Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joel 2:18
Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people.
18, 19. Then was Jehovah jealous for his land, and had pity on his people. And Jehovah answered and said, &c.] The future tenses of the A.V. are grammatically indefensible [42] . Though it is not expressly so stated, it is understood that the prophet’s exhortations had the intended effect; the people shewed themselves to be truly penitent; the priests interceded on their behalf; and the words quoted describe Jehovah’s gracious change of purpose, and the promises which He in consequence vouchsafed to His people.
[42] See the grounds for this statement in the writer’s Hebrew Tenses, 82 Obs.
jealous for his land ] Zec 1:14; Zec 8:2. Jehovah is “jealous,” when His power is doubted, or the honour which is His due is given to another (see Exo 20:5; Deu 4:24; Deu 32:21; Isa 42:8; Zep 3:8, noticing in each case the context): this happens, however, when His people or His land suffer, and the heathen argue in consequence that He is unable to relieve them; accordingly the feeling of “jealousy” prompts Him then to interpose on their behalf (Eze 36:5-6; cf. Isa 9:7; Isa 37:32 [where zeal is a very inadequate rendering]).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Part II. Chap. Joe 2:18 to Joe 3:21
Jehovah’s answer to His people’s prayer of penitence. He will remove from them the plague of locusts, and bestow upon them an abundance of both material and spiritual gifts (Joe 2:18-32); His judgment will alight only upon the nations who are their foes; His own people will dwell for ever securely under the protection of His presence (ch. 3).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Then will the Lord be jealous for His land – Upon repentance, all is changed. Before, God seemed set upon their destruction. It was His great army which was ready to destroy them; He was at its head, giving the word. Now He is full of tender love for them, which resents injury done to them, as done to Himself. The word might more strictly perhaps be rendered, And the Lord is jealous . He would show how instantaneous the mercy and love of God for His people is, restrained while they are impenitent, flowing forth upon the first tokens of repentance. The word, jealous for, when used of God, jealous for My holy Name Eze 39:25, jealous for Jerusalem, Zec 1:14; Zec 8:2, is used, when God resents evil which had been actually inflicted.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joe 2:18-20
Then will the Lord be Jealous for His land, and pity His people.
The Divine attitude towards repentant souls
I. Toward repentant souls God is strict in the manifestation of a jealous regard. Then will the Lord be jealous for His land, and pity His people. Thus we see the change which repentance makes in the circumstances and conditions of men. And God is jealous of the welfare and honour of the truly penitent soul. He will save it wisely from former enemies who have endangered it, and He will shield it kindly from all reproach which may threaten. The soul is His. He has redeemed it. He has given it the grace of repentance. He will be jealous for its good.
II. Toward repentant souls God is beneficent in the restoration of withdrawn mercies. Yea, the Lord will answer. etc. And happily true it is that while sin despoils life of many of its richest mercies, repentance with kind hand gives them back again. There is a glorious tendency in repentance to ameliorate and remove the loss and woe wrought by moral evil. Repentance does not always heal the pain of sin. It does not erase sad memories. It does not always restore a wasted bodily constitution. It does not always bring back the substance wasted in the far country. But its tendency is to do this The moral touches the material.
III. From the repentant soul God will turn aside the plagues which have previously afflicted it. But I will remove far off from you the northern army, etc. The repentant soul is beset by old enemies. They are in the hand of God. He can cover their plans with defeat. Lessons–
1. That God will protect the interests of repentant souls.
2. Let us see in the glad effect of repentance in this life a prophecy of the joy of the sinless life.
3. That the enemies of repentant souls will be brought to shame. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Divine favour the best alliance
These words are a Comfortable promise to Judah, upon a sincere humiliation and repentance, of the Divine kindness and favour; the earnest of all blessings, the fountain of all prosperity, success, and happiness that can attend a people, or they can reasonably wish or hope for.
I. In how exact a posture our affairs stand with those of Judah. Joel is supposed to point to the troubles of the reign of good King Hezekiah. We (1701) shall find that the coast from which we are alarmed and threatened, and the enemy from whom we apprehend our danger, has all the characteristics and marks of those enemies of the Hebrews described here by the prophet. They were powerful, cruel, and numerous. Neither is a foreign power the only evil we have reason to be apprehensive of and to provide against. We are a divided and dissatisfied people, maligning our governors, and murmuring at providence.
II. The necessity for seeking a suitable and seasonable remedy in these times of danger. It is the safest course for nations, when they are apprehensive of danger, to implore the Divine aid and assistance to their consultations and enterprises; to deprecate Gods wrath, and to engage His blessing. Self-preservation should engage us to cure a distemper in its beginnings and first approaches; lest, by indulging too long to it, it prove incurable and mortal. For when diseases are once deeply rooted, and become so mixed with the blood and humours as thoroughly to taint them, it costs the patient much more pain and time to bear the several courses and operations he is enjoined in order to a cure. To how near a crisis the malady of our sins has brought us; then how necessary it is to use the most effectual means for our recovery! There is great danger, if we dissolve our public peace, and do not timely cure our fatal divisions. It is not enough for us to think we have justice on our side, if we ourselves break Gods most holy laws. When people abuse mercies, and receive the grace of God in vain, it is the highest aggravation of guilt, and most apt to incense the goodness of God, thus abused and slighted. Hence He has often raised up wicked men, and wicked nations, as instruments to punish others, who were less such, but transgressed Gods laws against clearer light and plainer evidence. God, like a tender father, is jealous of, and resents deeply the transgressions of His children, whom gratitude and a stricter sense of duty ought to restrain and keep within due bounds.
III. Upon a due application of repentance we shall be safe. True repentance is a healing balm, like that of Gilead, that cures the wounds of our sins, and has a sovereign charm to render a nation invulnerable; having power enough to ward off the force of any stroke of Divine vengeance, though just ready to be given. Illustrate by pious Hezekiah and good Jehoshaphat. Repentance has such influence upon heaven as to reprieve from ruin some of the vilest people and most wicked princes, as in the cases of Nineveh and Ahab. Upon these considerations what should hinder us from speedily closing with God in a duty upon which our safety and happiness so much depend; and which, if we perform seriously and in earnest, we shall not fail of His powerful protection and succour? Every individual person ought to begin at home. Let us therefore acknowledge before God with the deepest sense of humility and contrition how unworthy we have rendered ourselves of the least of His mercies. Let us turn from our evil ways, and walk in those of true virtue, religion, and holiness, that so we may engage Him to be jealous for His land, and pity His people. (John King, D. D.)
The glorious issue of repentance
The prophet was successful. The people gathered at a great and solemn national fast. Verse 18 reads in R.V., Then was the Lord jealous for His land, and had pity on His people. Then the message of the prophet becomes one of joy and hope. The scarcity shall be replaced by abundance. God will give the pledge of His loving regard in the sweet rain upon the burnt up and thirsty soil. He gives this gift of rain at first, because an after gift and a better one is to follow. Thus we reach the re-establishment of confidence and love. But we have reached a higher plane than merely the repose which comes because a terror has departed, and nature is resuming her normal regularity of beneficence. The true ground of the reposeful and confident spirit is this, that the people know the Lord is in their midst, and that He is their God and none else. Repentance if it is to do nothing else must convince men of that. It must establish the eternal fact of Gods presence. It must lead us to feel that we are Gods, and that we owe ourselves to Him. This confidence in the Lord their God alone is the first resting-place of our prophecy after the day of humiliation. But it is only a first resting-place. He who gave the former and the latter rain for the harvest gave them as gifts to be followed by others. A gift was coming which would lift the people into a much higher plane of thought, and into much more spiritual conceptions of life. It is the gift of the Spirit: it is the gift of new power upon repentant souls. The thought of the prophet carries with it a principle which to the men of his day must have been lofty, and perchance strange in its loftiness. This highest gift of God, like all gifts, is to make us great with that greatness which is service. Baptized with the Spirit, the apostles were baptized into the spirit of service. Here we see the higher region of the prophets ambition. It is not the restoration of temporal blessings which exhausts his desires on their behalf. He desires for them a spirit of true insight into the meaning and significance of life. One method of raising and rousing others is by awaking aspirations, by painting the possibilities which may yet be achieved. It is the Divine method to inspire by placing high possibilities, yet higher ranges of life and duty before our eyes. No doubt there is always something above earth in all the higher gifts of the Spirit. The poetic gift is the power to see–not what is not–but what is. Imagination is the power to see things as they are. The gift of the Spirit enables men to see the real significance of the facts of life–the true meaning of what men are, where they are, and why. This is exactly what the prophet has been leading us up to. The most real of all presences is the spiritual presence of Christ. The most real aspects of life for all men must be their spiritual aspects. The gift of the Spirit was to reveal the tremendous gulf which existed between life as men lived it and the life which God sought to see lived by men. Among the knights of Malta, the cross given and worn was the eight-pointed Maltese cross. The eight points signified the beatitudes. The cross was to be carried in the remembrance of the blessing which belonged to the poor in spirit, the sorrowful, the meek, the hungerers after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted. The Cross of Christ was to be carried in the Spirit of Christ. It is thus that the victory of Christ in the world will be won. More than ever we need the simple, guileless, loving, pure spirit of Christ. (Bishop Boyd Carpenter.)
Interaction of the Divine and human
I. That the material condition of a people depends upon the Divine operations.
1. The withdrawal of calamities. I will remove far off from you the northern army, etc. Men may and ought to employ means; but futile for ever will be all human efforts without the co-operation of Almighty power. This fact should teach us ever to look to Him and Him only for deliverance from evil at all times, both material and moral.
2. The bestowment of blessings. The Lord will answer and say unto His people, Behold, I will send you corn, etc. The productions of the earth are dependent every moment upon Almighty power.
2. That the Divine operations are influenced by the moral condition of the people. The priests and the ministers of the Lord wept between the altar, and said, Spare Thy people, O Lord, etc. The porch before the temple was a hundred and twenty cubits high, twenty broad from north to south, and ten from east to west. The altar was that of burnt-offering in the court of the priests. Here, with their backs toward the altar, on which they had nothing to offer, and their faces directed towards the residence of the Shekina, they were to weep and make supplication on behalf of the people. That the Divine conduct towards us depends upon our conduct towards heaven, is inexplicable to us although clearly taught in the Word of God. Indeed consciousness assures us that He is to us what we are to Him. It is absurd to suppose that God will alter the laws of nature because of human prayers and human conduct, says the sceptic scientist. But what laws of nature are more manifest, more universal, settled, and unalterable than the tendency of human souls to personal and intercessory prayer? Every aspiration is a prayer. Scripture abounds with examples of God apparently altering His conduct on account of mans supplication.
III. That the right moral conduct of a people will ensure them Divine benediction. In these verses there is a beautiful gradation. First the destroyed land is addressed; then the irrational animals; then the inhabitants. All are called to cast off their fears and rejoice in the happy change which God would effect. It is too clear for either argument or illustration, that if you change the moral character of any country from ignorance to intelligence, from indolence to industry, from intemperance to self-discipline, the whole material region in which you live may abound with plentifulness and beauty. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Then, when you follow my advice, saith Joel. and heartily you of your sins, and turn to God, &c.,
will the Lord be jealous, will show his love and zeal, for the credit of his land, the land of Canaan,
and pity his people; consider their prayers, their arguments, and tears, and upon the whole will deal so with them that they shall know I do own them for my people, and that I will do them good.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. Thenwhen God sees Hispeople penitent.
be jealous for his landasa husband jealous of any dishonor done to the wife whom heloves, as if done to himself. The Hebrew comes from an Arabicroot, “to be flushed in face” through indignation.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then will the Lord be jealous for his land,…. Or “zealous” for it; for the honour of it, and the good of its inhabitants, and for the glory of his own name, it being the chief place in the world for his worship and service; and his indignation will be moved against those who have brought desolation on it:
and pity his people; as a father his children, who had suffered much, and had been reduced to great distress by the locusts, or by their enemies: this the prophet foretells would be done upon their repentance, fasting, prayers, and tears; or, as some think, this is a narrative of what had been done, and the prophet was a witness of; that the people meeting together with their princess and priests, and humbling themselves before the Lord, and crying to him, he expressed a zeal and compassion for them, and delivered them out of their troubles; for though their humiliation is not expressed, it may be understood and supposed, as doubtless, it was fact.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Joe 2:18 and Joe 2:19 contain the historical statement, that in consequence of the penitential prayer of the priests, the Lord displayed His mercy to His people, and gave them a promise, the first part of which follows in Joe 2:19-27. Joe 2:18, Joe 2:19. “Then Jehovah was jealous for His land, and had compassion upon His people. And Jehovah answered, and said.” The grammar requires that we should take the imperfects with Vav consec. in these clauses, as statements of what actually occurred. The passages in which imperfects with Vav cons. are either really or apparently used in a prophetic announcement of the future, are of a different kind; e.g., in Joe 2:23, where we find one in a subordinate clause preceded by perfects. As the verb describes the promise which follows, as an answer given by Jehovah to His people, we must assume that the priests had really offered the penitential and supplicatory prayer to which the prophet had summoned them in Joe 2:17. The circumstance that this is not expressly mentioned, neither warrants us in rendering the verbs in Joe 2:17 in the present, and taking them as statements of what the priest really did (Hitzig), nor in changing the historical tenses in Joe 2:18, Joe 2:19 into futures. We have rather simply to supply the execution of the prophet’s command between Joe 2:17 and Joe 2:18. with , to be jealous for a person, i.e., to show the jealousy of love towards him, as in Exo 39:25; Zec 1:14 (see at Exo 20:5). as in Exo 2:6; 1Sa 23:21. In the answer from Jehovah which follows, the three features in the promise are not given according to their chronological order; but in order to add force to the description, we have first of all, in Joe 2:19, a promise of the relief of the distress at which both man and beast had sighed, and then, in Joe 2:20, a promise of the destruction of the devastator; and it is not till Joe 2:21-23 that the third feature is mentioned in the further development of the promise, viz., the teacher for righteousness. Then finally, in Joe 2:23-27, the fertilizing fall of rain, and the plentiful supply of the fruits of the ground that had been destroyed by the locusts, are more elaborately described, as the first blessing bestowed upon the people.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Promise of Mercy. | B. C. 720. |
18 Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people. 19 Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen: 20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things. 21 Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things. 22 Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. 23 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. 24 And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. 25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you. 26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. 27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.
