Joel 2:12-17

God's Call for Repentance

12 Even now- [this is]*The bracketed text has been added for clarity. the Lord's declaration- turn to Me with all your heart,^[a] with fasting, weeping, and mourning.^[b]

13 Tear your hearts, not just your clothes, and return to the Lord your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, and He relents from sending disaster.^[c]

14 Who knows? He may turn and relent^[d] and leave a blessing behind Him, [so you can] offer grain and wine to the Lord your God.

15 Blow the horn in Zion! Announce a sacred fast; proclaim an assembly.

16 Gather the people; sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged;^[e][f] gather the children, even those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his bedroom, and the bride her honeymoon chamber.

17 Let the priests, the Lord's ministers, weep between the portico^[g] and the altar.^[h] Let them say: "Have pity on Your people, Lord, and do not make Your inheritance a disgrace, an object of scorn among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, 'Where is their God?' "^[i]

Joel 2:12-17 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOEL 2

In this chapter a further account is given of the judgment of the locusts and caterpillars, or of those who are designed by them, Joe 2:1-11; the people of the Jews are called to repentance, humiliation, and fasting, urged from the grace and goodness of God, his jealousy and pity for his people, and the answer of prayer that might he expected from him upon this, even to the removal of the calamity, Joe 2:12-20; a prophecy of good things, both temporal and spiritual, in the times of the Messiah, is delivered out as matter and occasion of great joy, Joe 2:21-27; and another concerning the effusion of the Spirit, which was fulfilled an the day of Pentecost, Joe 2:28-29; and the chapter is concluded with the judgments and desolations that should come upon the land of Judea after this, for their rejection of Christ, though the remnant according to the election of grace should be delivered and saved from the general destruction, Joe 2:30-32.

Footnotes

• [a]. 1 Kg 8:35-40; 2 Ch 7:14
• [b]. Est 4:3
• [c]. 1 Ch 21:15; Jr 18:8; Jnh 4:2
• [d]. Jnh 3:9
• [e]. Or elders
• [f]. 2 Ch 20:3; Neh 9:1; Jr 36:6,9
• [g]. the temple porch; 1 Kg 6:3; 7:6-21
• [h]. Jl 1:13; Hs 10:5
• [i]. Ps 42:3,10; 79:10