Reading the Locust Plague in the Prophecy of Joel in the Context of African Biblical Hermeneutics and the Decolonial Turn

Abstract

Joel is one of the 12 minor prophets (dōdekaprophēton). His prophecy aims at calling the nation and people to repentance through emphasizing that the Day of the Lord (yōm ădȏnay) is at hand (3:1–5 [2:28–32]). The locust plague (ʾarbbeh) in Joel’s message—which recalls the insects that threaten to destroy crops and vegetation in Africa and beyond, but which can also be used as food and livestock feed and offer other benefits as well—could be interpreted as Joel’s prophetic sign that the great Day of the Lord is near (1:2–2:17). Throughout history, scholars, theologians, and exegetes of differing schools of thought and from numerous locations have offered various interpretations for Joel’s prophecy and subjected it to diverse Eurocentric and Americo-centric hermeneutical methods. This work, however, with its focus on Africa, takes a different approach. Drawing from the work of many African hermeneuticians, it reads Joel’s prophecy using the tools of African Biblical Hermeneutics (ABH), a post-colonial enterprise, in light of the decolonial turn. The article exegetes and theologically analyzes the narrative of the locust plague (ʾarbbeh) in Joel 1:2–7, within the context of Joel 1–3, with the hopes that it will be transformational and beneficial for African readers within their faith context.

1. Introduction

The central theme in the prophecy of Joel, one of the 12 minor prophets (dōdekaprophēton), is that the Day of the Lord (yōm ădȏnay) is at hand (chs. 2–3). In communicating this prophetic message, Joel intends to illicit repentance (2:12–17) from his contemporaries, with the hope of restoring their communion with the Lord, who is Israel’s true God (2:18–3:21). Joel uses the locust plague (ʾarbbeh) and its accompanying effects as a sure sign that the great and terrible day is near. Joel is not the first to have drawn on this concept. Similar messages concerning the nearness of the Day of the Lord are found in the preaching of several of Israel’s other prophets, particularly in Amos 5:18–20 and Zephaniah 1:14–18 and 3:14–20. Those prophets preached in their own contexts and sought to address the unique needs of their time (Udoekpo 2010). Likewise, Joel utilizes the concept contextually for his contemporaries, using the locust swarms to point to the Day of the Lord as a day of both judgment and salvation. In past commentaries and literature on the prophecy of Joel, exegetes and theologians, especially of Eurocentric and Americo-centric backgrounds, interpreted the locust swarms theoretically and historically, utilizing their predominantly “Western models” and “colonial mindsets”. Many saw the locust as a symbol or allegory of attacking foreign nations and of judgment.1 Even those in the West who interpreted it literally—that an actual locust plague might have devasted the land—did so based on their own experiences, which excluded African experiences. They were devoid of African concerns, stories, examples, customs, culture, or worldview, particularly those cherished by African Biblical Hermeneutics (we will fully explain, define, and develop these topics later in this study2).

Borrowing from Andrew M. Mbuvi’s insights, the terms “the West” or “Western” (e.g., Western views or Western models) in this work refer to “the set of European countries (and America), which colonized Africa or have had imperializing power over others from the 19th century onward. They are terminologies of power, domineering, monopoly and control, resisted by Postcolonial African approaches” (Mbuvi 2023, p. 7). Mbuvi insists that within the West, there are minority groups that were not beneficiaries of the colonial infrastructure and power, such as African Americans, Native Americans, and the various minority groups found in Europe. These groups, I believe, are as much victims of colonial oppression as Africans and should be excluded from the use of the term “West” in this paper.3 Similarly, in this work, the terms “Africa” or “African” are used as umbrella terms to envelop African biblical interpretative approaches championed by many African scholars, including John S. Mbiti, Charles Nyamiti, John S. Pobee, David T. Adamo, Justin Ukpong, Teresa Okure, Andrew M. Mbuvi, Kenneth N. Ngwa, Mercy Amber Oduyoye, and many others. These scholars are from African countries including Kenya, Batswana, Cameroon, Senegal, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Senegal, South Africa, and Ghana. Of course, there are many others from other African countries, as well as those of African descent, who are not listed here but who have a historical experience similar to those from former European colonies.4

Using common African historical experiences as an exegetical point of departure, this work contextually reads and exegetes the text of Joel 1:2–7, employing primarily African Biblical Hermeneutics (ABH), a post-colonial enterprise, in light of the decolonial turn. It does this theologically within the overall context of the prophecy of Joel, especially verses 2:20, 2:25, and 3:18, with the hope that it will be transformational and beneficial for African readers within their faith context. This work argues that believers in Africa, approaching this passage from their own contexts and religious worldviews—which are filled with numerous sociopolitical challenges, including lack of hospitals, medicines, vitamins, and food supplies, as well as limited job opportunities—certainly would understand the desolation and the degrading impact that a locust plague would have had on their crops and vegetation. The destruction and devastation, when not properly checked and anticipated, could result in hunger, starvation, and death in Africa. Yet, in spite of such dangers, there is always hope among hardworking believers in Africa for a better future. This hope is found in a sovereign God who is the divine origin of the universe, and the master of both the physical and the spiritual. In Africa, God is at work and he controls everything.

