Joel 2:12-17

Return to the Lord

12 "Yet even now," declares the LORD, ¹"return to me with all your heart, ²with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

13 and ³rend your hearts and not ⁴your garments." Return to the LORD your God, ⁵for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; ⁶and he relents over disaster.

14 ⁷Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and ⁸leave a blessing behind him, ⁹a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God?

15 ¹⁰Blow the trumpet in Zion; ¹¹consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly;

16 gather the people. ¹²Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; ¹³gather the children, even nursing infants. ¹⁴Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.

17 ¹⁵Between the ¹⁶vestibule and the ¹⁷altar ¹⁸let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, "Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations.^{[a] 19}Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"

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.

Cross References

• 1. Deuteronomy 4:30; 1 Samuel 7:3; Jeremiah 4:1; Hosea 12:6
• 2. [1 Samuel 7:6]
• 3. [Psalms 34:18]
• 4. See Genesis 37:29
• 5. Exodus 34:6; Psalms 86:5, 15; Jonah 4:2
• 6. [Numbers 23:19; Ezekiel 24:14]
• 7. Jonah 3:9
• 8. Haggai 2:19; Malachi 3:10
• 9. Joel 1:9, 13
• 10. See ver. 1
• 11. See Joel 1:14
• 12. See Joshua 3:5
• 13. [2 Chronicles 20:13]
• 14. [Deuteronomy 24:5; Ecclesiastes 3:5; Zechariah 12:12-14; 1 Corinthians 7:5]
• 15. Ezekiel 8:16
• 16. 1 Kings 6:3; 2 Chronicles 3:4
• 17. 2 Chronicles 4:1
• 18. See Joel 1:9
• 19. Psalms 42:3; Psalms 79:10; Psalms 115:2

Footnotes

• [a]. Or reproach, that the nations should rule over them