Joel 2:16

Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Sanctify the congregation - o: "Do what in you lies, by monishing, exhorting, threatening, giving the example of a holy life, that the whole people present itself holy before its God" , "lest your prayers be hindered, and a little leaven corrupt the whole lump."

Assemble the elders - o: "The judgment concerned all; all then were to join in seeking mercy from God. None were on any pretence to be exempted; not the oldest, whose strength was decayed, or the youngest, who might seem not yet of strength." The old also are commonly freer from sin and more given to prayer.

Gather the children - o: "He Who feedeth the young ravens when they cry, will not neglect the cry of poor children. He assigns as a reason, why it were fitting to spare Nineveh, the "six-score thousand persons that could not discern between their right hand and their left" Jonah 4:11. The sight of them who were involved in their parents' punishment could not but move the parents to greater earnestness. So when Moab and Ammon 2 Chronicles 20:1-4, 2 Chronicles 20:13, a great multitude, came against Jehoshaphat, he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah, and Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord; even out of all the cities of Judah, they came to seek the Lord. And all Judah was standing before the Lord, their little ones also, their wives, and their children." So it is described in the book of Judith, how "with great vehemency did they humble their souls, both they and their wives and their children - and every man and woman and the little children - fell before the temple, and cast ashes upon their heads and spread out their sackcloth before the Face of the Lord" (Judith 4:9-11).

Let the bridegroom go forth - He says not even, the married, or the newly married, he who had taken a new wife, but he uses the special terms of the marriage-day, "bridegroom" and "bride." The new-married man was, during a year, exempted from going out to war, or from any duties which might "press upon him" Deuteronomy 24:5. But nothing was to free from this common affliction of sorrow. Even the just newly married, although it were the very day of the bridal, were to leave the marriage-chamber and join in the common austerity of repentance. It was mockery of God to spend in delights time consecrated by Him to sorrow. He says, "In that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth. And behold joy and gladness - surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you until ye die, saith the Lord God of Hosts" Isaiah 22:12-14. Whence, in times of fasting or prayer, the Apostle suggests the giving up of pure pleasures, "that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer" 1 Corinthians 7:5.

: "He then who, by chastisement in food and by fasting and alms, says that he is doing acts of repentance, in vain doth he promise this in words, unless he "go forth out of his chamber" and fulfill a holy and pure fast by a chaste penitence."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16. sanctify the congregation—namely, by expiatory rites and purification with water [Calvin], (Ex 19:10, 22). Maurer translates, "appoint a solemn assembly," which would be a tautological repetition of Joe 2:15.

elders … children—No age was to be excepted (2Ch 20:13).

bridegroom—ordinarily exempted from public duties (De 24:5; compare 1Co 7:5, 29).

closet—or, nuptial bed, from a Hebrew root "to cover," referring to the canopy over it.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Gather the people, assemble the elders: see Joel 1:14.

Gather the children; though they understand little what is done, yet their cries under the affliction of a fast ascend, God hears, and with pity looks on their tears.

And those that suck the breasts; let your fast be most universal, spare not sucking children, bring them with you; their tears and cries may perhaps move the congregation to greater mourning and earnest supplication to God for mercy, or will be a fit object to present unto the God of mercy to move him to show mercy. So the Ninevites, Jonah 3:7,8.

Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber; let the new-married man leave the mirth of the nuptials, and lay aside his bravery awhile, and afflict himself with the rest.

And the bride out of her closet, or chamber, in which with the virgins she adorned herself or caressed them. That these may more earnestly seek the Lord, let them at this season forbear lawful delights.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Gather the people,.... The common people, all the inhabitants of the land, Joel 1:14; summon them to meet together in the temple, in order to humble themselves before God for their sins, and implore his mercy, and seek his face to remove his judgments, or avert them:

sanctify the congregation; see that they are sanctified and prepared for a fast, as the law directs in such cases; that they may be clean and free from all ceremonial impurities; that their bodies and clothes be washed, and that they abstain from their wives, and from all lawful pleasures, as well as sinful ones:

assemble the elders; both in age and authority; that they, by their presence and example, might influence others to attend such a service:

