JOEL
The dating of the writing of the book of Joel is uncertain with dates ranging between 900 B.C. to 400 B.C. There are no historical references in which to date the book historically, thus the wild range in dates.
Joel is listed as one of the “minor prophets” not meaning that his words aren’t important but because of the brevity of his prophecies (3 chapters) as compared to the “major prophets” such as Isaiah (66 chapters), Jeremiah (52 chapters) and Ezekiel (48 chapters).
Another reason for the uncertainty of Joel’s time-frame is that the plague of locusts he speaks of is not recorded in history to date. This does not mean that it didn’t happen, it just means that no other writings have survived to speak of it.
JOEL 1:1-4
1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
2 Hear this, you elders, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell your children about it, let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
4 What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; and what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.
Locusts are basically grasshoppers, and are usually solitary creatures. Yet after periods of drought when vegetation flourishes again their behavior changes and they form huge swarms that cover the land and go on an eating rampage that consumes all green plants and strips trees of their foliage and bark.
Ancient writings speak of plagues of locusts as being a scourge of God sent by Him as a punishment against sinners. God used a plague of locusts against Pharaoh as a punishment for not releasing the Israelites from 430 years of slavery.
EXODUS 10:3-7
3 So Moses and Aaron came in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
4 Or else, if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory.
5 And they shall cover the face of the earth, so that no one will be able to see the earth; and they shall eat the residue of what is left, which remains to you from the hail, and they shall eat every tree which grows up for you out of the field.
6 They shall fill your houses, the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians—which neither your fathers nor your fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were on the earth to this day.’ ” And he turned and went out from Pharaoh.
7 Then Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?”
JOEL 1:5-7
5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you drinkers of wine. Because of the new wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth.
6 For a nation has come up against My land, strong, and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a fierce lion.
7 He has laid waste My vine, and ruined My fig tree; he has stripped it bare and thrown it away; its branches are made white.
The description of the plague continues. Locusts will even strip the bark from trees in their hunger requiring strong mouth parts, hence the reference to teeth like a lion. A trees uses bark to transport sap to all parts of itself, so stripping a tree of bark will usually kill the tree.
JOEL 1:8-12
8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
9 The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests mourn, who minister to the Lord.
10 The field is wasted, the land mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails.
11 Be ashamed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field has perished.
12 The vine has dried up, and the fig tree has withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree— all the trees of the field are withered; surely joy has withered away from the sons of men.
The drying up and withering of the trees and crops points to drought which as discussed earlier can trigger massive locust invasions. God tells Israel to be as broken-hearted as a virgin bride who has just lost her husband just before her marriage ceremony.
The priests are in mourning as they don’t have the wine and grain offerings for the Lord. And remember the priests were allowed to eat portions of the animal sacrifices and offerings, so with no offerings the priests didn’t eat either as there was no grain or grass for their livestock.
JOEL 1:13-18
13 Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; wail, you who minister before the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, you who minister to my God; for the grain offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.
15 Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 The seed shrivels under the clods, storehouses are in shambles; barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.
18 How the animals groan! The herds of cattle are restless, because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment.
The prophet is calling on all Israel to cry out to the Lord, seeking answers as to why this is happening, and seeking His mercy. God has used this kind of punishment before to get His people to turn from their sins.
He does not punish unless other more gentle methods don’t work. When Judah had returned from 70 years of captivity in Babylon, they had immediately built houses for themselves, but nearly 20 years later the Temple still lay in ruins and Judah had no motivation to rebuild it. As God said through the prophet Haggai;
HAGGAI 1:2
2 “Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying: ‘This people says, “The time has not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.” ’ ”
He had pleaded with the Jews to rebuild the Temple but they had ignored Him, therefore He said;
HAGGAI 1:10-11
10 Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit.
11 For I called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”
Remember, locust swarms come when droughts hit.
JOEL 1:19-20
19 O Lord, to You I cry out; for fire has devoured the open pastures, and a flame has burned all the trees of the field.
20 The beasts of the field also cry out to You, for the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the open pastures.
Fire is the scourge of drought-ridden areas, and we see it mostly in forests, although prairie fires were major threats during pioneer days. Fires can be useful tools after a crop harvest as it burns the stubble, returning minerals back to the ground and killing harmful insects whose larvae mature beneath the soil during the winter months.
