Joel 2:18-27

C. The possibility of forgiveness and restoration 2:18-27

Joel next revealed the Lord’s response and comforting words in view of the people’s private and public repentance. It is unclear whether he meant that the Lord had responded or would respond. The problem is the Hebrew perfect verbs, which can be rendered in English with either past or future verbs. Several English translations (NASB, NIV, AV) interpreted the Lord’s response as being conditioned on the people’s repentance and translated the verbs in the future tense. It is equally possible that Joel meant that God had already responded positively because the people had repented, which the prophet did not record. I view this section as what God promised to do if the people responded to Joel’s call to repentance. Sometime before the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. God told the Israelites that they had passed the point of no return and that captivity was inevitable (Jeremiah 7:16; Jeremiah 11:14; Jeremiah 14:11-12). Since repentance was still possible for the Israelites when Joel wrote, this prophecy evidently does not deal with that time.

"Laments in the OT are sometimes followed by a divine oracle in which Yahweh, through a prophet, assures his people that their prayers will be answered (or sometimes rejected)." [Note: Allen, p. 85. See 2 Chronicles 20; Psalms 12:5; 60:6-8; Isaiah 33:10-13; Jeremiah 4:1-2 (cf. 3:21-25); Hosea 14:4-7; and Micah 7:11-13.]