See how ready God is to succour and relieve his people, how he waits to be gracious; as soon as ever they humble themselves under this hand, and pray, and seek his face, he immediately meets them with his favours. They prayed that God would spare them, and see here with what good words and comfortable words he answered them; for God’s promises are real answers to the prayers of faith, because with him saying and doing are not two things. Now observe,
I. Whence this mercy promised shall take rise (v. 18): God will be jealous for his land and pity his people. He will have an eye, 1. To his own honour, and the reputation of his covenant with Israel, by which he had conveyed to them that good land and had given in the value of it very high; now he will not suffer it to be despised nor disparaged, but will be jealous for the credit of his land, and the inhabitants of it, who had been praised as a happy people and therefore must not lie open to reproach as a miserable people. 2. To their distress: He will pity his people, and, in pity to them, he will restore them their forfeited comforts. God’s compassion is a great encouragement to those that come humbly to him as penitents and as petitioners.
II. What his mercy shall be, in several instances:– 1. The destroying army shall be dispersed and defeated (v. 20): “I will remove far off from you the northern army, that army of locusts and caterpillars that invaded you from the north, brought in upon the wings of a north wind, an army which you could put no stop to the progress of; but, when you have made your peace with God, he will ease you of these soldiers that are quartered upon you and will drive them into a land barren and desolate, into that vast howling wilderness that Israel wandered in, where, after having surfeited upon the plenty of Canaan, they shall perish for want of sustenance. Those that have their face to the east sea (the Dead Sea, which lay east of Judea) shall perish in that, and the rear of the army shall be lost in the Great Sea,” called here the utmost sea. They had made the land barren and desolate, and now God will cast them into a land barren and desolate. Thus those whom God employs for the correction of his people come afterwards to be themselves reckoned with; and the rod is thrown into the fire. Nothing shall remain of these swarms of insects but the ill savour of them. When Egypt was eased of the plague of locusts they were carried away to the Red Sea, Exod. x. 19. Note, When an affliction has done its work it shall be removed in mercy, as the locusts of Canaan were from a penitent people, not as the locusts of Egypt were removed, in wrath, from an impenitent prince, only to make room for another plague. Many interpreters, by this northern army, understand that of Sennacherib, which was dispersed when God by it had accomplished his whole work upon Mount Zion and upon Jerusalem, Isa. x. 12. This enemy shall be driven away, because he has done great things, has done a great deal of mischief, and has magnified to do it, has done it in the pride of his heart; therefore it follows (v. 21), The Lord will do great things for his people, as the enemy has done great things against them, to convince them that wherein they deal proudly he is, and will be, above them, that, what great things soever they did, they did no more than God commissioned them to do; and as, when he said to them, Go, they went, so, when he said to them, Come, they came, to show that they were soldiers under him. 2. The destroyed land shall be watered and made fruitful. When the army is scattered, yet what shall we do if the desolation they have made continue? It is therefore promised (v. 22) that the pastures of the wilderness, the pastures which the locusts had left as bare as the wilderness, shall again spring and the trees shall again bear their fruit, particularly the fig-tree and the vine. But, when we see how the country is wasted, we are tempted to say, Can these dry bones live? If the Lord should make windows in heaven, it cannot be; but it shall be, for (v. 23) the Lord has given and will give you the former rain and the latter rain, and, if he give them in mercy, he will give them moderately, so that the rain shall not turn into a judgment, and he will give them in due season, the latter rain in the first month, when it was wanted and expected. It would make it comfortable to them to see it coming from the hand of God, and ordered by his wisdom, for then we are sure it is well ordered. He has given you a teacher of righteousness, (so the margin reads it, for the same word that signifies the rain signifies a teacher. and that which we translate moderately is according to righteousness), and this teacher of righteousness, says one of the rabbin, is the King Messias, and of him many others understand this; for he is a teacher come from God, and he shows us the way of righteousness. But others understand it of any prophet that instructs unto righteousness, and some of Hezekiah particularly, others of Isaiah. Note, It is a good sign that God has mercy in store for a people when he sends them teachers of righteousness, pastors after his own heart. 3. All their losses shall be repaired (v. 25): “I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten; you shall be comforted according to the time that you have been afflicted, and shall have years of plenty to balance the years of famine.” Thus does it repent the Lord concerning his servants, when they repent, and, to show how perfectly he is reconciled to them, he makes good the damage they have sustained by his judgments, and, like the jailer, washes their stripes. Though, in justice, he distrained upon them, and did them no wrong, yet, in compassion, he makes restitution; as the father of the prodigal, upon his return, made up all he had lost by his sin and folly, and took him into his family, as in his former estate. The locusts and caterpillars are here called God’s great army which he sent among them, and he will repair what they had devoured because they were his army. 4. They shall have great abundance of all good things. The earth shall yield her increase, and they shall enjoy it. Look into the stores where they lay up, and you shall find the floors full of wheat, and the fats overflowing with wine and oil (v. 24), whereas, in the day of their distress, the wine and oil languished and the barns were broken down,Joe 1:10; Joe 1:17. Look upon their tables, where they lay out what they have laid up, and you shall find that they eat in plenty and are satisfied, v. 26. They do not eat to excess, nor are surfeited; we hope the drunkards are cured by the late affliction of their inordinate love of wine and strong drink, for, though they were brought in howling for their scarcity (ch. i. 5), they are now brought in again here singing for the plenty of it; but now all shall have enough, and shall known when they have enough, for God will make their food nourishing and give them to be content with it.
These are the mercies promised, and in these God does great things (v. 21), He deals wondrously with his people, v. 26. Herein he glorifies his power, and shows that he can relieve his people though their distress be ever so great, and glorifies his goodness, that he will do it upon their repentance though their provocations were ever so great. Note, When God deals graciously with poor sinners that return to him it must be acknowledged that he deals wondrously and does great things. Some expositors understand these promises figuratively, as pointing at gospel-grace, and having their accomplishment in the abundant comforts that are treasured up for believers in the covenant of grace and the satisfaction of soul they have therein. When God sends us his promises to be the matter of our comfort, his graces to be the grounds of it, and his Spirit to be the author of it, we may well own that he has sent us (according to his promise here, v. 19) corn, and wine, and oil, or that which is unspeakably better, and we have reason to be satisfied therewith.
III. What use shall be made of these returns of God’s mercy to them and the good account they shall turn to.
1. God shall have the glory thereof, for they shall rejoice in the Lord their God (v. 23), and what is the matter of their rejoicing shall be the matter of their thanksgiving; they shall praise the name of the Lord their God (v. 26) and not praise their idols, nor call their corn and wine the rewards that their lovers had given them. Note, The plenty of our creature-comforts is a mercy indeed to us when by them our hearts are enlarged in love and thankfulness to God, who gives us all things richly to enjoy, though we serve him but poorly. When God restores to us plenty after we have known scarcity, as it is doubly pleasant to us, so it should make us the more thankful to God. When Israel comes out of a wilderness into a Canaan, and there eats and is full, surely he will then bless the Lord, with a very sensible pleasure, for that good land which he has given him, Deut. viii. 10.
2. They shall have the credit, and comfort, and spiritual benefit, thereof. When God gives them plenty again, and gives them to be satisfied with it, (1.) Their reputation shall be retrieved; they and their God shall be no more reflected upon as unfaithful to one another when they have returned to him in a way of duty and he to them in a way of mercy (v. 19): “I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen, that triumphed in your calamities and insulted over you;” and Joe 2:26; Joe 2:27, “My people shall never be ashamed, as they have been, of their good land which they used to boast of, but shall again and ever have the same occasion to boast of it.” Note, It redounds much to the honour of God when he does that which saves the honour of his people; and those that are his people indeed, though they may be for a time, shall not be always, a reproach among the heathens; if we be rightly ashamed of our sins against God, we shall never be ashamed of our glorying in God. (2.) Their joys shall be revived (v. 23): Be glad and rejoice, O land! and all the inhabitants of it. Times of plenty are commonly times of joy; yet the favour of God puts gladness into the heart more than those who have corn, and wine, and oil increase. But especially be glad them, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, v. 23. They mourned in Zion (v. 15), and therefore there in a particular manner they shall rejoice; for those that sow in penitential tears shall certainly reap in thankful joys. The children of Zion, who led the rest in fasting, must lead the rest in rejoicing. But observe, They shall rejoice in the Lord their God, not so much in the good themselves that are given them as in the good hand that gives them and in the return of his favour to them, as theirs in covenant, which these good things are the tokens and pledges of. The joy of harvest and the joy of a feast must both terminate in God, whose love we should taste in all the gifts of his bounty, that we may make him our chief joy, as he is our chief good, and the fountain of all good to us. (3.) Their faith in God shall be confirmed and increased. When temporal mercies are made by the grace of God to be of spiritual advantage to us, and plenty for the body is so far from being an enemy (as with many it proves) that it becomes a friend to the prosperity of the soul, then they are mercies indeed to us. This is promised here (v. 27): You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, the Holy One in the midst of thee (Hos. xi. 9), and that I am the Lord your God, and none else. As it proves that the Lord is God, and there is none other, because he wounds and he heals, he forms light and darkness, he does good and evil (Isa 45:7; Deu 32:39), so it proves him to be God of Israel, a God in covenant with his people and a father to them, that as a father he both corrects them when they offend and comforts them when they repent. It was the burden of the threatenings in Ezekiel’s prophecy, Such and such evils I will bring upon you, and you shall know that I am the Lord; and the same is here made the crown of the promises: You shall eat, and be satisfied, and rejoice, and thus you shall know that I am the Lord. Note, We should labour to grow in our acquaintance with God by all providences, both merciful and afflictive. When God gives to his people plenty, and peace, and joy, upon their return to him, he thereby gives them to understand that he is pleased with their repentance, that he has pardoned their sins, and that he is theirs as much as ever–that they are taken into the same covenant with him, for he is the Lord their God, and into the same communion, for he is in the midst of them, nigh unto them in all that they call upon him for, and, as the sun in the centre of the worlds, so in the midst of them as to diffuse his benign influences to all the parts of his land.
3. Even the inferior creatures shall share therein and be made easy thereby: Fear not, O land! v. 21. Be not afraid, you beasts of the field, v. 22. They had suffered for the sin of man, and for God’s quarrel with him; and now they shall fare the better for man’s repentance and God’s reconciliation to him. Nay, the beasts were said to cry unto God (ch. i. 20); and now that cry is answered, and they are directed not to be afraid, for they shall have plenty of all that which their nature craves. God, in sparing Nineveh, had an eye to the cattle (Jonah iv. 11), for the cattle had fasted, ch. iii. 8. This may lead us to think of the restitution of all things, when the creature, that is now made subject to vanity and groans under it, shall be brought, though not into the glorious joy, yet into the glorious liberty, of the children of God, Rom. viii. 21.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Lord’s Response To Their Repentance
Verses 18-27:
Verse 18 affirms that at the time Judah and Israel shall bow in repentance, in the above described manner, the Lord (Jehovah) will be stirred to jealously for His land and to pity His people. He will no longer threaten and punish, but love and rescue them, Isa 65:24.
