The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
Ver. 1. The word of the Lord that came, &c.] See the note on Hosea 1:1, with whom Jerome and some other interpreters make this prophet a contemporary, for the likeness of argument; and that common canon of the Jewish doctors, that the prophet who sets not down his time is to be held of the same time with him that is placed before him. The Seventy set him not only after Hosea, but also after Amos and Micah: and the ancient Hebrew Chronicle, called Sedar Olam, affirmeth that Joel prophesied together with Nahum and Habakkuk, the days of King Manasseh; which Drusius would prove out of Joel 3:5. Others, with more show of reason, out of 2 Kings 21:10; 2 Kings 23:26. Joel might very well be one of those prophets that denounced God's heavy judgments against Judah, for the sins and abominations of Manasseh, whom some make to be his convert. For although at first the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people, but they would not hearken, 2Ch 33:10 yet the rod might set the word to work afterwards; for Manasseh, when he was in affliction, besought the Lord, and humbled himself greatly, 2Ch 33:12 and Joel might very well be to him a son of Pethuel, or of God's persuasion: God, by his ministry, might speak to his heart, Hosea 2:14, set before him an open door (another Etymology of the name Pethuel, ostium Dei mouth of God), Revelation 3:8, minister unto him an entrance farther and farther into Christ's everlasting kingdom, 2 Peter 1:11. If any think it more likely that Joel prophesied under Josiah, king of Judah, when that great famine occured which is described in like terms by Jeremiah, Jer 14:1-2 cf. 2 Kings 23:26, I shall not strive with him. But that this Joel was the son of Samuel (here called Pethuel, a persuader of God, because what he asked of God he obtained), as R. Salomon would carry it, I cannot imagine: for that Joel was not a prophet, but a corrupt judge, 1 Samuel 8:1,5 .