1 Samuel 7:6

7:6 After they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. They fasted on that day, and they confessed ¹  there, “We have sinned against the Lord.” So Samuel led ²  the people of Israel at Mizpah.

1 Samuel 7:2

Further Conflict with the Philistines

7:2 It was quite a long time – some twenty years in all – that the ark stayed at Kiriath Jearim. All the people ³  of Israel longed for ⁴  the Lord.

1 Samuel 20:3

20:3 Taking an oath, David again ⁵  said, “Your father is very much aware of the fact ⁶  that I have found favor with you, and he has thought, ⁷  ‘Don’t let Jonathan know about this, or he will be upset.’ But as surely as the Lord lives and you live, there is about one step between me and death!”

Ezra 8:21

8:21 I called for a fast there by the Ahava Canal, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and seek from him a safe journey ⁸  for us, our children, and all our property.

Ezra 9:4-5

9:4 Everyone who held the words of the God of Israel in awe ⁹  gathered around me because of the unfaithful acts of the people of the exile. ¹⁰  Devastated, I continued to sit there until the evening offering.

9:5 At the time of the evening offering I got up from my self-abasement, ¹¹  with my tunic and robe torn, and then dropped to my knees and spread my hands to the Lord my God.

Joel 1:14

1:14 Announce a holy fast; ¹² 

proclaim a sacred assembly.

Gather the elders and ¹³  all the inhabitants of the land

to the temple of the Lord your God,

and cry out to the Lord.

Joel 2:12-18

An Appeal for Repentance

2:12 “Yet even now,” the Lord says,

“return to me with all your heart –

with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

Tear your hearts, ¹⁴ 

not just your garments!”

2:13 Return to the Lord your God,

for he is merciful and compassionate,

slow to anger and boundless in loyal love ¹⁵  – often relenting from calamitous punishment. ¹⁶ 

2:14 Who knows?

Perhaps he will be compassionate and grant a reprieve, ¹⁷ 

and leave blessing in his wake ¹⁸  –

a meal offering and a drink offering for you to offer to the Lord your God! ¹⁹ 

2:15 Blow the trumpet ²⁰  in Zion.

Announce a holy fast;

proclaim a sacred assembly!

2:16 Gather the people;

sanctify an assembly!

Gather the elders;

gather the children and the nursing infants.

Let the bridegroom come out from his bedroom

and the bride from her private quarters. ²¹ 

2:17 Let the priests, those who serve the Lord, weep

from the vestibule all the way back to the altar. ²² 

Let them say, “Have pity, O Lord, on your people;

please do not turn over your inheritance to be mocked,

to become a proverb ²³  among the nations.

Why should it be said ²⁴  among the peoples,

“Where is their God?”

The Lord’s Response

2:18 Then the Lord became ²⁵  zealous for his land;

he had compassion on his people.

Jonah 3:5-10

3:5 The people ²⁶  of Nineveh believed in God, ²⁷  and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. ²⁸  3:6 When the news ²⁹  reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes. 3:7 He issued a proclamation and said, ³⁰  “In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, cattle or sheep, is to taste anything; they must not eat and they must not drink water. 3:8 Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly ³¹  to God, and everyone ³²  must turn from their ³³  evil way of living ³⁴  and from the violence that they do. ³⁵  3:9 Who knows? ³⁶  Perhaps God might be willing to change his mind and relent ³⁷  and turn from his fierce anger ³⁸  so that we might not die.” ³⁹  3:10 When God saw their actions – they turned ⁴⁰  from their evil way of living! ⁴¹  – God relented concerning the judgment ⁴²  he had threatened them with ⁴³  and he did not destroy them. ⁴⁴ 

[7:6]  ¹ tn Heb “said.”

[7:6]  ² tn Heb “judged”; NAB “began to judge”; TEV “settled disputes among.”

[7:2]  ³ tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).

[7:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “mourned after”; NIV “mourned and sought after”; KJV, NRSV “lamented after”; NAB “turned to”; NCV “began to follow…again.”

[20:3]  ⁵ tc The LXX and the Syriac Peshitta lack the word “again.”

[20:3]  ⁶ tn The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.

[20:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “said,” that is, to himself. So also in v. 25.

[8:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “a straight way.”

[9:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “who trembled at the words of the God of Israel.”

[9:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the exile”; the words “the people” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:5]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew word used here is a hapax legomenon. It refers to the self-abasement that accompanies religious sorrow and fasting.

[1:14]  ¹² tn Heb “consecrate a fast” (so NASB).