Verse 19 prophesies of God’s further response to His repentant people, in which He pledges that He will send them three necessities of life: corn, wine, and oil, with which their needs would be met and they would be satisfied, as in the case of Sennacherib, 2Ki 19:20-21. He further pledged that thereafter He would no more make them to be an object of reproach or derision, scattered among the heathen, or nations as they have been since they rejected Jesus Christ as their savior or Messiah, Joh 1:11-12; Luk 21:20-24.
Verse 20 describes Israel’s condition when she shall have repented and God sends His Son, as King of kings and Lord of lords, to drive out and put down all heathen armed powers from the north and from the east and the west and the south, as in former days, Jer 1:14-15; Zep 2:13. It shall be consummated with the battle of Armageddon, v. 11; Joe 3:9; Joe 3:16; Joe 3:20; Rev 16:14; Rev 19:11-18. Renewed fertility shall then come to the land of Palestine, and great things are to be restored there, in a future golden era, Psa 126:2-3.
Verse 21 calls upon Judah to “fear not” on account of the judgments, as formerly called upon to do in chapter one. They are now to rejoice at the destruction of the hosts of Israel’s enemies that the Lord shall destroy before them, and restore their land from the barrenness caused by the locusts, drought, and fire, and from all that they had typified, that should and had befallen Judah and Israel at this time, Psa 126:2-3.
Verse 22 contains a direct appeal of God to His beasts of the field to “fear not,” or languish no more, for they shall be no more in want. Verdent fields and springs of water are Divinely promised in fields and wildernesses. The vineyard and fig tree shall bear their fruit in repeated, continual abundance again, Zec 8:12.
Verse 23 prophesies of moderate former rains, general showers, not enough to destroy, but sufficient to give depth of moisture in fields and pastures, Isa 61:10; Hab 3:18. Then the latter rains, to mature the fruits and grains, are also promised in the first month, the very time of their need, without delay. The mourning, because of the locusts, drought, and the barren desolation of the land were to depart at the restoration of their favor with God, Zec 8:12; Deu 11:14; Pro 16:15. Because of all this the children of Zion, lovers of God, in Jerusalem, where true worship had been offered, were to be glad and rejoice in the prosperity that came after they had turned back to their God.
Verse 24 enlarges the promise so that their threshing floors would be deeply covered with grain at threshing time and their presses (fats) would overflow with the juice of grapes (wine) and oil from the olive trees for drink, health, joy and healing of their wounds and sorrows, Php_4:19; Mat 6:33.
Verse 25 continues, “I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten,” including the damage done by the cankerworm, caterpillar, and palmer worm, the great army that God asserted, “I sent (commissioned) among you,” to bring you to repentance for your rebellion against my laws, Joe 1:4; Joe 1:13-14. After David’s confession of personal sins, his suffering, sorrow, and conscious guilt ceased and He had restored joys of salvation and usefulness to God. This is a Divine lesson to be considered by all, Psa 51:4-14.
Verse 26 promises plenty of food and certain satisfaction to a returning penitent people. This includes spiritual feasting, not merely physical plenty, as so often promised from God; It is written, “the meek shall eat and be satisfied,” Psa 22:26; Rom 9:33. They shall also “praise the Lord,” express gratitude for His blessings, deliverance, and provisions for them, Psa 107:2; Php_4:19; Mat 6:33.
Verse 27 declares that they shall “know,” recognize, or comprehend that He is in the midst of them, Eze 37:26-28. Even so Jesus has promised His continuous presence with and in His church as her people walk and work in obedience to Him, Mat 18:20; Mat 28:20; Joh 14:16-17; Rev 1:12-18. Loss of fellowship in spiritual matters is greater than loss of a companion or a parent in divorce matters in the home. And restoration from a breach of Divine favor is sweeter than that of a broken family tie. They shall rejoice, be delivered from national exile forever. What a joy! 1Jn 1:9. Their dishonor is gone forever!
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
The Prophet here again repeats, that prayers would not be in vain, provided the Jews truly humbled themselves before God. Then God, he says, will be jealous for his land and spare his people. He confirms what I have already said that God would deal mercifully with his people, because they were his heritage, that is because he had chosen them for himself. For the title of heritage, whence does it proceed except from the gratuitous covenant of God? for the Jews were not more excellent than others, but election was the only fountain from which the Jews had to draw any hope. We now then see why these words, God will be jealous for his land, are added; as though he said “Though this land has been polluted by the wickedness of men, yet God has consecrated it to himself: He will, therefore, regard his own covenant, and thus turn away his face from looking on their sins.” He will spare, he says, his people, that is, his chosen people: for, as I have said, the Prophet no doubt ascribes here the safety of the people, and the hope of their safety, to the gratuitous election of God; for the jealousy of God is nothing else but the vehemence and ardor of his paternal love. God could not, indeed, express how ardently he loves those whom he has chosen without borrowing, as it were, what belongs to men. For we know that passions appertain not to him; but he is set forth as a father, who burns with jealousy when he sees his son ill-treated; he acknowledges his own blood, his bowels are excited, — or, as a husband, who, on seeing dishonor done to his wife, is moved; and though he had been a hundred times offended, he yet forgets every offense; for he regards that sacred union between himself and his wife. Such a character, then, does God assume, that he might the better express how much and how intensely he loves his own elect. Hence he says, God will be jealous for his land. As he has hitherto been inflamed with just wrath, so now a contrary feeling will overcome the former; not that God is agitated by various passions, as I have already said, but this mode of speaking transferred from men, is adopted on account of our ignorance.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Joe. 2:18. Then] No longer threatenings, but promises. Jealous] of dishonour to them, love and pity for their welfare.
Joe. 2:19-20.] Renewed fertility and removal of the cause of desolation; answer to prayer and bestowment of great things (Psa. 126:2-3); expressive of a universal truth.
HOMILETICS
RESTORATION OF LOST BLESSINGS.Joe. 2:18-20
These verses form a transition from one part of the prophecy to the other When Gods people returned to him in penitence, then he would be jealous for that land in which the temple stood, and for that people whom he still loved. He would hear their prayer, remove the curse, and restore the blessings, material and spiritual. There is no contingency, no uncertainty in the promises. The predictions are absolute, the condition of repentance on which they rest being complied with. Israel was thus encouraged by Divine, not human, security for the fulfilment of Gods word. Chastisement leads to repentance, and restoration of lost blessings the result.
I. This restoration depends upon the sincere repentance of men. Then will the Lord be jealous. Gods promises indicate conditions, and are adapted to certain states of mind.
1. Blessings are restored through penitence. They pre-suppose repentance, the efforts and the faithfulness of men. The removal of judgments and restoration of blessings were the result of the penitence and return of Israel. God waits to be gracious, and when sinners humble themselves and seek Divine favours they will be given. For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up or left.
2. Blessings are restored in prayer. The Lord will answer and say. Infidels object to prayer for daily food and propitious weather. Why should we pray for rain or sunshine, say they, when both depend upon laws of meteorology? The laws of nature are not incapable of modification. Every time we throw a stone or build a house, when we graft a tree, or restore a limb, laws are suspended and varied. If we can direct the hidden forces of creation, and make them subservient to useful purposes, shall the God of nature be powerless! But prayer itself is one of the most natural and prevalent laws of nature. We have proof in Scripture and in our own experience that in the history of men and the events of providence God has changed his proceedings in answer to fervent prayer. The earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel.
II. Restoration springs from Divine pity to men. The Lord will display his love, and pity his people. Before, God was set upon their destruction. He was at the head of a great army, giving the word and combining the strength of the enemy. Now he is full of tender compassion, which resents injury done to them as if done to himself. God spares a people whom he may justly destroy. Humble penitents are permitted and encouraged to plead an interest in him. Natural affection prompts parents to help their children in distress; so God gives his people room in his pity, and blessings in their trouble. Compassionate kindness to the suffering is a dictate of humanity and one of the first principles of religion (Jas. 1:27; Mat. 9:13). To him that is afflicted, pity should be showed (Job. 6:14). That pity which we should display towards our neighbour God will show to us. He is ready to turn away his anger and have mercy on us. Ye have seen that the Lord is very pitiful
He hath a tear for pity, and a hand
Open as day for melting charity.
III. Restoration is in rich variety. Calamities were not simply removed, but abundance of temporal and spiritual favours were bestowed.
1. Material blessings were restored. I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith. The material condition of a nation and the outward prosperity of a people depend upon God. He can send famine, pestilence, and war. He alone can take them away. All human efforts are perfectly impotent without Divine co-operation. The husbandman may plough and sow, but God causes the sun to rise and set Parliament may legislate and the nation employ its resources, but God alone can remove oppression and restore fertility in the land. It is good for a people to hearken to God in distress, to recognize their dependence upon him in the seasons and operations of nature, and call upon him as the Giver of every good and perfect gift. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me! He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat; and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
2. National reproach was removed. I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen. Reproach is a sad thing for the people of God. But in due time he will take away all visible signs of judgment. His people shall not suffer in reputation and on account of apparent unfaithfulness to them. They shall be free from insult and tyranny, and shall enjoy the credit and comforts of their religion. The best of men may have the bitterest foes, and be subject to the most cruel taunts. But the brutality of the enemy will move the pity of God. He will not long endure to see his children ill-entreated. His love will rouse his anger, and then it will be worse for the scorner and reviler.
3. The mighty enemy was destroyed. I will remove far off from you the northern army. Whether the Northerner (Heb.) means the pest of locusts or the Assyrian army, God promises deliverance from them. As locusts were driven with the wind, to perish in the Arabian Desert, in the Dead Sea, and in the Mediterranean, to breed pestilence by the stench from their putrifying bodies, so the enemy shall be driven every way but the one from which he came. The destroyer shall do no further mischief. (a) The destruction is entire. They shall perish for lack of sustenance. Nothing shall remain but their ill savour. (b) The destruction is deserved. Because he hath done great things, magnified himself against God. Pride and violence against Gods people have ever been the features and forerunners of destruction. (c) The destruction is fearful. The countless hosts, full of life and activity, were scattered by the word of God on the waves of the sea, and thrown upon the shore a putrifying mass. Human malice and pride shall be destroyed. God takes away their breath and they become a carcase. Sennacheribs army in the evening inspired terror, and before the morning he is not (Isa. 17:14). And when they rose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses (Isa. 37:36).
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Gods favours towards penitent sinners.
1. Zeal against them turned into pity for them.
2. Their prayers answered in abundant blessings. Material and spiritual good.
3. Their condition reversed. (a) Freedom for oppression. (b) Honour for reproach. (c) Feasting for fasting. (d) The removal of everything sad, and the bestowment of everything joyful.
The excellent condition of restored sinners.
1. Enemies subdued.
2. Abundance enjoyed.
3. Blessings perpetuated.
Divine favours.
1. Their sourceGods pity.
2. Their subjectsGods people.
3. Their resultYe shall be satisfied.
Joe. 2:19. I will send you corn. God averts the failure of crops and the scarcity of food. These evils neither come nor cease by accident. God gives us our daily bread. He opens his hand and we are satisfied with food [Lange].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Joe. 2:20. The south and east winds drive the clouds of locusts with violence into the Mediterranean, and drown them in such quantities that when their dead are cast on to the shore, they infect the air to a great distance [Volney]. Wonderful image of the instantaneousness, ease, completeness, of the destruction of Gods enemies; a mass of active life exchanged, in a moment, into a mass of death [Pusey].
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
III. THE PURPOSE OF REPENTANCE IMMEDIATE BLESSINGS
TEXT: Joe. 2:18-27
18
Then was Jehovah jealous for his land, and had pity on his people.
19
And Jehovah answered and said unto his people, Behold, I will send you grain, and new wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations;
20
but I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive it into a land barren and desolate, its forepart into the eastern sea, and its hinder part into the western sea; and its stench shall come up, and its ill savor shall come up, because it hath done great things.
21
Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice; for Jehovah hath done great things.
22
Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth its fruit, the fig-tree and the vine do yield their strength.
23
Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in Jehovah your God; for he giveth you the former rain in just measure, and he causeth to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain, in the first month.
24
And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.
25
And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you.
26
And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and shall praise the name of Jehovah your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you; and my people shall never be put to shame.
27
And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Jehovah your God, and there is none else; and my people shall never be put to shame,
QUERIES
a.
Whose army is this northern army which is to be removed?
b.
What is the former rain and the latter rain?
c.
Why is the phrase, and my people shall never be put to shame, repeated so often?
PARAPHRASE
Then Jehovah burned with eagerness to vindicate His name in His land and so He had compassion upon His people in order to uphold His power and trustworthiness. Jehovah said unto His people, Pay attention now, for I am going to bless the land and send you an abundance of grain, fresh vintage from the grape, and oil from the olive tree. There will be enough to satisfy all. In blessing you so I will cause the heathen to cease their ridicule of you. I will remove far away from you the army of locusts which have swooped down upon you from the north. I will drive it into the arid desert-land putting its front part as far east as the Dead Sea and its rear part as far west as the Mediterranean Sea. The stench of its destruction shall be so putrid and vile as to be unbearable. Jehovah has done these great things.
