiah, too, borrows, in chap. xiii. 6, a sentence from Joel i.
15, the peculiarity of which proves that the coincidence is not
accidental. Such verbal repetitions must not be, by any means,
considered as unintentional reminiscences. They served to exhibit that
the prophets acknowledged one another as the organs of the Holy
Spirit,--to testify the ἀκριβῆ διαδοχήν, the want of which in the times
after Ezra and Nehemiah is mentioned by Josephus as one of the reasons
why none of the writings of [Pg 292]that period could be acknowledged
as sacred. (See the Author's _Dissertations on the Genuineness of
Daniel_, p. 199.) _Further_,--The description of the threatening
judgment in chap. i. and ii. is, in Joel, kept just in that very same
generality in which we find it in the oldest prophecies that have been
preserved to us, viz., in Amos, in the first chapters of Isaiah and of
Hosea; whilst in later times, the threatening is, throughout,
particularized by the express mention of the instruments who were, in
the first instance, to serve for its fulfilment, viz., the Assyrians
and Babylonians. That which Judah had to suffer from the former was so
severe, that Joel, in chap. iv. 4 ff.--where he mentions, although, as
it were, only in the way of example, nations with which Judah had
hitherto already come into hostile contact--would scarcely have passed
them over in silence, in order to mention only the far lesser calamity
inflicted by other nations.
But just as little can we think of an earlier period. It is certainly
not accidental, that among all the prophets whose writings have been
preserved to us, no one appeared at an earlier period; any more than it
is accidental, that no prophecies are extant of the distinguished men
of God in earlier times, of whom the historical books make mention,
especially Elijah and Elisha. It was only when the great divine
judgments were being prepared, and were approaching, that it was time,
through their announcement, to waken from the slumber of security those
who had forgotten God, and to open the treasures of hope and
consolation to the faithful. Formerly, the living, oral word of the
prophets was the principal thing; but now that God opened up to them a
wider view,--that their calling had regard not only to the present, but
also to the future time, the written word was raised to an equal
dignity. Nothing, then, but the most cogent reasons could induce us to
make, in the case of Joel only, an exception to so established a rule.
But we cannot acknowledge as such, what _Credner_ (in his _Comment. on
Joel_, p. 41 sqq.) has brought forward to prove that Joel committed to
writing his prophecies as early as under the reign of Joash, _i.e._,
about 870-65 B.C., or from seventy to eighty years earlier than
any of the other prophecies which have come down to us. If we do not
allow ourselves to be carried away by the multitude of his words,
we shall find that the only remaining plausible argument is--that the
Syrians of Damascus [Pg 293]are not mentioned among the enemies of the
Covenant-people, as they are in Amos. From this, _Credner_ infers that
Joel must have prophesied before the first inroad of the Syrians on
Judea, which, according to 2 Kings xii. 18 ff.; 2 Chron. xxiv. 23 ff.,
took place under Jehoash. But we need only look at that passage, in
order to be convinced that the mention of that event could not be
expected in Joel. The expedition of the Syrians was not directed
against Judea, but against the Philistines. It was only a single
detached corps which, according to Chronicles, incidentally, and on
their return, made an inroad on Judah; but Jerusalem itself was not
taken. This single act of hostility could not but be soon forgotten in
the course of time. It was of quite a different character from that of
the Phœnicians and Philistines mentioned by Joel, which were only
particular outbreaks of the hatred and envy which they continually
cherished against the Covenant-people, and which, as such, were
preeminently the object of punitive divine justice. But on what ground
does the supposition rest, that Joel must necessarily mention all those
nations, with which the Covenant-people came, at any time, into hostile
contact? The context certainly does not favour such an idea. The
mention of former hostile attacks in chap. iv. (iii.) 4-8 is altogether
incidental, as _Vitringa_, in his _Typ. Doctr. Proph._ p. 189 sqq., has
admitted: "The prophet," says he, "was describing the heavy judgments
with which God would, after the effusion of the Spirit, successively,
and especially in the latter days, visit the enemies of the Church, and
overthrow them, on account of the injuries which they had inflicted
upon it. And while he was doing so, those injuries presented themselves
to his mind, which in his own time, and in the immediate past, were
inflicted upon the Jewish people--a portion of the universal Church--by
the neighbouring nations, the Tyrians, Sidonians, and Philistines. To
