Joel 1:14

Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD, SANCTIFY YE A FAST - appoint a solemn fast. CALL A SOLEMN ASSEMBLY, [ `ªtsaaraah (H6116)] - literally, a day of restraint or cessation from work, so that all, young and old, might give themselves to supplication (Joel 2:15; 1 Samuel 7:5; as in the fast which Jehoshaphat proclaimed, "All Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children," 2 Chronicles 20:3). Elders....

He afterwards adds, _sanctify a fast, call an assembly, gather the old, all the inhabitants of the land. _ קדש _kodash _means to sanctify and to prepare; but I have retained its proper meaning, _sanctify a fast_; for the command had regard to the end, that is, sanctification. Then a_fast proclaim _— for what purpose? That the people might purge themselves from all their pollutions, and present themselves pure and clean before God. _Call an assembly. _It appears that there was a solemn convocation whenever a fast was proclaimed among the people: for it was not enough for each one privately at home to abstain from food, except all confessed openly, with one mouth and one consent, that they were guilty before God. Hence with a fast was connected a solemn profession of repentance. The uses and ends of a fast, we know, are various: but when the Prophet here speaks of a solemn fast, he doubtle...

14-20 The sorrow of the people is turned into repentance and humiliation before God. With all the marks of sorrow and shame, sin must be confessed and bewailed. A day is to be appointed for this purpose; a day in which people must be kept from their common employments, that they may more closely attend God's services; and there is to be abstaining from meat and drink. Every one had added to the national guilt, all shared in the national calamity, therefore every one must join in repentance. When joy and gladness are cut off from God's house, when serious godliness decays, and love waxes cold, then it is time to cry unto the Lord. The prophet describes how grievous the calamity. See even the inferior creatures suffering for our transgression. And what better are they than beasts, who never cry to God but for corn and wine, and complain of the want of the delights of sense? Yet their cryi...

Verse 14. _CALL A SOLEMN ASSEMBLY_] עצרה _atsarah_ signifies a time of _restraint_, as the _margin_ has it. The clause should be translated-_consecrate a fast, proclaim a time of restraint_; that is, of total abstinence from _food_, and from all _secular_ _employment_. All the elders of the land and the representatives of the people were to be collected at the _temple_ to cry unto the Lord, to confess their sins, and pray for mercy. The _temple_ was not yet destroyed. This prophecy was delivered before the captivity of Judah....

SANCTIFY YE A FAST - He does not say only, “proclaim,” or “appoint a fast,” but “sanctify it.” Hallow the act of abstinence, seasoning it with devotion and with acts meet for repentance. For fasting is not accepted by God, unless done in charity and obedience to His commands. : “Sanctify” it, i. e., make it an offering to God, and as it were a sacrifice, a holy and blameless fast.” : “To sanctify a fast is to exhibit abstinence of the flesh, meet toward God, with other good. Let anger cease, strife be lulled. For in vain is the flesh worn, if the mind is not held in from evil passions, inasmuch as the Lord saith by the prophet, “Lo! in the day of your fast you find your pleasures” Isaiah 58:3. The fast which the Lord approveth, is that which lifteth up to Him hands full of almsdeeds, which is passed with brotherly love, which is seasoned by piety. What thou substra

EXPOSITION JOEL 1:1 THE WORD OF THE LORD THAT CAME TO JOEL THE SON OF PETHUEL. The name Joel signifies "Jehovah is God," or "whose God is Jehovah." We read in Scripture of several of the same name, but the prophet is distinguished as "the son of Pethuel," a name signifying "the sincerity of God," or "godly simplicity." We are not certain of the exact period at which Joel prophesied, but he is generally believed to have been the earliest prophetic writer of the southern kingdom, and one of the earliest of the twelve minor prophets, while Jonah is generally thought to have been the earliest prophetic writer whose book has found a place in the sacred canon. It is at least certain that Joel preceded Amos, who begins his prophecy with a passage from Joel (comp. Joel 3:16 wi

SANCTIFY YEA A FAST,.... This is spoken to the priests, whose business it was to appoint a fast, as the Targum renders it; or to set apart a time for such religious service, as the word signifies; and to keep it holy themselves, and see that it was so kept by others: Kimchi interprets it, prepare the people for a fast; give them notice of it, that they may be prepared for it: CALL A SOLEMN ASSEMBLY; of all the people of the land later mentioned: or, "proclaim a restraint" w; a time of ceasing, as a fast day should be from all servile work, that attendance may be given to the duties of it, prayer and humiliation: GATHER THE ELDERS: meaning not those in age, but in office: [AND] ALL THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND; not the magistrates only, though first and principally, as examples, who had been deeply concerned in guilt; but the common people also, even all of them: [into] the house of th...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS I. THE PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS II. THE COMING DAY OF THE LORD: THE RUIN, THE REPENTANCE AND THE RESTORATION III. THE EVENTS OF THE DAY OF THE LORD: ISRAEL'S ENEMIES JUDGED AND THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED I. THE PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS CHAPTER 1 _ 1. The prophet's appeal (Joel 1:1) _ 2. The call to the drunkards (Joel 1:5) 3. The call to the people and the priests (Joel 1:8) 4. The day of the Lord and the suffering land (Joel 1:15) 5. The prayer of the prophet (Joel 1:19)...

A CALL FOR A FAST AND SOLEMN INTERCESSION. The prophet bids the priests, clothed in the garb of mourners, come into the Temple and lament night and day. Let them institute with the appropriate ritual a fast, and summon a solemn gathering of the community. The awful plight of the land suggests the thought that the locusts are but harbingers of the dreaded Day of Yahweh (Amos 5:18). Nothing less can be portended when the joyous sacrifices are interrupted by the blight and drought which have destroyed vegetation, and brought hunger and thirst to the cattle so that even they appeal dumbly to Yahweh. JOEL 1:15. SHADDAI (_ mg._): this rare title for Yahweh is chosen for the sake of assonance with DESTRUCTION (_shodh_); it is perhaps equivalent to the Babylonian Divine title, š adua = my Rock.

A SOLEMN ASSEMBLY. a day of restraint. Hebrew. _'azarah._ Occurs only here, in Joel 2:15; 2 Kings 10:20. and Isaiah 1:13. Reference to Pentateuch (Leviticus 23:36; Numbers 29:35.Deuteronomy 16:8; Deuteronomy 16:8) where the feminine form _'azereth_ is used (App-92). It is found also in...