Book of Joel Chapter 2 Vs. 21

The Lord Had Pity

 

Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things. Joel 2:21

Fear not, O... O land of Israel, as the Targum, and the inhabitants of it; neither of the locusts, who had so terrified them, and had done so much mischief, and threatened more. Or of their enemies; the Assyrians or Chaldeans and their powerful armies, or any other.

be glad, and... At the removal of the locusts, and at the destruction of their enemies.

for the Lord... Good things, in opposition to the evil things done by the locusts, as Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech observe.

And in the times of the Maccabees, and especially in the times of Christ, which are quickly prophesied of in this chapter; and which prophecies some interpreters begin here, it not being unusual for the prophets to pass directly from things temporal to things spiritual.

And especially to the great deliverance and salvation by Christ, and also by temporal blessings to design spiritual ones.

With the blessings of God upon the land, it will bloom again. The crops will be abundant. It will rain at the needed time, and they will prosper.

The NIV understands the last line of Joel 2:20 as a statement about the Lord (cf. Joel 2:21; in this case kı̂ in Joel 2:20 is taken as an emphatic assertion: Surely). Other translations (KJV, NASB, RSV) join the words to the preceding context, making the army the subject (cf. NASB, “For it has done great things”). The insolent pride of the invader would then be in view (cf. Isa. 10:5-19 for a similar view). However, the NIV reading has much to commend it, especially the structural correspondence it produces (cf. See Joel 2:18-27).

In the first two lines of Joel 2:21 the personified land, which had been stripped of its produce (cf. Joel 1:10), is encouraged to fear no longer but to be glad and rejoice.

Joel 2:21-24

Each of the three elements in Joel 2:20-21 is repeated and/or expanded in these verses. The repeated affirmation that the Lord has done great things is followed by the expanded charges, be not afraid (Joel 2:22) and be glad and rejoice (Joel 2:23).