CHAPTER 2 Nov. 19 
More Locusts 
Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of Yahweh comes, for it is near at hand: 2a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the dawn spreading on the mountains. A great and strong people! There has never been the like, neither will there be any more after them, even to the years of many generations. 3A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and after them- like a desolate wilderness. Yes, and no one has escaped them. 4Their appearance is as the appearance of horses, and as horsemen, so do they run. 5Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains do they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. 6At their presence the people are in anguish. All faces have grown pale. 7They run like mighty men, they climb the wall like warriors. They each march in his line, and they don’t swerve off course. 8Neither does one jostle another; they march each one in his path, and they burst through the defences, and don’t break ranks. 9They rush on the city, they run on the wall, they climb up into the houses, they enter in at the windows like thieves. 10The earth quakes before them, the skies tremble, the sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. 11Yahweh thunders His voice before His army; for His forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys His command; for the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome, and who can endure it?  
A Fast Is Proclaimed 
12Yet even now, says Yahweh, turn to Me with all your heart, and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning. 13Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity. 14Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to Yahweh, your God. 15Blow the trumpet in Zion! Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. 16Gather the people.  Sanctify the assembly. Assemble the elders. Gather the children, and those who nurse from the breasts. Let the bridegroom go forth from his room, and the bride out of her room. 17Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Your people, Yahweh, and don’t give Your heritage to reproach, that the pagan nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’.
Yahweh Answered His People 
 18Then Yahweh was jealous for His land, and had pity on His people. 19Yahweh answered His people, Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with them; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. 20But I will remove the northern army far away from you, and will drive it into a barren and desolate land, its front into the eastern sea, and its back into the western sea; and its stench will come up, and its bad smell will rise. Surely He has done great things! 21Land, don’t be afraid! Be glad and rejoice, for Yahweh has done great things! 22Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.  23Be glad then, you  children of Zion, and rejoice in Yahweh your God; for He gives you the former rains in just measure, and He causes the rain to come down for you, the former rains and the latter rains, as before. 24The threshing floors will be full of wheat, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.  25I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the great locust, the grasshopper, and the caterpillar, My great army, which I sent among you. 26You will have plenty to eat and will be satisfied, and will praise the name of Yahweh your God who has dealt wondrously with you; and My people will never again be ashamed. 27You will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Yahweh your God, and there is no one else; and My people will never again be ashamed.  
The Day of the Lord 
28It will happen in the last days, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. 29And also on the servants and on the handmaids I will pour out My Spirit in those days. 30I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke. 31The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes. 32It will happen that whoever will call on the name of Yahweh shall be saved;  for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said,  and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls.

Commentary

2:11 His army- The pagan armies were God’s in the sense that He controlled them. No evil can happen to us without God allowing it; our worst enemies are ultimately sent and permitted by Him. There is no personal Satan figure who controls these people; God is in total control.
2:13 Relents- Despite having spoken as if God’s judgment was inevitably going to come, Joel knew that God can state things and then change His planned judgments because He is so sensitive to human repentance. And so Joel calls for a fast, and for absolutely everyone in the community to repent and beg God for mercy. Even those in the process of marriage were to break off the ceremony (:16) and come to a special assembly (:15) to beg God to change His mind. Joel was so certain that God’s prophetic word would be fulfilled that he appealed to people with such urgency and insistence to repent, so that the prophesied judgments wouldn’t happen to them. Our belief in God’s word will likewise motivate our witness and impart a spirit of urgency to it which we couldn’t have if we weren’t so convinced that the prophecies will come true.
2:20 Northern army- Babylon and Assyria are spoken of in the Bible as the ‘northern’ invader, although they were situated to the East of Israel. This was because there was no easy way through the desert separating them from Israel, and travel was typically up the Fertile Crescent and then down into Israel from the north. Joel is quoted and alluded to in the New Testament as if these things will come true in the last days before Christ returns. Dan. 11:40-44 speak of a latter day “King of the north” invading Israel just before Christ’s coming. Geographically, Babylon and Assyria refer to what is today Iran and Iraq.
2:32 This passage is quoted in Acts 2:21-41 and interpreted as meaning that whoever calls upon themselves the Name of the Lord by baptism into His Name will be saved. People from many nations were baptized into the Name just before the ‘last day’ of Judah’s destruction in AD70 (:28). It would seem that this was but a primary fulfilment of what will happen just before the final ‘last day’ of Christ’s return. There will be a special preaching of the Gospel to all nations just before Christ returns (Mt. 24:14).