Joel, though brief, is very explicit, and coincident with the above. After predicting terrible calamities upon Israel and their country by the lions of Assyria, and others, he consoles the nation with the assurance that after the Gentiles had filled up the measure of their abominations, Jehovah will be jealous for his land and will pity his people; and that they shall no more be made a reproach among the nations. He predicted that Jehovah will do great things, at which the children of Zion shall be glad, and that they shall rejoice in Jehovah, their Elohim, or Christ: that he would give them the latter rain of the Spirit, as on Pentecost, of the first month; and the former rain litzdahkah, on account of righteousness, in the seventh month, which is also the first of the civil year. That in this period there shall be restoration, and that henceforth Jehovah’s people shall never be ashamed. He foretold that between the two Spirit-Rain periods, Zion’s Sun should be turned into darkness, and the Moon of her ecclesiastical heavens into blood, before the great and terrible Day of Jehovah should be apocalypsed, or revealed, upon Israel’s enemies; whose destruction shall proceed from Mount Zion and
Jerusalem, in which shall be deliverance for the remnant whom Jehovah shall call. He further makes known, that in the days of the Restoration of Judah and Jerusalem, Jehovah will gather all national armies into the valley of Jehoshaphat or Armageddon; and there contend with them in battle for the possession of the Holy Land: that on the eve of this contest a proclamation shall be made among the nations, stirring them up to the war, which in the Apocalypse is styled “the war of that great day of God Almightythat, at this epoch of restoration, Jehovah shall lead down his warriors to the conflict in the valley of judgment; that the harvest-sickle, and the vintage press, shall then do their work; that Jehovah, as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and shake the heavens and the earth of the non-Jewish world, whose Sun and Moon shall be darkened, and the shining of their stars shall be destroyed; that when this is consummated, Jerusalem shall be holy; and no strangers, or enemies, shall henceforth pass through her any more; that the land shall be as Paradise, flowing with wine and milk, being so rich in vines and pasturage, fountains and running streams; and to crown the whole, Joel testifies with Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah, that Jehovah then dwells in Zion, the place of rest, and city of the Great King—ch. I : 6 ; 2 : 18, 19, 23, 24, 26, 31, 32 ; 3 : I, 2, 9, 11-18, 20, 2L