Then will the Lord be jealous for His land - Upon repentance, all is changed. Before, God seemed set upon their destruction. It was His great army which was ready to destroy them; He was at its head, giving the word. Now He is full of tender love for them, which resents injury done to them, as done to Himself. The word might more strictly perhaps be rendered, "And the Lord is jealous" . He would show how instantaneous the mercy and love of God for His people is, restrained while they are impenitent, flowing forth upon the first tokens of repentance. The word, "jealous for," when used of God, jealous for My holy Name Ezekiel 39:25, jealous for Jerusalem, Zechariah 1:14; Zechariah 8:2, is used, when God resents evil which had been actually inflicted.

Then will the Lord be jealous for his land,.... Or "zealous" for it; for the honour of it, and the good of its inhabitants, and for the glory of his own name, it being the chief place in the world for his worship and service; and his indignation will be moved against those who have brought desolation on it:

and pity his people; as a father his children, who had suffered much, and had been reduced to great distress by the locusts, or by their enemies: this the prophet foretells would be done upon their repentance, fasting, prayers, and tears; or, as some think, this is a narrative of what had been done, and the prophet was a witness of; that the people meeting together with their princess and priests, and humbling themselves before the Lord, and crying to him, he expressed a zeal and compassion for them, and delivered them out of their troubles; for though their humiliation is not expressed, it may be understood and supposed, as doubtless, it was fact.

Joel 2:18 and Joel 2:19 contain the historical statement, that in consequence of the penitential prayer of the priests, the Lord displayed His mercy to His people, and gave them a promise, the first part of which follows in Joel 2:19-27. Joel 2:18, Joel 2:19. "Then Jehovah was jealous for His land, and had compassion upon His people. And Jehovah answered, and said." The grammar requires that we should take the imperfects with Vav consec. in these clauses, as statements of what actually occurred. The passages in which imperfects with Vav cons. are either really or apparently used in a prophetic announcement of the future, are of a different kind; e.g., in Joel 2:23, where we find one in a subordinate clause preceded by perfects. As the verb ויּען describes the promise which follows, as an answer given by Jehovah to His people, we must assume that the priests had really offered the penitential and supplicatory prayer to which the prophet had summoned them in Joel 2:17. The circumstance that this is not expressly mentioned, neither warrants us in rendering the verbs in Joel 2:17 in the present, and taking them as statements of what the priest really did (Hitzig), nor in changing the historical tenses in Joel 2:18, Joel 2:19 into futures. We have rather simply to supply the execution of the prophet's command between Joel 2:17 and Joel 2:18. קנּא with ל, to be jealous for a person, i.e., to show the jealousy of love towards him, as in Exodus 39:25; Zechariah 1:14 (see at Exodus 20:5). חמל as in Exodus 2:6; 1 Samuel 23:21. In the answer from Jehovah which follows, the three features in the promise are not given according to their chronological order; but in order to add force to the description, we have first of all, in Joel 2:19, a promise of the relief of the distress at which both man and beast had sighed, and then, in Joel 2:20, a promise of the destruction of the devastator; and it is not till Joel 2:21-23 that the third feature is mentioned in the further development of the promise, viz., the teacher for righteousness. Then finally, in Joel 2:23-27, the fertilizing fall of rain, and the plentiful supply of the fruits of the ground that had been destroyed by the locusts, are more elaborately described, as the first blessing bestowed upon the people.

Then will the LORD be {m} jealous for his land, and pity his people.

(m) If they repent he shows that God will preserve and defend them with a most fervent affection.

18. Then-when God sees His people penitent.

be jealous for his land-as a husband jealous of any dishonor done to the wife whom he loves, as if done to himself. The Hebrew comes from an Arabic root, "to be flushed in face" through indignation.

2:15-27 The priests and rulers are to appoint a solemn fast. The sinner's supplication is, Spare us, good Lord. God is ready to succour his people; and he waits to be gracious. They prayed that God would spare them, and he answered them. His promises are real answers to the prayers of faith; with him saying and doing are not two things. Some understand these promises figuratively, as pointing to gospel grace, and as fulfilled in the abundant comforts treasured up for believers in the covenant of grace.