Between the Porch and the Altar
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion! Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. 16 Gather the people. Sanctify the assembly. Assemble the elders. Gather the children, and those who nurse from breasts. Let the bridegroom go out of his room, and the bride out of her chamber. 17 Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, “Spare your people, Yahweh, and don’t give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
The call of chapter 1 is repeated word for word, and this time nobody is exempt — not nursing infants, not couples on their wedding day.
Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. The three imperatives repeat Joel 1:14 almost exactly, which is the book's way of saying that the first call was right and is now urgent.
Verse 16 extends the guest list past what anyone would have expected. Gather the people, sanctify the assembly, assemble the elders, gather the children — and those who nurse from the breast. Then the exemption that Scripture elsewhere grants is deliberately canceled: let the bridegroom go out of his room, and the bride out of her chamber. The law released a newly married man from military service and public duty for a year Deuteronomy 24:5. This is the one occasion that overrides it.
Verse 17 positions the priests between the porch and the altar — in the courtyard, facing the sanctuary, standing where they would normally have something to offer — and gives them their prayer. Spare your people. Do not give your heritage to reproach. And the argument they are told to use is not their own worthiness but God's reputation: why should they say among the peoples, where is their God?
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