Indeed, there is no reason for fear, O land of my people. Be glad and rejoice and praise His name for your God has done great and marvelous things. You need not be dumbfounded any longer, you beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness spring forth with new grass. The trees are now bearing their fruit and the fig tree and the vine yield abundance. Be glad then, you children of the covenant promises made to Zion, and rejoice in your covenant God, Jehovah. He is giving you the Teacher unto Righteousness, And He will send down to you rain, the early rain and the late rain in the first month. And the threshing floors shall be full of wheat and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. I will recompense you for the years which the locust and the licker and the stripper and the gnawer have devoured, My great army which I sent among you. You shall have plenty of food to satisfy your hunger and for this you will praise the name of Jehovah your God because He has delivered you in a wondrous way. I will so bless you that you will not be held up to shame by your enemies any more. When this comes to pass you will know of a truth that I am dwelling in the midst of Israel, my covenant people, and that I am Jehovah, your covenant God, and that there is no other god beside Me. When this comes to pass you will not be an object of shame for your enemies any more.
SUMMARY
For the most part (with the exception only of Joe. 2:23 b) the prophet predicts (future perfectas if it had already come to pass) the immediate, material blessings with which God is going to bless His covenant people, because they repented.
COMMENTS
Joe. 2:18 THEN WAS JEHOVAH JEALOUS . . . AND HAD PITY: The word translated jealous means literally, to be red, to glow; hence, be fiery, eager, zealous. The reason Jehovah was jealous for His land is due to the fact that it is impossible to separate in any way the covenant God from the covenant land and people. Whatever is done to the land and the people of the covenant is also done to the covenant God. Whatever is done for the covenant land and people is done by the covenant God. He is jealous for the land and the people because He is jealous of His own name and character.
He had promised centuries before to curse them for rebellious sin and to bless them upon their repentance. They had been judged and punished for their sin, by the locust plague and drought. We presume they have now followed the prophets instructions and manifested their repentance. Now God, in order to fulfill His immutable Word, was eager to vindicate His name and so He had compassion upon them and blessed them. He said, I AM THAT I AM (Exo. 3:13-15). He would cease to be what this name involves if He did not fulfill His word. He must, by His very nature, show His absolute sovereignty (cf. Exo. 20:5; Deu. 29:18-20; Zep. 1:17-18; Zep. 3:7-8). He also loves His people as the apple of His eye (Deu. 32:10; Zec. 2:8) and He is just as eager to vindicate their name when they are in harmony with His will.
Joe. 2:19-20 BEHOLD, I WILL SEND YOU GRAIN, AND NEW WINE, AND OIL . . . AND I WILL NO MORE MAKE YOU A REPROACH AMONG THE NATIONS; . . . I WILL REMOVE . . . FROM YOU THE NORTHERN ARMY . . . The Lord now promises to bless the people with prosperous crops. They will have enough to satisfy the gnawing hunger that came with the destruction of their crops by the locusts and the drought, They will have enough now to eat and plenty left to reinstitute the offerings of grain and wine which had to be stopped earlier (cf. Joe. 1:13), In His deliverance of Israel He will prove to the heathen world that Israel is still the people of the Omnipotent God who delivers with a miraculous hand and their reproach would be removed.
We recall an instance when God, by His mighty power through one of His servants and through miraculous providence, brought an emperor to praise His name and cease reproaching the people of God (cf. Dan. 4:1-37).
God also promised to remove the northern army (my army Joe. 2:25) from the land. This army is none other than the locusts. Usually these locust plagues come from the south but they have also been known to blow in on the winds which come from the north. Facing the rising sun in Palestine, before you is east, behind you is west. God caused some to fall into the Dead Sea, some in the Mediterranean and some in the arid desert of the Negeb. Jerome says of the locusts of Palestine, when the shores of both seas were filled with heaps of dead locusts which the waters had cast up, their stench and putrefaction were so noxious as to corrupt the air, so that a pestilence was produced among men and beasts. Stench is all that is left of the great and powerful enemy of Gods people. This enemy had wrecked great destructionit had done terrible things but Jehovah God not only removed it but He also restored what had been destroyed. Yes, God even holds the creatures responsible for their devastation upon the apple of His eye (of. Gen. 9:5; Exo. 21:28-32).
Joe. 2:21-22 FEAR NOT, O LAND, BE GLAD AND REJOICE . . . BE NOT AFRAID, YE BEASTS OF THE FIELD . . . It is not Strange that God would call upon nature itself to praise His name (cf. also Psa. 65:13; Psa. 98:8; Psa. 148:3). Nature is also represented groaning and travailing in pain together until now (Rom. 8:22-23). Just as the fields and the beasts were before called upon to mourn and be confounded at the Majestic Power of God in judgment, so now they are called upon to take comfort and security in His Compassion.
Joe. 2:23-24 BE GLAD THEN, YE CHILDREN OF ZION . . . FOR HE GIVETH YOU THE FORMER RAIN . . . AND HE CAUSETH TO COME DOWN FOR YOU THE RAIN, THE FORMER AND THE LATTER RAIN . . . AND THE FLOORS SHALL BE FULL . . . AND THE VATS SHALL OVERFLOW The term Zion is a covenant-relation term. God speaks to them as children of the covenant here, (cf. Isaiah 40-66; Heb. 12:22; Rom. 11:26), and this is to reach its fulfillment in Christ, King of Zion, the church of the living God! The first phrase, the former rain, should be translated, he causeth to come down for you the teacher unto righteousness, according to Keil and Delitzsch. They make the blessings of the grace of God at this time not to consist merely in material things but also in spiritual (which is undoubtedly true), and both these material and spiritual blessings (especially the spiritual) were a teacher unto righteousness. But, further, just as Moses was a type and the whole law was a type of the Messiah to come (Heb. 10:1), so these blessings at this time were also a type predicting the coming of the ultimate covenant blessing in The Teacher unto Righteousness, the Messiah. Other commentators think this Hebrew word tsedaqah, which has a definite article, can refer only directly (not indirectly as K & D) to the Messiah.
For the sake of the Messianic people, because they have become such by faith and repentance, and for the sake of the Messiah, God will graciously send the former rain (falling from October to December) and the latter rain (March to April). God will send them, first of all (and this is what is meant by the phrase translated in the first month,) the material blessingsHe will bless the temporal Israel with temporal thingsbut later He will bless spiritual Israel with spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ (cf. Eph. 1:3 ff). These spiritual blessings are spoken of next in Joe. 2:28Joe. 3:21. There will, however, be, first of all, abundance of moisture which brings in turn overflowing abundance of agricultural blessings.
Joe. 2:25-27 AND I WILL RESTORE TO YOU THE YEARS THAT THE LOCUST HATH EATEN . . . AND YE SHALL . . . BE SATISFIED, AND SHALL PRAISE THE NAME OF JEHOVAH . . . AND YE SHALL KNOW THAT I AM IN THE MIDST OF ISRAEL . . . God promises to repay or recompense the people of Israel for the years which the various stages of the locust plague took away that is the produce of their fields. See Joe. 1:4 for a description of the various names used for the locusts. This repayment will be so gracious and abundant that the people will be caused to praise the name of Jehovah. It will also be another of the many evidences that the God of all the earth dwells in their midstthat He is their God and that He is jealous for them when they repent. The mighty deeds of Jehovah are appealed to time and time again as empirical evidence for His existence and His nature (both of wrath and compassion) in the Old Testament (cf. Isa. 41:45; Rom. 1:18 ff; Act. 14:15-17). Ezekiels most prominent refrain is then shall ye know that I the Lord have done it . . . or spoken it. The Lord has never left Himself without a witness. He has constantly appealed to man with evidence directed at the senses of man (eyesight, hearing, touching, etc.), And so here Joel tells the people that when Gods rich blessings of deliverance from the locusts and His miraculous, providential restoration of the grain and wine is seen and experienced they will have evidence that Jehovah is God and that He is among them, and that there is no other god besides Him. And as Joel has hinted (by the teacher unto righteousness) when the Messianic age (of which Joel will speak more fully next) comes the covenant people of God will know that God has shown even more abundantly the immutability of His purpose (Heb. 6:17-18) to keep His covenant, for all the promises of God find their yea in Christ (are affirmed) 2Co. 1:20.
QUIZ
1.
Why is God jealous for His land? Give two reasons!
2.
How would God demonstrate His pleasure at their repentance (three ways)?
3.
How should the phrase the former rain be translated and to whom does it refer?
4.
How does God prove the immutability of His purpose (what type of evidence does He give)?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
Blessings to be enjoyed in the immediate future, vv.18-27.
Joe 2:18 marks the transition to the promises. The future tenses of A.V. have been rightly changed into past tenses in R.V.
Then The time is not definitely stated but is implied, when the people turned to Jehovah in penitence of heart.
Jealous pity Jealousy is frequently ascribed to God in the Old Testament. The expression is probably adopted from the marriage relation, which is often used to describe the relation of Jehovah to the people of Israel (Isa 54:5; Isa 62:5; Hos 2:19). Though at present the word is used commonly in a bad sense, it was not always so. The jealousy of Jehovah is aroused when his power is doubted, or when he is robbed of his proper dues, or when proper treatment is refused to one who is the object of his peculiar care and love. In the last case Jehovah interferes not merely to secure what belongs to him, but he interposes in behalf of his loved one. The calamity that had befallen the people had caused the surrounding nations to ask mockingly, “Where is their God?” Now Jehovah must vindicate himself; but he was moved also by pity for his people. “Love, having been made jealous by misrepresentation or ill treatment on the part of a third person, undergoes a strong reaction against the latter in favor of the former” (Exo 20:5; Zec 1:14; Zec 8:2; Eze 36:5-6).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
PROMISE OF JEHOVAH TO AVERT THE JUDGMENT AND TO BESTOW ABUNDANT BLESSINGS, Joe 2:18 to Joe 3:21.
Though not expressly stated, it is implied that the prophet’s exhortation was heeded; the solemn assembly was held, the people turned to Jehovah in penitence, and as a result Jehovah altered his purpose. Now he promises to remove the locusts and to restore prosperity, such as has not been known before, until all will know that Jehovah himself dwells in the midst of the people (Joe 2:18-27). The manifestation of his mercy will not stop there; to the temporal blessings he will add rich spiritual gifts (Joe 2:28-29). When the day of judgment finally comes, introduced by extraordinary phenomena (Joe 2:30-31), it will not strike the chosen people; they will be spared (Joe 2:32), and those who are still in exile will be brought back to Zion (Joe 3:1); but the enemies of the Jews will be annihilated in a terrible conflict in the valley of Jehoshaphat (Joe 2:2-16). Zion will continue in the enjoyment of highest felicity under the direct protection of Jehovah, while her enemies will be turned into desolation and ruin (Joe 2:17-21).
The promises, then, refer, on the one hand, to the immediate future (Joe 2:18-27); on the other, to times more remote (Joe 2:28 ff.).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Having Accepted His People’s Repentance YHWH Promises To Deliver Them from The Plagues Of Locusts By Casting The Locusts Into The Seas On Both Sides Of The Land And That He Will Then Restore The Fruitfulness of Their Land ( Joe 2:18-27 ).
After the plagues came the deliverance, presumably because the people repented in accordance with Joel’s instructions (Joe 2:15-17). As a consequence of their repentance YHWH was ‘jealous’ for His land. He one again recognised it as His own and determined to free it from all adversity, and to make it fruitful once again. He promised that He would cause ‘the northern menace’ to be removed far off and to be driven into the wilderness, into the Dead Sea to the east and the Great Sea (the Mediterranean) to the west, where they would rot, and called on the land and the wild animals to be afraid no longer concerning the lack of vegetation. And He called on the land and the people to be glad and rejoice because the rains would come in due season and the land would once again flourish resulting in more than making up for what had been lost. No more would they suffer shame among the nations because they were seen as the people whose God could not save them from the extreme locust devastation, and the consequence would be that they will know that YHWH is in the midst of them, and that there is no other God like Him.
