Old Testament · Minor Prophets · World English Bible
Joel
"Tear your heart and not your garments, and turn to the LORD, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity."
— Joel 2:13 
The Reading LensEvery verse pulled to the top of a book is chosen by three questions: Where is God’s heart here? Who is He protecting? Who is being saved by the action? It marks the place where those answers come into clearest focus — a “look at this, in this book.”
About the Prophet
Joel takes a devastating locust plague — a swarm that strips the land bare — and reads it as a picture of the coming “Day of the LORD.” Out of the ruin he issues one of Scripture’s great calls to repentance: not the outward show of torn clothing, but torn hearts.
The book pivots from judgment to mercy. God promises to restore “the years that the locust has eaten” and to pour out his Spirit on all flesh — the very passage Peter stands up and quotes on the day of Pentecost.
Joel is brief, urgent, and structurally simple: plague, repentance, restoration, and the Spirit. Three chapters that move from devastation to outpouring.
3 Chapters
The Locusts Come
A locust plague devastates the land; the prophet summons priests and people to lament and fast, for the Day of the LORD is near.
Rend Your Hearts
The Heart of ItThe locust army becomes the Day of the LORD itself — and the great call to return with torn hearts. God promises to restore the years the locusts ate and to pour out his Spirit on all flesh.
“Tear your heart, and not your garments...” — v.13
The Nations Judged
Judgment gathered against the nations in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and the final restoration of God’s people: “the LORD dwells in Zion.”