BOOK OF JOEL: INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERARY STRUCTURE

The following brief summary was abstracted from a chapter in my unpublished book, The Structure of Scripture. If you would like the whole chapter on Joel, contact me at elmerphd21@hotmail.com and I will send you a copy by email attachment.

One is faced with an embarrassment of riches in attempting to determine the organizing principle behind this prophetic, or apocalyptic, opus. One recent commentator's review of the prior literature on this subject shows the book to be a diptych, a triptych, an eight-part progression, seven visions that form an arch, a liturgy, or a double overlapping chiasm, depending on which scholar's opinion you happen to share. Leaving aside the minority opinions, most critics see the book as divided into two parts, with the second section beginning at 2:18 being more optimistic in tone than the first. Others feel that the second half begins at 2:28 partially because of the opening line “And it shall come to pass afterward.” The most promising example from each of these two possibilities was adapted somewhat to better bring out the symmetries present.

J. Bourke's analysis of the Book of Joel leads him to propose a double chiasm for its structure with the second section beginning at Joel 2:28. The overlapping chiasms of Fig. 1 appear to do more justice to the various parallels present.

Figure 1: Chiastic Structure of Joel

Part I

A. Hear and Tell (1:2-3)

    B. Destruction of Crops (1:4-12)

C. Lamentation and Repentance (1:13-14)

D. Nearness of the Day (1:15-2:1)

E. Day of Darkness (2:2a)

F. The Army of Locust (2:2b-2:9)

E'. Day of Darkness (2:10)

D'. The Terrible Day of Yahweh (2:11)

C'. Lamentation and Repentance (2:12-17)                                 Part II

B'. Restoration of Crops (2:18-25)                                      A. Vindication for Judah (2:18-25)

A'. Praise and Prophesy (2:26-29)                                      B. Yahweh and His People (2:26-29)

                    C. Portents and Darkness (2:30-31a)

                        D. The Terrible Day of Yahweh (2:31b)

                        E. The Nations Brought to Judgment (2:32-3:8)

                           F. The Army of Gentiles (3:9-11)

                        E'. The Nations Brought to Judgment (3:12-13)

                      D'. Nearness of the Day (3:14)

                    C'. Darkness and Portents (3:15-16a)

                    B'. Yahweh and His People (3:16b-18)

                    A'. Vindication for Judah (3:19-21)

The second possibility is the variation on Leslie C. Allen's structure shown in Fig. 2. (The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah, pp. 39-43)

Figure 2: Allen’s Structure of Joel (revised)

I. Judah, Locusts, and God (1:2-2:17)

A. Summons to national mourning (1:2-20)

1. calls to lamentation (1:2-12)

a. general appeal and introduction (1:2-4)

                                    b. to drinkers (1:5-7)

                                    c. to Zion (1:8-10)

                                    d. to farmers (1:11-12)

2. cultic response (1:13-20)

a. a national service (1:13-14)

                                    b. lament (1:15-18)

                                    c. prayer (1:19-20)

B. Divine judgment and divine repentance (2:1-17)

1. Day of Yahweh (2:1-11)

a. description of crisis (2:1-2)

                                    b. locusts' destructiveness (2:3-5)

                                    c. city of Jerusalem (2:6-9)

                                    d. Day of Yahweh (2:10-11)

2. cultic response (2:12-17)

a. a national service (2:12-14)

                                    b. lament (2:15-16)

                                    c. prayer (2:17)

God Hears and Acts (2:18-19a) 

II. Divine Oracles (2:19b-3:21)

A. “Never again be put to shame” (2:19b-32)

1. immediate and material blessings (2:19b-27)

a. fortunes will be reversed (2:19b)

                                                b. locust driven off, reason given (2:20)

                                                c. reversal of fortunes described (2:21-25)

                                                d. God is in Israel (2:26-27)

2. less immediate and more radical blessings (2:28-32)

a. the Spirit (2:28-29)

                                                b. ominous signs and the Day of Yahweh (2:30-31)

                                                c. security in Zion (2:32)

B. The Judgment of the nations (3:1-21)

1. the Day of Yahweh in the Valley of Decision (3:1-17)

a. fortunes will be reversed (3:1)

                                                b. nations judged, reasons given (3:2-8)

                                                c. judgment described (3:9-15)

                                                d. God is in Zion (3:16-17)

2. the nations' fate and Judah's fortune (3:18-21)

a. blessings (3:18)

                                                b. judgments (3:19)

                                                c. security in Zion (3:20-21)

Conclusion

All in all, figs. 1 and 2 appear to vie equally as candidates for the intended literary structure of the book. Either of these is instructive in highlighting the complete reversal of Judah's situation from the first half of the book to the second. One would still like to know which is the intended organization and to understand how there could conceivably be two such different but equally plausible architectures to the book. Objectively speaking, there seem to be two possible reasons for such a phenomenon:

a. The book is so loaded with repeated ideas and phrases that it becomes a Rorschach test for the commentator attempting to come up with a coherent structure. With such a plethora of duplications, it is possible that numerous potential literary plans might be constructed that pass for the intended one. 

b. It was constructed with such supernatural literary skill that it may be viewed correctly and profitably as either structures. The last possibility is more a matter of faith than discussion, but it does have a parallel in the physical world with the nature of light, which may be equally described as a wave or as matter.