Joel 2:17

Joel 2:17. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar The priests, being in a peculiar sense the Lord’s servants, are here required to take the lead in this sacred work of penitence, and to stand weeping and praying between the porch and the altar; that is, in the open court, just before the porch of the temple built by Solomon, (see 1 Kings 6:3,) and the altar of burnt-offerings. This was called the priests’ court, and was the place where the greatest part of those, whose course it was, gave their attendance. Hereupon this is mentioned as the most proper place for the priests to stand in, while they addressed their prayers and intercessions to God in behalf of the people; because here they could best be seen and heard by all the assembly, and here they had before offered the sacrifices proper for such an occasion. And let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord It was usual to prescribe certain forms of prayer or praise to the priests, in their public ministrations: see Hos 14:2 ; 1 Chronicles 16:36. Such was this here mentioned, wherein they beseech God to deliver his people, not for any merit of theirs, but for his own glory, lest the heathen round about them should take occasion to blaspheme his name, as if he were not able to protect his worshippers. That the heathen should rule over them This translation of the Hebrew verb שׁמל , favours their interpretation, who understand by the army, at the beginning of the chapter, an invading human enemy. But if expounded of a plague of locusts, still this translation, as Archbishop Newcome justly observes, may be supported, because, when the people were distressed by the locusts, they would be an easier prey to their enemies. But, to make a proverb of them, or to use a by-word against them, as the margin reads, is the more natural translation: for to have their country destroyed by locusts would naturally make them the subject of their enemies’ scorn and derision, as if they were forsaken by the God whom they worshipped; and the Hebrew verb above mentioned is indifferently taken in either sense.