Joel 2:16 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Joel 2:12-17

We have here an earnest exhortation to repentance, inferred from that desolating judgment described and threatened in the Joel 2:1-11: Therefore now turn you to the Lord. 1. ?Thus you must answer the end and intention of the judgment; for it was sent for this end, to convince you of your sins, to humble you for them, to reduce you to your right minds and to your allegiance.? God brings us into straits, that he may bring us to repentance and so bring us to himself. 2. ?Thus you may stay the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 2:16

Gather the people ,.... The common people, all the inhabitants of the land, Joel 1:14 ; summon them to meet together in the temple, in order to humble themselves before God for their sins, and implore his mercy, and seek his face to remove his judgments, or avert them: sanctify the congregation ; see that they are sanctified and prepared for a fast, as the law directs in such cases; that they may be clean and free from all ceremonial impurities; that their bodies and clothes be washed,... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Joel 2:16

Gather the children - Let all share in the humiliation, for all must feel the judgment, should it come. Let no state nor condition among the people be exempted. The elders, the young persons, the infants, the bridegroom, and the bride; let all leave their houses, and go to the temple of God. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Joel 2:16

Verse 16 Proclaim, he says, a meeting עצרה otsare is not properly an assembly, but the deed itself: (6) hence also the word is transferred to festivals. Proclaim, then, a meeting, call the people, sanctify the assembly. The word, sanctify, seems to be taken here in a sense different from what it had been before. The people, in order to engage in holy services, performed those rites, as it is well known, by which they cleansed themselves from their pollutions. No one entered the temple without... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 2:12-17

These verses summon the people To humiliation for sin, and thanksgiving for mercy. God, by his prophet, does not forbid the outward sign of sorrow, so customary among Orientals and common among the Jews; he rather insists upon the presence of the thing signified, without which the sign was more a mockery than a reality. I. THE OCCASION OF THE HUMILIATION . It Was an earnest time with the people of the southern kingdom. Terrible desolation had been made in the land of Judah.... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 2:15-17

"The harsh blast of the consecrated ram's horn called an assembly for an extraordinary fast. Not a soul was to be absent. Like the fiery cross, it convened old and young, men and women, mothers with infants at their breasts, the bridegroom and the bride on their bridal day. All were there stretched in front of the altar. The altar itself presented the dreariest of all sights—a hearth without its sacred fire, a table spread without its sacred feast. The priestly caste, instead of gathering as... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 2:15-17

An urgently demanded meeting. "Blow the trumpet in Zion," etc. Men are constantly assembling themselves together for one purpose or another—political, commercial, scientific, entertaining. But of all the meetings, none are so urgent as the one indicated in the text. I. IT IS A MEETING CALLED ON ACCOUNT OF COMMON SIN . All the people of Judah had sinned grievously, and they were now summoned together on that account. No subject is of such urgent importance as this.... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 2:16

Elders and children. The occasion is serious. National disaster seems imminent. What shall be done to turn away Divine anger? Let the people be summoned to meet in solemn assembly, and by fasts and prayers let them address themselves to the Divine compassion. And that it may be a truly national and popular act of religion, let no class, no sex, no age, be omitted from the summons, or exempted from the exercises of devotion and intercession. Thus ciders and children are, upon Divine... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Joel 2:16

Sanctify the congregation - o: “Do what in you lies, by monishing, exhorting, threatening, giving the example of a holy life, that the whole people present itself holy before its God” , “lest your prayers be hindered, and a little leaven corrupt the whole lump.”Assemble the elders - o: “The judgment concerned all; all then were to join in seeking mercy from God. None were on any pretence to be exempted; not the oldest, whose strength was decayed, or the youngest, who might seem not yet of... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Joel 2:15-16

Joel 2:15-16. Blow the trumpet in Zion This was a signal for assembling the people at the solemn times of public worship. Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly Or, appoint ye a fast, proclaim a solemn day: so Archbishop Newcome. Sanctify the congregation Let the people prepare themselves for this solemn time of humiliation, not only by washing themselves and their clothes, and cleansing themselves from all legal impurities, as is required Exodus 19:10-15, but by true contrition of... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Joel 2:12-17

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Joel 2:16

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Joel 2:16

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Joel 2:16

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 2:12-17

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 2:15-17

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 2:15-17

The Pulpit Commentary - Joel 2:16

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Joel 2:16

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Joel 2:15-16

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