English · KJV

Joel 2:22

“The LORD Promises Restoration”Joel 2:18–27
King James Version
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.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
Be not afraid H3372, ye beasts H929 of the field H7704: for the pastures H4999 of the wilderness H4057 do spring H1876, for the tree H6086 beareth H5375 her fruit H6529, the fig tree H8384 and the vine H1612 do yield H5414 their strength H2428.

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
Do not be afraid, O beasts of the field, for the open pastures have turned green, the trees bear their fruit, and the fig tree and vine yield their best.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
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.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
Be not afrayde, ye beastes of the fielde: for the pastures of the wildernesse are greene: for the tree beareth her fruite: the figge tree and the vine do giue their force.

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
Do not fear, O cattle of the field! For sprung forth have pastures of a wilderness, For the tree hath borne its fruit, Fig-tree and vine have given their strength!

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
16 Hebrew words
  1. אַל'almay notH408NegParticle Negative
  2. תִּירְאוּti·re·'Uyou fearH3372V-Qal-Imperf-2mpVerb Qal Imperfect 2nd Plural Masculine
  3. בַּהֲמוֹתba·ha·MotO animals ofH929N-fpcNoun Plural Feminine Construct
  4. שָׂדַיsa·Dai[the] fieldH7704N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absolute
  5. כִּיkiforH3588PrtParticle Conditional
  6. דָשְׁאוּda·she·'Uthey are greenH1876V-Qal-Perf-3cpVerb Qal Perfect 3rd Plural common gender
  7. נְאוֹתne·'ot[the] pastures ofH4999N-fpcNoun Plural Feminine Construct
  8. מִדְבָּרmid·Bar[the] wildernessH4057N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absolute
  9. כִּיkiforH3588PrtParticle Conditional
  10. עֵץ'etz[the] tree[s]H6086N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absolute
  11. נָשָׂאna·Sa'it has borneH5375V-Qal-Perf-3msVerb Qal Perfect 3rd Singular Masculine
  12. פִרְיוֹfir·Yoits fruitH6529N-msc ¦ 3msNoun Singular Masculine Construct with suffixפִרְיfruitוֹits
  13. תְּאֵנָהte·'e·Nah[the] fig treeH8384N-fsNoun Singular Feminine Absolute
  14. וָגֶפֶןva·Ge·fenand [the] vineH1612Conj-w ¦ N-csNoun Singular common gender Absoluteוָandגֶפֶן[the] vine
  15. נָתְנוּna·te·Nuthey have givenH5414V-Qal-Perf-3cpVerb Qal Perfect 3rd Plural common gender
  16. חֵילָםchei·Lamtheir strengthH2428N-msc ¦ 3mpNoun Singular Masculine Construct with suffixחֵילָstrengthםtheir
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Hebrew, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Hebrew word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Hebrew word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “the LORD” where the gloss reads “Yahweh”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

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This verse

The wild animals can stop being afraid, because the pastures sprout again and the fig tree and the vine give their full yield.

“Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field:”

The animals had suffered from the drought and the locusts, and God’s care includes them.

“for the pastures of the wilderness do spring,”

The open grazing land sprouts again (dâshâʼ), so the animals have food.

“for the tree beareth her fruit,”

Trees in general, which had withered under the plague, bear again.

“the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.”

Two of Israel’s chief crops give their full yield. “Strength” is chayil, the word God uses in verse 25 for his army.

The LORD Restores What the Locust Ate

Joel 2:18–27

Summary

Joel has described a plague of locusts and a drought that stripped Judah bare, and he has called the people to turn to the LORD with all their heart (Joel 2:12–17). In these ten verses the LORD answers. He is stirred with zeal for his land and pity for his people. He drives the locust army out of the country, tells the ground, the wild animals and the people of Zion to stop being afraid and to rejoice, and sends the rains in their season. The threshing floors fill, the vats overflow, and he promises to make good the years the locusts ate. The passage ends with God’s people eating their fill and praising his name, knowing that he is in their midst and that he alone is God, and twice he promises, “my people shall never be ashamed.” Everything the plague took away, God gives back.

The LORD turns to his land in zeal and pity

Verse 18 is the hinge of the book of Joel. Before it, Joel describes the locusts and the drought as a day of the LORD’s judgment (Joel 1:15). The fields of Joel 1 are stripped, and the swarm advances like an army (Joel 2:1–11). Then comes the call to fast, weep and mourn, to gather a solemn assembly that takes in even the infants, and to “rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God” (Joel 2:13). “Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people” is God’s answer to that turning, and from here to the end of Joel 2 the book speaks of restoration and blessing.

