Joel 2:12

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, ¹ 

not just your garments!”

Joel 2:29

2:29 Even on male and female servants

I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

Joel 2:3

2:3 Like fire they devour everything in their path; ² 

a flame blazes behind them.

The land looks like the Garden of Eden ³  before them,

but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness –

for nothing escapes them! ⁴ 

Joel 3:4

3:4 Why are you doing these things to me, Tyre and Sidon? ⁵ 

Are you trying to get even with me, land of Philistia? ⁶ 

I will very quickly repay you for what you have done! ⁷ 

[2:12]  ¹ sn The figurative language calls for genuine repentance, and not merely external ritual that goes through the motions.

[2:3]  ² tn Heb “a fire devours before it.”

[2:3]  ³ tn Heb “like the garden of Eden, the land is before them.”

[2:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and surely a survivor there is not for it.” The antecedent of the pronoun “it” is apparently עַם (’am, “people”) of v. 2, which seems to be a figurative way of referring to the locusts. K&D 26:191-92 thought that the antecedent of this pronoun was “land,” but the masculine gender of the pronoun does not support this.

[3:4]  ³ tn Heb “What [are] you [doing] to me, O Tyre and Sidon?”

[3:4]  ⁴ tn Or “districts.”

[3:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “quickly, speedily, I will return your recompense on your head.” This is an idiom for retributive justice and an equitable reversal of situation.