Joel 2:17

Tell the priests who serve Yahweh to cry between the altar and the entrance to the temple and to pray this: “Yahweh, rescue/save us your people; do not allow people from other nations to despise us; do not allow them to ridicule us and say, ‘Why has [RHQ] their God abandoned them?’”

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?

In Context

16Perform the rituals to cause yourselves to be acceptable to Yahweh. Gather everyone together— the old people and the children, even the babies, and summon brides and bridegrooms from their rooms.

18But Yahweh showed that he was concerned about his people and that he would act mercifully toward them.

Read all of Joel 2

Cross References

Exodus 34:9He/I said, “Yahweh, if you are now pleased with me, I ask that you go with us. These people are very stubborn [IDM], but forgive us for all our sins [DOU], and accept us to be people who belong to you forever.”

Deuteronomy 9:16I looked, and I was shocked to see that your ancestors had committed a great sin against Yahweh. They very quickly had begun to do what Yahweh our God had commanded them not to do. They had requested Aaron to make for them a metal image of a calf to worship.

Deuteronomy 32:27But if I did that, their enemies would wrongly boast that they were the ones who had gotten rid of my people; they would say, “We [SYN] are the ones who defeated them; it was not Yahweh who has done all these things.”’

1 Kings 6:3The entrance room was 15 feet long and 30 feet wide, just as wide as the main part of the temple.

2 Chronicles 7:20I will cause you to be expelled from this land that I have given to you, and I will abandon this temple that I have set apart to be the place where people should worship me. I will cause it to be despised and ridiculed by people of all nations.

Nehemiah 9:36“So now we are like slaves here in this land that you gave to our ancestors, the land that you gave to them in order that they could enjoy all the good things that grow here.

Matthew Henry on Joel 2:13-18

Exhortation to Repentance. ( b. c. 720.) 12 Therefore also now, saith the Lord , turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God? 15 Blow the… Read the whole commentary →

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