them he addresses his discourse _in passing_ (_in transitu_), and
announces to them, in the name of God, that they themselves also would
not remain unpunished." The correctness of _Vitringa_, with his "_in
transitu_," is proved by the וגם, as well as by the circumstance, that
vers. 9 ff. are closely connected with ver. 3; so that vers. 4 ff. form
a real parenthesis. How entirely out of place would here have been any
mention of the Syrians! There was necessarily something required which
was very striking, and [Pg 294]which, having but recently occurred, was
still vividly remembered. But the matter was altogether different in
the case of Amos. Joel has to do with the enemies of Judah only; Amos,
with those of the kingdom of Israel also, among whom the Syrians were
the most dangerous. Hence, he begins with them at once. The crime with
which he charges them in chap. i. 3, that they had threshed the
inhabitants of Gilead with threshing instruments of iron, concerns the
kingdom of Israel only. The same applies to the Ammonites and Moabites
also, who, in like manner, are mentioned by Amos, and not by Joel. The
Ammonites are charged in Amos i. 13 with ripping up the women with
child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border; and the crime of
the Moabites, rebuked in chap. ii. 1, occurred, very probably, during
the time of, or after, the expedition against them, mentioned in 2
Kings iii.--the real instigator of which was the king of Israel.
We must indeed be astonished that _Hitzig_, _Ewald_, _Meier_, _Baur_,
and others, after the example of _Credner_, have likewise declared in
favour of the view that the prophecies of Joel were composed under
Joash. None of the arguments, however, by which they attempt to support
their view, can stand examination.
"There is nowhere, as yet, the slightest allusion to the Assyrians,"
says _Ewald_. But neither is any such found in Amos, nor in the first
part of Hosea. An irruption, however, such as former times had not
known,--an overflowing, as it were, by the heathen, such as could by no
means proceed from the small neighbouring nations, but from extensive
kingdoms only, is here also brought into view. Joel is, in this
respect, in strict agreement with Amos, who embodies his prophecy
concerning this event, in chap. vi. 14, in these words: "For, behold, I
raise up against you, O house of Israel, Gentile people, saith the
Lord, the God of hosts, and they shall afflict you from Hamath unto the
river of the wilderness."
"There breathes here still the unbroken warlike spirit of the times of
Deborah and David," _Ewald_ further remarks. But is there in the fourth
(third) chapter any trace of self-help on the part of the people?
Judgment upon the Gentiles is executed without any human
instrumentality, by God,--not by His earthly, but by His heavenly
"heroes," who are sent down [Pg 295]from heaven to earth, and who make
short work with these fancied earthly heroes. Compare chap. iv. (iii.)
11-13, where the address is directed to the heavenly ministers of God,
at the head of whom the Angel of the Covenant must be supposed to be:
Ps. ciii. 20; Rev. xix. 14. _Such_ a victory of the kingdom of God, all
the prophets announce,--not only Isaiah and Micah, but also Ezekiel,
_e.g._, in chap. xxxviii. and xxxix.
"We perceive here the prophetic order in Jerusalem, still in the same
ancient greatness as when Nathan and Gad may have exercised their
office at the time of David. A whole people, without contradicting or
murmuring, still depend upon the prophet. He desires the observance of
a grievous ordinance, and willingly it is performed; his word is still
like a higher command which all cheerfully obey. Nor is any discord to
be seen in the nation, nor any wicked idolatry or superstition; the
ancient simple faith still lives in them, unbroken and undivided." So
_Ewald_ still further remarks. But this argument rests upon a false
supposition; a conversion of the people at the time of the prophet is
not at all spoken of. The pretended repentance is to take place _in
future_,--which, according to chap. i. 4, we must conceive of as being
still afar off, namely, in the time after the divine judgments have
broken in. And as to a progress in the apostasy of the people, it can
scarcely be proved that such took place in the time betwixt Joash and
Uzziah. Between these two, we do not find any new stage of corruption.
The idolatry of Solomon, and the abominations of Athaliah, had
exercised their influence, even as early as under Joash. How deep the
rent was which, even then, went through the nation, is shown by the
fact, that, according to 2 Chron. xxiv. 17, 18, after the death of
Jehoiada, Joash gave way to the _urgent demands of the prince's of
Judah_, and allowed free scope to idolatry. Moreover, the threatening
announcement of a judgment, which is to extend even to the destruction
of the temple, proves how deep the apostasy was at the time of Joel.