Analysis of Joe 2:18-27 .
a
b And YHWH answered and said to his people, “Behold, I will send you grain, and new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with it, and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations (Joe 2:19).
c But I will remove far off from you the northern (army, menace), and will drive it into a land barren and desolate, its forepart into the eastern sea, and its hinder part into the western sea, and its stench will come up, and its ill savour will come up, because it has done great things (Joe 2:20).
d Do not be afraid, O land, be glad and rejoice, for YHWH has done great things (Joe 2:21).
e Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree bears its fruit, the fig-tree and the vine yield their strength (Joe 2:22).
d Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in YHWH your God, for he gives you the former rain in just measure, and he causes to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month, and the floors will be full of wheat, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil (Joe 2:23-24).
c And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the young (hopping) locust, and the infant (devouring) locust, and the adult (swarming) locust, My great army which I sent among you (Joe 2:25)
b And you will eat in plenty and be satisfied, and will praise the name of YHWH your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you, and My people will never be put to shame (Joe 2:26).
a And you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am YHWH your God, and there is none else, and my people will never be put to shame (Joe 2:27).
Note that in ‘a’ YHWH was jealous for His land and had pity on His people, and in the parallel they will know that He is in their midst, and that He is their God and the only God, while His people will never be put to shame. In ‘b’ YHWH will make their land fruitful again, and in the parallel they will eat in plenty and be satisfied. In ‘c’ He will remove from their midst the invading ‘army’ of locusts, and in the parallel He will restore the years of fruitfulness which the locusts have destroyed, that great ‘army’ that He had sent among them. In ‘d’ the land is to be glad and rejoice because YHWH has done great things, and in the parallel the children of Zion are to be glad and rejoice because He will give the necessary rains, making the land fruitful. Centrally in ‘e’ the beasts of the field are to be unafraid because the pastures of the wilderness will flourish, and the trees will bear their fruit.
Joe 2:18
‘Then was YHWH jealous for his land,
And had pity on his people.
That chapters 1 & 2 refer to a past experience comes out here in that YHWH now acted to deliver His land and His people. He was ‘jealous’ for the land (compare how a good father will be ‘jealous’ for his family, wanting to ensure that they enjoy the very best). That is, He was determined to rid it of all that marred and spoiled it, because it was His land and His inheritance (see Joe 2:17) and He was responsible for its upkeep and wanted to ensure the very best for it. Furthermore He had compassion on His people. Note the distinction. The people needed compassion because while they were in rebellion He could not be ‘jealous’ over them. Once, however, they had turned to Him again it was different. And as a result both would be able to be glad and rejoice at what He was going to do.
Joe 2:19
‘And YHWH answered and said to his people,
Behold, I will send you grain, and new wine, and oil,
And you will be satisfied with it,
And I will no more make you a reproach among the nations,
He promised that he would once again send them grain, new wine and oil, the three staple products of the land, and he would do it to such an extent that they would be satisfied with it. And in doing so He would remove the reproach that they were experiencing among the nations, as their neighbours declared that their God had been unable to deliver them from the extreme plagues of locusts (see their cry in Joe 2:17, and the Judean appeal for their reproach to be dealt with)., They would no longer suffer under such reproach when their neighbours saw what God had done in removing the locusts and providing such bountiful harvest.
Joe 2:20
But I will remove far off from you the northern (army or menace),
And will drive it into a land barren and desolate,
Its forepart into the eastern sea,
And its hinder part into the western sea,
And its stench will come up, and its ill savour will come up,
Because it has done great things.’
For He would remove from them the menace that had come from ‘the north’. This need only indicate that the major hatching out of the young locust/grasshoppers had occurred to the north of Jerusalem so that they had approached Jerusalem from the north, or it could signify that they had been blown in from the Syrian desert to the north. Alternatively it may be that the north, from which any major unanticipated enemy came (they had been dealing with their neighbours and Egypt for centuries and saw them as a local problem) was seen as a symbol of all that was bad and unanticipated, so that ‘northern menace’ indicated substantial interference from unknown external sources. There may even be the suggestion that the locust plagues were seen as coming from ‘the mountains of the gods’ in the north (Isa 14:13).
And God promised that He would drive the locusts out of the land into the desolate wilderness (the biter bit), partly into the Dead Sea and the desert beyond, and partly into the Great Sea, and that they would die there so that, as their bodies decayed, a great stench would come up. The stench of locusts who had drowned and been thrown up rotting on shore was proverbial. And this would occur to them because they had done ‘great things’, i.e. had totally devastated the land, especially to the north of Jerusalem. They had caused as much devastation to the vegetation as an invading and ruthless enemy.
Joe 2:21
‘Do not be afraid, O land, be glad and rejoice,
For YHWH has done great things.’
In consequence the land need no longer be afraid of any further such activity. It could be glad and rejoice because YHWH had also done ‘great things’, but in His case for the benefit of the land. ‘O land’ may not only signify the land itself, but also the people of the land.
Joe 2:22
‘Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field,
For the pastures of the wilderness do spring forth,
For the tree bears its fruit,
The fig-tree and the vine yield their strength.’
It is possibly significant that while the wild animals (or the domesticated animals) are told that they need no longer be afraid of a future absence of their food supply, they are not told to be glad and rejoice. It is the people who worship and rejoice. The animals just receive what God gives, even though they are symbolically addressed as though they could understand. The prophetic message was in fact really to the people. Note how this is a reversal of Joe 1:10; Joe 1:12; Joe 1:18-20. In Joe 1:18-20 the pastures of the wilderness are emphasised.
Elsewhere in Scripture the wild animals along with the whole of creation are also depicted as praising God and giving Him glory (e.g. Psa 148:10; Rev 5:13, and symbolically in the cherubim/living creatures with their fourfold manifestation of man, lion, eagle and ox), but then it is, of course, a use of anthropomorphism, for animals do not worship.
The wild animals (or domesticated animals) are promised that in the very wilderness areas where they dwell, which has been devastated equally by the young locusts, the vegetation will ‘spring forth’ (a verb only used elsewhere in Gen 1:11), the trees will bear their fruit, and the fig tree and vine will ‘yield their strength’, although this last will mainly benefit men, which is why the children of Zion are also especially to be glad and rejoice.
Joe 2:23
‘Be glad then, you children of Zion,
And rejoice in YHWH your God,
For he gives you the former rain in just measure (or ‘in righteousness’),
And he causes to come down for you the rain,
The former rain and the latter rain,
In the first month.’
The ‘children of Zion’, who can now be called this because they have been restored, are also to be glad and rejoice, both because of the promised fruitfulness of Joe 2:22, and because YHWH has promised to them that the rains will come abundantly in due season in the right amounts (in just measure). The ‘former rain’ in October/November would soften up the ground and prepare it for sowing, the latter rain in March/April would ensure the full growth of the harvest (the ‘first month’ of Abib or Nisan occurring around this time). Both these rains are a symbol of the Holy Spirit in Isa 32:15; Isa 44:1-5; Isa 55:10-13. This is not therefore just a promise of fruitful lands, but of all the spiritual blessing that goes with God blessing His people (see Joe 2:28).
‘In just measure (or ‘in righteousness’).’ The idea may be that the rains would come in the ‘right’ amounts, or that they would come because of the restoration of covenant righteousness resulting from their repentance and turning to YHWH.
Joe 2:24
‘And the floors will be full of wheat,
And the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
The result of the rains coming in abundance at the proper time will be a huge grain harvest, so that the barns will once again be full of wheat, and the flourishing of vines and olives so that the vats will overflow with wine and olive oil (contrast Joe 1:10).
Joe 2:25
‘And I will restore to you the years that the locust (swarming locust) has eaten,
The young locust (hopping locust), and the infant locust (destroying locust), and the adult locust (gnawing locust),
My great army which I sent among you.
And you will eat in plenty and be satisfied,
And will praise the name of YHWH your God,
Who has dealt wondrously with you,
And my people will never be put to shame.’
Their harvests are to be so plentiful that all that has been lost will be restored, all that has been eaten by the different types of locust. Note the phrase ‘the years that the locusts have eaten’. They had not only destroyed what was on the land, but also what had been stored from past years, although some see the plagues as having continued over a number of years. These words should be a great encouragement as we grow older, for they remind us that He can make up for the failures of past years.
YHWH, however, fully acknowledges His responsibility for the locust plagues. They were His great army which He had sent among them. But now that all has been put right between them, the people will once again have abundance of food. They will eat in plenty and be satisfied. And in consequence they will praise the Name of YHWH their God, the One Who will have dealt so wondrously with them.
And they will no more be subjected to shame before their neighbours. All Israel’s neighbours were aware of the great claims that Israel/Judah made concerning their invisible God, and the plagues that had come upon them would undoubtedly have resulted in great shame because their boasts appeared top have been unfulfilled. What the neighbours failed to recognise was that Judah’s God, unlike their own gods, was a covenant God Whose covenant included both blessings and cursings. Thus their view had been that His failure was simply due to His inability to do anything.
Note the emphasis (in God’s words) on the fact that the damage was done by the locusts already outlined in Joe 1:4. It is as though God wanted to emphasise that this was a real locust invasion, just in case anyone would think otherwise.
Joe 2:27
‘And you will know that I am in the midst of Israel,
And that I am YHWH your God, and there is none else,
And my people will never be put to shame.’
And the final result of what has happened will be that Judah/Israel will know that YHWH is among them, sometimes for good and sometimes for ill, and that He is their God and that there is no other god. Thus to look anywhere else than to Him would be foolish. And they could be assured that while they responded to Him and His covenant, they would never be put to shame, because God would never fail them. The repetition of ‘my people will never be put to shame’ brings out how deeply Joel felt that shame that had been brought on God’s Name because the judgment had been necessary, even if it gave the wrong impression to outsiders.
Note the emphasis on YOUR God and MY people. Because they had repented and returned to Him full covenant relations had been restored.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
God’s Promise of Temporal and Spiritual Blessings
v. 18. Then, v. 19. Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto His people, v. 20. but I will remove far off from you the northern army, v. 21. Fear not, O land, v. 22. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field, v. 23. Be glad, then, ye children of Zion, v. 24. And the floors, v. 25. And I will restore to you, v. 26. And ye shall eat in plenty, v. 27. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, v. 28. And it shall come to pass afterward, v. 29. and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids, v. 30. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, v. 31. The sun shall be turned into darkness, v. 32. And it shall come to pass,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
PART SECOND
THE PROMISE
Joe 2:18 to Joe 3:21
_______
SECTION I
Annihilation of the Locust Army. Reparation of the Damage done by it, by a Rich Blessing
Joe 2:18-27
18 Then Jehovah will be jealous20 for his land.
And will pity his people.
19 And Jehovah will answer and say unto his people,
Behold I will send21 you the corn,22
The new wine, and the oil;
And ye shall be satisfied23 therewith,
And I will no longer make you
A reproach among the heathen.
20 And I will remove far from you the northern24 host,
And will drive him into a dry and desolate land;
His face (or his van) toward the east sea,
His rear towards the west sea.
And his stench shall arise,
And his ill savor shall ascend,
For He has done great things.25
21 Fear not, O Land,
Be glad and rejoice,
For Jehovah hath done great things.
22 Fear not, ye beasts of the field!26
For the pastures of the wilderness have sprung up,
The tree beareth her fruit,
The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.27
23 O ye children of Zion rejoice and be glad
In Jehovah your God;
For He gives you the former rain28 in just measure,
And sends you, in showers, the early and the latter rain, as aforetime.29
24 And the threshing floors shall be full of corn,
And the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
25 And I will restore30 (or replace) the years31
Which the locust, the cankerworm, the caterpillar and the palmerworm have devoured,
My great army which I sent against you.
26 Then ye shall eat in plenty32 and be satisfied,
And shall praise the name of Jehovah your God,
Who hath dealt wondrously with you.
And my people shall never be ashamed.
27 And33 ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,
And I Jehovah am your God, and none else.
And my people shall never be ashamed.
EXEGETICAL
The second part of this chapter is wholly occupied with promises to Judah. The first part, which is so full of menaces, had also revealed Gods mercy in case of repentance, but only in a general way, affording only a glimmering of hope. Now, however, the promises given by Jehovah Himself flow forth like a full, broad stream. This transition occurs suddenly in Joe 2:18. The promise, which takes the form of an answer of God, is grounded upon a seeming change in the Divine purpose. A declaration so positive as this, introduced by the imper. consec,. as an actual fact, of course implies that the condition on which the change in the Divine purpose was based, had been fulfilled, i. e., that the day of fasting and prayer had been duly observed, and that the promise is Gods answer to his peoples penitential prayer. Our book, therefore, is in point of time divided into two parts, an earlier and a later one.
Joe 2:18. Then will the Lord, etc. with = to be jealous for some one, i. e., to be zealous for his welfare out of love for him.
Joe 2:19-20. Renewed fertility is promised by the removal of the cause of the desolation. Behold I send you. This carries us back to Joe 1:10-11. ; because the growth of grain depends upon the fertilizing rain.