The name in this verse is Yᵉhôvâh, the LORD, God’s personal covenant name, which speaks of his eternal being and his faithfulness to what he has promised. The one who sent the judgment is the same one who now brings the restoration. His people deal with one God from beginning to end, and he keeps his word.

What does it mean that God is jealous?

God’s jealousy is his holy zeal for his own honour and for the people and land that belong to him. The verb qânâʼ means to be zealous or jealous, and the LORD takes it as a name: “the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Exodus 34:14). Moses calls him “a consuming fire, even a jealous God” (Deuteronomy 4:24). In Joel his land has been ravaged and his people shamed, and his zeal moves him to act for them and defend his inheritance. It is a protective, passionate love, free of the envy and insecurity the English word carries among people, and it shows how firmly he is committed to those who are his.

His pity for his people

The second verb, châmal, means to pity, to have compassion, or to spare. The two lines of the verse belong together, the second completing the first: God’s zeal is for the land, and his pity is for the people who live on it. This is who God has always said he is: “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6–7). Israel learned again and again that he relents from judgment when his people return. Lamentations says, “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22–23), and Isaiah says of God and his people, “In all their affliction he was afflicted” (Isaiah 63:9).

Joel shows God’s justice and his mercy side by side. The plague was a just judgment on his people’s sin, and once they turn to him his compassion is quick to restore, because what he desires is reconciliation and restoration. James puts the same pattern in one line: “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8).

Grain, wine and oil, and an end to reproach

“Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto his people.” The verb ʻânâh means to answer or respond, and God’s answer comes first in words and then in things his people can hold and eat. “Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil.” In the KJV, corn means grain. Grain, wine and oil were the three staples of Israel’s farms and tables. Grain gave bread, the basic food. Wine brought joy and refreshment. Olive oil was used for cooking, for anointing, as fuel for lamps and as medicine. Their failure meant famine, sickness and national weakness, and their abundance was the blessing the law had promised to a faithful people: “The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season” (Deuteronomy 28:11–12). God sends all three, and “ye shall be satisfied therewith”, which means a full supply, enough and more, in place of the hunger of the plague years.

The second promise concerns honour. The word for reproach, cherpâh, means shame, disgrace or taunting. Among the nations, a people’s prosperity was taken as a sign of its god’s power, and a disaster like this one as a sign that its god was weak, absent or had abandoned it. So the locusts had made Judah an object of scorn, and the mockery fell on the LORD’s name as well as on his people. “I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen” promises that God will restore his people’s dignity before the world and vindicate his own name. Ezekiel carries the same promise: “I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen” (Ezekiel 36:29–30). Isaiah speaks of the same reversal: “For your shame ye shall have double” (Isaiah 61:7).

How God drives the northern army away

“But I will remove far off from you the northern army.” The verb râchaq means to be far or to put far away, and Strong’s glosses its root as “to widen”. The verb for “drive”, nâdach, means to push off, thrust out or banish. God himself takes the destroyer out of the land and thrusts it into “a land barren and desolate”, far from Judah’s fields.

“With his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea.” The east sea is the Dead Sea, also called the Salt Sea, which lies east of Judah. The utmost sea, sometimes rendered the western or hinder sea, is the Mediterranean, which lay behind an Israelite facing east toward the sunrise. The front of the swarm is driven into one sea and its rear into the other, so that it is scattered and destroyed across the whole breadth of the land with every way back closed.

“And his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up.” The two words, bᵉʼôsh (stink) and tsachănâh (ill savour), describe the stench of countless dead locusts rotting. The smell itself would tell the people of Judah that God had acted and the threat was gone.

“Because he hath done great things.” The verb is gâdal, to be great or to make great. The army has done great harm to God’s land and people, and its great deeds end in a stench. The very next verse uses the same verb of God: “the LORD will do great things.” The destroyer’s great things are answered by the LORD’s.

God rules over every army, whether of insects or of men. Isaiah says of his purpose to break Assyria, “For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it?” (Isaiah 14:24–27). Moses had promised that when God’s people return to him, he would gather them and bring them back into their land (Deuteronomy 30:3–5). Scripture ends with the final and complete overthrow of God’s enemies, whose flesh the birds devour (Revelation 19:17–21).