Where a judgment is thus threatened, which, in its terrors, far
surpasses all former judgments, the "ancient faith" certainly cannot
have been very vigorous.
"The Messianic idea appears here in its generality and indefiniteness,
without being as yet concentrated in the person of an ideal king,"
_Hitzig_ remarks. But if this argument were at all [Pg 296] valid, we
should have to go back even beyond the time of Joash. Solomon, David,
and Jacob already knew the personal Messiah. The prophets, however, do
not everywhere proclaim everything which they know. Even in Isaiah,
there occur long Messianic descriptions, in which the Messiah Himself
is not to be found. In Joel, moreover, everything is collected around
the person of the "Teacher of righteousness."
"Joel," it is further remarked, "must have prophesied at a time when
the Philistine and other nations, who had become so haughty under
Jehoram, had but lately ventured upon destructive plundering
expeditions as far as Jerusalem, 2 Chron. xxi. 10 ff." This argument
would be plausible, if the injuries inflicted by the Philistines and
the inhabitants of Tyrus had not appeared in equally lively colours
before the mind of Amos (chap. i. 6-10), who, at all events, prophesied
between seventy and eighty years after these events. It is just this
fact which should teach caution in the application of such arguments.
The recollection of such facts could not be lost, as long as the
disposition continued from which they originated. It was as if they had
happened in the present; for, under similar circumstances, similar
events would have again immediately taken place. The passage chap. iv.
19, "Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate
wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because
they have shed innocent blood in the land," shows also how lively was
the recollection of injuries sustained long ago. Egypt and Edom in that
passage are mentioned individually, in order to designate the enemies
of the people of God in general, and yet with an allusion to deeds
perpetrated by the Egyptians and Edomites properly so called. As the
suffix in ארצם must be referred to the sons of Judah--for we have no
historical account of a bloody deed perpetrated against Judah by the
Edomites in their own land, and it was the land of Judah which was
invaded and devastated by the host of locusts--we can think, in the
case of the Egyptians, only of the invasion under Rehoboam (1 Kings
xiv.), and in the case of the Edomites, only of the great carnage which
they made in Judah, during the time at which David carried on war with
Aram in Arabia and on the Euphrates,--probably at a time when he had
sustained heavy losses in that warfare; compare my Comment. on Ps.
xliv. and lx. Of any [Pg 297] similar later occurrence there is no
account extant. It is only by a fanciful exposition that "the innocent
blood" can be found in 2 Kings viii. 20-22. The Edomites at that time
kept only a defensive position, and did not come into the land of
Judah. "The innocent blood" implies a war of conquest, and a hostile
inroad.
"In chap. iv. (iii.) 4-7, Joel promises a return to the citizens of
Judah, who had been carried away by the Philistines under Jehoram; and,
hence, an age cannot have elapsed since that event." Thus _Meier_
argues. But the words, "Behold, I raise them out of the place whither
ye have sold them," contain no special prediction, but only the
application of the general truth, that God gathers together the
dispersed of Judah, and brings back again the exiled of Israel; and it
is only requisite to compare concerning them. Gen. xv. 16, "In the
fourth generation they shall come hither again," and l. 24, "God will
visit you, and bring you out of this land."
We thus arrive at the conclusion that Joel occupies the right place in
the Canon.
The assertion that Joel belonged to the priestly order, is as baseless
as the similar one regarding Habakkuk, and as the supposition that the
author of the Chronicles was a musician.