The provision of the locust for the African people is for a reason. On the one hand, we see it as a means of judgment and humiliation, especially toward those corrupt and selfish elders, the elites, and leaders who sin by depriving the poor famers and common people of their basic needs, such as food, hospitals, vitamins, and other medical necessities. On the other hand, God’s provisional mercy is found in his healing and blessings (2:24; 3:18), manifested in the renewed productivity of the land and the restoration of the repentant remnant following the horrible locust plague. It is further evident that locusts, when viewed globally and socio-culturally, are accepted as a qualitative and quantitative food source, served as snacks, appetizers, and as part of communal meals, especially for visitors and at social gatherings. They can also be used to feed animals that hold greater economic value. Locusts also have other economic and health benefits. They effectively capture the idea that joy and sorrow are part and parcel of life.

This work argues that the locust prophecy of Joel communicates God’s mercy, his extension of forgiveness to those who repent, and his divine provision and blessings. These blessings, ironically, transcend the physical threat of the plague and are meant to bring happiness, eternal and lasting joy, and satisfaction to all who trust and hope in God, both within and outside of Africa.

2. Prophecy of Joel—An Overview

Reading the locust plague in the prophecy of Joel from a perspective informed by African Biblical Hermeneutics and the decolonial turn is the primary focus of this work. There are two primary components of this discussion. First is the analysis of the locust plague in Joel. Second is the need to clarify the concept and content of African Biblical Hermeneutics in order to engage in an in-depth reading of Joel, bearing in mind the experiences of the African faith community. Before we delve to either of these components, however, I find it necessary to offer an overview of the prophecy of Joel, including information about the prophet himself and his historical setting and name, as well as information on the biblical book, including its date, authorship, genre, purpose, themes, continuity, and working-compositional structure.

The prophet’s name, Joel (yȏ’ēl), means “the Lord is God”. It is found about thirteen times in the Old Testament (Yilpet 2006, p. 1027). As is evident in the superscription (1:1), the Joel who wrote this book was a prophet from Jerusalem in the southern kingdom of Judah. His father’s name was Pethuel (Bethuel in LXX). When the book was written is debated. Some scholars prefer an early date of around the ninth century BC, while others argue for a late date around the fourth century BC. Proponents of an early date point to, among other things, the Hebrew canon’s (MT) positioning the book between Hosea and Amos, while the Greek Translation (LXX) has it between Micah and Obadiah. They also point to the mentions of the ninth-century Judean king Jehoshaphat in references to the “Valley of Jehoshaphat” in Joel 3:2, 12.5 Proponents of a late date argue, among other things, that the book makes no mention of either Assyria or Babylonia, nor is there any mention of Greece as a world power; hence, Joel must have been written late, around the completion of the Second Temple in 516 BC.6 In my opinion, the dating of the book ultimately does not affect the relevance of its locust plague prophecy for African readers and believers.

The prophecy of Joel’s is composed of only 73 verses.7 It is thus quite a short text to read through. In Africa, one could read it within 40 minutes, especially given electricity or good reading light. The Hebrew text of the book is in fairly good shape, so that few emendations are necessary. However, anyone who works with the Hebrew text, as I do, should note that the four-chapter divisions in the Hebrew translations (1:1–20; 2:1–27; 3:1–5; and 4:1–21) differ from those in English translations. Both sources are consulted in this essay. Thus, Joel 2:28–32 in English versions is 3:1–5 in Hebrew. Similarly, Joel 3:1–21 in English is 4:1–21 in Hebrew.8

The overall purpose of Joel’s prophecy, one can argue, is to call the nation and people to repentance in light of the approaching Day of the Lord, signaled by plagues of locusts. In the midst of such hardship, there is hope that comes with self-examination and awakening. The prophecy of Joel is poetic and filled with figures of speech. The locusts (as will be expanded further in this study within the context of African Biblical Hermeneutics) are presented as nations, or an army, or a people; they have teeth like lions and fangs like lionesses. As noted by Myers, “They appear like war horses, and their movement is like that of chariots; they scale walls like soldiers”.9 The prosperity following the plague narrative is also described poetically, using imagery of mountains dripping sweet wine and hills flowing with milk. The impending judgment is called a ripe harvest and a full fine-wine press. In Joel’s prophecy, one encounters frequent repetition (1:4, 10–12) as well as contrast (3:19–20). In addition to repetition, we find in the text “an ascending scale of parallels which heighten the effectiveness of a given thought as in 1:14; 2:15–16, 28; 3:18”.10

The themes that resound in Joel include: the Day of the Lord (2:28–3:21), repentance (2:12–14), the right kind of worship (2:12–13), the efficacy of prayer (1:19, 2:17), judgment, salvation, and the promises of restoration and renewal by the Lord.11

The continuity of the book is arguable. Some scholars have argued that the book has more than one author. There are those who claim that a pre-exilic prophet delivered oracles concerning a local locust outbreak in Joel 1:1–2:27. They argue that a later post-exilic prophet supplemented this prophet’s message with the sections about the Day of the Lord (2:28–3:21).12 Others “have tended to view the book as the composition of a single author, though possibly, including smaller redactional additions”.13

Just as there are many views concerning Joel’s composition, authorship, dating, and continuity, there are also many proposed outlines concerning the structure of the prophecy of Joel.14 This study borrows, with slight modification, Raymond Dillard’s tripartite outline:15

Superscription (1:1)

