The name Joel belongs to several men in Scripture. The best known is the prophet, introduced as “the word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.” His book closes with a picture of a land restored, where “Judah shall dwell for ever” and the LORD dwells in Zion. Others named Joel are Samuel’s firstborn son, a judge in Beersheba, and several Levites in the days of David, including the father of the singer Heman. Start with the prophet’s own book.
10 verses
Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: they were judges in Beersheba.
And these are they that waited with their children. Of the sons of the Kohathites: Heman a singer, the son of Joel, the son of Shemuel,
Of the sons of Gershom; Joel the chief, and his brethren an hundred and thirty:
And David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, and Joel, Shemaiah, and Eliel, and Amminadab,
The sons of Laadan; the chief was Jehiel, and Zetham, and Joel, three.
The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.
Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
Jehovah is his God. (1.) The oldest of Samuel’s two sons appointed by him as judges in Beersheba (1 Sam. 8:2). (See VASHNI.) (2.) A descendant of Reuben (1 Chr. 5:4,8). (3.) One of David’s famous warriors (1 Chr. 11:38). (4.) A Levite of the family of Gershom (1 Chr. 15:7, 11). (5.) 1 Chr. 7:3. (6.) 1 Chr. 27:20. (7.) The second of the twelve minor prophets. He was the son of Pethuel. His personal history is only known from his book.
William Smith, 1884
(to whom Jehovah is God).
(1.) Eldest son of Samuel the prophet, (1 Samuel 8:2; 1 Chronicles 6:33; 15:17) and father of Heman the singer. (B.C. 1094.)
(2.) In (1 Chronicles 6:36) Authorized Version, Joel seems to be merely a corruption of Shaul in ver. 24.
(3.) A Simeonite chief. (1 Chronicles 4:35)
(4.) A descendant of Reuben. Junius and Tremellius make him the son of Hanoeh, while others trace his descent through Carmi. (1 Chronicles 5:4) (B.C. before 1092.)
(5.) Chief of the Gadites, who dwelt in the land of Bashan. (1 Chronicles 5:12) (B.C. 782.)
(6.) The son of Izrahiah, of the tribe of Issachar. (1 Chronicles 7:3)
(7.) The brother of Nathan of Zobah, (1 Chronicles 11:38) and one of David’s guard.
(8.) The chief of the Gershomites in the reign of David. (1 Chronicles 15:7,11)
(9.) A Gershonite Levite in the reign of David, son of Jehiel, a descendant of Laadan, and probably the same as the preceding. (1 Chronicles 23:8; 26:22) (B.C. 1014.)
(10.) The son of Pedaiah, and a chief of the half-tribe of Manasseh west of Jordan, in the reign of David. (1 Chronicles 27:20) (B.C. 1014.)
(11.) A Kohathite Levite in the reign of Hezekiah. (2 Chronicles 29:12) (B.C. 726.)
(12.) One of the sons of Nebo, who returned with Ezra, and had married a foreign wife. (Ezra 10:43) (B.C. 459.)
(13.) The son of Zichri, a Benjamite. (Nehemiah 11:9)
(14.) The second of the twelve minor prophets, the son of Pethuel, probably prophesied in Judah in the reign of Uzziah, about B.C. 800. The book of Joel contains a grand outline of the whole terrible scene, which was to be depicted more and more in detail by subsequent prophets. The proximate event to which the prophecy related was a public calamity, then impending on Judah, of a two-plague of locusts --and continuing for several years. The prophet exhorts the people to turn to God with penitence, fasting and prayer; and then, he says, the plague shall cease, and the rain descendent in its season, and the land yield her accustomed fruit. Nay, the time will be a most joyful one; for God, by the outpouring of his Spirit, will extend the blessings of true religion to heathen lands. The prophecy is referred to in Acts 2.