Prophet Micah versus Prophet Joel

Primary Source Project for Chapter Three

The prophets of the Hebrew scriptures both addressed problems of their own times and predicted the end times (or apocalypse) to come. Micah prophesied during the dark days of the Assyrian attacks on the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Although he criticizes the current royal dynasty descended from Jacob, he also offers a bright future for the Hebrew peoples and their neighbors (in language also found in the Book of Isaiah). Three hundred years later, during a plague of locusts, Joel foretold a different version of recovery and final salvation and destruction. A plowshare, referred to in both texts, is the sharp edge of the part of a plow (the mouldboard) that turns over the soil.

Source 1: The Book of Micah by Micah (ca. 700 BC)

And I said: Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and you princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?
Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;
Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
Then shall they cry to the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. . . .
But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
And many nations shall come, and say, ‘‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.’’
And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.
For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.

Source 2: The Book of Joel by Joel (ca. 400 BC)

And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the cutter, my great army which I sent among you.
And you shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.
And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered. . . .
For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink. . . .
Proclaim this among the Gentiles: Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. . . .
Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. . . .
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
So shall you know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.
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. . . .
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.

Citations

"The Book of Micah by Micah (ca. 700 BC)." In Brian A. Pavlac. A Concise History of Western Civilization: Supremacies and Diversities, 54-55. Second Edition. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. Originally in the Book of Micah, vss. 3:1–4:5 (KJV).
[KJV version here; NRSV version here].

"The Book of Joel by Joel (ca. 400 BC)." In Brian A. Pavlac. A Concise History of Western Civilization: Supremacies and Diversities, 55-56. Second Edition. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. Originally in the Book of Joel, vss. 2:25–3/4:20 (KJV).
[KJV version here; NRSV version here].

 

Further Links and materials for study

Swords to ploughshares <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swords_to_ploughshares>.

Book of Joel <http://www.gotquestions.org/Book-of-Joel.html>.

Roy Rohu. Day of the Lord: Book of Joel. <http://www.easyenglish.info/bible-commentary/joel-lbw.htm>.

Les Painter. Micah speaks a message to God for all nations. <http://www.easyenglish.info/bible-commentary/micah-lbw.htm>.

David Malick. Intro to Book of Micah. <https://bible.org/article/introduction-book-micah> and Intro to book of Joel. <https://bible.org/article/introduction-book-joel>.