• The Locust Plague: The Immediate Disaster (1:2–20)
  • Effect and Extent of the Disaster (1:2–12)
    • Elders and Citizens (1:2–4)
    • Drunkards (1:5–7)
    • Priests and Farmers (1:8–12)
  • Summons to Fasting and Prayer at the Temple (1:13–14)
  • The Complaint and Prayer (1:15–20)
• The Day of the Lord: The Impending Disaster (2:1–17)
  • Cry of Alarm, Warning of Attack (2:1–2)
  • The Divine Army as Locusts (2:3–11)
  • Offer of Repentance (2:12–14)
  • Summons to Fasting and Prayer at the Temple (2:15–17)
• The Lord’s Answers (2:18–4:21 = MT) [3:21]
  • To the Immediate Disaster: Locust (2:18–27)
    • Removal of the Threat (2:18–20)
    • Healing of the Land (2:21–24)
    • Restoration of Prosperity (2:25–27)
  • To the Impending Disaster: The Day of the Lord (3:1–4:21) [2:28–3:21]
    • Salvation for Israel (3:1–5) [2:28–32]
      • All to Be Prophets (3:1–20) [2:28–29]
      • Deliverance for the Remnant (3:3–5) [2:30–32]
    • Judgment on the Nations (4:1–17) [3:1–17]
      • Slavery for Slavers (4:1–17) [3:1–8]
      • Holy War against Evil (4:9–19) [3:9–17]

        (1)

        Summons to Battle (4:9–11) [3:9–11]

        (2)

        Events in the Valley of Jehoshaphat (4:12–17) [3:12–17]

    • Blessing for the People of God (4:18–21) [3:18–21]

This outline sheds light on the special section of the prophecy concerning the locust plague (1:2–20), especially Joel 1:2–7; 2:24; and 3:18, which this work examines in detail using the tools of African Biblical Hermeneutics.

3. Concept and Content of African Biblical Hermeneutics

Before we examine the locust plague in the prophecy of Joel, from African perspectives, it is imperative that we offer a review, or a reappraisal, of African Biblical Hermeneutics as a post-colonial enterprise.16 This enterprise, of course, is fully aware that the Bible, a sacred text of which the prophecy of Joel forms a part, is the Word of God that became flesh and dwelt among us, and it is timeless (John 1:14; cf. Isa 40:8; 1 Pet 1:23–25). It happens in the community of faith through the process of faith interpretation and practice. This sacred text has, today more than ever, witnessed fascinating debates, shifts among diachronic and synchronic methods, and a revival in its hermeneutical and exegetical approaches.17 Acknowledging this shift, Fernado Segovia writes, “The world of biblical criticism today is very different from that of the mid-1970s … the field has undergone a fundamental and radical shift” (Segovia 1995, p. 1). As a beneficiary of this shift, postcolonial critical reading of the Bible is not only emancipatory, emphasizing culture, context, and one’s social location, but its critical procedure is an amalgam of different contemporary literary methods and thrives on inclusiveness and probes injustice (Sugirtharajah 2001, p. 258). Teresa Okure calls this shift “a revival of interest” in biblical scholarship that is mainly inspired by the changing situation in mission lands, where previously silent and passive recipients of mission have now become its active agents, either in their own countries or in other lands (Okure 1988, p. v; Udoekpo 2022, esp. xix–xxvii).

In his 2015 article, Adamo anticipatively and indirectly draws readers’ attention to what African Biblical Hermeneutics is all about. In it, Adamo describes African Biblical Hermeneutics as nothing less than “bringing real life interest into the biblical text and then [assigning] a very important role to this life interest”.18 This is evident in our approach to Joel’s plague, where the African context remains our explicit subject of interpretation. African Biblical Hermeneutics, Adamo insists, “is the principle of the interpretation of the Bible for transformation in Africa … that is vital to the wellbeing of our society”.19 African Biblical Hermeneutics can also be described as “African cultural hermeneutics”, “African biblical transformational hermeneutics”, or “African biblical studies”, which involves reading the Christian Scriptures (of which the prophecy of Joel forms a part) from an African perspective, or worldview and culture.20

Notable tasks of this approach adumbrated by Adamo, relevant to our study of Joel, include formulating a biblical hermeneutic that is “liberational and transformational”, understanding the Bible and God in relation to the African experience and culture, breaking Eurocentric hegemony in biblical scholarship, correcting the negative effects of colonialism, promoting African culture and identity, and making biblical interpretation relevant to Africans’ daily experiences.21 Collaboratively, Justin Ukpong defines this approach as “inculturation hermeneutics”.22 Similar to African Biblical Hermeneutics, inculturation hermeneutics is “a contextual hermeneutical methodology or approach that seeks to make any community of ordinary people and their socio-cultural context the subject of interpretation of the Bible”.23 This approach articulates and emphasizes the use of the conceptual frame of reference of the people doing the reading in the interpretation process and its characteristics. Its goal, Ukpong reiterates, is consistently sociocultural transformation, focusing on a variety of issues and situations, while its ethos is cultural diversity and identity in reading practice.24

In his influential volume The New Catholicity: Theology between the Global and the Local, Robert J. Schreiter, like Ukpong, insists on the importance of contextualizing and appropriating biblical exegesis and theology. Yet, he advises that “theology must not be reduced to context in a crude contextualism, for then it is likely to lose its critical edge as it becomes simply a product of its surroundings” (Schreiter 1997, pp. 1–27). Reading ancient Old Testament texts such as the prophecy of Joel in our African times—that is, using African Biblical Hermeneutics—can be challenging. However, it becomes easier when we keep in mind that the Word of God that became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14) is both timeless and without boundaries (Isa 40:8; 1 Pet 1:23–25). As John A. Hardon articulates:

“The calling of Abraham, the Exodus, the Decalogue, the Psalms, and the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah are no less meaningful today than they were when the events took place, or when the words were spoken or written. In fact, they should be more meaningful and pertinent now, provided we change our perspective. Although they were written then, they were meant for all times … After all, this is not mere the word of man, it is the word of God”.

