Tear Your Heart
12 “Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” 13 Tear your heart and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity. 14 Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to Yahweh, your God.
Two words interrupt the judgment — yet even now — and what follows is an appeal grounded in God's own name.
Yet even now, says Yahweh. The book turns on that phrase. After a chapter and a half of ruin and an unanswerable question, the offer has not expired, and the timing is emphasized rather than the terms.
What is asked is a return with all the heart, with fasting, weeping and mourning. Then verse 13 corrects the obvious misreading before it can happen: tear your heart and not your garments. Tearing the clothes was the recognized sign of grief, and the instruction does not forbid it — it refuses to accept it as the thing itself.
The ground of the appeal is God's own self-description, spoken to Moses: gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in lovingkindness Exodus 34:6. Joel adds a clause Exodus does not have — and relents from sending calamity — and the identical expanded form is the one Jonah throws back at God in complaint Jonah 4:2. Joel uses it to draw his people in.
And verse 14 keeps the honesty of the offer: who knows? He may turn and relent. Nothing is promised in advance, and the possible outcome named is modest — enough grain and wine left to make an offering with.
settled What this mark means