The book contains a connected description. It begins with a graphic
account of the ruin which God will bring upon His apostate
Congregation, by means of foreign enemies. These latter represent
themselves to the prophet in his spiritual vision as an all-destroying
swarm of locusts. The fundamental thought is this:--"Wheresoever the
carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together,"--wherever
corruption manifests itself in the Congregation of the Lord, punishment
will be inflicted. Because God has sanctified Himself _in_ the
Congregation, and has graciously imparted to her His holiness. He must
therefore sanctify Himself upon her,--must manifest His holiness in her
punishment, if she has become like the profane world. He cannot allow
that, after the Spirit has departed, the dead body should still
continue to appear as His kingdom, but strips off the mask of hypocrisy
from His degenerate Church, by representing her outwardly as that
which, by her guilt, she has become inwardly. This thought commonly
appears in a special [Pg 298] application, by the mention of the name
of the particular people whom the Lord is, in the immediate future, to
employ for the realization of it. In the case before us, however, He is
satisfied with pointing to the dignity and power inherent in Him. The
enemies are designated only as _people from the North_. But it was from
the North--from Syria--that all the principal invasions of Palestine
proceeded. Hence there is no reason either to think of one of them
exclusively, or to exclude one. On the contrary, the comprehensive
character of the description distinctly appears in i. 4. It is there,
at the very threshold, intimated, that the heathenish invasion will be
a fourfold one,--that Israel shall become the prey of four successive
extensive empires. Joel's mission fell at the commencement of the
written prophecy; and in harmony with this, he gives only an outline of
that which it was reserved for the later prophets to fill up, and to
carry out in its details, by the mention of the name of each single
empire, as the times moved on. It was enough that Joel prophesied the
destruction by these great empires, even before any one of them had
appeared on the stage of history, and that he was enabled to point even
to the fourfold number of them.
The threat of punishment, joined with exhortations to repentance, to
which the people willingly listened, and humbled themselves before the
Lord, continues down to chap. ii. 17. With this is connected the
proclamation of salvation--which extends down to chap. iii. 2 (ii. 29).
The showing of mercy begins with the fact, that God sends the _Teacher
of righteousness_. He directs the attention of the people to the design
of their sufferings, and invites the weary and heavy laden to come to
the Lord, that He may refresh them. His voice is heard by those who are
of a broken heart; and there then follows rich divine blessing, with
its consummation--the outpouring of the Spirit. Both--the sending of
the Teacher of righteousness, and the outpouring of the Spirit--had
their preliminary fulfilments; the first of which took place soon after
the commencement of the devastation by the locusts, in the time of the
Assyrians,--a second, after the destruction by the Babylonians had come
upon the people,--a third, after the visitation by the Greek tyranny
under the Maccabees. But the chief reference of the prophecy is,
throughout, to Christ, and to the vouchsafement [Pg 299] of the
blessing, and to the outpouring of the Spirit, originating in His
mediation.
The announcement of salvation for the Covenant-people is, in the third
and last part, followed by the opposite of it, viz., the announcement
of judgments upon the enemies of the Congregation of God. Their hatred
of it, proceeding from hatred to God, is employed by Him, indeed, as a
means of chastising and purifying His Church; but it does not, for that
reason, cease to be an object of His punitive justice. The fundamental
idea of this part of the book is expressed in 1 Pet. iv. 17 by the
words: "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of
God. And if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that
obey not the Gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved,
where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" The description bears
here also, as in the second and first parts, a comprehensive character.
That which, in the course of history, is realized in a long series of
single acts of divine interposition against the enemies of the Church,
is here brought together in a single scene. The overthrow of Assyria,
Babylon, the Persian and Grecian monarchies, is comprehended in this
prophecy. But its final fulfilment must be sought for only in the
Messianic time. This is sufficiently evident from the relation of this
part, to the second. Having given ear to the Teacher of righteousness,
and the Spirit having been poured out upon her, the Congregation has
become an object of the loving providence of God. From this flows the
judgment upon her enemies. If, then, the promise of the Teacher of
righteousness and of the outpouring of the Spirit be, in substance,
Messianic, so, the judgment too must, in substance, bear a Messianic
character. The same appears from iv. (iii.) 18, according to which
passage, simultaneously with the judgments, there cometh forth, from
the house of the Lord, a fountain which watereth the valley of
Shittim--the waters of salvation which water the dry land of human
need. (Compare the remarks on Ezek. xlvii,; Zech. xiv. 8; and my
_Comment. on Revel._ xxii. 1.) This feature, however, clearly points to
the Messianic time.
