JOEL, one of the twelve minor prophets, the son of Pethuel. Of his birth-place nothing is known with certainty; the pseudo-Epiphanius affirms that he was a native of Betha, in the tribe of Reuben. From the local allusions in his prophecy, we may infer that he discharged his office in the kingdom of Judah. Various opinions have been held respecting the period in which he lived. It appears most probable that he was contemporary with Amos and Isaiah, and delivered his predictions in the reign of Joash, between 877 and 847 B.C. This is the opinion of Credner, Winer, Movers, Ewald, Delitzsch, and others.
The style of Joel, it has been remarked, unites the strength of Micah with the tenderness of Jeremiah. In vividness of description he rivals Nahum; and in sublimity and majesty is scarcely inferior to Isaiah and Habakkuk. The canonicity of the book has never been called in question. Consult A Paraphrase and Critical Commentary on the Prophecy of Joel, by Samuel Chandler, 4to, London, 1745; Die Weissagung des Propheten Joel, übersetzt und erklärt, von F. A. Holzhausen, Göttingen, 1829; Charakteristik der Bibel, von Dr. A. H. Niemeyer, Halle, 1831, vol. v., pp. 295-302; Dr. Hengstenberg's Christology of the Old Testament, &c., transl. by Dr. R. Keith, Washington, 1839, vol. iii., pp. 100-141.