But early fires can destroy food crops and destroy the seeds needed to be sown for the next harvest causing starvation for both Man and beast.
JOEL 2:1-3
1 Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand:
2 A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, the like of whom has never been; nor will there ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations.
3 A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns; the land is like the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; surely nothing shall escape them.
During drought seasons, sometimes “dry” thunderstorms roll through with lightning and thunder but drop no rain and lightning strikes can cause major wildfires. Verse 2 seems to describe this, lightning and a wild wind from a “dry” storm fanning wildfires and driving a huge army of locusts ahead of it.
JOEL 2:4-9
4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; and like swift steeds, so they run.
5 With a noise like chariots over mountaintops they leap, like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, like a strong people set in battle array.
6 Before them the people writhe in pain; all faces are drained of color.
7 They run like mighty men, they climb the wall like men of war; every one marches in formation, and they do not break ranks.
8 They do not push one another; every one marches in his own column. Though they lunge between the weapons, they are not cut down.
9 They run to and fro in the city, they run on the wall; they climb into the houses, they enter at the windows like a thief.
The sound of a locust horde is something few people will hear, but those who hear it never forget it, a deep droning, crackling from their wings. They stay in formation on the ground by following chemical trails (pheromones) of those before them much like ants.
In ancient times there wasn’t anything that could really stop them, swords were virtually useless and there wasn’t really any way to stop them from invading houses, as the Egyptians discovered when God plagued them with locusts. He said of them;
EXODUS 10:5-6
5 And they shall cover the face of the earth, so that no one will be able to see the earth; and they shall eat the residue of what is left, which remains to you from the hail, and they shall eat every tree which grows up for you out of the field.
6 They shall fill your houses, the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians—which neither your fathers nor your fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were on the earth to this day.’
JOEL 2:10-14
10 The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble; the sun and moon grow dark, and the stars diminish their brightness.
11 The Lord gives voice before His army, for His camp is very great; for strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; who can endure it?
12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
13 So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm.
14 Who knows if He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him— a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?
God only punishes when His warnings and pleas are not heeded. He gives men time to repent before He brings calamity. For example, He waited 40 years while warning and pleading through the prophet Jeremiah for Judah to repent before He finally brought Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem, destroying the city and Solomon’s Temple, slaughtering the Jews and deporting the remnant to Babylon for 70 years.
In ancient times tearing one’s clothes was a sign of grief and mourning, considered significant as clothing was hand-woven and quite expensive. Most common people had only two changes of clothes to wear at any time.
But tearing clothes did not always signify a change of heart. God wants a repentant heart, not an outward show of repentance which can be faked. And leaving a drink and grain offering was a blessing indeed, as the priests were allowed to eat portions of the food offerings and animal sacrifices offered to God. Therefore by having an offering to God, they were ensured of food to eat also.
JOEL 2:15-20
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly;
16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes; let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, and the bride from her dressing room.
17 Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not give Your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ”
18 Then the Lord will be zealous for His land, and pity His people.
19 The Lord will answer and say to His people, “Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil, and you will be satisfied by them; I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.
20 “But I will remove far from you the northern army, and will drive him away into a barren and desolate land, with his face toward the eastern sea and his back toward the western sea; his stench will come up, and his foul odor will rise, because he has done monstrous things.”
There is some confusion in this passage as to whom God is referring to as the “northern army”. It is possible that God is referring to the locusts, but they usually came from the east. He very well could have been referring to the prophesied future attack by a massive northern army consisting of Arab and Russian troops descending against Israel, bringing about World War III as described in the book of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. (For further information about this event please see the study in this site).
In either case, it appears that the invaders will fall between the Sea of Galilee to the east and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, which would be in line with the prophesied destruction of the massive Russian (known as Gog) and Arab coalition army attacking Israel as described by Ezekiel. As for the stench mentioned in verse 20 above, God said through Ezekiel;
EZEKIEL 39:11-12
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give to Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.
It will take Israel 7 months to bury the dead Russians and Arabs, and the smell of decomposing bodies will cause passers-by to hold their noses. And if this is the northern army spoken of by God, they will perish in northern Israel between the Sea of Galilee to the east and the Mediterranean sea to the west as prophesied.
