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Joel

About this book
Chapter 3

1 “For look! In those days and at that time I will return the exiles to Judah and Jerusalem. 2 Then I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. I will enter into judgment against them there concerning my people Israel who are my inheritance, whom they scattered among the nations.⁠ They partitioned my land, 3 and they cast lots for my people.⁠ They traded a boy for a prostitute; they sold a little girl for wine so they could drink. 4 Why are you doing these things to me, Tyre and Sidon? Are you trying to get even with me, land of Philistia? If you are, I will very quickly repay you for what you have done! 5 For you took my silver and my gold and brought my precious valuables to your own palaces. 6 You sold Judeans and Jerusalemites to the Greeks, removing them far from their own country. 7 Look! I am rousing them from that place to which you sold them. I will repay you for what you have done! 8 I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah. They will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away.” Indeed, the Lord has spoken. 9 Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for a holy war! Call out the warriors! Let all these fighting men approach and attack! 10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I too am a warrior!’⁠ 11 Lend your aid and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves to that place.” Bring down, O Lord, your warriors! 12 “Let the nations be roused and let them go up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit in judgment on all the surrounding nations.⁠ 13 Rush forth with the sickle, for the harvest is ripe! Come, stomp the grapes, for the winepress is full! The vats overflow. Indeed, their evil is great!”⁠ 14 Crowds, great crowds are in the Valley of Decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision! 15 The sun and moon are darkened; the stars withhold their brightness. 16 The Lord roars from Zion; from Jerusalem his voice bellows out.⁠ The heavens and the earth shake.⁠ But the Lord is a refuge for his people; he is a stronghold for the citizens of Israel.⁠ 17 “You will be convinced that I, the Lord, am your God, dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy— conquering armies will no longer pass through it. 18 On that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine,⁠ and the hills will flow with milk. All the dry stream beds of Judah will flow with water. A spring will flow out from the temple of the Lord, watering the Valley of Acacia Trees.⁠ 19 Egypt will be desolate,⁠ and Edom will be a desolate wilderness because of the violence they did to the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood. 20 But Judah will reside securely forever, and Jerusalem will be secure from one generation to the next. 21 I will avenge their blood that I had not previously acquitted.” It is the Lord who dwells in Zion!

Texts in conversation

Compare Joel 3:16 and 1 Enoch 1:5

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

1 Enoch describes mountains trembling at God’s approach, similar to Joel where God roars and the earth shakes. Both portray divine power through imagery of cosmic violence, connecting the descent of God with ancient Near Eastern storm deity traditions.

Passages

Joel 3:16

Hebrew Bible
14 Crowds, great crowds are in the Valley of Decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision! 15 The sun and moon are darkened; the stars withhold their brightness. 16 The Lord roars from Zion; from Jerusalem his voice bellows out. The heavens and the earth shake. But the Lord is a refuge for his people; he is a stronghold for the citizens of Israel. 17 “You will be convinced that I, the Lord, am your God, dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy— conquering armies will no longer pass through it.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Joel

1 Enoch 1:5

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
4 And the eternal God will walk upon the earth, even on Mount Sinai, and appear from His camp and reveal His might from the heavens above. 5 Everyone will be struck with fear and the Watchers will tremble, and great fear and trembling will grip them to the ends of the earth. 6 The high mountains will shake, the hills will be leveled, and they will melt like wax before the fire 7 The earth will be completely torn apart, and everything on it will perish, and there will be judgment upon all people.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

References

"... Watchers are generally portrayed negatively in Greek BW, but their children are especially decried: in 10:9, they are titled ‘the bastards’, ‘the base ones’, and ‘the sons of fornication’. Part of Michael’s tasking in 10:15 is to “destroy all the spirits of the base ones”. Some ambiguous passages are also present, one of which is 1 Enoch 1:5: “all will be afraid, and the watchers will trust”. These watchers could be understood as obediently accompanying God at Sinai (1 Enoch 1:4, 9; Psalm 68). However, God’s approach shakes the peaks of the earth where the watchers are hidden (1:5). He comes to destroy the impious and their works (1:9). In 1 Enoch 1:5 then, it is unclear if they are rebellious or obedient ... The appearance of the celestial army on the mountain rather than hovering mid-air is likely related to divine council imagery. The mountain of God is the place where the divine assembly meets. There is ANE precedent for spiritual beings on this council also serving as part of the heavenly army. God’s ‘mountain of assembly’ was not restricted to a single geographic location. Moses’ final words in Deuteronomy 33:2 declared: “Yahweh came from Sinai, and he appeared clearly to them from Seir, and he came from mount Paran with the thousands of his holy ones: from his right hand [came] angels for them.” This speech also contains reference to Yahweh’s enthronement as King when in Jeshurun (Deuteronomy 33:5). God is pictured as the Sovereign who can dispatch angelic warriors to accomplish his will (compare Psalm 68). Well-known mountains of God include Eden (Ezekiel 28:13–14), Sinai and Zion (1 Kings 8; Psalm 2:6; Isaiah 2:3; Jeremiah 8:19; Joel 3:16-17; Amos 1:2; Micah 4:7; Zechariah 8:3), but Seir, Horeb, and Paran also became the mount of assembly when the council met ..."
Benjamin A. Pass, The Commander of Yahweh’s Host (Josh 5:13–15): Angels as Executors of God’s Judgement and War (Kingswood University, 2018), 62, 75.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Joel 3:16 and 1 Enoch 1:5

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