Joel 1:2
in Joel 1Hear this, O elders; and give ear, all who dwell in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your fathers?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
KJV
Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
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This verse in Joel 1
Commentary
7 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
The word of the Lord that came to Joel
on Joel 1:1-4
The book opens with only a patronymic, Joel the son of Pethuel, a name found nowhere else in the Old Testament, and no king or era is named as with most of the other prophets, which is why proposals for the book's date have ranged across several centuries. The word of the Lord announces a locust plague under four names in sequence, the palmerworm, the locust, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the commentators divide over whether these describe four successive stages of one insect's life or four separate waves of devastation. Whatever the entomology, the command tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children echoes the Passover's own pattern of a disaster turned into a generation-spanning testimony.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
But these same villains, vessels of wrath fitted for destruction,2 screwed up their noses and poured out, if I may say so, as from a well-head, foul noises through their nostrils and rent the raiment from Christ's holy virgins, whose conversation gave an exact likeness …
(Version 2, 3.) Listen to this, elders, and perceive with your ears, all inhabitants of the earth, whether this happened in your days or in the days of your fathers: tell this to your children, and let your children tell their children, and let their children tell the next generation. LXX: Listen to these things, elders, and perceive with your ears, all inhabitants of the earth, whether such things happened in your days or in the days of your fathers: tell this to your children, and let your children tell their children, and let their children tell the next generation.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
8 ), and they would not find an account of the like in any record. Note, Those that outdo their predecessors in sin may justly expect to fall under greater and sorer judgments than any of their predecessors knew. It was such as would not be forgotten in the ages to come (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number
Hear this, ye old men,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Ye old men - Instead of הזקנים hazzekenim old men, a few MSS. have הכהנים haccohanim, ye priests, but improperly. Hath this been in your days - He begins very abruptly; and before he proposes his subject, excites attention and alarm by intimating that he is about to announce disastrous events, such as the oldest man among them has never seen, nor any of them learnt from the histories of ancient times.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Hear this, ye old men - By reason of their age they had known and heard much; they had heard from their fathers, and their father’s fathers, much which they had not known themselves. Among the people of the east, memories of past times were handed down from generation to generation, for periods, which to us would seem incredible. Israel was commanded, so to transmit the vivid memories of the miracles of God. The prophet appeals “to the old men, to hear,” and, (lest, anything should seem to have escaped them) to the whole people of the land, to give their whole attention to this thing, which he was about to tell them, and then, reviewing all the evils which each had ever heard to have been inflicted by God upon their forefathers, to say whether this thing had happened in their days or in the days of their fathers.
The words behind it
13 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| שִׁמְעוּ־ | shimu- | hear | H8085 → | |
| זֹאת֙ | zot | this | H2063 → | 603 times |
| הַזְּקֵנִ֔ים | hazekenim | O elders | H2205 → | 178 times |
| וְהַֽאֲזִ֔ינוּ | vehaazinu | and give ear | H238 → | |
| כֹּ֖ל | kol | O all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| יוֹשְׁבֵ֣י | yoshevei | [the] inhabitants of | H3427 → | 1079 times |
| הָאָ֑רֶץ | haaretz | the land | H776 → | 2504 times |
| הֶהָ֤יְתָה | hehayetah | ¿ has it happened | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| זֹּאת֙ | zot | this | H2063 → | 603 times |
| בִּֽימֵיכֶ֔ם | bimeikhem | in days your | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| וְאִ֖ם | veim | and or? | H518 → | |
| בִּימֵ֥י | bimei | in [the] days of | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| אֲבֹֽתֵיכֶֽם׃ | ʾavoteikhem | ancestors your | H1 → |
שִׁמְעוּ־hear
shimu-H8085 →
זֹאת֙this
zotH2063 →603 times
הַזְּקֵנִ֔יםO elders
hazekenimH2205 →178 times
וְהַֽאֲזִ֔ינוּand give ear
vehaazinuH238 →
כֹּ֖לO all
kolH3605 →5413 times
יוֹשְׁבֵ֣י[the] inhabitants of
yosheveiH3427 →1079 times
הָאָ֑רֶץthe land
haaretzH776 →2504 times
הֶהָ֤יְתָה¿ has it happened
hehayetahH1961 →3559 times
זֹּאת֙this
zotH2063 →603 times
בִּֽימֵיכֶ֔םin days your
bimeikhemH3117 →2304 times
וְאִ֖םand or?
veimH518 →
בִּימֵ֥יin [the] days of
bimeiH3117 →2304 times
אֲבֹֽתֵיכֶֽם׃ancestors your
ʾavoteikhemH1 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 30:7How awful that day will be! None will be like it! It is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved out of it.
it leads to
- Daniel 12:1
“At that time Michael, the great prince who stands watch over your people, will rise up. There will be a time of distress, the likes of which will not have occurred from the beginning…
- Malachi 4:1
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of…
- Daniel 9:12
You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been…
- Zechariah 14:1–2
Behold, a day of the LORD is coming when your plunder will be divided in your presence.
- Joel 2:11
The LORD raises His voice in the presence of His army. Indeed, His camp is very large, for mighty are those who obey His command. For the Day of the LORD is great and…
- Daniel 12:1
Through
Job 12:12Wisdom is found with the elderly, and understanding comes with long life.
it leads to
- Job 32:7
I thought that age should speak, and many years should teach wisdom.
- Job 32:7
Through
Joel 2:2a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be…
it leads to
- Joel 1:6
For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness.
- Zephaniah 1:14–15
The great Day of the LORD is near—near and coming quickly. Listen, the Day of the LORD! Then the cry of the mighty will be bitter.
- Joel 1:6
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Joel
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jerome, Commentary on Joel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Theodoret of Cyrus, Ecclesiastical History 4:19.