Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your book of the Bible. It was written by the Minor Prophet

Joel. We don't know anything about him even when he lived but based on context clues we can narrow it down to about a 300-year time-tense clues we can narrow it down to about a 300-year time frame

with the most recent part of that being post-exile. He makes references to the temple

so we just know it's either before 586 BC or after 516 BC.

Some think this book prophesied the Babylonian invasion so they place it pre-exile in the same time

period as the prophets we've already been reading.

Others think this was written post-exile because he addresses his letter to the elders, not to a king,

and that's who would have been in charge of things after they return from exile.

But based on where it's

placed in this plan, it seems like the people at Blue Letter Bible who put the

plan together lean more toward pre-exile. So imagine this being written around

the same time Ezekiel wrote his book.

Joel contains a lot of mystery. In addition to not really knowing who he is or when he lived,

he also tends to be more vague than most other prophets. He doesn't name any of Israel's sins specifically,

unlike other prophets, and he barely mentions which enemy nations he's referring to.

As with most prophecy, this is going to be another zoom-out book, where we look at the big picture more than the details.

The book opens with a plague of locust who have swarmed the land. In scripture, armies are often compared to invading locustus, but here Joel flips the metaphor and

compares locus to an invading army. This locus swarm isn't just a nuisance,

it's a total agricultural devastation.

First Seven says they've destroyed the vines and fig trees,

both of which are things locust only attack after they've already eaten everything else.

Apparently vines and fig trees are the locust version of

...