God promises that if all Israel will repent as a nation, He would heal their land, bring forth abundant harvests and will prevent their enemies from laying waste to the land.
JOEL 2:21-27
21 Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done marvelous things!
22 Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field; for the open pastures are springing up, and the tree bears its fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their strength.
23 Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you— the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.
24 The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.
25 “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, my great army which I sent among you.
26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be put to shame.
27 Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, I am the Lord your God and there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame.
Rainfall is of great importance in Israel, especially in the mountains and to the East. The lowlands on the western side of the mountains receive more rain as the warm, moisture-laden winds from the Mediterranean rise and cool, dropping much of their moisture while rising over the tops of the mountains. Thus the coastlands to the west are usually more fertile than the mountains and the Jordan Valley to the east.
Summers in Israel tend to be hot and dry, excellent for growing grains, vines (grapes) and some trees like olives and figs. The “former rains” start in the Fall shortly after the harvest season and are welcomed as they are gentle rains that cool and soften the ground baked by the summer sun, preparing the ground for planting.
The “latter rains” are harder rains that come in the Spring and are vital for growing of grain and barley crops. If the “former rains” hadn’t fallen, the harder “latter rains” would be more than the dry, dusty ground could absorb which could cause flooding and erosion. But with the ground having been already softened, the water would be easily absorbed creating abundant harvests.
JOEL 2:28-32
28 “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.
29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
32 And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls.
God kept His promise and sent His Spirit to dwell within us as recorded in the Book of Acts, starting with the disciples of Jesus after His resurrection and ascension back into Heaven. Scripture records;
ACTS 2:1-4
1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
John the Baptist knew of this event beforehand for he had prophesied;
MATTHEW 3:11
11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
The apostle Peter understood what had happened, for he said;
ACTS 2:16-21
16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
21 And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
Note that God speaks of the Last Days, signifying a period of time for all of this to happen. The Holy Spirit has been given, but the rest will be fulfilled in the Book of Revelation, not too long in the future.
JOEL 3:1-6
1 “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land.
3 They have cast lots for My people, have given a boy as payment for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.
4 “Indeed, what have you to do with Me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the coasts of Philistia? Will you retaliate against Me? But if you retaliate against Me, swiftly and speedily I will return your retaliation upon your own head;
5 Because you have taken My silver and My gold, and have carried into your temples My prized possessions.
6 Also the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem you have sold to the Greeks, that you may remove them far from their borders.
This seems to refer to the Judgment of all nations by Jesus at His return. Though some of the nations here have long since vanished, (Philistines, Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon) I believe that God was using them as examples of Israel’s enemies and their sins against His people throughout history.
The book of Daniel describes how Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar had carried off all of the Temple treasures and the gold and silver instruments used in Temple worship services to Babylon. The Arch of Titus, a carved monument in Rome created by the Roman general who destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem shows Roman soldiers carrying off the solid gold menorah (7-branched lampstand) used in the Temple.
This also seems to fit with Jesus’ prophecy of an immediate Judgment of all nations left alive after Armageddon upon His return;
MATTHEW 25:31-33, 46
31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.
32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.
33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.
46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
JOEL 3:7-13
7 “Behold, I will raise them out of the place to which you have sold them, and will return your retaliation upon your own head.
8 I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off; for the Lord has spoken.”
9 Proclaim this among the nations ““Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ”
11 Assemble and come, all you nations, and gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord.
12 “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.
13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; for the winepress is full, the vats overflow— for their wickedness is great.”
This is a complex prophecy as it seems to include all of the history from Israel being enslaved in Egypt for 430 years, to the triumphant return of Jesus Christ in the near future at the end of the battle of Armageddon. It also will be the fulfillment of a number of prophecies made throughout history as shown below;
First, there will be a re-gathering of all Jews worldwide, which started in May of 1948 when Israel again became a nation after 1,848 years without a homeland. Note that God below says there would be a second gathering, the first having been after Judah was deported to Babylon for 70 years by king Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. It’s interesting to note that Isaiah made the prophecy below of the second gathering 100 years before the Jews were captives the first time. In other words, God was prophesying that the Jews would be cast out of the Land a second time which occurred nearly 600 years later in 70 A.D. by the Romans.