(Hardon 1989, p. 12)

Joel’s message of the plague of locusts is thus capable of “entering into and finding expression in various cultures and languages, yet that same word overcomes the limits of individual cultures to create fellowship between different people” (Pope Benedict XVI 2010, p. 116). That is to say, when it is viewed as the Word of God, Joel’s prophecy is adaptable to the perspectives of African Biblical Hermeneutics. African Biblical Hermeneutics, according to Adamo, must be distinctively communal, existential and reflective, African and comparative, and evaluative, and they must use Africa and African culture to interpret the Bible. They must also have distinctive interest and identity (social institutions, ethical teachings, rituals, religious experiences, myths, and doctrines). Of course, this must not be done in isolation from other hermeneutical methods in an attempt to decolonize the interpretation of the Bible and the Word of God in light of African culture and tradition.25

Apart from voices such as Adamo, Okure, Segovia, Ukpong, Udoekpo, Sugirtharajah, Schreiter, Hardon, and Pope Benedict XVI, one other voice that I would like to use in defining and explaining the concept and content of African Biblical Hermeneutics for the study of plagues in the prophecy of Joel is Andrew M. Mbuvi and his recent work African Biblical Studies: Unmasking Embedded Racism and Colonialism in Biblical Studies (Mbuvi 2023).

Mbuvi dedicates this tripartite work, composed of 14 chapters, to four veteran African biblical hermeneuticians: John S. Mbiti (1931–2019), Charles Nyamiti (1931–2020), John S. Pobee (1937–2020), and David T. Adamo (1949–2022). He engages with and cites these African scholars throughout his entire work.26 By doing this, in my opinion, Mbuvi actively put into practice the very African biblical studies or hermeneutics that he “preaches”. For him, this enterprise aims at elevating “the African cultures, peoples, languages, histories and traditions as subjects and optics of interpretation while being fully cognizant that this is a limited and not a universal perspective”.27 African biblical studies, he argues, also “aims to decolonize colonial structures, colonized peoples, and colonized ‘text.’”28

In part 1, Mbuvi points out the deep relationship or entanglement between colonialism, the Enlightenment, and biblical studies. A classic example of this entanglement and colonial project propaganda in Africa is found in the academic, medical, and missionary exploration of the 20th-century Western icon Albert Schweitzer.29 In part 2, he unveils the unacknowledged negative impacts of a colonial approach to biblical exegesis on Africa, as well as the derogation of African religious values and realities. Mbuvi challenges colonial vernacular Bible translation with his hermeneutic of rehabilitation.30

Part 3, like the previous parts, is also very comprehensive and informative to Joel’s study of plague swarms in the context of African Biblical Hermeneutics. It incorporates the discussed basic framework of African biblical studies as a postcolonial enterprise or approach in response to the colonial project. Mbuvi demonstrates, to my delight, the various tenets of African biblical studies, including its decolonizing of the Bible, creative literature’s innovative approaches to reading the text. He rejects the one-sided Western reading of the text with insensitivity to African culture and context.31

The fourth section of this work holds the opposite as its primary focus, reading the locust plague in Joel 1:2–20 in light of African Biblical Hermeneutics.

4. Joel’s Locust Plague (Joel 1:2–20)

The significant occasion for the word of the Lord which came to the prophet Joel, the son of Pethuel (ʾel- yȏ’ēl ben- Pəthȗ’ēl), was a devastating plague of locusts that affected the land and crops and brought severe famine and hardship. The people were starved, and some died as a result. Joel’s poem, structurally sketched in section one, paints this as a time for self-examination, introspection, and investigation into the root causes of this divine judgment. We could hear, read, and exegete together part of the poem in Hebrew and English, especially verses 2–7, as follows (see

Table 1. Text and Translation (Joel 1:2-7).

Verses	MT Text	NRSV with My Modification
v. 2	šiməʿȗ-zȏth, hazȗqēnȋm, wəha’ăzinȗ, kōl yȏšbȇ hā’āritz! hehayətāh zȗ’th bȋmȇkem, wə’im bȋmȇ ‘ăbhȋtȇkem.	Listen to this, O elders, give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened before/in your days, or in the life time/before your fathers/ancestors?
v. 3	ʾālehā libhnēkhem sappērȗ, ȗbhənȇkhem libhənȇhem lədhȏr ’aḥēr	Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation after.
v. 4	yeter haggāzām, ʾākal hā’arəbbeh, wəyeter, hā’arebeh ʾākal hayyāleq, wəyeter hayyeleq ʾākal heḥāsȋl	What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten, what the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten
v. 5	hāqȋtsȗ šikkȏrȋm, ȗbəkhȗ, wəhȇlilȗ, kāl-šitȇ, yāyan ‘al- ‘asȋs, kȋ nikrat mippȋkhem	Wake up you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you wine-drinkers, over the sweet wine, because it is cut off from your mouth.
v. 6	kȋ-gȏy ‘ālāh ‘al-ʾarətsȋ, ‘ātsȗm wə’ēn misəppar, šinnâ ʾarəyēh, ȗmətalləʿȏth lābȋ’ lȏ	For a nation has invaded my land, powerful and innumerable, its teeth are lion’s teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness.
v. 7	sām gapənȋ, ləšammāh ȗtə’ēnātȋ liqətsāpāh ḥāsopf wəḥšəlȋk hiləbbȋnȗ sārȋgeyhā.	It has laid waste my vines, and splintered my fig trees; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down, their branches have turned white.

