Replies

From: Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2

Call to repentance and prayer

[13] Gird on sackcloth and lament, O priests,
wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God!
Because cereal offerings and drink offering
are withheld from the house of your God.

[14] Sanctify a fast,
call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God;
and cry to the Lord.

[15] Alas for the day!
For the day of the Lord is near,
and as destruction from the Almighty it comes,

The day of the Lord is coming “after darkness”

[1] Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near,
[2] a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness!

Invasion by a “powerful people”

Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
a great and powerful people;
their like has never been from of old,
nor will be again after them
through the years of all generations.

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

1:13-20. In the form of a poem, the prophet appeals for public conversion and pe-
nance to entreat God to take pity on the people and the land. “Go in, pass the
night in sackcloth” (v. 13) — the same language as is used to describe the pe-
nance done by David when his son was fatally ill (cf. 2 Sam 12:16), and, in ge-
neral, the sign of deep mourning (cf. 1 Kings 21:27, when King Ahab is warned
of what will befall him). Judith 4:8ff mentions priests, people and even livestock
wearing sackcloth. “Sanctify a fast” (v. 14), that is, declare a holy fast, a peni-
tential rite to move God to mercy; other Old Testament references to this are to
be found in 1 Kings 21:9 and Jonah 3:5-9.

The basic purpose of these acts of penance is given in v. 15 with a play on words:
the “day of the Lord” is near; it comes as destruction, as a scourge, shod, from
the Almighty, Shaddai, Verses 16-18 show that the people admit that their pu-
nishment is deserved; this prepares the way for the prophet’s prayer that follows.
In it, Joel cries to the Lord on behalf of the community (v. 19) — and not only he:
“even the flocks of sheep” sigh to God in a mute prayer.

It is significant that the priests are the first to be called to penance (v. 13). They
should be the first to lament — before calling others (elders, all the inhabitants) to
do so (v. 14). This is something embedded in the tradition of the Bible and of the
Church — the idea that ministers should set a good example: “Those who have
been called to wait on the table of the Lord should be praiseworthy, shining exam-
ples of righteousness, unmarked by any stain or taint of sinfulness. They should
live upright lives, as salt of the earth, for their own sake and for the sake of others,
giving good example by their behaviour and deeds, as the light of the world. They
should be mindful of the warning made by the divine teacher Christ Jesus to his
apostles and disciples, and all of their successors, priests and teachers: You
are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be
restored? (Mt 5:13)” (St John Capistrano, “Mirror of the Clergy”, 1, in the Divine
Office, Readings, 23 October).

2:1-11. From the literary point of view, and also by virtue of their theme, these ver-
ses form a well-defined poem: this is signaled by the use of what is called “inclu-
sion”: cf. the reference to the day of the Lord in the first and last verses. The po-
em describes how God manifests his presence among his people, arriving with all
the trappings of power. The passage is reminiscent of the account of the theopha-
ny on Mount Sinai (ex 19:16-25; Deut 4:9-14) and of prophetical texts, too (Zeph
1:15; Is 13:8; etc.). It is all designed to make people conscious of the Lord’s tran-
scendence and power, in order to bring about a change of heart: only God can
chastise them and by so doing rescue them from their anguish.

The first two verses are a call to attention. The trumpet or horn was blown mainly
on two occasions — as an alarm in times of war, or to call an assembly; here, as
in the parallel passage of Zephaniah 1:15-16, it is an alarm call. The “day of the
Lord” (v. 1) arrives like a terrible army with all the panoply of war. St. John’s Gos-
pel, in the prologue (Jn 1:5) and elsewhere (8:12; 13:30; 20:1; etc.), uses lan-
guage similar to that found here (v. 2) depicting darkness and night as elements
hostile to Christ.

*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.