gather the children and those that suck the breast; who were involved in the common calamity and distress, were obliged to fasting and whose cries might affect parents, and engage them the more to humiliation and repentance for their sins, which brought such, miseries, not only upon themselves, but upon their tender infants; and they might think their cries would move the pity and compassion of God; all which is suggested in the note of Kimchi:

let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet; where they are adorning themselves and preparing for an interview with each other; or where they are enjoying each other's embraces and the pleasures of the matrimonial state. The sense is, let them put off their nuptial robes, and deny themselves their lawful pleasures, and betake themselves to fasting mourning, and prayer; see 1 Corinthians 7:5. This refers to a custom among the Jews at the time of espousals when the bridegroom and bride were introduced into the nuptial chamber, where the marriage was completed; and, according to the Jewish writes it was not finished before: the blessing of the bridegroom and bride did not complete the marriage but the bringing of them into the chamber did; and then they were said to he married, though as yet they had not cohabited and then, and not before a man might enjoy his wife (x): and the marriage chamber was nothing else but a linen cloth or garment spread upon four poles over the head of the bridegroom and bride; this they called (y); the word is here rendered a "closet" and the same with the "chamber"; and their leaving and coming out of this signifies their abstaining from the lawful enjoyment of each other, which now they had a right unto.

(x) Maimon. Hilchot Ishot, c. 10. sect. 2, 4. Schulchan Aruch, par. 2. Eben Hezer, c. 55. sect. 2, 3.((y) R. Elias Levita, Tishbi in p. 119.

Geneva Study Bible

Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the {l} children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.

(l) That as all have sinned, so all may show forth signs of their repentance, so that men seeing the children who are not free from God's wrath, might be the more deeply touched with the consideration of their own sins.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. An expansion of the injunctions contained in the rest of Joel 1:14 a.

sanctify an assembly] i.e. hold a sacred religious meeting.

gather the elders] the old men (R.V. marg.). All are to take part in the great public act of national humiliation and supplication, neither old men nor children are to be excepted; even the newly married bride and bridegroom, who might deem themselves entitled to claim exemption from such duties (cf. Deuteronomy 24:5), are to come forth from their retirement for the purpose.

closet] rather, pavilion; the idea suggested by ‘closet’ is too modern. The reference is no doubt to the special nuptial tent (cf. 2 Samuel 16:22), still, in Arabia, erected for the consummation of a marriage. In Arabic a common phrase for ‘to marry a wife’ is ‘to build over her’ (sc. a tent, with reference to this custom). The later bridal bed, with its canopy, appears to be a survival of the more primitive ‘tent’[40]. Ḥuppâh is a rare word in Hebrew: in Psalm 19:5 it is spoken of also as the bridegroom’s. Here ḥéder (‘chamber’), in the parallel clause, appears to be merely a poetical synonym of it[41].

[40] See W. R. Smith, Marriage and Kinship in Early Arabia, pp. 167–170, 291; Wellhausen’s essay, Die Ehe bei den Arabern in the Göttingen Nachrichten, 1893, No. 11, p. 444 f.; and Levy’s Neuhebr. Wörterbuch, s. v. נִּנּוּן (1:348), and חוּפָּה (2:92).

[41] Cf. Jdg 14:18, where החדֵרה should probably be read for החרסה, “before he went into the bride-chamber”

