Joel 2:25

25 I will restore to you the years that ¹the swarming locust has eaten, ²the hopper, ³the destroyer, and ⁴the cutter, ⁵my great army, which I sent among you.

Joel 2:25 Meaning and Commentary

Joel 2:25

And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath
eaten
Or "I will recompense to you the years" ^F13; give you fruitful ones, as a full compensation for those in which the locust ate up the fruits of the earth for some years running: the canker worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer worm;
of which see ( Joel 1:4 ) ; my great army which I sent among you;
as in ( Joel 2:11 ) ; the Targum of the whole is,

``and I will recompense unto you good years, in the room of the years in which the people, nations, and tongues, the governors and kingdoms of vengeance, spoiled you, my great army which I sent among you;''

and Kimchi observes, that the sense of the Targumist is, that this verse is a prophecy of the days of the Messiah; as no doubt it is, in which the Lord has done for his people, as Moses prayed he would, "make [them] glad according to the days wherein [he] afflicted [them], and the years wherein [they had] seen evil", ( Psalms 90:15 ) ; the times of the Messiah, in which so many good things come to the people of God, are a sufficient recompence for what they endured in times past. Of the Mahometan notion of locusts being the army of God, (See Gill on Joel 2:11).

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 (Mkl ytmlvw) "et rependam vobis", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Vatablus, Tarnovius; "compensabo", Grotius, Cocceius.

Joel 2:25 In-Context

23 "Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before.

24 "The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

25 I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, 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 again be put to shame.

27 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame.

Cross References

• 1. Joel 1:4
• 2. Joel 1:4
• 3. Joel 1:4
• 4. Joel 1:4
• 5. ver. 11