Who is the northern army?

The nearest meaning is the locust swarm Joel has been describing (Joel 1:4–7, Joel 2:2–9). He pictures it as a disciplined army with horses, chariots and soldiers, and in verse 25 God calls it “my great army which I sent among you.” The north was also the direction from which human invaders such as Assyria and Babylon came against Israel, and believers differ on how far the picture reaches. Some read the northern army as the locusts alone, described in the language of war. Others hold that it is a double prophecy, the locusts first and then the hostile armies that would later come against God’s people from the north. On either reading, God drives it away.

Fear not, O land

Verse 21 speaks to the ground itself. The word for land, ʼădâmâh, means the ground, the soil, the farmland that had been stripped, and it is addressed as though it could feel fear and joy. God’s comfort reaches the very soil that suffered, and the command to the land is a sign that the curse on it is being reversed. The land was central to Israel’s life with God, promised to them as a place of blessing, so its ruin had been a spiritual crisis as well as a physical one.

“Fear not” uses yârêʼ, to fear, a word that can also mean to revere, with the Hebrew ʼal, a firm command to stop being afraid. “Be glad” is gîyl, whose root sense Strong’s gives as spinning round under strong emotion, and “rejoice” is sâmach, to brighten up, to be glad. Together they call for a joy that shows outwardly. The reason comes last: “for the LORD will do great things”, gâdal again, here of mighty acts of restoration. The land is told to rejoice before any harvest is in, on the strength of God’s word alone. Isaiah gives the same command and the same ground for it: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee” (Isaiah 41:10), and Paul writes, “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4).

The great things begin with the harvests of the following verses. They reach further still, to the promise that God will pour out his Spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2:28–29) and that whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be delivered (Joel 2:28–32). Peter quoted those words on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2).

Why does God speak to the beasts of the field?

God speaks to the wild animals because the drought and the locusts had brought suffering and starvation on them too, and his restoration reaches them as well. “Be not afraid” is yârêʼ once more. The Creator who “causeth the grass to grow for the cattle” (Psalm 104:14) provides for every living thing, and his care for the animals here looks ahead to the day when the whole creation, which now waits and groans, is set free from its bondage to decay (Romans 8:19–23).

“The pastures of the wilderness do spring.” The verb dâshâʼ means to sprout or bring forth. The wilderness (midbar) here means the open grazing land and uncultivated country that the drought had parched. Psalm 65 uses the same phrase in its praise of God for the rain: “They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side” (Psalm 65:9–13). Isaiah sees the same renewal: “the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose” (Isaiah 35:1–2).

“The fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.” The word for strength is chayil, which means strength, ability, wealth or army, and here it means the trees give their full yield. It is the same word God uses in verse 25 for “my great army”. The army God sent took away the land’s strength, and now the fig and the vine give their strength back.

The former rain and the latter rain

“Be glad then, ye children of Zion.” The children of Zion are the people of Jerusalem and, with them, all of Judah, God’s covenant people. They are told to “rejoice in the LORD your God”, so their joy rests in the Giver himself as well as in his gifts. “For he hath given you” uses nâthan, to give, a verb used with great breadth for putting, setting and making, and the rain comes from God’s hand.

Rain was a matter of life and death for Israel, and the law tied it to the covenant: “I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain” (Deuteronomy 11:13–14), with a warning that the heavens would be shut if Israel turned to other gods (Deuteronomy 11:13–17). The former rain (moreh or yoreh) fell in autumn, around October and November, and softened the hard, dry ground for ploughing and sowing. The latter rain (malqosh) came in spring, around March and April, and swelled the grain before harvest. “In the first month” (ba-rishon) most likely means the first month of the year, Abib, which falls in March and April, the season of the latter rain. Naming “the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain” together promises a full year of rain and a complete harvest.

Hosea uses the two rains as a picture of the LORD himself: “he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth” (Hosea 6:3). James points to the farmer who “waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain” (James 5:7).

What does “moderately” mean?

The KJV’s “moderately” translates tsᵉdâqâh, a word that usually means righteousness or justice, and it tells us that God gives the rain in right measure. Believers read the phrase in more than one way, and each reading says something true of God. Some take it as “in righteousness”, meaning the rain comes in its proper measure and time under God’s just rule over creation. Some take it as “for righteousness”, meaning the rain answers the people’s repentance or leads them into right living. And since moreh, the word for the former rain, can also mean teacher, some ancient interpreters read the phrase as “the teacher of righteousness”. All agree that God’s provision flows from his righteous and faithful character. A psalm joins the two in the same way: “Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven” (Psalm 85:10–11).

