Beat your plowshares into swords??

Joel 4:9-10

“Don't stop after beating the swords into plowshares, don't stop! Go on beating and make musical instruments out of them.

Whoever wants to make war again will have to turn them into plowshares first.”

Yehuda Amichai’s poem echoes today, as the war drums keep at it, and more weapons are disrupting our lives in his beloved land and all over the world.

When will we ever learn? 

For Joel the Prophet, living at a time most likely familiar with war and already knows that Jerusalem has experienced a siege, collapse and exile - there are visions for the future where the fortunes are reversed. He imagines, like some other prophets, that the day of vengeance will arrive, giving the meek more might, turning the order of reality upside down, and promising his people a safe return to the land - forever. 

Only a prophet familiar with trauma and loss can conjure these images of triumph and repair. And he also does not shy away from fantasies of revenge. We may not like it - not then, not now - but we as humans can understand where that impulse comes from, and how bitter that battle cry for justice can be when it comes from deep hurt. 

Joel reminds the people of the world, Judah’s neighbors, of their treachery and cruelty - how they sold Jerusalem’s children into slavery and prostitution, and how they scattered the Judeans among all nations and then stole the holy land.  For this will be retribution - a war fought back in the valley of judgment of Jerusalem - and every army of the world will show up, to be defeated by YHWH. 

And then Joel drops this verse - familiar yet twisted: 

כֹּ֤תּוּ אִתֵּיכֶם֙ לַחֲרָב֔וֹת וּמַזְמְרֹֽתֵיכֶ֖ם לִרְמָחִ֑ים הַֽחַלָּ֔שׁ יֹאמַ֖ר גִּבּ֥וֹר אָֽנִי׃

Beat your plowshares into swords,

And your pruning hooks into spears.

Let even the weakling say, “I am strong.”

Joel 4:9-10

The more famous version of this futurist vision is of course the prophecy of Isaiah, carved on the stone walls across the street from the United Nations --  

“Thus spoke Isaiah, the son of Amotz: "And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks…" (Isaiah 2:4).

So, who came first and why does Joel’s version differ so drastically from Isaiah’s pacifist dream for weapon-free days? 

Many have pondered this question over the generations. In 13th century CE Italy, for instance, Rabbi David Kimchi, known as The Radak, tries to reconcile the two versions as a continuation of progress, with up’s and down’s along the way. He thinks Joel’s violent vision came first, followed by Isaiah: 

“All metal implements will be recycled into weapons of war on account of the magnitude of this battle. In the time of peace that will follow, Isaiah prophesied, to the contrary, that: “They will beat their swords into plowshares…” 

Yael Hess, an Israeli educator, reflects on what this prophetic conversation may mean to us, today: 

“Two images. Two prophets. Two periods. Two melodies. Contradictory? Complementary? One thing is clear: they are talking to each other.

Isaiah is one of the most influential prophets in the history of Israelite prophecy; Joel less so. Joel is also more puzzling from a historical point of view. But this dialogue of theirs, whether it is theirs or whether the biblical editor created it, affords us the readers a moment of reflection on the end times.

We can imagine the two different workshops. Both of them have ironmongers and blacksmiths, wrapped in leather aprons, making tools out of other tools. One group is taking swords and making work implements; joyously, I would hope. The other, working more quietly, with serious faces and furrowed brows, are taking the tools for harvesting and are making of them weapons of destruction.

Which do you prefer? It should be clear, no? Between war and peace, isn't peace preferable?

Yes – peace is preferable. But precisely because of that, it's not clear which of the two pictures is more appropriate...This of course fits in with what we have learned from the elderly Kohelet: "A time for weeping, a time for laughing… a time for war and a time for peace."

And here, even though neither of these pictures is absolutely more worthy, since everything is dependent on context and time, I feel that it is imperative that we promote Isaiah's vision, and push Joel to the background. War can be a necessity, at times indispensable; at times there is nothing more just or moral; we must be ready for it, ready to give our lives, otherwise these are all empty words. But there is no glory on the fields of slaughter. War is never an end in itself. It is evil even if its results are good...

The prophets Joel and Isaiah have given us the building blocks. The house is up to us to build.”

Joel ends the chapter and his book with a promise to his people that has been remembered and composed, entered into our liturgy and echoes still today as a trope of hope: We will be back home, and the hills will be juicy with sweetness, Jerusalem will be secure and the divine will shine, forever. 

Thank you Joel, Isaiah and all prophets of peaceful future. Here’s hoping, with everything we’ve got.

Coming next - Amos.

Image: Rainbow Man by Judy Chicago (1982-1987)

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