[1:14]  ¹³ tc The conjunction “and” does not appear in MT or LXX, but does appear in some Qumran texts (4QXII^c and 4QXII^g).

[2:12]  ¹⁴ sn The figurative language calls for genuine repentance, and not merely external ritual that goes through the motions.

[2:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and great of loyal love.”

[2:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and he relents from calamity.”

[2:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “turn” or “turn back.”

[2:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “leave a blessing behind him.”

[2:14]  ¹⁹ tn The phrase “for you to offer” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[2:15]  ²⁰ tn See the note on this term in 2:1.

[2:16]  ²¹ sn Mosaic law allowed men recently married, or about to be married, to be exempt for a year from certain duties that were normally mandatory, such as military obligation (cf. Deut 20:7; 24:5). However, Joel pictures a time of such urgency that normal expectations must give way to higher requirements.

[2:17]  ²² tn Heb “between the vestibule and the altar.” The vestibule was located at the entrance of the temple and the altar was located at the other end of the building. So “between the vestibule and the altar” is a merism referring to the entire structure. The priestly lament permeates the entire house of worship.

[2:17]  ²³ tn For the MT reading לִמְשָׁל (limshol, an infinitive, “to rule”), one should instead read לְמָשָׁל (lÿmashal, a noun, “to a byword”). While the consonantal Hebrew text permits either, the context suggests that the concern here is more one of not wanting to appear abandoned by God to ongoing economic depression rather than one of concern over potential political subjection of Israel (cf. v. 19). The possibility that the form in the MT is an infinitive construct of the denominative verb II מָשַׁל (mashal, “to utter a proverb”) does not seem likely because of the following preposition (Hebrew בְּ [bÿ], rather than עַל [’al]).

[2:17]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Why will they say?”

[2:18]  ²⁵ tn The time-frame entertained by the verbs of v.18 constitutes a crux interpretum in this chapter. The Hebrew verb forms used here are preterites with vav consecutive and are most naturally understood as describing a past situation. However, some modern English versions render these verbs as futures (e.g., NIV, NASV), apparently concluding that the context requires a future reference. According to Joüon 2:363 §112.h, n.1 Ibn Ezra explained the verbs of Joel 2:18 as an extension of the so-called prophetic perfect; as such, a future fulfillment was described with a past tense as a rhetorical device lending certainty to the fulfillment. But this lacks adequate precedent and is very unlikely from a syntactical standpoint. It seems better to take the verbs in the normal past sense of the preterite. This would require a vantage point for the prophet at some time after the people had responded favorably to the Lord’s call for repentance and after the Lord had shown compassion and forgiveness toward his people, but before the full realization of God’s promises to restore productivity to the land. In other words, it appears from the verbs of vv. 18-19 that at the time of Joel’s writing this book the events of successive waves of locust invasion and conditions of drought had almost run their course and the people had now begun to turn to the Lord.

[3:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “men.” The term is used generically here for “people” (so KJV, ASV, and many other English versions); cf. NIV “the Ninevites.”

[3:5]  ²⁷ sn The people of Nineveh believed in God…. Verse 5 provides a summary of the response in Nineveh; the people of all ranks believed and gave evidence of contrition by fasting and wearing sackcloth (2 Sam 12:16, 19-23; 1 Kgs 21:27-29; Neh 9:1-2). Then vv. 6-9 provide specific details, focusing on the king’s reaction. The Ninevites’ response parallels the response of the pagan sailors in 1:6 and 13-16.

[3:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “from the greatest of them to the least of them.”

[3:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “word” or “matter.”

[3:7]  ³⁰ tn Contrary to many modern English versions, the present translation understands the king’s proclamation to begin after the phrase “and he said” (rather than after “in Nineveh”), as do quotations in 1:14; 2:2, 4; 4:2, 8, 9. In Jonah where the quotation does not begin immediately after “said” (אָמַר, ’amar), it is only the speaker or addressee or both that come between “said” and the start of the quotation (1:6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; 4:4, 9, 10; cf. 1:1; 3:1).

[3:8]  ³¹ tn Heb “with strength”; KJV, NRSV “mightily”; NAB, NCV “loudly”; NIV “urgently.”

[3:8]  ³² tn Heb “let them turn, a man from his evil way.” The alternation between the plural verb וְיָשֻׁבוּ (vÿyashuvu, “and let them turn”) and the singular noun אִישׁ (’ish, “a man, each one”) and the singular suffix on מִדַּרְכּוֹ (middarko, “from his way”) emphasizes that each and every person in the collective unity is called to repent.