):

4.1. Appeal to Elders and Citizens (vv. 2–3)

Notably, the above prophecy begins with qal and hiphil imperatives (šamaʿ, “hear” or “listen”, and hiphil ʾzin, “give ear”, respectively). Of course, this comes after the superscription, “The word of the Lord which came to Joel, son of Pethuel”, (dəbar-‘ădȏnāy ʾašar hāyāh, ʾel- yȏ’ēl ben- Pəthȗ’ēl) in Joel 1:1. The imperatives in verse 2 call everyone’s attention to the word of the Lord. The elders (hazȗqēnȋm) and the inhabitants of the land (yȏšbȇ hā’āritz) are invited to consider the calamity and plague intrusion that has happened in the land. The fact that the elders and entire population are invited to take the lead in reflecting on the meaning of and way out of the recent locust plague is delightful in regard to African Biblical Hermeneutics and culture as a whole. As rightly noted in the Post-Synodal Exhortation, Ecclesia in Africa of the First Synod of African Catholic Bishops, Africa, among her many other economic and managerial challenges, is endowed with a wealth of cultural values and priceless human qualities, which it can offer to the church and to humanity as a whole, including Western biblical scholars. Among the values listed are a profound religious sense of the sacred, of the existence of God, the creator of the world, as well as a great sense of respect for elders and our ancestors (John 1995, no. 42; Udoekpo 2020, p. 27).

In Africa, “elders” are considered to be wise, prudent, modest, honest, exemplary, and full of experience that can serve as guidelines and yardsticks for moral conduct. Elders are the custodians of norms, knowledge, wisdom, justice, peace, and family ethics and values such as love and respect for life and children, including both sons and daughters. As noted again in Ecclesia in Africa, “It is precisely this love for life that leads them to give such great importance to the veneration of their ancestors” and fore-fathers (‘ăbhȋtȇkem).32 Africans, generally, show great respect for human life until its natural end, and, as a sign of great respect and love for their elders, they keep elderly parents and relatives within the family.33 Thus, it would have made much sense that elders and leaders were the first group of persons Joel commanded to pay attention to the devastating locust plague befalling the community; he does so with the intent that lives may be preserved in the community.

Elders aside, Joel’s invitation to the inhabitants of the land, or all citizens (kōl yȏšbȇ hā’āritz), recalls Africans’ acute sense of solidarity and community life. In Africa, “It is unthinkable to celebrate a feast without the participation of the whole village”.34 The same could be said of Africans’ response to calamities, funerals, and other tragedies, including events such as the locust plagues in the prophecy of Joel. In Africa, these problems are handled as a community, with a deep sense of ubuntu (Udoekpo 2023a). The significance of “communality” in defining individuals and society in Africa cannot be overemphasized. This, if I may draw from Mbuvi, “is not simply a recognition of the core value of community in African identity formation, but, in distinct contrast to the prevalent individualism that governs the Western society outlook”.35 Joel’s invitation to the elders and all inhabitants is well received as part of the Word of God on the continent of Africa, where the personal worth of both the elders and the value of all the citizens is inextricably tied to the welfare of the community.

Verse 2 continues by stressing the seriousness of the plague and its implications. It acknowledges rhetorically that never, in the memory of those alive in ancient Judah, has such a thing happened in the land. In verse 3, the elders and all the citizens are to learn lessons from this plague so that they can tell the story and its implications repeatedly to their children and grandchildren (ʾālehā libhnēkhem sappērȗ, ȗbhənȇkhem libhənȇhem lədhȏr ’aḥēr) for generations to come. This verse also resonates well in Africa, where storytelling is one of the oldest African cultural values. It is a communal and participatory experience with moral lessons and pedagogical significance, as exemplified in the stories and works of African icons and writers such as Chinua Achebe, Nelson Mandela, Ngugi wa Thiang’o, Wole Soyinga, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and many others.36 Joel invites all readers, in Africa and beyond, to look upon this event “as comparable to other great events of Israel’s history which were to be passed on from generation to generation, including respect for and faith in the Lord (see Exod 10:2; Deut 4:9; 6:7; 11:19; Joshua 4:6–7)”.37 Reading one such historical event, the exodus, in the context of African Biblical Hermeneutics, Kenneth N. Ngwa acknowledges the exodus as a story that is granularly attached to its environment, moving from Egypt, a land experiencing political and socioeconomic crises, to a metaphorical land flowing with milk and honey (Ngwa 2022, pp. 1–2, 119–32). The events recounted in Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Joshua may have been a manifestation of God’s mighty acts and the supernatural that Africans agree with. Joel 1:3 communicates that the locust plague, though catastrophic and forceful (v. 4), serves as a deterrent to sin; it recalls the disobedience by citizens, corruption, bad governance, wars, drumming of tribal sentiments, and lack of basic infrastructure by elected elders and leaders that is prevalent in African communities today.

4.2. Stages of Locust Growth and Damage (v. 4)

In verse 4, the prophet Joel forcefully describes the stages of locust development in vivid and striking Hebrew language, such that one can imagine the stages of locust growth—from pupa, to wingless larva, to winged larva, to adult—and the damage wrought in each stage.38 He says, poetically, as we saw in the table above, “What the gazem left, the arbeh has eaten. What the arbeh left, the yelek has eaten. What the yelek left, the hasil has eaten”, see Robinson (1926, p. 32). Joel must have been a keen observer of the real-life situations of his environment and culture. In so doing, Joel, in a way, anticipated African Biblical Hermeneutics. In Myers’ view, Joel 1:4 recognizes four phases of growth, characterized by activity: (1) cutting locust (larva stage), (2) swarming locust (the flying or full-grown locust), (3) hopping locust (the earliest larva), and (4) destroying locust (the full-grown locust before it becomes a flying insect).39

