Commento su Gioele 1:1

to Joel son of Pethuel—The son of Samuel the prophet who persuaded God with his prayer (פִתָּה לְאֵל) . Some say that this prophecy was said in those seven years in which Elisha said: “For the Lord has decreed a famine etc.” and they took place during the days of Jehoram son of Ahab.

1. The first prophecy in Sefer Yoel begins with "Hashem initially spoke to Yoel..." and goes until "on that day I will pour out my prophecy..." (ie- the first theme in the prophecy in the book of Yoel is in perakim 1-2). And this prophecy is split into 4 sections. A) "the Word of Gd came to Yoel" B)"gird yourself and lament oh priests" C)"Let the sound of the shofar ring out in Zion and blow a loud blast" D)"blow a shofar in Zion and make a fast". And I see the following 6 questions through which I will explain the prophecy.

The first question- if, as it appears from the text and as the commentaries agree upon, this prophecy truly deals with the produce eaten by the locusts, we have to explain how the navi makes this a great mourning that is so intense. To the point that several times we see that all the food of the year is lost and there will be a destruction of the land. But in Shemot (10:14), the Torah tells us that the locust plague was unique in that there was never before like it and there will never be afterwards. And if so, we need to explain what Yoel says about this current plague that "like it there never was and afterwards there will not be in the years of all generations". A possible (rejected) explanation is that the quote in Shemot is referring to the plague of locusts being unique in the land of Egypt. This explanation is rejected due to the fact that the Torah says about the plague of hail (Shemot 9:24) that there was never like 'in the land of Egypt' specifically.