Joel 2:23

Be glad then, ye children of Zion,.... The people of the Jews, and especially the spiritual and believing part of them; such as were born again, that were born of Zion, and born in Zion, and brought

Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things. Fear not, O land ... Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field ... Be glad then, ye children of Zion.

Be glad then, ye children of Zion: in the former verse the prophet, by a usual figure, and with known elegancy, called on land and beasts, though they understood him not; now he addresseth himself to them that can understand their work as well as their advantages, and the children of Zion, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea, who were called to fast and weep. Rejoice in the Lord; show yourselves sensible of your mercies, thankful to that free bounty which gave your mercies; rejoice, but not only in your barns, garners, and bellies full, but in the eternal God, who hath been found of you. Your God; as such you were advised to seek him, as such own him, rejoice in him, and ascribe glory to him, who keepeth covenant to a thousand generations, and hath remembered his covenant for you in this your low estate. He hath given you the former rain moderately; the Hebrew will bear it, a teacher of, or unto, or according to, righteousness. Either some eminent prophet, or prophets, as Isaiah, or Joel himself, but as forerunners and types of the great Prophet Christ; so the words will be a promise of the Messiah, and lead these children of Zion to the Messiah, as the fountain of all the blessings they receive of God in temporals as well as spirituals: it is usual in Scripture thus to pass from temporal to spiritual, and from spiritual to temporal promises and blessings; so , &c, with : but since our best interpreters retain, as ours, this version, rain moderately, or in due measure. We adhere to it also: God had sent sweet, gentle, yet sufficient showers to make the earth fruitful, and these showers have made pastures and trees to spring, flourish, and be fruitful. And he will cause to come down for you the rain; as he hath already given some, so he will give more, as the earth and trees shall need. The former rain; the autumn rain, which is needful to mellow the earth, and fit it to receive the corn and fruits, and to plant and sow them, about September. The latter rain; needful to bring forward and ripen the fruits planted or sown, accounted the latter rain because these husbandmen and vine-dressers reckoned from seed time unto spring and harvest. In the first month; that is, our March; both these rains, as promised , shall be given from heaven.

Joe 2:23 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first [month].Ver. 23. Be glad then, ye children of Zion] "Ye righteous ones," Psalms 32:11, and none else; for joy is the just man’ s portion, and none have any reason to rejoice but such; nay, they are flatly forbidden it, Hosea 9:1. See the note there. "Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let the saints be joyful in glory," Psalms 149:2; Psalms 149:5. Gaudeant in re, gaudeant in spe, gaudeant de possessione, gaudeant de promissione, saith Bernard. If Plato could tell the musicians, philosophers knew how to dine and sup without them, they could be merry without a fiddler, how much more may Zion’ s children! Be it that there is a cord in the sin of the wicked, to strangle their joy with, yet the "righteous sing and are merry," Proverbs 29:6. In the greatest fail of all outward comforts, they can "rejoice in the Lord their God," as here, and as David at the sack of Ziklag, 1 Samuel 30:6; and Habakkuk, amidst all the miseries of the world and malice of Satan, iii. 17. It is in the Lord their God that they rejoice, it is a holy and spiritual joy, not profane and carnal, as is the wordling’ s, who feedeth upon ashes, &c., Isaiah 44:20, rejoiceth in a thing of nought, Amos 6:13; his joy is no better than a little counterfeit complexion, crackling of thorns, &c. For he hath given you the former rain moderately] As a pledge of his love, and as a fruit of the covenant. Moderate showers ye shall have, neither too much nor too hasty; rain of righteousness in such measure and moderation as shall be needful. And he will cause to come down for you] The vanities of the heathen cannot give rain, Jeremiah 14:22, nor can the heavens yield showers. God therefore must be waited upon, James 5:7; and prayed unto, Joe 2:18, and the thundering legion, κεραυνοβολος, so famous in Church history. He must not have cause given him to complain of men’ s brutishness and inadvertence, as Jeremiah 10:18; Jeremiah 10:14. The former rain] That fell in October, when they had sown. St James calleth it the morning rain, πρωιμον, James 5:7. And the latter rain] Heb. the gathering rain, because it fills and fits the corn for ingathering; as falling about May and a little before their harvest. In the first] Not month, but primo quoque tempore, as soon as is fit. See Zechariah 10:1.

(23) Ye children of Zion—i.e., they were called upon to manifest their rejoicings in the place where the trumpet had been sounded for the proclamation of the fast. The former rain moderately.—St. Paul adduces the gift of the rain as a witness to the people of Lystra of the existence and beneficence of God, who “gave us rain from heaven, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” The possibility of the interpretation of “the former rain moderately” out of the Hebrew words by a “teacher of righteousness,” as in the Vulg. and in our margin, has led to the connection of this passage with a prophetic intimation of the advent of the Messiah. In the first month.—Better, as at first, as before.

Verse 23. The former rain moderately] המורה לצדקה hammoreh litsedakah, "the former rain in righteousness," that is, in due time and in just proportion. This rain fell after autumn, the other in spring. See Hosea 6:3. In the first month.] בראשון barishon, "as aforetime." So Bp. Newcome. In the month Nisan. - Syriac.

23. hath given] another instance of the prophetic perfect. the former rain … and the latter rain] Heb. mτreh, and malḳ ?τsh: the rains which marked respectively the beginning and the close of the wet season, coming in Oct.–Nov. and March–April respectively. The “former rain” moistens the earth and fits it to receive the seeds which are sown shortly afterwards: the “latter rain” is important forgiving fulness and strength to the ripening crops: if either rain fails, the ensuing harvest is seriously damaged. Comp. Deuteronomy 11:14; Jeremiah 5:24. The refreshing and invigorating effects of the “latter rain” are alluded to in Hosea 6:3; Proverbs 16:15; Job 29:23 : in Jeremiah 3:3 it is spoken of as having been “withheld.” moderately] according to righteousness (comp. Hosea 10:12 Heb.), i.e. as His righteousness prompts Him to give it (cf. Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 45:13). R.V. in just measure does not adequately bring out the force of the expression. The Heb. words rendered “the former rain moderately” would admit also of the rendering “the teacher unto righteousness” (teacher, as Isaiah 30:20, of the prophets). This is an old Jewish interpretation, found in the Targ., Symm., Vulg. (doctorem justitiae), Rashi, Abarbanel; adopted hence in A.V. marg., and by some moderns, as Keil, Pusey, Merx, the reference being supposed to be to the Messiah. But the context, which from Joe 2:22 to Joe 2:26 speaks solely of the gifts of the earth, is much opposed to this explanation; the spiritual gifts follow in Joe 2:28-29. will cause, &c.] hath caused. The future tense, though correct as an interpretation, is utterly unjustifiable as a translation; the tense in the original is the historical one, which normally in Hebrew (Genesis 1:3-10, &c.) introduces the sequel to a preceding historical one. The prophet, however, maintains the standpoint which he has adopted before (hath done Joe 2:21; have sprung &c. Joe 2:22; hath given Joe 2:23), using “prophetic” pasts, and describing what is future as though it were already accomplished. There is an exactly similar case in Isaiah 9:6 (Hebrews 5): shall be (twice) ought there to be grammatically is, the prophet still maintaining the standpoint of Joe 2:1-4 (Heb. 8:23–9:3), and continuing to describe the future in terms of the past. the rain] gιshem, an abundant rain, or winter-rain (on Amos 4:7). the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month] The first month (of the ecclesiastical year) was Nisan, which corresponded to part of our March–April, and so would agree with the time of the “latter rain”; but the addition destroys the balance of the two clauses, besides being otiose (since every one would know at what period of the year the “latter rain” might be expected). Others (placing the comma differently) render, “the former rain and the latter rain, at the first” (so R.V. marg.), or first of all,—in contrast namely to the spiritual gifts to be added afterwards (Joe 3:1); this yields a tolerable sense, but implies αψΰωεπδ (Zechariah 12:7; Deuteronomy 13:10 al.) for αψΰωεο.

Be glad then and rejoice in the Lord your God - All things had been restored for their sakes; they were to rejoice, not chiefly in these things, but in God; nor only in God, but in the Lord their God.

23. Children of Zion — In the narrower sense this expression includes only the inhabitants of Jerusalem; here probably all who suffered from the locusts, the inhabitants of Judah.