In his 1926 text Minor Prophets, Robinson documented that the very English term “locusts” communicates woe (Deut 28:38–42). The scientific name of the locust is Acridium peregrinum, but they are known as Nkukumkpayorijo in Efik/Ibiobio/Annang languages, which are spoken in Cross Rivers State and Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria.40 These insects (Acridium peregrinum or Nkukumkpayorijo) are black and, when they first hatch, resemble large ants; they have no sign of wings. As they develop, they shed their outer skin, which they have outgrown, and proceed through three stages of molting: (1) larva, or wingless stage, known as debbi in Arabic; (2) the pupa, with wings sacks developing, called gowga; and (3) the full-fledged flying locust, known as jared. The males have yellow bodies, while the females are deep brown and are larger in size. Females deposit their eggs four inches deep in the soil. When the insects are fully developed, they are about two and a half inches long, and their heads resemble horses. Perhaps this is why the Germans call them Heupferde, “the hay-horses”; the Italians call them Cavaletta (“little ponies”); and Arabs call them Djesh Allah (“God’s army”; Joel 2:25). Robinson notes that locusts resemble flying jet fighters, and they climb over walls and enter homes and make the air quiver (Joel 2:7–10). Indeed, they can fly about twelve miles per hour.41

4.3. Manifestations of Locust in Ancient near Eastern Culture and Africa

Joel’s descriptions of locusts (1:2–4; 2:25; and 2:7–10) find parallels in the culture of neighboring Near Eastern regions and in Africa. This evidence of locust activity indicates that Joel was not just being allegorical or metaphorical in his poem. He was, irrespective of other perspectives or interpretative models, referring to real locust plagues.42

Robinson notes, in his historic documentation, that there was a locust plague in 1915 in Jerusalem, during the First World War (1914–1918), as described by John D. Whiting in the December 1915 edition of the National Geography Magazine.43 The plague began in late February of 1915 and extended throughout Palestine and Syria, from the borders of Egypt to the Taurus mountains. Locust plagues are additionally documented as having occurred in Palestine in 1845, 1865, 1892, 1899, and 1904; these years are known as “the years of locusts” (sinet el-jared).44

Locust swarms are known, familiar, and are real phenomena in different parts of Africa. As Yilpet writes, “We in Africa can certainly understand the desolation and desperation that would accompany a locust plague. Their destruction of a harvest results in hunger and starvations”.45 Indeed, in 2004, the Integrated Regional Information National Network News (IRIN), now known as The New Humanitarians, reported that locust swarms had reached Nigeria and Cape Verde as control costs soared.46 Acting similarly to Joel’s ancient prophecy, the report of this calamity prompted the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to warn elders, leaders, and African citizens in Nigeria and beyond that “unless a new generation of immature insects developing in the semi-desert of southern Mauritania is sprayed quickly with insecticide, a new generation of mature locusts will take to the skies in the coming weeks and wreak even greater damage on crops throughout the Sahel”.47 In other words, the report invited African countries, leaders, farmers, and citizens in general to collectively respond in a timely manner before the situation became worse.48

4.4. Demands from Drunkards, Farmers, and Compatriots (v. 5)

The ominous outlook of verse 4 may have prompted the prophet Joel’s demands in verses 5–7. He calls for a complete and immediate reawakening on the part of his complacent compatriots, including drunkards and wine drinkers, when he says, “Wake up you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you wine-drinkers, over the sweet wine, because it is cut off from your mouth”. (v. 5). Drunkards are singled out in this warning alongside farmers because “they were naturally the first to lament shortage of wine. But all the people used wine to some extent and they too, would come to feel the pinch”.49 The same could be said of wine in African culture today. Wine produce by both local and mechanized farmers is served at feasts, family gatherings, and community gatherings in different parts of Africa—especially in Nigeria, were poverty and other kinds of brokenness have become the order of the day. Describing such broken situations in Nigeria, the Bishop’s Catholic Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) in their 2022 Communiqué mentioned (1) lack of fairness in the distribution of social amenities or in making appointments to offices despite the Federal Character principle in the Constitution; (2) lack of a functional, stable, qualitative, and affordable educational system, which should be the bedrock of rebuilding a broken system and of development; (3) closure of public schools and universities because of strikes by unpaid civil servants, thereby leaving African youths on the streets; (4) gross lack of job opportunities, equity, gender balance between male and female, good moral standards, an adequate justice system, transparency, and accountability among leaders and citizens (CBCN Secretariat 2022). In this context, where many cannot afford one good meal day, wine, as described in Joel, is a luxury, reserved most of the time for the rich, the elders, and corrupt leaders (Udoekpo 2023b).

4.5. Devastations and Signs of Hope (vv. 6–7ff; chs. 2–3)

Verses 6–7 compare the locust plague’s invasion of the land to an invading enemy nation. Verse 6 says, “For a nation has invaded my land, powerful and innumerable, its teeth are lion’s teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness”. Joel describes the locusts as “powerful and innumerable” (‘ātsȗm wə’ēn misəppar). Myers thinks the two terms are synonymous, as “powerful” could mean strong by virtue of number (see Exod 1:9; Isa 60:22; Micah 4:7; Dan 11:25).50 The locust were not only powerful and numerous, but their saw-like teeth were like those of an African lion, and their “fangs” or jaw-teeth were similar to those of a lioness (v. 6). They laid waste to vines and splintered all trees in their path, stripping them of their bark and throwing it down so that the branches appear white (v. 7). What a frightening and telling onslaught.

