Joel 2:12
in Joel 2“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Yet even now, saith Jehovah, turn ye unto me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
KJV
Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
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This verse in Joel 2
Commentary
11 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Therefore - (And) now also All this being so, one way of escape there is, true repentance. As if God said , “All this I have therefore spoken, in order to terrify you by My threats. Wherefore “turn unto Me with all your hearts,” and show the penitence of your minds “by fasting and weeping and mourning,” that, fasting now, ye may “be filled” hereafter “weeping now,” ye may laugh hereafter; mourning now, ye may hereafter “be comforted” Luk 6:21; Mat 5:
This site's exposition
return to Me with all your heart
on Joel 2:12-14
The call "return to Me with all your heart" comes as the LORD's own word, and the book turns on it. "So rend your hearts and not your garments" sets the heart against the custom of tearing clothes. The words "He may turn and relent" leave the outcome open.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
I, the messenger of repentance, say unto you, Fear not the devil; for I was sent to be with you who repent with all your heart, and to make you strong in faith. Trust God, then, ye who on account of your sins have despaired of life, and who add to your sins and weigh down your life; for if ye return to the Lord with all your heart, and practise righteousness the rest of your days, and serve Him according to His will, He will heal your former sins, and you will have power to hold sway over the works of the devil.
(Verse 12 and following) Now therefore says the Lord: Turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning; and tear your hearts, not your clothing, and turn to the Lord your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and relents from punishing. Who knows if he will turn and forgive, and leave a blessing behind him, a sacrifice and offering to the Lord your God?
Our Lord and Savior exhorts us through the prophet and advises us how we ought to come to him after much negligence, saying, "Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord who made us"; and again, "Return to me with …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Therefore also now, saith the Lord,....
A promise that, upon their repentance, God would remove the judgment, would repair the breaches made upon them by it, and restore unto them plenty of all good things,
4 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
With such judgments impending over the Jews, Jehovah Himself urges them to repentance. also now--Even now, what none could have hoped or believed possible, God still invites you to the hope of salvation. fasting . . . weeping . . . mourning--Their sin being most heinous needs extraordinary humiliation. The outward marks of repentance are to signify the depth of their sorrow for sin.
IT is the firm belief of almost all Christian people that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, before He left the earth, instituted two ordinances, namely, Baptism and the Lord's Supper—ordinances which were to be observed by His disciples throughout every age on to the end of the world. Perhaps, indeed, I ought to say that all Christian people without any exception whatever, acknowledge the appointment to which I have just referred; even the Society of Friends, although it rejects the outward and visible signs, nevertheless believes in those great principles which those signs are intended to symbolize, viz., the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the communion of the soul with Christ. By almost all Christians in every age of the world, the observance of the outward sign as well as the recognition of the inward Grace has been regarded as part of the will of the Lord Jesus Christ. On this occasion we have to do only with the ordinance of Baptism, and to this I wish to draw your candid and careful attention.
IT is the firm belief of almost all Christian people that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, before He left the earth, instituted two ordinances, namely, Baptism and the Lord's Supper—ordinances which were to be observed by His disciples throughout every age on to the end of the world.
Turn ye even to me - Three means of turning are recommended: Fasting, weeping, mourning, i.e., continued sorrow.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
And the Lord gave forth (upon them) His voice —by the statement of His prophets prior to His sending this host of His.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
and not your garments —for I do not pay heed to the rending of your garments. Another explanation: Rend your hearts and you will not need to rend your garments because of mourning.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
11 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְגַם־ | vegam- | and also | H1571 → | 769 times |
| עַתָּה֙ | ʾatah | now | H6258 → | |
| נְאֻם־ | neum- | [the] utterance of | H5002 → | |
| יְהוָ֔ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| שֻׁ֥בוּ | shuvu | return | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| עָדַ֖י | ʾadai | to me | H5704 → | |
| בְּכָל־ | bekhol | with all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| לְבַבְכֶ֑ם | levavkhem | heart your | H3824 → | |
| וּבְצ֥וֹם | uvetzom | and with fasting | H6685 → | 26 times |
| וּבְבְכִ֖י | uvevekhi | and with weeping | H1065 → | |
| וּבְמִסְפֵּֽד׃ | uvemisped | and with wailing | H4553 → |
וְגַם־and also
vegam-H1571 →769 times
עַתָּה֙now
ʾatahH6258 →
נְאֻם־[the] utterance of
neum-H5002 →
יְהוָ֔הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
שֻׁ֥בוּreturn
shuvuH7725 →1056 times
עָדַ֖יto me
ʾadaiH5704 →
בְּכָל־with all
bekholH3605 →5413 times
לְבַבְכֶ֑םheart your
levavkhemH3824 →
וּבְצ֥וֹםand with fasting
uvetzomH6685 →26 times
וּבְבְכִ֖יand with weeping
uvevekhiH1065 →
וּבְמִסְפֵּֽד׃and with wailing
uvemispedH4553 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 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
Hosea 12:6But you must return to your God, maintaining love and justice, and always waiting on your God.
it leads to
- Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
- Hosea 14:1
Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.
- Lamentations 3:25–26
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.
- Micah 7:7
But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.
- Hosea 6:1–3
Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.
- Micah 6:8
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies18
On this verse
On this chapter
About Joel
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Caesarius of Arles, SERMON 198:1; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 381: “Christian Baptism” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Joel; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Shepherd of Hermas, Shepherd of Hermas, Commandment 12.