Full floors and overflowing vats

“And the floors shall be full of wheat.” The gôren is the threshing floor, a flat, open area where harvested grain was threshed to separate it from the chaff. Floors full of wheat mean a harvest so large that the threshing places are covered with it. “And the fats shall overflow with wine and oil.” The old English word fats means vats. The Hebrew yeqeb is a trough or vat for wine or oil, usually built in two levels, an upper vat where grapes or olives were crushed and a lower one where the juice or oil collected. The verb shûwq means to run after or run over, and pictures the liquid spilling over the edge because the vats cannot hold it all.

These are the same three gifts promised in verse 19, now seen at harvest. The law had promised that God would “bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil” (Deuteronomy 7:13), and it set out the blessings and the curses of the covenant at length (Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28). Joel 1 had shown the curse in full, as the swarms ate everything (Joel 1:4), and here the blessing returns in full. Malachi speaks of God opening the windows of heaven to “pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10), and Paul says, “my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

The promise is a real harvest of real grain. It is also an outward sign that the covenant bond between God and his people has been restored, and in Joel the overflowing harvest leads straight on to the outpouring of the Spirit (Joel 2:24–29). God’s restoration takes in the body and the spirit together.

God restores the years the locust hath eaten

“And I will restore to you the years.” The verb shâlam belongs to the same family as shalom, peace, and carries the sense of being whole or complete. In this form it means to make good, to repay, the word used for making restitution. God makes good what was lost. The years stand for all that those years held: the harvests, the livelihood, the joy.

“That the locust hath eaten.” The verb ʼâkal means to eat, and figuratively to devour or consume. The four names that follow, the locust, the cankerworm, the caterpiller and the palmerworm, translate four Hebrew words (arbeh, yeleq, chasil, gazam), the same four that Joel names at the start of his book (Joel 1:4). They may be different kinds of locust or different stages of the locust’s growth. Together they describe a devastation that came in wave after wave until everything was gone, and so they show how large the promised restoration is.

Did God send the locusts?

The LORD calls the swarms “my great army which I sent among you,” so the plague came under his command. The word for army is chayil again, and “sent” is shâlach, a deliberate act. The locusts were an instrument of his judgment, meant to bring his people back to him, and they could go only as far as he sent them. The God who sent them is the God who now restores, so his people can trust him in both.

Does this promise belong to believers today?

God first gave this promise to Judah after a real plague of locusts and their return to him, and what it shows about him holds for his people in every age. He is a God who restores those who turn to him, as Moses had promised: when his people return to the LORD with all their heart, he will turn their captivity and have compassion on them (Deuteronomy 30:1–5). Many of us know years that were eaten away, by our own sin or by hardships we did not choose, through spiritual dryness, lost opportunities or broken relationships. God is able to redeem such years and bring new life out of what seemed consumed. His thoughts toward his people are “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:11), and the work will be finished on the day he says, “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5).

Plenty, praise and a people never ashamed

“And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied.” The verb for eat is ʼâkal, the same verb verse 25 used for the locusts eating the years. Now God’s people do the eating. The word for satisfied, sâbaʻ, means to be filled to satisfaction, and it repeats the promise of verse 19. “Eat in plenty” speaks of abundance, and “be satisfied” of the contentment that comes when every need is met.

“And praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you.” The verb for praise, hâlal, means to celebrate, and Strong’s traces it to a root meaning to shine and to make a show. It is open, public praise of God’s goodness, and it flows from what he has done. To praise his name is to praise who he is, his character and authority and his covenant with his people. “Dealt wondrously” (pâlâʼ) speaks of acts that are extraordinary, beyond what people could do, and the people praise him because they have seen them. A psalm makes the same link between God’s provision and his praise: “O taste and see that the LORD is good... they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing” (Psalm 34:8–10).

“And my people shall never be ashamed.” The verb bûwsh means to turn pale, and so to be ashamed, and also to be disappointed. The plague had brought public disgrace, as if God had abandoned his people. Now their hope in him will be shown to be well placed, and their honour restored. Isaiah gives the same promise: “Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end” (Isaiah 45:17).

“Ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel”

Verse 27 states the purpose of all these gifts. The verb yâdaʻ, to know, here means knowing by experience: the people will know God’s presence because they have seen him act for them. “In the midst of Israel” recalls his presence among them in the tabernacle and the temple, and it is the source of their security. “I am the LORD your God, and none else” names him by Yᵉhôvâh once more and declares that he alone is God, among nations that worshipped many gods. It echoes the first commandment and the Shema: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD” (Deuteronomy 6:4).

Then comes the promise of verse 26 a second time, word for word: “and my people shall never be ashamed.” Said twice, it seals the passage. The God who is in their midst and who alone is God will make sure that trusting him ends in honour. The chapter goes straight on to the outpouring of the Spirit (Joel 2:28–32), and the book ends with God’s judgment on the nations and his dwelling in Zion (Joel 3).

How Joel’s promises are fulfilled in Christ

The zeal and the pity of God in Jesus

The zeal and the pity of verse 18 are seen fully in Jesus. When he cleansed the temple, his disciples remembered the words, “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up” (John 2:17, quoting Psalm 69:9). When he saw the crowds, “he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). The verb châmal includes the sense of sparing, and at the cross God spared his people by giving his Son: “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). Through Christ the restoration reaches a great multitude “of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” (Revelation 7:9–10), and the Spirit that Joel promised is poured out (Acts 2:17–21).

Bread, wine and the Spirit

The gifts of grain, wine and oil point to greater gifts. Jesus says, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35) and “I am the true vine” (John 15:1), and branches that abide in him bear much fruit (John 15:1–5). The cup he gave his disciples was “my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:27–28). The new wine of his kingdom needs new bottles (Mark 2:22), and believers receive an anointing from him that abides in them (1 John 2:27). He came that his people “might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

The rains of verse 23 look ahead to the Spirit Jesus promised to send (John 14:16), who came at Pentecost (Acts 2:1–4) after Jesus was raised and exalted. Where the Spirit is given, he bears fruit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22–23).

The enemy driven out and the shame taken away

The God who drove off the northern army has defeated the last enemies of his people in Christ. Jesus is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), who through death destroyed “him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). God “hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13–14). In place of the stench of a defeated enemy, believers are “unto God a sweet savour of Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:15).

The reproach and shame God promised to remove are removed at the cross. “He was wounded for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5), and God has forgiven our trespasses, “blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us” and “nailing it to his cross” (Colossians 2:13–14). Jesus “endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2). God “hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21), so “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1), and we are “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). Paul applies the promise of Joel’s last verses directly: “Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed” (Romans 10:11), and “hope maketh not ashamed” (Romans 5:5).

What the locusts ate is restored in Christ on a larger scale. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself” (2 Corinthians 5:18–19), and “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17). God has “blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3–14), and he has given us “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away” (1 Peter 1:3–4). The full restoration comes in the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21:1–5), where “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain” (Revelation 21:4).

God in the midst of his people

“I am in the midst of Israel” is fulfilled when “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), Emmanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). By his Spirit he now dwells in his people: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). “None else” rings through the New Testament too. Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), “there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12), all power in heaven and earth is his (Matthew 28:18), and every tongue will confess “that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:11). He “abideth faithful” (2 Timothy 2:13), and he will present his church to himself “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle” (Ephesians 5:27).

Returning to the God who restores

The order of Joel 2 is the order of God’s mercy. His people turned to him with torn hearts, and he answered with zeal and pity. He drove out what was devouring them and gave back more than they had lost. The God who did that for Judah is our God. Whatever has eaten into our years, he is the one to turn to, and he answers those who come back to him.

The passage also shows where the joy belongs. The land and the people are told to rejoice before the rain falls, because the LORD has spoken. When the floors are full and the vats overflow, the right response is to eat with thanks and praise his name for dealing wondrously with us. Above every gift is the giver himself: “ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else.” Those who trust him find their hope honoured, as he has twice promised: “my people shall never be ashamed.”

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Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Joel 2:18–27. He set out his notes in a three-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.

1662–1714 · 10 verses
Passage under commentJoel 2:18–27
I. II. Main points1. 2. Sub-points(1.) (2.) Details

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 (Joel 2:18): 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 (Joel 2:20): "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, Exodus 10:19. 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, Isaiah 10:12. 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 (Joel 2:21), 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 (Joel 2:22) 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 (Joel 2:23) 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 (Joel 2:25): "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 (Joel 2:24), whereas, in the day of their distress, the wine and oil languished and the barns were broken down, Joel 1:10, Joel 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, Joel 2:26. 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 (Joel 1:5), 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 (Joel 2:21), He deals wondrously with his people, Joel 2:26. 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, Joel 2:19) 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 (Joel 2:23), 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 (Joel 2:26) 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, Deuteronomy 8:10.