Joe 2:20. , not the northern of the E. V. and other versions, for the locusts never invade Palestine from the North, but the destroyer. The word comes from , the name of the well-known Egyptian god Typhon, from whence also comes the (Act 27:14). [This is a fanciful and groundless rendering. The word occurs in one hundred and fifty other places in O. T., and in all of them its sense is clearly that given to it here by our E. V. The term , says Wnsche, according to the Masor. punctuation, can have no other sense than that of northern, or northerner. The allegorists use the word as a proof of their theory, that the Chaldans, or Syrians are meant. But there is not either in what precedes or in what follows, the slightest trace of a hostile invasion of Judah by either of these nations. The word, therefore, must refer to the locusts. Nor is the designation of them as northern an arbitrary one, since their movements were wholly dependent on the wind.F.] Into a land dry and desolate, one in which this army will find nothing to destroy, but will itself perish. The land referred to is the desert of Arabia, on the southern border of Juda. The two ways in which the locusts would be destroyed are mentioned: they would be driven into the desert, and into the sea. Two seas are named, in which this army should perish, namely, the vanguard in the east or Dead Sea, the rear in the west or Mediterranean. We need not, however, suppose that the destruction of these two divisions of the locust army occurred at the same time.
[His stench. Jerome says of the locusts of Palestine, when the shores of both seas were filled with heaps of dead locusts which the waters had cast up, their stench and putrefaction were so noxious as to corrupt the air, so that a pestilence was produced among men and beasts. The same fact is attested by many modern travellers.F.]
Joe 2:21-23. Fear not, O Land. As in Joel 1 the land and its inhabitants were called upon to mourn in view of coming judgments, so now they are called upon to rejoice over the destruction of the hosts that had laid waste the country. Here, the address is that of the prophet while in Joe 2:25 the Lord himself speaks. The subject and object of the joy are stated (Joe 2:21) in a general way. The latter is described in the words: Jehovah hath done great things. The perfect tense is here used like the German present, to denote an action, which being absolutely certain is thought of and presented as one already accomplished. What is here said of Gods doings is not to be limited to that special time or occasion, but expresses a universal truth.
Joe 2:22. Even the beasts of the field should no longer be afraid of wanting their supplies of food. The picture of blessing which begins with verdant pastures, ends with trees laden with fruit.
Joe 2:23. Men are called upon to rejoice. Children of Zion may be taken in a general sense for the inhabitants of Judah, since Zion represented Judah. The former or early rain. It fell after autumn, and seems to be so called from , jecit, because its season was post jactam sementem. It was the chief need after the devastation and drought, and hence is named with special emphasis. The latter rain fell about harvest, towards the end of April. Hence its name from , collegit, corresponds to the (Joe 3:1); the material blessings first, then the spiritual. Pusey: It may be, at the first, i. e., as soon as ever it is needed, or in contrast to the more extensive gifts afterwards; or, as at the first, i. e., all shall, upon their penitence, be restored as at the first. These lesser variations leave the sense of the whole the same, and all are supported by good authorities. It is still a reversal of the former sentence, that, whereas before the rivers of water were dried up, now the rains should come, each in his season.F.] The rain shall come down, here specially opposed to the drought, but, perhaps also a symbol of blessing in general. [So far as this special act may be generalized, it may rather be said that it begets and keeps alive the consciousness that the Giver of all good is again in the midst of his people.F.]
Joe 2:24-27. And the threshing floors,my people shall never be ashamed.
The effects of the rain are first briefly, and then more fully described. The years,i. e., the product of the years which the locusts had devoured. The plural form of the word does not imply that the visitations of the locusts described in Joel 1 were in successive years; it only means that the results of a single visitation would be felt for several years, and that as long a time would be required to repair the mischief done by the locusts. The names of the four kinds of locusts given in Joel 1 are repeated here, only that the generic name holds a prominent place.
Joe 2:26-27. A beautiful conclusion; it treats of the redemption of Israel from the heathen, and thereby of the vindication of God himself. This is the fundamental idea that repeatedly recurs. This conclusion forms the point of transition to the new and higher promises in Joel 3 which fully display the truth that Jehovah is in the midst of Israel, that He is their God and none else, and therefore that his people can never be put to shame. While this promise is in a negative form, it really includes much more than the literal sense of the words; it means that Gods people shall not only not be ashamed, but that they shall be glorified forever, and that all the powers of this world that have opposed them shall be utterly confounded.
THEOLOGICAL
The greatness of the promise shows the power and importance of repentance, and the magnitude of God s grace. It is a confirmation of what is said (Joe 2:12). The punishment God inflicts is converted into a blessing; his zeal against us is changed into zeal for us. Gods dispensing blessing is the proof that He is in the midst of Israel; that Jehovah and none else is their God. Jehovah is in the midst of Israel, the centre and source of spiritual life. It is solely through Him, that Israel is what he is. The proof that God dwells with Israel is his blessing him; for the very object of his communion With Israel, and the choice of him to be his people, is to bless him. In dispensing blessings, God manifests his name, his power, his bounty, and distinguishes Himself from all false gods, who being dead cannot do that; while Israel being thus blessed is distinguished from the heathen, standing far above them who have no such God. Hence, too, the punishments inflicted upon Israel are in strong contrast with those which overtake the heathen. If Israel is unfaithful so that his God disowns him, it is quite natural that if he repents, he should regain the blessing; the honor of God and of his people require this. Upon this fact, repentant Israel grounds his prayer for pardon, and the promise given corresponds to the prayer. When God sends blessings to his people, whom his judgments have brought to repentance, the right way is, to rejoice in and enjoy them, with humble gratitude indeed, but at the same time with the confession that they come wholly from Him. Then, the humiliation endured will have produced its proper fruits.
HOMILETICAL
Joe 2:18. And Jehovah was jealous for his people. Penitential and believing prayer secures a gracious answer; sometimes in the way of warding off the temporal evils with which God visits men. Before we call, God will answer, and while we are speaking, He will hear.
[Henry: God will have an eye (1.) To his own honor, and the reputation of his covenant with Israel, by which He had conveyed to them that good land; now He will not suffer it to be despised or disparaged, but will be jealous for the land and its inhabitants, who had been praised as a happy people, and therefore must not lie open to reproach as a miserable people. (2.) To their distress. He will pity his people, and will restore them their former comforts.
Pusey: Before, God seemed set upon their destruction. It was his great army which was ready to destroy them; He was at their head giving the word. Now, He is full of tender love for them, which resents injuries done to them, as done to Himself.F.]
Joe 2:19. I will sendcorn. It is God who averts the failure of crops, and scarcity of food. These evils neither come nor cease by accident. God gives us our daily bread. He opens his hand, and we are satisfied with food.
Joe 2:20. I will remove the northern. When God has alarmed his people and brought them to repentance, He often pours out his wrath upon those who were his instruments in the infliction of chastisement.
Joe 2:21. Fear not. How kindly God can speak to the heart! How powerfully can He console! It is easy for Him to do great things.
[Pusey: Before, they were bidden to tremble; now they are bidden fear not. The enemy had done great things; now, the cause of joy is, that God had done great things; the almightiness of God overwhelming and sweeping over the might put forth to destroy.F.]
Joe 2:23. Rejoice in the Lord. Joy in God is the right kind of joy. From Him comes every blessing. Yet how often do we receive joyfully enough the gift, without rejoicing in the Giver? Certainly he who does not know God, cannot rejoice in Him.
[Scott: The sons of Zion can never have so great a cause to fear, but they must still have a greater to rejoice in the Lord. He gives us all our comforts, and enables us to use them with thankful hearts. The wisdom, truth, and love of his dispensations toward us deserve our highest admiration; and He will never leave his people to be ashamed of their confidence in Him.F.]
Joe 2:25. I will restore. How great is the bounty of God! It seems as if He were anxious to repair some injury which his preceding judgments had caused.
Joe 2:26. Ye shall be satisfied. What a blessed result of humiliation when our being satisfied and praising the Lord become and remain so united in us, that we can never again misuse Gods gifts to feed vain conceit, luxury, tyranny, but shall maintain unmoved fear, love, and trust in God.
[Pusey: It is of the punishment of God when men eat and are not satisfied; it is mans sin that they are satisfied and do not praise God, but the more forget Him. And so Gods blessings become a curse to him. God promises to restore his gifts, and to give grace withal, that they should own and thank Him.F.]
Joe 2:27. I am in the midst of Israel. Blessed is the people in the midst of whom the Lord dwells. Every fresh blessing should be a proof to us that God is in the midst of us. But we must be Gods people, if we would hope to have Him dwelling in the midst of us. He is only in the midst of Israel. Gods people can never be put to shame; therefore let us see that we belong to them.
[Henry: We should labor to grow in our acquaintance with God by all providences, both merciful and afflictive. When God gives to his people plenty and peace, He thereby gives them to understand that He is pleased with their repentance, that He has pardoned their sins.F.]
Footnotes:
[20]Joe 2:18. with or = to be jealous for some one out of love.
[21]Joe 2:19., more lit., am sending.
[22]Joe 2:19.: the article is used to give prominence to the products which the Lord promises to send.
[23]Joe 2:19. . The sing. is here used collectively.
[24]Joe 2:20.Northern. Schmoller insists that should be rendered destroyer. See Exeget. note on this ver.
[25]Joe 2:20. , lit. he has magnified to do. Schmoller renders it: er hat grossgethan. The same phrase occurs in Joe 2:21, which shows that it cannot be taken in the sense of boasting. It is synonymous with the (Jdg 13:19), and , Joe 2:26.
[26]Joe 2:22.Field. is not the plur. for but the sing. = , according to the analogy of , Psa 96:12.
[27]Joe 2:22. , give strength, like the Lat. edere fiuctum. The metaphor is one in which the cause is put for the effect. Only used here and in Psa 1:4.
[28]Joe 2:23., the early rain, from , jecit, perhaps because its season was post jactam sementem. Keil renders it a teacher for righteousness. But the word when so used is followed by , more rarely by , or . Ewald and Umbreit take in the sense of early rain, but render the phrase rain for righteousness, i. e., as a sign of their being again received into the divine righteousness. But this is a strained sense; better, according to right, i. e., in just measure, as the ground requires.
[29]Joe 2:23.Aforetime.: . There seems to be an omission of . The Sept. render it ; the Syr., ut antea; the Vulg., sicut in principio. The Chald. and Arab. have the reading as in the month Nisan.
[30]Joe 2:25.The primary meaning of is to be whole, but it is here used in the sense of replace, or make good.
[31]Joe 2:25.Years, the plur. form used, perhaps, only in a poetic sense, as in Gen 21:7; Psa 45:9-10; 1Sa 17:43.
[32]Joe 2:26.Eat in plenty, lit., eat an eating, or eat to eat, etc. Wnsche renders it: Und ihr werdet essen, essen und saTt werden. The Heb. often has the infin. absol. as the object complement of the finite verb, which sometimes follows and sometimes precedes it.
[33]Joe 2:27.The here indicates the logical consequence from what precedes.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Joe 2:18 Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people.
Ver. 18. Then will the Lord be jealous (or, zealous) for his land] Then dicto citius straight upon it: no sooner shall you repent (as is prescribed) but the Lord will be jealous, &c. Of God’s jealousy for his people, See Trapp on “Zec 1:14 ; Zec 8:2 “ And of the happy effect of fasting turned to feasting, See Trapp on “ Zec 8:19 “ see also Jdg 20:23 Ezr 9:6 Dan 9:20 2Ch 20:3 ; 2Ch 20:24-25 Bacah turned into Berachah; besides the constant experience of these and former times, of the happy success and unmiscarrying returns of holy fasting and prayer; no instance to the contrary. God usually answers his humbling people, as here, according to the desire of their hearts: neither so only, but according to the request of their lips also, Psa 21:2 , he fits his mercy ad cardinem desiderii; and lets it be to his, even as they will. They say, “Spare thy people,” and accordingly he will pity or “spare his people,” saith the prophet. They would not have God to give “his heritage to reproach” by inflicting famine upon them, as if they served a hard master that would affamish them. To this God gives a full answer in the next verse, “Behold, I will send you corn,” &c. Again, they desire God to take care of his own great name, and to vindicate it. I will, saith God, by doing greatest things for you, Joe 2:20 , and by causing the blasphemers to return and discern that “their rock is not as your Rock, themselves being judges,” Deu 32:31 ; and that to ask, “Where is now their God?” is as great folly as if one should say, between the space of the new and old moon, Where is now the moon? when as it is never nearer the sun than at that time. There are some interpreters of good note, that read this verse not in the future, but in the preter tense, thus, Then was the Lord zealous for his land, and pitied his people; sc. when once he saw them seriously to repent he did all this that followeth for them. Neither maketh it anything against this interpretation, that the repentance of this people, their assembling and fasting, &c., is not recorded. For no more is it that Moses went to Pharaoh according to God’s command, to threaten those swarms of flies, Exo 8:20 , or that Isaiah took his son Shearjashub, and went to Ahaz to confirm and comfort him, as God had commanded, Isa 7:3 , which yet we doubt not but the prophet did. This is an ordinary aposiopesis.
