Joel 2:11-18

2:11 The voice of the Lord thunders ¹  as he leads his army. ² 

Indeed, his warriors ³  are innumerable; ⁴ 

Surely his command is carried out! ⁵ 

Yes, the day of the Lord is awesome ⁶ 

and very terrifying – who can survive ⁷  it?

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, ⁸ 

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 ⁹  – often relenting from calamitous punishment. ¹⁰ 

2:14 Who knows?

Perhaps he will be compassionate and grant a reprieve, ¹¹ 

and leave blessing in his wake ¹²  –

a meal offering and a drink offering for you to offer to the Lord your God! ¹³ 

2:15 Blow the trumpet ¹⁴  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. ¹⁵ 

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

from the vestibule all the way back to the altar. ¹⁶ 

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

please do not turn over your inheritance to be mocked,

to become a proverb ¹⁷  among the nations.

Why should it be said ¹⁸  among the peoples,

“Where is their God?”

The Lord’s Response

2:18 Then the Lord became ¹⁹  zealous for his land;

he had compassion on his people.

[2:11]  ¹ tn Heb “the Lord gives his voice.”

[2:11]  ² tn Heb “before his army.”

[2:11]  ³ tn Heb “military encampment.”

[2:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “very large.”

[2:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “he makes his word powerful.”

[2:11]  ⁶ tn Or “powerful.” Heb “great.”

[2:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “endure.” The MT and LXX read “endure,” while one of the Qumran manuscripts (4QXXII^c) has “bear.”

[2:12]  ⁸ sn The figurative language calls for genuine repentance, and not merely external ritual that goes through the motions.

[2:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “and great of loyal love.”

[2:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he relents from calamity.”

[2:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “turn” or “turn back.”

[2:14]  ¹² tn Heb “leave a blessing behind him.”

[2:14]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn See the note on this term in 2:1.

[2:16]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Why will they say?”

[2:18]  ¹⁹ 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.