Jeremy Thompson Catholic PhD in Biblical Languages, Programmer, Runner

I was annotating Leviticus today, and the meaning of 17:7 was readily apparent. Once you understand that Joel in his multiple personalities = the goat demons, you are on your way to understanding the text:

So they (people who have recently bought a book on mimetic criticism and the Gospel of Mark) shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices (this refers to the sacrifice of their intellect – see below) to goat demons (Joel L. Watts in his multiple personalities), after whom they whore (their whoredom consists of their sacrificing their intellects to the goat demons – Joel – by reading about Greek and mimes). This shall be a statute forever for them (said consumers) throughout their generations (the lifetime of Jeremy Thompson). Leviticus 17:7 pesher

In all seriousness, a belated congratulations to Joel on the publication of his new book!  I look forward to a trip with he and our respective families on his new yacht that he will buy with the proceeds.

In Joel 4.12 (or 3.2 dependent on your translation), there is a reference to the “Valley of Jehoshaphat.”  Here’s the comment from the The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament (which if you didn’t know by now, I love):

There is no valley with this name known in Israel from the Bible or from other sources, or even from tradition. The alternatives are (1) that the reference is being made to a valley that had something to do with the ninth-century king of Judah by the name of Jehoshaphat (the only mention of a valley in his account is in 2Kings 3); or (2) that the valley’s name accords with what takes places there (the name Jehoshaphat means “Yahweh judges”). If the latter is the case, as many commentators have concluded, the location would likely be one of the valleys surrounding Jerusalem.

Today’s reading is from Joel 1 and 2.  The theme of “the day of the Lord” plays prominently in the passage as well as in many other prophetic texts.  I remembered reading quite a long time ago a helpful passage in Collins’ Introduction to the Hebrew Bible.  It explains why all of the talk of “the day of the Lord” as a day of judgment may have been surprising.  These comments are in the section on Amos; however, they are pertinent to today’s passage in Joel:

The original concerns of Amos, however, emerge most clearly in 5:18-28. This famous passage pronounces woe on those “who desire the day of the Lord” (5:18).  There has been much debate about as to what is meant by “the day of the Lord.”  In this context, however, it clearly refers to a cultic celebration, perhaps the Festival of Tabernacles or Sukkoth, which was known as “the feast of YHWH” in later times.  Tabernacles was celebrated at the end of the grape harvest.  It was a joyful festival, marked by drinking wine.  It was a day of light, in the sense of being a joyful occasion.  For Amos, however, the day of the Lord was darkness and not light, gloom with no brightness…

According to Collins, it is as though the prophets have co-opted a term that was meant to speak of a day of joy and feasting and turned it on its head.  Now, the day of the Lord has become a day of judgment.  It might be something akin to someone today saying “Woe to those who long for Christmas!”

I highly recommend Collins’ introductions to the Hebrew Bible, both the long and short versions: