Discovery BoxJoel 1:2 
Context1:2 Listen to this, you elders; 1
pay attention, 2 all inhabitants of the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your whole life 3
or in the lifetime 4 of your ancestors? 5
Joel 1:14
Contextproclaim a sacred assembly.
Gather the elders and 7 all the inhabitants of the land
to the temple of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.
Joel 2:16
Context2:16 Gather the people;
sanctify an assembly!
Gather the elders;
gather the children and the nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom come out from his bedroom
and the bride from her private quarters. 8
1 sn Elders here refers not necessarily to men advanced in years, but to leaders within the community.
2 tn Heb “give ear.”
3 tn Heb “days.” The term “days” functions here as a synecdoche for one’s lifespan.
4 tn Heb “days.”
5 tn Heb “fathers.”
6 tn Heb “consecrate a fast” (so NASB).
7 tc The conjunction “and” does not appear in MT or LXX, but does appear in some Qumran texts (4QXIIc and 4QXIIg).
8 sn Mosaic law allowed men recently married, or about to be married, to be exempt for a year from certain duties that were normally mandatory, such as military obligation (cf. Deut 20:7; 24:5). However, Joel pictures a time of such urgency that normal expectations must give way to higher requirements.