Joel 2:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

To make this admonition still more emphatic, the prophet concludes by repeating the appeal for the appointment of a meeting in the temple for prayer, and even gives the litany in which the priests are to offer their supplication. Joel 2:15. "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, proclaim a meeting. Joel 2:16. Gather the people together, sanctify an assembly, bring together the old men, gather together the children and sucklings at the breasts. Let the bridegroom go out of his chamber, and the bride out of her room. Joel 2:17. Between the porch and the altar are the priests, the servants of Jehovah, to weep and say, Spare, O Jehovah, Thy people, and give not up Thine inheritance to shame, so that the heathen scoff at them. Wherefore should men say among the nations, Where is their God?" Joel 2:15 is a literal repetition from Joel 2:1 and Joel 1:14; Joel 1:16 a more detailed expansion of Joel 1:14, in which, first of all, the people generally (עם) are mentioned, and then the objection of the summons explained in the words קדּשׁוּ קהל, "Call a holy meeting of the congregation." But in order that none may think themselves exempt, the people are more precisely defined as old men, children, and sucklings. Even the bride and bridegroom are to give up the delight of their hearts, and take part in the penitential and mournful worship. No age, no rank, is to stay away, because no one, not even the suckling, is free from sin; but all, without exception, are exposed to the judgment. "A stronger proof of the deep and universal guilt of the whole nation could not be found, than that on the great day of penitence and prayer, even new-born infants were to be carried in their arms" (Umbreit). The penitential supplication of the whole nation is to be brought before the Lord by the priests as the mediators of the nation. יבכּוּ in Joel 1:17 is jussive, like יצא in Joel 1:16, though Hitzig disputes this, but on insufficient grounds. The allusion to the priests in the former could only be unsuitable, if they were merely commanded to go to the temple like the rest of the people. But it is not to this that Joel 1:17 refers, but to the performance of their official duty, when the people had assembled for the penitential festival. They were to stand between the porch of the temple and the altar of burnt-offering, i.e., immediately in front of the door of the holy place, and there with tears entreat the Lord, who was enthroned in the sanctuary, not to give up the people of His possession (nachălâh as in 1 Kings 8:51; cf. Deuteronomy 4:20; Deuteronomy 32:9) to the reproach of being scoffed at by the heathen. למשׁל־בּם גּוים is rendered by Luther and others, "that heathen rule over them," after the ancient versions; and Psalm 106:41; Deuteronomy 15:6, and Lamentations 5:8, might be appealed to in support of this rendering. But although grammatically allowable, it is not required by the parallelism, as Hengstenberg maintains. For even if the reproach of Israel could consist in the fact that they, the inheritance of the Lord, were subjected to the government of heathen, this thought is very remote from the idea of the passage before us, where there is no reference at all in the threatening of punishment to subjection to the heathen, but simply to the devastation of the land. משׁל with ב also signifies to utter a proverb ( equals to scoff) at any one, for which Ezekiel indeed makes use of משׁל משׁל (Ezekiel 17:2; Ezekiel 18:2, and in Ezekiel 12:23 and Ezekiel 18:3 construed with ב); but it is evident that mâshal was sometimes used alone in this sense, from the occurrence of mōshelı̄m in Numbers 21:27 as a term applied to the inventors of proverbs, and also of meshōl as a proverb or byword in Job 17:6, whether we take the word as an infinitive or a substantive. This meaning, as Marck observes, is rendered probable both by the connection with חרפּה, and also by the parallel clause which follows, viz., "Wherefore should men among the heathen say," etc., more especially if we reflect that Joel had in his mind not Deuteronomy 15:6, which has nothing in common with the passage before us except the verb mâshal, but rather Deuteronomy 28:37, where Moses not only threatens the people with transportation to another land for their apostasy from the Lord, and that they shall become "an astonishment, a proverb (mâshâl), and a byword" among all nations, but (Deuteronomy 28:38, Deuteronomy 28:40-42) also threatens them with the devastation of their seed-crops, their vineyards, and their olive-grounds by locusts. Compare also 1 Kings 9:7-8, where not only the casting out of Israel among the heathen, but even the destruction of the temple, is mentioned as the object of ridicule on the part of the heathen; also the combination of לחרפּה and למשׁל in Jeremiah 24:9. But Joel 2:19 is decisive in favour of this view of למשׁל בם ג. The Lord there promises that He will send His people corn, new wine, and oil, to their complete satisfaction, and no longer make them a reproach among the nations; so that, according to this, it was not subjugation or transportation by heathen foes that gave occasion to the scoffing of the nations at Israel, but the destruction of the harvest by the locusts. The saying among the nations, "Where is their God?" is unquestionably a sneer at the covenant relation of Jehovah to Israel; and to this Jehovah could offer no inducement, since the reproach would fall back upon Himself. Compare for the fact itself, Exodus 32:12; Micah 7:10, and Psalm 115:2. Thus the prayer closes with the strongest reason why God should avert the judgment, and one that could not die away without effect.