And pity his people
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Joe 2:18-20
18Then the LORD will be zealous for His land
And will have pity on His people.
19The LORD will answer and say to His people,
Behold, I am going to send you grain, new wine and oil,
And you will be satisfied in full with them;
And I will never again make you a reproach among the nations.
20But I will remove the northern army far from you,
And I will drive it into a parched and desolate land,
And its vanguard into the eastern sea,
And its rear guard into the western sea.
And its stench will arise and its foul smell will come up,
For it has done great things.
Joe 2:18-20 YHWH hears Israel’s repentant prayer and promises to restore, protect, and never again allow His people to be a reproach among the nations!
As we look at the history of the Jewish people, past and present, this promise (and many like it) seem hollow and impotent! We must remember that the covenant is
1. conditional
2. reciprocal
3. continual
If His word is obeyed in faith, He will do all He has said, but if sin and rebellion return, then discipline is necessary and sure. The vast majority of God’s promises are conditional! Biblical faith is a two-way, personal relationship. Repentance, faith, and obedience are all initial and ongoing! Perseverance through time is crucial. See , see Special Topic: The Need to Persevere . Biblical faith is not sacramental or liturgical, but relational!
Joe 2:18 Notice that as YHWH promised Abraham a land and a seed (cf. Gen 12:1-3; Gen 15:1-4; Gen 17:1-8), so now Joe 2:18 mentions both the restoration of His land and the spiritual renewal of His people! In a sense the covenant with Abraham and His seed, both individual (cf. 2 Samuel 7) and collective, continues!
the LORD will be zealous This VERB (BDB 888, KB 1109, Piel IMPERFECT) denotes YHWH’s activity toward His promises and people (cf. Exod. 20:56; Exo 34:14; Deu 4:24; Deu 5:9; Deu 6:15; Jos 24:19; see NIDOTTE, vol. 3, p. 938). Zealous is a love word.
Joe 2:20 that I will remove the northern army far from you The north came to be a symbol of destruction and invasion to the Hebrews. This was because the only direction from which Palestine was accessible by land was the north or the south. The powers of the Fertile Crescent, Assyria, Babylon and Persia, repeatedly invaded Palestine from the north (e.g., Jer 1:14; Jer 4:6; Jer 10:22; Eze 38:6; Eze 38:15; Eze 39:2). It became proverbial for trouble (cf. Jer 1:13-15; Jer 4:6; Eze 38:6; Eze 38:15; Eze 39:2).
its stench will arise As with so many verses in Joel, one can interpret this in light of
1. a locust invasion where
a. all the dead insects began to rot and stink (BDB 93)
b. all the live insects are blown into the sea, drown and are washed up on the shores (i.e., Exo 10:19)
2. an invading army is being slaughtered by YHWH (cf. Isa 34:3; Amo 4:10). This becomes the source of many of the Armageddon texts (i.e., valley of Megiddo)
eastern sea This refers to the Dead Sea.
western sea This refers to the Mediterranean. As these two are parallel, so also are vanguard (BDB 815, front) and rear guard (BDB 693, rear).
NASBFor it has done great things
NKJVBecause he has done monstrous things
NRSVSurely he has done great things
TEVbecause of all they have done to you
NJB(for what he made bold to do)
To whom or what does this refer? Grammatically it is a Hiphil PERFECT MASCULINE SINGULAR (BDB 152, KB 178) plus a Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT (BDB 793 I, KB 889).
In context it could refer to
1. the army (cf. NKJV, TEV)
2. the leader of the northern army (cf. NJB)
3. the Lord (cf. Joe 2:21 repeats the VERB)
4. the locusts
It may seem that the invader is powerful and invincible (Joe 2:20), but he/they are not; only YHWH is awesome and wonderful (Joe 2:21). As terrible as the invasion will be, YHWH’s restoration will be more wondrous!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Jealous for His land, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 32:36-43). App-92. These remind us of the concluding words of the “Song of Moses”, and sum up the object and outcome of all the events which go to make up “the day of the Lord”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Joe 2:18-27
III. THE PURPOSE OF REPENTANCE-
IMMEDIATE BLESSINGS
TEXT: Joe 2:18-27
For the most part (with the exception only of Joe 2:23 b) the prophet predicts (future perfect-as if it had already come to pass) the immediate, material blessings with which God is going to bless His covenant people, because they repented.
Joe 2:18 THEN WAS JEHOVAH JEALOUS . . . AND HAD PITY: The word translated jealous means literally, to be red, to glow; hence, be fiery, eager, zealous. The reason Jehovah was jealous for His land is due to the fact that it is impossible to separate in any way the covenant God from the covenant land and people. Whatever is done to the land and the people of the covenant is also done to the covenant God. Whatever is done for the covenant land and people is done by the covenant God. He is jealous for the land and the people because He is jealous of His own name and character.
Zerr: Joe 2:18. From this verse through 27 the passage (Joe 2:18-27) is a prediction of the return from Babylonian captivity. The sending of Israel into a foreign country was not from an outburst of ill feeling for His people, but because their own good as well as the honor of the holy name of God demanded the chastisement. That is why it is said that He will be jealous for the land, because the Babylonians took too much personal satisfaction out of the distress of the people whom they had brought under their domination.
He had promised centuries before to curse them for rebellious sin and to bless them upon their repentance. They had been judged and punished for their sin, by the locust plague and drought. We presume they have now followed the prophets instructions and manifested their repentance. Now God, in order to fulfill His immutable Word, was eager to vindicate His name and so He had compassion upon them and blessed them. He said, I AM THAT I AM (Exo 3:13-15). He would cease to be what this name involves if He did not fulfill His word. He must, by His very nature, show His absolute sovereignty (cf. Exo 20:5; Deu 29:18-20; Zep 1:17-18; Zep 3:7-8). He also loves His people as the apple of His eye (Deu 32:10; Zec 2:8) and He is just as eager to vindicate their name when they are in harmony with His will.
Joe 2:19-20 BEHOLD, I WILL SEND YOU GRAIN, AND NEW WINE, AND OIL . . . AND I WILL NO MORE MAKE YOU A REPROACH AMONG THE NATIONS; . . . I WILL REMOVE . . . FROM YOU THE NORTHERN ARMY . . . The Lord now promises to bless the people with prosperous crops. They will have enough to satisfy the gnawing hunger that came with the destruction of their crops by the locusts and the drought, They will have enough now to eat and plenty left to reinstitute the offerings of grain and wine which had to be stopped earlier (cf. Joe 1:13), In His deliverance of Israel He will prove to the heathen world that Israel is still the people of the Omnipotent God who delivers with a miraculous hand and their reproach would be removed.
Zerr: Joe 2:19. The Lord was to make these provisions for his people by relocating them from the captivity so they could reap the products of the home land. It was a great reproach upon the nation of Israel to be held captive in a heathen land, but that was to be reversed and never again be repeated. Joe 2:20. The northern army was the Babylonian army that had taken the people of Israel into captivity. At the time the captivity was to be ended, the Babylonian army would be in their own country. But it. had come down from the north in order to take its inhabitants into captivity; and reversing the condition of bondage would be equivalent to removing the northern army from the land. And in making such a forced retreat toward his own country, the Babylonian king would be heading toward the desert of Arabia, and his back would be toward the utmost sea which means the Mediterranean.
We recall an instance when God, by His mighty power through one of His servants and through miraculous providence, brought an emperor to praise His name and cease reproaching the people of God (cf. Dan 4:1-37).
God also promised to remove the northern army (my army Joe 2:25) from the land. This army is none other than the locusts. Usually these locust plagues come from the south but they have also been known to blow in on the winds which come from the north. Facing the rising sun in Palestine, before you is east, behind you is west. God caused some to fall into the Dead Sea, some in the Mediterranean and some in the arid desert of the Negeb. Jerome says of the locusts of Palestine, when the shores of both seas were filled with heaps of dead locusts which the waters had cast up, their stench and putrefaction were so noxious as to corrupt the air, so that a pestilence was produced among men and beasts. Stench is all that is left of the great and powerful enemy of Gods people. This enemy had wrecked great destruction-it had done terrible things but Jehovah God not only removed it but He also restored what had been destroyed. Yes, God even holds the creatures responsible for their devastation upon the apple of His eye (of. Gen 9:5; Exo 21:28-32).
Joe 2:21-22 FEAR NOT, O LAND, BE GLAD AND REJOICE . . . BE NOT AFRAID, YE BEASTS OF THE FIELD . . . It is not Strange that God would call upon nature itself to praise His name (cf. also Psa 65:13; Psa 98:8; Psa 148:3). Nature is also represented groaning and travailing in pain together until now (Rom 8:22-23). Just as the fields and the beasts were before called upon to mourn and be confounded at the Majestic Power of God in judgment, so now they are called upon to take comfort and security in His Compassion.
Zerr: Joe 2:21. Such inanimate things as land cannot literally rejoice, yet the language is directly addressed to it. In that respect it is like the passage in Eze 36:6-15. The thought is to be transferred to the people who are to inhabit and enjoy the land, and who will be able to rejoice because of the benefits that the Lord promises to be-stow upon it. Joe 2:22. The beasts of the field are animate creatures, yet they cannot intelligently respond to the Lord’s promise of blessings upon the fields. However, they can enjoy those blessings and thrive upon them, which would enable them to yield benefits for the enjoyment of their owners.
Joe 2:23-24 BE GLAD THEN, YE CHILDREN OF ZION . . . FOR HE GIVETH YOU THE FORMER RAIN . . . AND HE CAUSETH TO COME DOWN FOR YOU THE RAIN, THE FORMER AND THE LATTER RAIN . . . AND THE FLOORS SHALL BE FULL . . . AND THE VATS SHALL OVERFLOW The term Zion is a covenant-relation term. God speaks to them as children of the covenant here, (cf. Isaiah 40-66; Heb 12:22; Rom 11:26), and this is to reach its fulfillment in Christ, King of Zion, the church of the living God! The first phrase, the former rain, should be translated, he causeth to come down for you the teacher unto righteousness, according to Keil and Delitzsch. They make the blessings of the grace of God at this time not to consist merely in material things but also in spiritual (which is undoubtedly true), and both these material and spiritual blessings (especially the spiritual) were a teacher unto righteousness. But, further, just as Moses was a type and the whole law was a type of the Messiah to come (Heb 10:1), so these blessings at this time were also a type predicting the coming of the ultimate covenant blessing in The Teacher unto Righteousness, the Messiah. Other commentators think this Hebrew word tsedaqah, which has a definite article, can refer only directly (not indirectly as K & D) to the Messiah.
Zerr: Joe 2:23. The foregoing comments are verified by the first sentence of this verse: it is the children of Zion who are actually to rejoice. And the reasoning is made still clearer by the rest of the verse, for it specifies the favors that were promised to be shed upon the land that would enable it to produce the things necessary for man’s enjoyment. Moderately is an unusual word as it is used in this place, and it is derived from an original that Strong defines as “righteous. The simple meaning is that God was to bestow the right seasons upon the land so that it could produce the crops for its citizens. Joe 2:24. Floors refers to the places where the grain was beaten out of the husk and the chaff separated from the kernel by the wind. The fats means the vats or large tubB into which grapes were placed so that the juice could be pressed out.
For the sake of the Messianic people, because they have become such by faith and repentance, and for the sake of the Messiah, God will graciously send the former rain (falling from October to December) and the latter rain (March to April). God will send them, first of all (and this is what is meant by the phrase translated in the first month,) the material blessings-He will bless the temporal Israel with temporal things-but later He will bless spiritual Israel with spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ (cf. Eph 1:3 ff). These spiritual blessings are spoken of next in Joe 2:28-Joe 3:21. There will, however, be, first of all, abundance of moisture which brings in turn overflowing abundance of agricultural blessings.