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 (Joel 2:19): "I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen, that triumphed in your calamities and insulted over you;" and Joel 2:26, Joel 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 (Joel 2:23): 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, Joel 2:23. They mourned in Zion (Joel 2:15), 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 (Joel 2:27): You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, the Holy One in the midst of thee (Hosea 11:9), 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 (Isaiah 45:7; Deuteronomy 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! Joel 2:21. Be not afraid, you beasts of the field, Joel 2:22. 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 (Joel 1:20); 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 4:11), for the cattle had fasted, Joel 3:8. 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, Romans 8:21.

Historical interpretation

Two Centuries of Reception

3 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

3 quotes · AD 220–420
Ante-NicenePost-Nicene
200300400

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

d. AD 220TertullianAnte-NiceneSourceANSWER TO THE JEWS 12
David said that “the Lord would reign from the tree.” Elsewhere too the prophet predicts the fruit of this tree, saying, “The earth has given its blessings”6—of course that virgin earth, not yet irrigated with rains or fertilized by showers, out of which humanity was of old first formed, out of which now Christ through the flesh has been born of a virgin. “And the tree bears its fruit”—not that tree in paradise, which yielded death to the first humans, but the tree of the passion of Christ, whence life, hanging, you did not believe!
d. AD 311Methodius of OlympusAnte-NiceneSourceBANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS 10:2
For the fig tree, on account of its sweetness and richness, represents the delights of humankind, which they had in paradise before the Fall. Indeed, not rarely, as we shall afterwards show, the Holy Spirit takes the fruit of the fig tree as an emblem of goodness. But the vine, on account of the gladness produced by wine and the joy of those who were saved from wrath and from deluge, signifies the change produced from fear and anxiety into joy. Moreover, the olive, on account of the oil which it produces, indicates the compassion of God, who again, after the deluge, bore patiently when people turned aside to ungodliness, so that he gave them the law and manifested himself to some, and nourished by oil the light of virtue, now almost extinguished.
d. AD 420JeromePost-NiceneSourceCommentary on Joel
(Verse 22 onwards) Do not be afraid, O land; rejoice and be glad, for the Lord has done great things. Do not fear, you animals of the field, for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green. The trees are bearing their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their riches. Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains for your vindication. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten— the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm — my great army that I sent among you. My strength is great, which I have sent upon you: and you will eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of your God, who has worked wonders with us, and my people will not be put to shame forever. And you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and I am the Lord your God, and there is no other, and my people will not be put to shame forever. Rejoice, O earth, and be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has magnified and done great things: believe, O animals of the field, for the meadows of the wilderness have put forth their greenery, because the tree has produced its fruit, the fig tree and the vine have given their strength. And the children of Zion, rejoice and be glad in the Lord your God, for He has given you the food of righteousness, and has showered upon you a timely and late rain, as in the beginning, and the barns will be filled with wheat, and the vats will overflow with wine and oil. And I will compensate you for the years in which the locust, the beetle, the mildew, and the caterpillar have consumed your crops. My great strength, which I have sent upon you, will sustain you and you will eat and be satisfied. You will praise the name of your God, who has done wonders with you, and my people will never be put to shame. You will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and I am the Lord your God, and there is no other besides me. And my people will never be put to shame. He now promises the opposite of what he had threatened above. He had said before: the fire consumes the beautiful things of the desert, and the flame sets ablaze all the wood of the region, and the beasts of the field, like a dry patch of land, look up to you as they thirst for rain: because the springs of water have dried up, and the fire has devoured the beautiful things of the desert. Now he mitigates sadness with joy, and turns tears into laughter. Do not be afraid, he says, animals of the region: because the beautiful things of the desert have budded forth: because the tree has brought forth its fruit, the fig and the vine have given their power: and there will be such abundance of all things, that there will by no means be a lack of wheat, wine and oil for you to be satisfied with; but the threshing floors will be filled with wheat, and the wine presses will overflow with wine and oil, so that you may not only eat for yourselves, but also be able to provide for others. To the sons of Zion also He speaks specially, that they may exult and rejoice, not in any trivial thing; but in the Lord their