Joel 2:14
in Joel 2Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him—grain and drink offerings for the LORD your God.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Who knoweth whether he will not turn and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal-offering and a drink-offering unto Jehovah your God?
KJV
Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?
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This verse in Joel 2
Commentary
12 notes on this verseHe will return - God doth not move from one place to another; but when he withholds his blessings, he is said to withdraw himself. And so when he gives out his blessing, he is said to return. And leave a blessing behind him - Cause the locusts to depart before they have eaten up all that is in the land.
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.
This site's exposition
Who knows?
Joel leaves the outcome with God. He hopes for mercy and names the blessing he hopes for, grain and drink offerings for the temple again. John Wesley explains God's return as His giving again the blessings He had withheld.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
(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?
A commentator
Gregory of NazianzusON HIS FATHER'S SILENCE, ORATION 16:13–14 · Written before 390.
proposed
We should enter his house in sackcloth and lament night and day between the porch and the altar, in piteous array, and with more piteous voices. [We should] cry aloud without ceasing on behalf of ourselves and the people, sparing nothing, either toil or word, which may propitiate God. [We should] say, "Spare, O Lord, your people, and give not your heritage to reproach," and the rest of our prayer; surpassing the people in our sense of the affliction as much as in our rank, instructing them in our own persons in compunction and correction of wickedness, and in the consequent longsuffering of God, and cessation of the scourge.
The Medieval Church1 voice
The prophet in effect says what you need to do. I know, however, that you will not really repent before you are deported. But, when you would have done penance for your sins after being punished by captivity, then God will take care of you …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Who knoweth if he will return and repent,....
Or, rather, it is expressed doubtfully because it is the removal of a temporal judgment that they here promise themselves, of which we cannot be so confident as we can that, in general, God is gracious and merciful.
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
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,
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
leave . . . a meat offering and a drink offering--that is, give plentiful harvests, out of the first-fruits of which we may offer the meat and drink offering, now "cut off" through the famine (Joe 1:9, 13, 16).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
Who knoweth if he will return - He may yet interpose and turn aside the calamity threatened, and so far preserve the land from these ravagers, that there will be food for men and cattle, and a sufficiency of offerings for the temple service. Therefore: -
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Who knoweth if He will return - God has promised forgiveness of sins and of eternal punishment to those who turn to Him with their whole heart. Of this, then, there could be no doubt. But He has not promised either to individuals or to Churches, that He will remit the temporal punishment which He had threatened. He forgave David the sin. Nathan says, “The Lord also hath put away thy sin.” But he said at the same time, “the sword shall never depart from thy house 2Sa 12:13, 2Sa 12:10; and the temporal punishment of his sin pursued him, even on the bed of death. David thought that the temporal punishment of his sin, in the death of the child, might be remitted to him. He used the same form of words as Joel, “I said, who can tell whether God will be gracious unto me, that the child may live?” 2Sa 12:22. But the child died. The king of Nineveh used the like words, “Who can tell if God will return and repent and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not?” Jon 3:9. And he was heard. God retained or remitted the temporal punishment, as He saw good for each. This of the prophet Joel is of a mixed character. The “blessing” which they crave, he explains to be “the meat offering and the drink offering,” which had been “cut off or withholden” from the house of their God. For “if He gave them wherewith to serve Him,” after withdrawing it, it was clear that “He would accept of them and be pleased with their service.” Yet this does not imply that He would restore all to them. A Jewish writer notes that after the captivity, “the service of sacrifices alone returned to them,” but that “prophecy, (soon after), the ark, the Urim and Thummim, and the other things (the fire from heaven) were missing there.” As a pattern, however, to all times, God teaches them to ask first what belongs to His kingdom and His righteousness, and to leave the rest to Him. […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מִ֥י | mi | who? | H4310 → | |
| יוֹדֵ֖עַ | yodea' | [is] knowing | H3045 → | 945 times |
| יָשׁ֣וּב | yashuv | he will turn | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| וְנִחָ֑ם | venicham | and he will relent | H5162 → | |
| וְהִשְׁאִ֤יר | vehishir | and he will leave | H7604 → | |
| אַֽחֲרָיו֙ | ʾacharav | behind him | H310 → | 715 times |
| בְּרָכָ֔ה | berakhah | a blessing | H1293 → | |
| מִנְחָ֣ה | minchah | a grain offering | H4503 → | 211 times |
| וָנֶ֔סֶךְ | vanesekh | and a drink offering | H5262 → | 64 times |
| לַיהוָ֖ה | layahweh | for Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃ פ | ʾeloheikhem | God your | H430 → | 2601 times |
מִ֥יwho?
miH4310 →
יוֹדֵ֖עַ[is] knowing
yodea'H3045 →945 times
יָשׁ֣וּבhe will turn
yashuvH7725 →1056 times
וְנִחָ֑םand he will relent
venichamH5162 →
וְהִשְׁאִ֤ירand he will leave
vehishirH7604 →
אַֽחֲרָיו֙behind him
ʾacharavH310 →715 times
בְּרָכָ֔הa blessing
berakhahH1293 →
מִנְחָ֣הa grain offering
minchahH4503 →211 times
וָנֶ֔סֶךְand a drink offering
vanesekhH5262 →64 times
לַיהוָ֖הfor Yahweh
layahwehH3068 →6520 times
אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃ פGod your
ʾeloheikhemH430 →2601 times
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
Zephaniah 2:3Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earth who carry out His justice. Seek righteousness; seek humility. Perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the LORD’s anger.
it leads to
- Amos 5:14–15
Seek good, not evil, so that you may live. And the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be with you, as you have claimed.
- Isaiah 26:20–21
Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves a little while until the wrath has passed.
- Psalms 76:9
when God rose up to judge, to save all the lowly of the earth. Selah
- Jeremiah 29:12–13
Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
- Psalms 22:26
The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the LORD will praise Him. May your hearts live forever!
- Amos 5:14–15
Through
Haggai 2:19Is there still seed in the barn? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet yielded fruit. But from this day on, I will bless you.”
it leads to
- Malachi 3:10
Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,” says the LORD of Hosts. “See if I will not open the windows of…
- Habakkuk 3:17–18
Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold…
- Proverbs 3:9–10
Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your harvest;
- Malachi 3:10
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies23
On this chapter
About Joel
This page draws on 10 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); Gregory of Nazianzus, ON HIS FATHER'S SILENCE, ORATION 16:13–14; Ishodad of Merv, COMMENTARY ON JOEL; 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 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.