Joel 1:3
in Joel 1Tell it to your children; let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
KJV
Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
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This verse in Joel 1
Commentary
6 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Tell ye your children of it - In the order of God’s goodness, generation was to declare to generation the wonders of His love. “He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children that they might ... not forget the works of God” Psa 78:5-
This 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 Fathers1 voice
(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
): " Tell you your children of it; let them know what dismal tokens of the wrath of God you have been under, that they make take warning, and may learn obedience by the things which you have suffered, for it is designed for warning to them also.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes
Tell ye your children of it,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Tell ye your children of it - To heighten the effect, he still conceals the subject, and informs them that it is such as should be handed down from father to son through all generations.
The words behind it
8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עָלֶ֖יהָ | ʾaleiha | on it | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| לִבְנֵיכֶ֣ם | livneikhem | to children your | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| סַפֵּ֑רוּ | saperu | recount | H5608 → | |
| וּבְנֵיכֶם֙ | uveneikhem | and children your | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| לִבְנֵיהֶ֔ם | livneihem | to children their | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| וּבְנֵיהֶ֖ם | uveneihem | and children their | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| לְד֥וֹר | ledor | to a generation | H1755 → | 167 times |
| אַחֵֽר׃ | ʾacher | another | H312 → |
עָלֶ֖יהָon it
ʾaleihaH5921 →5755 times
לִבְנֵיכֶ֣םto children your
livneikhemH1121 →4930 times
סַפֵּ֑רוּrecount
saperuH5608 →
וּבְנֵיכֶם֙and children your
uveneikhemH1121 →4930 times
לִבְנֵיהֶ֔םto children their
livneihemH1121 →4930 times
וּבְנֵיהֶ֖םand children their
uveneihemH1121 →4930 times
לְד֥וֹרto a generation
ledorH1755 →167 times
אַחֵֽר׃another
ʾacherH312 →
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
Deuteronomy 6:7And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 11:19
Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
- Ephesians 6:4
Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath; instead, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
- Psalms 78:4–6
We will not hide them from their children, but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might, and the wonders He has performed.
- 1 Peter 3:15
But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. But respond with gentleness and…
- Deuteronomy 4:9–10
Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as…
- Deuteronomy 11:19
Through
Psalms 71:18Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.
it leads to
- Isaiah 46:4
Even to your old age, I will be the same, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will sustain you and…
- Psalms 71:9
Do not discard me in my old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails.
- Psalms 78:4
We will not hide them from their children, but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might, and the wonders He has performed.
- Isaiah 46:4
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) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.