1 Joel does not indicate at what time he lived and preached. But the ancients say: he was at the time when Hosea and Amos were; so we leave that alone and do not know how to improve it.
2. but he is a kind and gentle man
He does not scold and punish like the other prophets, but pleads and complains, wanting to make people pious with good, kind words and to protect them from harm and misfortune. But it will have happened to him like other prophets, that one
*) This preface is found in Walch, in the Leipzig edition, vol. XII, p. 42 and in the Erlanger, vol. 63, p. 74.
**) This preface is found in Walch, in the Leipzig edition, vol. XII, p. 43 and in the Erlanger, vol. 63, p. 75.
did not believe his words and took him for a fool.
But he is highly famous in the New Testament, because St. Peter brings him forth, Apost. 2, 16. 17. 2, 16. 17. And Joel must give the first sermon that happened in the Christian church, namely on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem, when the Holy Spirit was given. Thus St. Paul [Rom. 10, 13.] also beautifully describes the saying: "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved," which is also found in Joel Cap. 3, 5.
4 In the first chapter he prophesies the future punishment of the people of Israel, that they should be destroyed and carried away by the Assyrians. And he calls the Assyrians caterpillars, locusts, beetles, and dung. For the Assyrians ate up the kingdom of Israel one by one until they destroyed it. But at the end of the day, King Sanherib lay low before Jerusalem, which Joel recalls in the second chapter, v. 20, when he says
says: "And the one from midnight I will drive far away from you" etc.
5 Secondly, at the end of the second chapter and from then on, he prophesies about the kingdom of Christ and the Holy Spirit, and says about the eternal Jerusalem.
6. But that he speaks of the valley of Jehoshaphat, how the Lord will call all the Gentiles there to judgment, which the old fathers understood by the last judgment, and I do not condemn such understanding, but still think that Joel's opinion is: Just as he calls the eternal Jerusalem the Christian Church, so he also calls the same the Valley of Jehoshaphat, because all the world is called to the Christian Church by the Word, and is judged in the same, and punished by the preaching, as they are all sinners before God, as Christ says: "The Spirit of truth will punish the world for sin." For Jehoshaphatthal is called the valley of judgment, just as Hosea in the second chapter, v. 15, calls the Christian church the valley of Achor.