In Africa, we find echoes of lament as a result of locust devastation. For instance, the IRIN News reported that farmers in areas such as Sabon Birni, Isa, Wurno, and Goronyo have lost their crops. Only Allah can tell if there will be any harvest. Millions of local farmers in the affected areas rely on food crops such as maize, millet, sorghum beans, groundnuts, and cotton. The swarms were also said to contain up to fifty insects per square meter, and numerous locusts, tired out by the long flight, were found dead on beaches. The situation was extremely critical.51 The result in a continent already poorly managed can be scarcity of food for average citizens, disease, and untimely deaths. Joel notes that temple worship, priests, vine growers, and many others are relentlessly affected by the aftermath of the locust (vv. 8–12); hence, Joel emphasizes the need for prayer (vv. 13–14), greater reliance on God (vv. 15–20), and awareness of the signs of the coming Day of the Lord (2:1–17). Fortunately, most Africans are deeply religious and prayerful and remain hopeful.

4.6. Signs of Hope and God’s Blessings (chs. 2–3)

The locust plagues in Joel are forerunners of the Day of the Lord (2:2–11), yet Joel also describes a window of repentance (2:12–27), penitence (2:14), fasting (2:15–17), and hope in the promises of the Lord (2:24–27). The plagues are signs of divine summons, judgment (3:1–8, 9–15), redemption (3:16–21), and divine blessings (3:18). In other words, while the dark side of locusts and their devasting effect on the situation in Africa and beyond cannot be minimized, all hope is not lost for Joel’s contemporaries and Africans who read the prophecy of Joel. Faith and trust in God is paramount. The Lord reassures us that “the threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil” (2:24). The Lord will repay everyone in one form or another “for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter … I am your God, and there is no other, and my people shall never be put to shame” (2:25–27).

This divine assurance reaffirms our earlier assertions that African religious realities, including the belief in the supernatural, spiritual, and physical, are tenets of African Biblical Hermeneutics. It is providential that the very nature of the devasting locust so far discussed has become a source of blessing in the form of food and livestock feed, among other uses, especially in Africa, with its fragile economy and poor health care services.

4.7. Locust as Food and Other Benefits

My first encounter with locust (fara) as food and as a source of nourishment and joy was in December 2022 during my visit with a friend in Maiduguri, in the northeastern part of Nigeria, the birthplace of boko haram religious extremists.52 Upon arrival, I was served with a plate of well-seasoned roasted locust (fara) alongside drinks. The hospitality of the people there and serenity of the natural environment, with its flat land, was a thing of joy and something to write home about. In Maiduguri, I thought of the locust plague in the prophecy of Joel 2:2–7, particularly the joyful and hopeful section in Joel 2:24: the threshing floors of Nigerian farmers are now full of grain, and their vats are now overflowing with wine and oil. This encounter with hope inspired my research on Joel in the context of African Biblical Hermeneutics.

J. P. Egonyu speaks of locust (fara) as a source of food and health, rather than calamity, in the article “Global Overview of Locust as Food, Feed and Other Uses”. This work, led by an African researcher with African experience, evaluates the potential of harnessing locust swarms for beneficial uses as a more sustainable management strategy than the adoption of Western methods of widespread use of insecticides. It highlights the global distribution of locust species, their nutritional value, historical practices of their use as food, feed and other applications, harvesting technologies, and regulatory framework. It also points out the safety and sociocultural concerns that should be addressed to promote beneficial uses of locusts (Egonyu et al. 2021).

Ironically, or providentially, the very locusts that were threatening elders, farmers, drunkards, and citizens in the prophecy of Joel and threaten people in different parts of Africa (Nigeria in particular) today, Egonyu stresses, have nutritional value, such “as protein, fat and energy contents comparable to, or higher than those of meat (18–29%, 1–32% and 10–353 kcl/100 g respectively)”.53 Although the crude protein levels in locusts are generally high, the presence of chitin may impair its solubility, but this can be enhanced six-fold under alkaline pH and through extraction of chitin for other uses.54 Other comparable elements have it that the nitrogen-protein conversion factor of 6.25, commonly used to estimate insect protein content, has been found to overestimate the protein content of migratory locust and other insects by approximately 17 % due to their chitin content. However, a nitrogen-protein conversion factor of 5.33 has been recommended for more accurate estimation of protein contents of locust and other edible insects.55 Other minerals, vitamins, fatty acids and cholesterol, amino acids, and health benefits including reduction in aging symptoms are derived by eating cooked and baked desert locust.56 The process of harvesting or controlling threatening locust plagues through the use of widespread insecticides and other chemicals at random can leave some residues in the insect that may in turn cause health problems to consumers of locusts in Africa and beyond. Therefore, safety constraints and measures must be put in place. Confirming the need for health measures, H. van der Valk notes that spraying locust with insecticides negatively impacted 30–60 % of non-target invertebrates and other aquatic life, including causing massive death of freshwater shrimps. Hence, research into safer approaches for acquiring locust as food or feed (such as mass trapping of unsprayed hopper bands and mass harvesting of swarms) is critical.57 Additional potential health and environmental safety constraints or measures include heavy metals, mycotoxins, allergens, and microbial contaminants.58 All of these can be contained and managed.

In spite of the threatening face of the locust plague in Joel and in different part of Africa, locusts continue to be widely managed, contained, and collected during outbreaks and consumed for their protein, vitamins, and minerals in more than 65 countries, especially in African, Asian and South American countries, including: Nigeria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, China, Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, India, Laos, Malaysia, and Myanmar. Locusts are also consumed in Mexico, Ukraine, Belgium, Australia, Italy, Brazil, and Columbia.59 Interestingly, Jewish culture forbids the consumption of all types of insects except locusts, katydids, crickets, and grasshoppers (Lev 11:20–22).

