Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Joel · About this commentary
Then Yahweh Was Jealous for His Land
Joel 2:18-20
18 Then Yahweh was jealous for his land, and had pity on his people. · WEB
The response is reported in two verbs and no explanation — and the book never says whether the people actually repented.
Then Yahweh was jealous for his land, and had pity on his people. The hinge of the book is stated in a single sentence, and the narrative economy is worth noticing: Joel does not describe the assembly, the fasting, or any human response at all. He records the call, and then he records God's reaction.
The two verbs are the whole answer to the question at Joel 2:11. Jealousy here is protective rather than suspicious — the same word used of God's claim on what is his — and pity is the verb for sparing someone in one's power.
Verse 19 reverses the losses in the order chapter 1 listed them: grain, new wine, and oil, and with them the end of reproach among the nations, which is exactly what the priests had been told to plead.
Verse 20 removes the army, and the geography is precise: driven into a barren land, its front to the eastern sea and its back to the western — the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean, so the swarm is pushed off both edges of the country. The detail about the stench is not decoration. It is how a farmer knows the thing is actually dead.
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