A. A Call to Repentance (2:12-17)

As is often the case among the prophets, Joel uses a contemporary disaster to warn the people of impending judgment and to call them to repentance. Although fasting and weeping and mourning are elements of “returning” (the word translated “return” is shub, the primary word for repentance [v.12]), Joel adds a profound element to the meaning of repentance. He urges them to rend [their] hearts and not [their] garments. Hope is expressed that the Lord will relent in his wrath (vv.13-14). If repentance is thus a genuine expression of inner remorse, then external acts are in order: the whole of the people from the priest to the infant are to assemble and fast and pray that the Lord might spare them (vv.15-17; cf. 1:14).