Joel 2:13

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. AND REND YOUR HEART, AND NOT YOUR GARMENTS - let there be the inward sorrow of heart, and not the mere outward manifestation of it by 'rending the garment' (Joshua 7:6). HE IS GRACIOUS AND MERCIFUL. The Hebrew words are intensive, very gracious and very merciful. The attributes of God here are taken from the Pentateuch (Exodus 34:6-2, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin"). OF GREAT KINDNESS - elsewh...

He then subjoins, _Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Jehovah your God. _The Prophet again repeats that we ought to deal sincerely with God; for all those ceremonies, by which men imagine that they discharge their duties, are mere mockeries, when they are not preceded by a pure and sincere heart. But as they were wont under mournful circumstances to rend their garments, he therefore says, “God has become now insensible to these customs; for with regard to men, ye are ceremonious enough, and more than enough: ye indeed rend your garments, and thus draw pity from men, and yet your heart remains whole, there is no rending, no opening;_Rend _then_your heart, _” that is, “Leave off thus to mock God, as ye have been wont to do, and begin with your heart.” It is indeed certain that the orientals were given to many ceremonies; but the vice the Prophet here condemns in the Jews i...

1-14 The priests were to alarm the people with the near approach of the Divine judgments. It is the work of ministers to warn of the fatal consequences of sin, and to reveal the wrath from heaven against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. The striking description which follows, shows what would attend the devastations of locusts, but may also describe the effects from the ravaging of the land by the Chaldeans. If the alarm of temporal judgments is given to offending nations, how much more should sinners be warned to seek deliverance from the wrath to come! Our business therefore on earth must especially be, to secure an interest in our Lord Jesus Christ; and we should seek to be weaned from objects which will soon be torn from all who now make idols of them. There must be outward expressions of sorrow and shame, fasting, weeping, and mourning; tears for trouble must be turned i...

Verse 13. _REND YOUR HEART_] Let it not be merely a rending of your _garments_, but let your _hearts_ be truly contrite. Merely _external_ worship and _hypocritical pretensions_ will only increase the evil, and cause God to meet you with heavier judgments. _FOR HE_ IS _GRACIOUS_] Good and benevolent in his own nature. _MERCIFUL_] Pitying and forgiving, as the effect of _goodness_ and _benevolence_. _SLOW TO ANGER_] He is not easily provoked to punish, because he is _gracious_ and _merciful_. _OF GREAT KINDNESS_] Exuberant goodness to all them that return to him. _AND REPENTETH HIM OF THE EVIL._] Is ever ready to _change_ his _purpose_ to _destroy_, when he finds the culprit willing to be _saved_....

AND REND YOUR HEARTS AND NOT YOUR GARMENTS - that is, “not your garments only” (see the note at Hosea 6:6). The rending of the clothes was an expression of extraordinary uncontrollable emotion, chiefly of grief, of terror, or of horror. At least, in Holy Scripture it is not mentioned as a part of ordinary mourning, but only upon some sudden overpowering grief, whether public or private . It was not used on occasion of death, unless there were something very grievous about its circumstances. At times it was used as an outward expression, one of deep grief, as when the leper was commanded to keep his clothes rent Leviticus 13:45, or when David, to express his abhorrence at the murder of Abner, commanded “all the people with him, rend your clothes;” Ahab used it, with fasting and hai

EXPOSITION JOEL 2:1 These verses contain a further description of the calamity occasioned by the locusts and the appearance presented by them; the calling of a congregational meeting for penitence and prayer; the reason assigned in the coming of the day of the Lord. JOEL 2:1 BLOW YE THE TRUMPET (margin, cornet) in Zion, AND SOUND AN ALARM (or, cause it to sound) IN MY HOLY MOUNTAIN. The _shophar_, or far-sounding horn, and probably the _chatsoterah_,_ _the _hazar_ or silver trumpet, were called into requisition. The priests are urged with great vehemence, as _tiqu shophar _and _hariu _imply, to apprise the people that the day of Jehovah's terrible judgment was near

AND REND YOUR HEART, AND NOT YOUR GARMENTS,.... Which latter used to be done in times of distress, either private or public, and as a token of grief and sorrow, Genesis 37:34; nor was it criminal or unlawful, the apostles themselves used it, Acts 14:14; nor is it absolutely forbidden here, only comparatively, that they should rend their hearts rather than their garments; or not their garments only, but their hearts also; in like sense as the words in Hosea 6:6; are to be taken as rending garments was only an external token of sorrow and might be done hypocritically. Where no true repentance was, the Lord calls for that, rather than the other; and that they would show contrition of heart and brokenness of spirit under a sense of sin,

REPENTETH (_ See Scofield) - (Zechariah 8:14). _...

II. THE COMING DAY OF THE LORD: THE REPENTANCE AND RESTORATION OF ISRAEL CHAPTER 2 _ 1. The alarm sounded and the day at hand (Joel 2:1) _ 2. The invading army from the north (Joel 2:3) 3. The repentance of the people and cry for help (Joel 2:12) 4. “Then.” The great change (Joel 2:18) 5. Promises of restoration, and the early and latter rain (Joel 2:19) 6. The outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2:28) 7. Deliverance in Mount Zion

EVEN YET HUMILIATION AND REPENTANCE MAY AVERT THE WORST. But even now, though the calamity is so serious that it seems to be the precursor of the Day of Dread, Yahweh bids the people turn to Him with sincere repentance, for which a ritual of humiliation is the symbol, not the substitute. So gracious and full of forgiveness is He, reluctant to inflict even the evil which is but deserved chastisement, that He may at this late hour change His purpose (relent rather than repent), and remove the locusts, so that once more the land may yield corn and wine for the sacrifices of the Temple, its greatest felicity. Once again then Joel rings out the command that the solemn horns should sound the summons, and the whole community join in the service of intercession. None is so old or so young as to be excused from participating. Even the bridegroom whom the law of Deuteronomy 24:5 exempted from li