Joel / Question
Joel calls the community to pass the report down through generations. The event is treated as something to be remembered and retold. See Joel 1:3.
Joel opens by identifying his message as Yahweh’s word given to him, Joel son of Pethuel (Joel 1:1). He then calls the community’s leaders and everyone in the land to pay close attention. The event he is about to describe is presented as without parallel in living memory or even in earlier family memory. These verses function as the book’s doorway: the speaker is introduced, the message is framed as coming from Yahweh, and the audience is addressed broadly. The call to “hear” and “listen” sets a serious tone and prepares readers for a report of crisis and its meaning for the whole community.
These opening lines present the book as a public message from Yahweh delivered through a known messenger: “the word of Yahweh” came to Joel, identified as “son of Pethuel” (Joel 1:1). That framing is an explicit claim of source and authority, not merely a personal reflection.
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Joel 1:3, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
3Tell your children about it, And have your children tell their children, And their children, another generation.