ISAIAH 11:11-12
11 It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left, from Assyria and Egypt, from Pathros and Cush, from Elam and Shinar, from Hamath and the islands of the sea.
12 He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
When Jesus returns, He will call for all Jews to return to Israel and the nations will hasten to bring them;
ISAIAH 49:22-23
22 Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations, and set up My standard for the peoples; they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;
23 Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers; they shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.”
JOEL 3:14-17
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their brightness.
16 The Lord also will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; the heavens and earth will shake; but the Lord will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
17 “So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion My holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy, and no aliens shall ever pass through her again.”
Remember that Joel 2:31 speaks of this;
JOEL 2:31
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
Just before Jesus returns the sun will go out and the Moon will turn red and will turn black when the sun does as it shines by reflected sunlight. I suspect that the sun going out will be an accelerated process, for as stars age they cool in temperature turning red before they burn out. This usually take many years, but God can accelerate the event. This would explain the red Moon as well as the sun going out. The book of Revelation echoes Joel 3:15-16 above when it says;
REVELATION 6:12
12 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
The destruction of the planet both before and during Armageddon will be beyond belief. In fact Jesus Himself said that if He had not returned when He does, He would return to a dead planet.
MARK 13:19-20
19 For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be.
20 And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake, whom He chose, He shortened the days.
Note that the word for “flesh” is sarx, Greek for literal flesh. But there will be a restoration after Jesus returns.
JOEL 3:18-21
18 And it will come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water; a fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Acacias.
19 “Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom a desolate wilderness, because of violence against the people of Judah, for they have shed innocent blood in their land.
20 But Judah shall abide forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
21 For I will acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed, whom I had not acquitted; for the Lord dwells in Zion.”
When Jesus returns, Israel will become a virtual paradise, well-watered and lush. Vineyards will produce abundant wines, cattle will produce abundant milk, and though the location of the Valley of Acacias is presently unknown, I suspect that it means the present-day Jordan Valley.
This fountain mentioned also appears to be the same flow of water described in Revelation;
REVELATION 22:1-2
1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
This river is also described by the prophet Ezekiel;
EZEKIEL 47:1-2
1 Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar.
2 He brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around on the outside to the outer gateway that faces east; and there was water, running out on the right side.
The Jordan valley lies east of Jerusalem, again making it seem that the Valley of Acacias is the Jordan Valley. Further evidence is given when Ezekiel continues;
EZEKIEL 47:7-12
7 When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other.
8 Then he said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed.
9 And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes.
10 It shall be that fishermen will stand by it from En Gedi to En Eglaim; they will be places for spreading their nets. Their fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea, exceedingly many.
11 But its swamps and marshes will not be healed; they will be given over to salt.
12 Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.”
This is fascinating, as the waters of the Jordan River flow into the Dead Sea, and according to this prophecy, the Dead Sea waters will be healed and the sea will be full of fish. This has to be the Dead Sea, as ancient En Gedi was on the western bank of the Dead Sea.
In ancient times salt was mined from the Dead Sea area, and the Valley of Salt is mentioned a number of times in the Old Testament. Salt was very important in ancient times and was sometimes used to pay Roman soldiers. Even today salt and other minerals are mined from the Dead Sea valley. Notice that God will still allow for salt mining as parts of the Dead Sea marshes will remain salty.
This is especially fascinating as the book of Revelation says everything in the ocean will be dead before Jesus comes back;
REVELATION 16:3
3 Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man; and every living creature in the sea died.
Egypt being a desolation is supported by a prophecy of Isaiah in which God says;
ISAIAH 11:15
15 The Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt; with His mighty wind He will shake His fist over the River, and strike it in the seven streams, and make men cross over dry-shod.
When Jesus returns, God will dry up the Nile River, vital to Egypt as their only source of fresh water. Egypt is mostly desert with civilization hugging the banks of the Nile River. With the Nile being dried up, it will quickly become a desert wasteland.
And finally, Edom is located in the Negev desert to the south of Israel in present-day Jordan. It is a hot, dry, desolate, mountainous land and will remain so after Jesus’ return.
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