Joel 2:18
in Joel 2Then the LORD became jealous for His land, and He spared His people.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Then was Jehovah jealous for his land, and had pity on his people.
KJV
Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people.
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This verse in Joel 2
Commentary
7 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Then will the Lord be jealous for His land - Upon repentance, all is changed. Before, God seemed set upon their destruction. It was His great army which was ready to destroy them; He was at its head, giving the word. Now He is full of tender love for them, which resents injury done to them, as done to Himself. The word might more strictly perhaps be rendered, “And the Lord is jealous” .
This site's exposition
Then will the Lord be jealous for his land
on Joel 2:18-20
Then will the Lord be jealous for his land marks the turn the whole chapter has been driving toward, a tense the older commentators read as the Lord's response following directly from the repentance just called for. The answer of corn, wine, and oil restores exactly what 1:10 named as lost, the plague's inventory reversed item for item. The northern army driven into a land barren and desolate has drawn readings across the centuries, older writers commonly identifying it with the locust host itself blown out toward the sea, and other commentators reading a real invading army, human or otherwise, the positions named without either side claiming certainty the text does not give.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 18 and following) The Lord was zealous for His land, and spared His people. And the Lord answered and said to His people: Behold, I will send you grain and wine and oil, and you will be filled with them, and I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations. And I will remove him who is from the north far away from you, and I will drive him into a dry and desolate land: his face will be towards the eastern sea, and his end towards the western sea.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Then will the Lord be jealous for his land,....
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. What his mercy shall be, in several instances:-- 1.
A prediction of the setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah in the world, by the pouring out of the Spirit in the latter days,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Then--when God sees His people penitent. be jealous for his land--as a husband jealous of any dishonor done to the wife whom he loves, as if done to himself. The Hebrew comes from an Arabic root, "to be flushed in face" through indignation.
The words behind it
6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיְקַנֵּ֥א | vaykane' | and he became jealous | H7065 → | |
| יְהוָ֖ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| לְאַרְצ֑וֹ | leartzo | for land his | H776 → | 2504 times |
| וַיַּחְמֹ֖ל | vaiyachmol | and he had compassion | H2550 → | |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| עַמּֽוֹ׃ | amo | people his | H5971 → | 1873 times |
וַיְקַנֵּ֥אand he became jealous
vaykane'H7065 →
יְהוָ֖הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
לְאַרְצ֑וֹfor land his
leartzoH776 →2504 times
וַיַּחְמֹ֖לand he had compassion
vaiyachmolH2550 →
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
עַמּֽוֹ׃people his
amoH5971 →1873 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
Lamentations 3:22Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.
it leads to
- Psalms 86:15
But You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness.
- Luke 1:50
His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation.
- Nehemiah 9:31
But in Your great compassion, You did not put an end to them; nor did You forsake them, for You are a gracious and compassionate God.
- Micah 7:18–19
Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?
- Malachi 3:6
“Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.
- Psalms 86:15
Through
Psalms 103:13As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.
it leads to
- Luke 11:11–12
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?
- Hebrews 12:5–11
And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you.
- Luke 15:21–22
The son declared, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
- Luke 11:11–12
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies10
About Joel
This page draws on 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; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Joel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.