Joel 2:18

Blessings to be enjoyed in the immediate future, vv.18-27.

Joel 2:18 marks the transition to the promises. The future tenses of A.V. have been rightly changed into past tenses in R.V.

Then The time is not definitely stated but is implied, when the people turned to Jehovah in penitence of heart.

Jealous… pity Jealousy is frequently ascribed to God in the Old Testament. The expression is probably adopted from the marriage relation, which is often used to describe the relation of Jehovah to the people of Israel (Isaiah 54:5; Isaiah 62:5; Hosea 2:19). Though at present the word is used commonly in a bad sense, it was not always so. The jealousy of Jehovah is aroused when his power is doubted, or when he is robbed of his proper dues, or when proper treatment is refused to one who is the object of his peculiar care and love. In the last case Jehovah interferes not merely to secure what belongs to him, but he interposes in behalf of his loved one. The calamity that had befallen the people had caused the surrounding nations to ask mockingly, “Where is their God?” Now Jehovah must vindicate himself; but he was moved also by pity for his people. “Love, having been made jealous by misrepresentation or ill treatment on the part of a third person, undergoes a strong reaction against the latter in favor of the former” (Exodus 20:5; Zechariah 1:14; Zechariah 8:2; Ezekiel 36:5-6).