Joel

A devastating, multi-wave locust invasion strips Judah’s crops, halts temple offerings, and signals divine judgment, prompting Joel to summon elders, priests, drunkards, and farmers to lament and tell future generations of this unprecedented calamity.

Joel warns of the approaching Day of the LORD--a dark, earth-shaking onslaught first pictured as super-locusts then as a human army--and urges deep repentance (“rend your hearts, not garments”); if the people return, God will restore their land, defeat the invader, and pour out His Spirit on all ages before cosmic signs usher in the great Day.

God vows to gather the nations in the Valley of Jehoshaphat to judge them for scattering Israel and dividing its land, while Judah and Jerusalem are forever restored to Eden-like abundance with God dwelling in Zion and hostile nations reduced to desolation.