The Divided Kingdom
- When
- Date uncertain; perhaps c. 830 or c. 400 BC
- Written by
- Joel
- Chapters
- 3
The big idea
A plague of locusts becomes a call to repent. The day of the Lord is coming, and after it God will pour out his Spirit on all flesh.
Themes
- The day of the Lord
- The Spirit poured out
- Restoration
- Repentance from the heart
Memory verse
And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
Key passages
- 1The locusts
- 2:12–17Rend your hearts
- 2:28–32I will pour out My Spirit
- 3Judgment of the nations
Links to other Scripture
- Acts 2:16–21Fulfilled at Pentecost
- Romans 10:13Whosoever shall call upon the name
- Matthew 6:16–18Fasting in secret
- James 4:8–10Draw nigh to God
Read the text
Choose a chapter to read it here in the King James Version. Verses with a dotted underline have notes from Bible scholars. Tap one to open them.
Notes from
Chapters
King James text and the commentaries of Henry, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Gill, Clarke, Calvin, and Keil and Delitzsch are in the public domain. Tyndale Open Study Notes are used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license, from tyndaleopenresources.com. Texts were reformatted for this site.
Journal prompts
Keep a journal or notebook for your study. Write your answers there, in your own words.
- Where do you see Christ in this book?
- Joel says to rend your heart and not your garments. What is the difference in your own life between showing sorrow and feeling it?
- After the locusts, God promises to restore the years they ate. What loss are you asking him to restore?
- Joel promises the Spirit poured out on all flesh. What would it mean to expect that for yourself, today?
- In one sentence, this book is about…