Ultimately, locust are widely accepted as food in Africa and Asia. This, in a way, helps in ameliorating food crises faced by the impoverished that are, in most cases, artificially created by bad governance and leadership in those parts of the world (Sun-Waterhouse et al. 2016). The full benefits of locusts in Africa and different parts of the world are beyond the scope of this work; however, I will note that they provide job opportunities to those who work in locust processing factories, as well as income from marketing of both the locust and feed for pigs and other animals.60

Thus, the locusts that we saw as a threat in the first section of the prophecy of Joel (1:2–20, especially vv. 2–7), by divine intervention and reversal of fortunes, can also be seen as a blessing (2:24–25 and 3:18). Locust are nutritionally rich, or richer than conventional meat. As noted by Egonyu and his colleagues, locusts contain omega-3 and 6 fatty acids and other sterols that are critical for preventing heart disease, and they are low in cholesterol. The limiting amino acids lysine and methionine in locusts are four to six times higher than in conventional meat. Locusts are rich in calcium, iron, zinc, and vitamin D3, B12, E, and A, and they contain safe levels of heavy metals. Locusts have been evaluated as ingredients in fish and pig feed with promising results. They are promising raw materials for chitin, oil, and nutraceutical products. Safety concerns regarding the use and consumption of locusts include insecticides, allergens, and microbial contaminants, but these can be controlled, checked, and avoided.61 In sum, there is a hidden silver lining, reflecting God’s mercy and love, in the seeming ugly and threatening images of locusts in the prophecy of Joel.

5. Conclusions

This work set out to discuss the locust plague (ʾarbbeh) in the prophecy of Joel in the context of African Biblical Hermeneutics (ABH), a post-colonial enterprise. It went about this, within the overall context of the prophecy of Joel, with a central theme that the Day of the Lord is near (yōm ădȏnay). In its findings, Joel’s primary goal is to illicit repentance (Joel 2:12–17) from his contemporaries, with the hope of restoring their communion with the Lord, Israel’s true God (2:18–3:21). Joel uses the locust plagues (ʾarbbeh) and their accompanying effects as a sure sign that the great and terrible day is near. The choice of an ABH approach throughout this work does not in any way diminish the existence and vitality of other approaches, especially the Eurocentric and Americo-centric historical and theoretical perspectives on the prophecy of Joel. Being the Word of God, Joel’s prophecy of the locust plague is capable of penetrating and finding expression in various cultures, including Africa. This work appeals to many famous and notable African hermeneutician-scholars, novelist, writers, and authors and discusses the locust plague in the prophecy of Joel in the context of Africa.

Readers of Joel, believers, and storytellers in Africa, with their worldview, economic challenges, and sociopolitical challenges (including lack of hospitals, medicines, vitamins, food supplements, minerals, good governance, leaders, committed and patriotic citizens, and decent job opportunities) certainly would understand the desolation and degradation brought about to their crops and vegetation by the locust plague. Their stages of destruction and the ferocity of the devastation, when not properly checked, managed, or anticipated for proper and timely harvesting, could result in hunger, starvation, and death in Africa. Even with such dangers, there is always hope among hardworking believers in Africa for a better future. This hope is found in a sovereign God who is the divine origin of the universe, and the master of both the physical and the spiritual realms. In Africa, God is at work, and God is in control of everything.

The provision of locusts for the African is for a reason. On the one hand, it is a means of judgment, reawakening, and humiliation, especially of those elders, elites, and leaders (hazȗqēnȋm) who sin by depriving poor farmers and common people of their basic needs, including food, hospitals, vitamins, and medicine. God is at work in those citizens and compatriots, the inhabitants of the land (yȏšbȇ hā’āritz), who practice ubuntu by rising to the challenges of the plague in solidarity with the entire community (Joel 1:2–7). On the other hand, God’s provisional mercy is found in his healing and blessings. That is to say, the locusts we saw as a threat in the first section of the prophecy of Joel (1:2–20, especially vv. 2–7), by divine intervention and reversal of fortune, can be seen and received as a blessing (2:24–25; 3:18).

We see these blessings in the extravagant picture of the fruitfulness of the land that “the mountains shall drip sweet wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streams’ beds of Judah shall flow with water, a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord” (3:18). They are sure signs and evidence of God’s presence in the midst of his people, concertized in the discussed benefits of locusts. Indeed, when globally viewed, and socio-culturally approached, locusts are accepted as a qualitative and quantitative food, served as snacks, appetizers, and as part of communal meals, especially for visitors and at social gatherings. They can also be used to feed livestock and have health benefits and economic value.

It is important to notice that Joel speaks words of both joy and woe. Joy and sorrow, hope and despair are part and parcel of life. Rampant plague and suffering in the land indicated to Joel and his compatriots that something was wrong; it could do the same for Africans in their contexts today. Such plagues can further serve as a call for self-evaluation and improvement, especially on how they govern themselves and manage African affairs in a global world. In Joel, we see that God’s mercy, forgiveness to those who repent, and divine provision go beyond the physical and are meant to bring happiness and lasting joy and satisfaction to all—including those who live in Africa, a land long ravaged and plagued by colonialism, poverty, war, violence, tribalism, bad leadership, and an absence of patriotism. Again, there is a silver lining in the hidden presence of God’s blessings within the seeming ugly threat of the locust plague in the prophecy of Joel.