[3:8]  ³³ tn Heb “his.” See the preceding note on “one.”

[3:8]  ³⁴ tn Heb “evil way.” For other examples of “way” as “way of living,” see Judg 2:17; Ps 107:17-22; Prov 4:25-27; 5:21.

[3:8]  ³⁵ tn Heb “that is in their hands.” By speaking of the harm they did as “in their hands,” the king recognized the Ninevites’ personal awareness and immediate responsibility. The term “hands” is either a synecdoche of instrument (e.g., “Is not the hand of Joab in all this?” 2 Sam 14:19) or a synecdoche of part for the whole. The king's descriptive figure of speech reinforces their guilt.

[3:9]  ³⁶ sn The king expresses his uncertainty whether Jonah’s message constituted a conditional announcement or an unconditional decree. Jeremiah 18 emphasizes that God sometimes gives people an opportunity to repent when they hear an announcement of judgment. However, as Amos and Isaiah learned, if a people refused to repent over a period of time, the patience of God could be exhausted. The offer of repentance in a conditional announcement of judgment can be withdrawn and in its place an unconditional decree of judgment issued. In many cases it is difficult to determine on the front end whether or not a prophetic message of coming judgment is conditional or unconditional, thus explaining the king’s uncertainty.

[3:9]  ³⁷ tn “he might turn and relent.” The two verbs יָשׁוּב וְנִחַם (yashub vÿnikham) may function independently (“turn and repent”) or form a verbal hendiadys (“be willing to turn”; see IBHS 540 §32.3b). The imperfect יָשׁוּב and the perfect with prefixed vav וְנִחַם form a future-time narrative sequence. Both verbs function in a modal sense, denoting possibility, as the introductory interrogative suggests (“Who knows…?”). When used in reference to past actions, שׁוּב (shub) can mean “to be sorry” or “to regret” that someone did something in the past, and when used in reference to future planned actions, it can mean “to change one’s mind” about doing something or “to relent” from sending judgment (BDB 997 s.v. שׁוּב 6). The verb נִחַם (nikham) can mean “to be sorry” about past actions (e.g., Gen 6:6, 7; 1 Sam 15:11, 35) and “to change one’s mind” about future actions (BDB 637 s.v. נחם 2). These two verbs are used together elsewhere in passages that consider the question of whether or not God will change his mind and relent from judgment he has threatened (e.g., Jer 4:28). The verbal root שׁוּב is used four times in vv. 8-10, twice of the Ninevites “repenting” from their moral evil and twice of God “relenting” from his threatened calamity. This repetition creates a wordplay that emphasizes the appropriateness of God’s response: if the people repent, God might relent.

[3:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “from the burning of his nose/face.” See Exod 4:14; 22:24; 32:12; Num 25:4; 32:14; Deut 9:19.

[3:9]  ³⁹ tn The imperfect verb נֹאבֵד (no’ved, “we might not die”) functions in a modal sense, denoting possibility. The king’s hope parallels that of the ship’s captain in 1:6. See also Exod 32:7-14; 2 Sam 12:14-22; 1 Kgs 8:33-43; 21:17-29; Jer 18:6-8; Joel 2:11-15.

[3:10]  ⁴⁰ tn This clause is introduced by כִּי (ki, “that”) and functions as an epexegetical, explanatory clause.

[3:10]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “from their evil way” (so KJV, ASV, NAB); NASB “wicked way.”

[3:10]  ⁴² tn Heb “calamity” or “disaster.” The noun רָעָה (ra’ah, “calamity, disaster”) functions as a metonymy of result – the cause being the threatened judgment (e.g., Exod 32:12, 14; 2 Sam 24:16; Jer 18:8; 26:13, 19; 42:10; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2; HALOT 1263 s.v. רָעָה 6). The root רָעָה is repeated three times in vv. 8 and 10. Twice it refers to the Ninevites’ moral “evil” (vv. 8 and 10a) and here it refers to the “calamity” or “disaster” that the Lord had threatened (v. 10b). This repetition of the root forms a polysemantic wordplay that exploits this broad range of meanings of the noun. The wordplay emphasizes that God’s response was appropriate: because the Ninevites repented from their moral “evil” God relented from the “calamity” he had threatened.

[3:10]  ⁴³ tn Heb “the disaster that he had spoken to do to them.”

[3:10]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “and he did not do it.” See notes on 3:8-9.