Joe 2:25-27 AND I WILL RESTORE TO YOU THE YEARS THAT THE LOCUST HATH EATEN . . . AND YE SHALL . . . BE SATISFIED, AND SHALL PRAISE THE NAME OF JEHOVAH . . . AND YE SHALL KNOW THAT I AM IN THE MIDST OF ISRAEL . . . God promises to repay or recompense the people of Israel for the years which the various stages of the locust plague took away that is the produce of their fields. See Joe 1:4 for a description of the various names used for the locusts. This repayment will be so gracious and abundant that the people will be caused to praise the name of Jehovah. It will also be another of the many evidences that the God of all the earth dwells in their midst-that He is their God and that He is jealous for them when they repent. The mighty deeds of Jehovah are appealed to time and time again as empirical evidence for His existence and His nature (both of wrath and compassion) in the Old Testament (cf. Isa. 41:45; Rom 1:18 ff; Act 14:15-17). Ezekiels most prominent refrain is then shall ye know that I the Lord have done it . . . or spoken it. The Lord has never left Himself without a witness. He has constantly appealed to man with evidence directed at the senses of man (eyesight, hearing, touching, etc.), And so here Joel tells the people that when Gods rich blessings of deliverance from the locusts and His miraculous, providential restoration of the grain and wine is seen and experienced they will have evidence that Jehovah is God and that He is among them, and that there is no other god besides Him. And as Joel has hinted (by the teacher unto righteousness) when the Messianic age (of which Joel will speak more fully next) comes the covenant people of God will know that God has shown even more abundantly the immutability of His purpose (Heb 6:17-18) to keep His covenant, for all the promises of God find their yea in Christ (are affirmed) 2Co 1:20.
Zerr: Joe 2:25. I have commented at length on the subject of this verse, in Joe 1:4, which the reader should see now before going further in the study of this passage. With those comments in mind, he may think of this verse as a part of the prediction of the return from the Babylonian captivity. We know that when that event occurred, the effects of former misfortunes (whether literal armies of locusts or that of the Babylonians), were to be reversed by the returning productiveness of the land. Joe 2:26. This is more along the line of the blessings promised to come to the people after being brought back to their own land. My people shall never he ashamed applies only to the Idea of a national and bodily removal into a foreign country; it was never to happen again. Joe 2:27. Shall know . . . Lord your God, and none else. This is very sig-nificant, for the main iniquity of Israel was their worship of false gods. But the captivity was destined to cure them permanently of that spiritual disease as predicted here. The historical quotation that shows the fulfillment of this prediction is given at Isa 1:25.
Questions
1. Why is God jealous for His land? Give two reasons!
2. How would God demonstrate His pleasure at their repentance (three ways)?
3. How should the phrase the former rain be translated and to whom does it refer?
4. How does God prove the immutability of His purpose (what type of evidence does He give)?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
be: Isa 42:13, Zec 1:14, Zec 8:2
and pity: Deu 32:16, Deu 32:36, Deu 32:43, Jdg 10:16, Psa 103:13, Psa 103:17, Isa 60:10, Isa 63:9, Isa 63:15, Jer 31:20, Lam 3:22, Hos 11:8, Hos 11:9, Luk 15:20, Jam 5:11
Reciprocal: Lev 25:23 – for ever Lev 26:42 – and I will Jos 7:26 – So the Lord 2Sa 21:14 – God Psa 85:1 – Lord Isa 37:32 – the zeal Eze 38:19 – in my Eze 39:25 – and will Nah 1:2 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Joe 2:18. From this verse through 27 the passage is a prediction of the return from Babylonian captivity. The sending of Israel Into a foreign country was not from an outburst of ill feeling for His people, but because their own good as well as the honor of the holy name of God demanded the chastisement. That is why it Is said that He will be jealous for the land, because the Babylonians took too much personal satisfaction out of the distress of the people whom they had brought under their domination.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joe 2:18-20. Then will the Lord be jealous for his land If you do what I propose to you, if you sincerely humble yourselves before God, confess your sins, and truly repent of them, turning to God in newness of life, then will the Lord be concerned for the honour and welfare of that land which he has chosen to settle his worshippers in. Yea, the Lord will say, Behold, I will send you corn, &c. I will restore your former plenty, and the nations about you shall have no more occasion to reproach your desolate condition. But I will remove far off from you the northern army Or, enemy, nation, or people; that is, the locusts, which might enter Judea by the north, as Circassia and Mingrelia abound with them. Because Joel represents this army as coming from the north, some have been ready to imagine, that he was speaking not of real locusts, but of the Chaldeans, or some other desolating army of men that should come from that quarter. But the Baron de Tott assures us, in a late publication of his, that he found locusts coming in great numbers from Tartary toward Constantinople, which lies to the south of that country. I saw, says he,
no appearance of culture on my route, because the Noguais (the Tartars) avoid the cultivation of frequented places. Their harvest by the sides of roads would serve only as pasture to travellers horses. But if this precaution preserves them from such kind of depredation, nothing can protect their fields from a much more fatal scourge. Clouds of locusts frequently alight on their plains; and, giving the preference to their fields of millet, ravage them in an instant. Their approach darkens the horizon, and so enormous is their multitude, it hides the light of the sun. When the husbandmen happen to be sufficiently numerous, they sometimes divert the storm by their agitation and cries; but when they fail, the locusts alight on their fields, and there form a bed of six or seven inches thick. This plague, no doubt, would be more extensive in countries better cultivated; and Greece and Asia Minor would be more frequently exposed, did not the Black sea swallow up most of those swarms which attempt to pass that barrier. I have often seen the shores of the Pontus Euxinus, toward the Bosphorus of Thrace, covered with their dried remains, in such multitudes, that one could not walk along the strand without sinking half-leg deep into a bed of these skinny skeletons. Curious to know the true cause of their destruction, I sought the moment of observation, and was a witness of their ruin by a storm, which overtook them so near the shore, that their bodies were cast upon the land while yet entire. This produced an infection so great, that it was several days before they could be approached. Memoirs, part 2. p. 58-60. They frequently then, according to this writer, in that part of the world, pass, or attempt to pass, from north to south. In Judea they have been supposed to go from the southeastward in a contrary direction. And if this is the common route they take there, it must have struck the Jews very much, when they found the prophet predicting the going of the locusts to the southward; and still more so when they found it exactly accomplished, as it was a demonstration of the perfect foreknowledge of Jehovah, perhaps of his guiding and directing those vast bodies of insects. The locusts, it is said, have no king, yet go they forth by bands, Pro 30:27. But if they have no king of their own species, they are undoubtedly under the direction of the God that made them: he is their king. Harmer, vol. 4. obs. 146.
Some of the locusts, which here are the subject of Joels prophecy, were to be driven by the wind into the desert, or, as it is here styled, a land barren and desolate; some into the Dead sea, called here the east sea, lying eastward of Jerusalem; some into the Mediterranean, or western sea, called here the utmost sea. By his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, is described the extent of the body, or army of locusts; the face meaning the foremost of them, and the hinder part the hindmost of them. And his stink shall come up That a strong and pestilential smell, says Newcome, arises from putrefied heaps of locusts, whether driven upon land or cast up from the sea in which they have perished, appears from the testimony of many writers. Among various other authorities to the same effect, St. Jerome is quoted by Bochart as saying, that in his time those troops of locusts which covered Judea were cast by the wind in mare primum et novissimum; and that, when the waters threw them up, their smell caused a pestilence. Thevenot says of them, They live not above six months; and when dead, the stench of them so corrupts and infects the air, that it often occasions dreadful pestilences. City Remem. 1:123. There came such a stench from those which appeared at Novogorod in 1646, as not only offended the nose, but the brain: it was not to be endured: men were forced to wash their noses with vinegar, and hold handkerchiefs dipped in it continually to their nostrils, Ibid. 125. In Ethiopia, when they die and rot, they raise a pestilence. Mead, 1:36. Because he hath done great things That is, committed great devastation. Or rather, although he hath done great things: though this army of insects, by Gods appointment, has made such destruction in the land, yet it shall come to this shameful end.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Joe 2:18Joe 3:21. Yahwehs Gracious Response to the Prayer of Intercession.
Joe 2:18-27. The Locusts shall be Destroyed and the Inhabitants of the Land Rejoice in Renewed Prosperity.
Joe 2:21-24, which seems to interrupt the speech of Yahweh, may be misplaced. Certainly Joe 2:25 would follow well on Joe 2:20, and the change to the third person for Yahweh is striking. But in prophecy the interchange between the words of Yahweh and the words of the prophetregarded as one and the sametakes place so constantly that the existing order may be correct. The appeal of the people brings about a revulsion of feeling in Yahweh; His own land must not be brought to ruin, and He relents. Its fertility shall return in such abundance as to satisfy His people and shut the mouths of those who mock at their distress. The horde of locusts shall be dispersed into the deserts; a wind shall drive its advanced ranks into the Dead Sea, and, veering round, its rear into the Mediterranean. Taking the standpoint of the new prosperity the prophet bids the land rejoice in Yahwehs wondrous working. The beasts, who had mourned in the time of desolation, are to take heart, and the inhabitants to rejoice in the food which Yahweh has granted in token of the restoring of right relations between Him and them. He gives also the spring and autumn rains as aforetime (so reading with VSS at the end of Joe 2:23 for in the first month). Field, vineyard, olive garden, shall yield beyond the capacities of storehouse and press, and all the damage done by the horde of locusts Yahweh had sent shall be repaired. These blessings shall be a sacramental symbol to the people, assuring them of Yahwehs continued care; never more shall they be humiliated before the nations.
Joe 2:20. northern army: Heb, simply northerner. Usually locusts did not enter the country from the north; so it would seem that the word, having become an apocalyptic term (cf. Jer 1:14, Eze 38:6; Eze 38:15; Eze 39:2) is used without strict etymological significance, and means no more than precursor of the Day of Yahweh.and his stink shall come up: a gloss on the following clause, which contains a rare word.because he hath done great things: out of place here, and probably an accidental repetition from Joe 2:21.
Joe 2:22. strength: i.e. fruit.
Joe 2:23. the former rain in just measure: accepting the LXX text, render food as a sign of righteousness, where righteousness has a sense that it sometimes bears, the existence of correct relations between the people and Yahweh.
Joe 2:25. years: we should hardly gather from the rest of the book that the locust plague had lasted more than one year; but the damage done, since seed would be destroyed, might extend into following years. A slight emendation would give rich fruits. For the locust names, cf. Joe 1:4*.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
2:18 Then will the LORD be {m} jealous for his land, and pity his people.
(m) If they repent he shows that God will preserve and defend them with a most fervent affection.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
C. The possibility of forgiveness and restoration 2:18-27
Joel next revealed the Lord’s response and comforting words in view of the people’s private and public repentance. It is unclear whether he meant that the Lord had responded or would respond. The problem is the Hebrew perfect verbs, which can be rendered in English with either past or future verbs. Several English translations (NASB, NIV, AV) interpreted the Lord’s response as being conditioned on the people’s repentance and translated the verbs in the future tense. It is equally possible that Joel meant that God had already responded positively because the people had repented, which the prophet did not record. I view this section as what God promised to do if the people responded to Joel’s call to repentance. Sometime before the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. God told the Israelites that they had passed the point of no return and that captivity was inevitable (Jer 7:16; Jer 11:14; Jer 14:11-12). Since repentance was still possible for the Israelites when Joel wrote, this prophecy evidently does not deal with that time.
"Laments in the OT are sometimes followed by a divine oracle in which Yahweh, through a prophet, assures his people that their prayers will be answered (or sometimes rejected)." [Note: Allen, p. 85. See 2 Chronicles 20; Psalms 12:5; 60:6-8; Isaiah 33:10-13; Jeremiah 4:1-2 (cf. 3:21-25); Hosea 14:4-7; and Micah 7:11-13.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. The Lord’s gracious response 2:18
If the Israelites repented sincerely, Yahweh would be zealous to protect His chosen land from foreign invaders and have pity on His chosen people. This was His essential response.
"Beginning in Joe 2:18, Israel ceases to be the object of God’s judgment and becomes instead the object of His blessing. In a similar reversal the hordes (locust and human) cease to be the instruments of God’s judgment on Israel and become instead the objects of God’s judgment. This reversal was originally foretold by God through Moses in Deu 30:1-9." [Note: Dyer, p. 742.]
"Between Joe 2:17-18, we should presume that the invitation and commands of Joe 2:12-17 have been accepted and obeyed." [Note: Hubbard, p. 61.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
PROSPERITY AND THE SPIRIT
Joe 2:18-32
“THEN did Jehovah become jealous for His land, and took pity upon His people”-with these words Joel opens the second half of his book. Our Authorized Version renders them in the future tense, as the continuation of the prophets discourse, which had threatened the Day of the Lord, urged the people to penitence, and now promises that their penitence shall be followed by the Lords mercy. But such a rendering forces the grammar; and the Revised English Version is right in taking the verbs, as the vast majority of critics do, in the past. Joels call to repentance has closed, and has been successful. The fast has been hallowed, the prayers are heard. Probably an interval has elapsed between Joe 2:17 and Joe 2:18, but, in any case, the people having repented, nothing more is said of their need of doing so, and instead we have from God Himself a series of promises, Joe 2:19-27, in answer to their cry for mercy. These promises relate to the physical calamity which has been suffered. God will destroy the locusts, still impending on the land, and restore the years which His great army has eaten. There follows in Joe 2:28-32 the promise of a great outpouring of the Spirit on all Israel, amid terrible manifestations in heaven and earth.