We must here, however, avoid confounding the substance with the
form,--the idea with the temporary clothing which the prophet puts upon
it, in accordance with the nature of prophetic [Pg 300] vision, in
which, necessarily, all that is spiritual must be represented in
outward sketches and forms. This form is as follows:--In the place
nearest to the temple, and which was able to contain a great multitude
of people, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, all nations are gathered. (The
valley very probably received its name from the appellation which, in
the passage under consideration, the prophet gives to it, in order to
mark its destination; for Jehoshaphat means, "the Lord judges," or
"Valley of Judgment."[1]) The Lord, enthroned in the temple, exercises
judgment upon them. In this manner--in outward forms of perception--the
idea is brought out, that the judgment upon the Gentiles is an effect
of the kingdom of God; that they are not punished on account of
their violation of the natural law, but because of the hostile
position which they had occupied against the teachers of God's revealed
truth,--against the Lord Himself who is in His Church. Every violation
of the natural law may be pardoned to those who have not stood in any
other relation to God, even although they should have [Pg 301]
proceeded to the most fearful extent in depravity. They who were once
disobedient, when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah,
were not as yet given over to complete condemnation, but were kept in
prison until Christ came and preached to them. "This was the iniquity
of Sodom: fulness of bread, and abundance of peace, were in her and her
daughters; yet the hand of the poor and needy they did not assist; but
they were haughty and committed abomination before the Lord: therefore
He took them away as He saw good." But, nevertheless, the Lord will, at
some future time, turn the captivity (the misery) of this Sodom and her
daughters, and they shall be restored as they were before,--not
corporeally, for their seed is utterly rooted out from the earth, and
even their place is destroyed, but spiritually; compare Ezek. xvi. 49
ff. But, on the other hand, far more severe punishments are inflicted
upon those who have rejected, not the abstract, but the concrete
God,--not the God who is shut up in the heavens, but the God who
powerfully manifests Himself on earth, in His Church. It is true, that
as long as this revelation is still an imperfect one--as it was under
the Old Testament dispensation--and hence the guilt of rejecting Him
less, mercy may still be shown. External destruction does not involve
spiritual ruin. Moab, indeed, is destroyed, so that it is no longer a
people, because it has exalted itself against the Lord; yet, "in the
latter days I will turn the captivity of Moab, saith the Lord," Jer.
xlviii. 47. But when the revelation of the grace of God has become
perfect, His justice also will be perfectly revealed against all who
reject it, and rise in hostility against those who are the bearers of
it: "Their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched,
and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh," Is. lxvi. 24. These
remarks contain the key to all which the Lord declares as to the future
judgment which, in its completion, belongs only to the future world. It
is not the world as such, but that world to which the Gospel has been
declared, and in the midst of which the Church has been founded, which
forms the object of it; compare Matt. xxiv. 14.
Footnote 1: _Hofmann_ (_Weissag. u. Erfül._ i. S. 203) has revived the
explanation, according to which the valley of Jehoshaphat is to be
understood as the valley in which, under Jehoshaphat, judgment was
executed upon several Gentile nations. But this locality, the desert of
Thekoa, which was about three hours distance from Jerusalem (compare my
_Comment. on the Psalms_, in the _Introduction to Ps._ xlvi. xlviii.
lxxxiii.), is at too great a distance from the temple, where, according
to vers. 16 and 17, the Lord holds His judgment upon the nations.
Tradition has rightly perceived that the valley of Jehoshaphat can be
sought for only in the immediate vicinity of the temple. In favour of
the valley of Jehoshaphat now so called, "at the high east brink of
Moriah, the temple-hill" (_Ritter_, _Erdk._ xv. 1, S. 559; xvi. 1, S.
329), is also Zech. vi. 1-8 (compare the remarks on that passage). From
the circumstance that there is, first, the mention of the name, and,
then, the statement of its signification, "And I gather all nations,
and bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and _plead_ with
them there," _Hofmann_ infers that the name must have already existed
as a proper name. There is, however, an analogy in Num. xx. 1: "And the
people encamped at Kadesh;"--but the place received the name Kadesh
only because of the event to be subsequently related: previous to that,
its name was Barnea. (Compare _Dissert. on Gen. of the Pent._ vol. ii.
p. 310 ff.) The two theological names of the place, which arose only
from the event recorded in Num. xx., occur even as early as Gen. xiv.
7. The natural name of the valley of Jehoshaphat is, moreover, in all
likelihood, _King's Dale_; compare Gen. xiv. 17; 2 Sam. xviii. 18; and
_Thenius_ on this passage.
[Pg 302]