God, who has given them the nourishment of righteousness. And as the Seventy have translated it, He gives them both the early and the late rain, that they may eat and be glad, and praise the name of their Lord God, who has done wonders with them, and that they may by no means be put to shame; and that they may know that the Lord God of Israel dwells among them, and besides Him there is no other, for the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father; and His people will not be put to shame forever. We believe that these things happened literal, because they were promised by the Lord, and that the past sterility was compensated by new crops: so that whatever the locust, the cankerworm, the mildew, and the caterpillar had consumed, would be replenished in the following years. We wonder why the caterpillar is called the strength, or virtue of the Lord, and not only virtue, but great virtue? How was the power of God shown in the plagues of the Egyptians by small animals, especially the gnats, which are such small mosquitoes that they can hardly be seen with the eyes. Thus, now, in a small and slow-moving little worm, which can barely move and is crushed by a light touch, the power of God and the frailty of humans are demonstrated. Not that God cannot overturn the earth and cover everything with a flood, or consume everything with lightning at His command and the majesty of His power; but He shows human frailty through small, and, so to speak, tiny bodies. Therefore, we often respond to Marcion and other heretics who tear apart the old Testament, that God made even fleas and mosquitoes and bugs, and creatures like them, in order to show the frailty and weakness of our flesh, which is so insignificant that it is wounded by such small things. But if a slow and tiny caterpillar is stronger than a human, why does the earth and ashes, being from which man is called, boast? Some interpret this place as follows: On the right and on the left, we read the virtues and powers of God, which the Greeks call δυνάμεις. On the right, Seraphim and Cherubim, and all the angelic powers; on the left, opposing strengths, of which it is written: He sent upon them the wrath of his indignation, anger, and tribulation, by sending evil angels (Ps. LXXVII, 49); of which Micheas also speaks in the book of Kings: I saw the Lord God of Israel sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left (3 Kings XXIII). I think the left spirit was the one who went out and stood before the Lord and said, 'I will deceive Ahab and go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.' To the power that was suitable for deceiving and skilled in causing destruction, and had deceived many before, God speaks: 'You will deceive and prevail, go out and do so.' That spirit who tormented Saul, about whom his servants said, 'Behold, an evil spirit from God is afflicting you' (1 Samuel 16:15), was from the left side, they minister to the Lord to punish those who have deserved to suffer for their sins. For not only are men ministers and avengers of His wrath upon those who do evil, and not without cause do they bear the sword; but there are also contrary powers, which are called the fury and wrath of God, which the prophet, declining, says: Lord, do not rebuke me in Your fury, nor chastise me in Your anger (Ps. 6:1). The Apostle delivered such (so to speak) interrogators and torturers to destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved (1 Cor. 5), of whom Satan is, to whom he delivered others to learn not to blaspheme (1 Tim. 1)." } These things about the caterpillar, why it is called the power of God. Let us move on to the order of spiritual intelligence: Do not be afraid, O earth, indeed trust and rejoice, you who had previously lost the Lord's seed with your dryness: for the Lord has magnified, so as to show mercy to you, to such an extent that even the animals of the region and the deserted solitude are filled with joyful new growth, and the wood of the cross bears its fruit, and the sweetest gifts of the Holy Spirit bestow their abundance to all. You also, whom I rightly call sons of Zion and of the Church after repentance, rejoice and be glad; for God the Father has given you a teacher of righteousness or has granted you the nourishment of righteousness, and has caused the rains of temporal and late (Isa. XXX) to come down upon you. Rain is said to be late when we first receive the rain of doctrine; it is said to be late when we receive the fruits of our labor and attain to a perfect knowledge of the holy Scriptures. There may be temporary and late rain, the old and new Testament received. And not only that, he said, he did not only give this; but he made you abound with new fruits of virtues, and be satisfied and intoxicated with wheat, wine and oil, of which we have often spoken. And the years that you had lost in disturbances under the previous rulers, when your works had been consumed by locusts, weevils, rust and caterpillars, God did not allow you to perish. Then you shall eat the fruits of righteousness, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has done wonders with you. But if after such great repentance God promises such abundance of all things, what will Novatus, denying repentance and the possibility of sinners being restored to their former state if they perform worthy works of repentance, answer? For God receives penitents to such an extent that He calls them His people and does not in any way claim that they are to be confounded; and promises to dwell among them and that they shall not have any other God but Him; rather, they will trust in Him with their whole hearts, who will abide in them forever.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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