Joel 2:25

And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) I will restore to you the years—i.e., the years which would have been necessary in the ordinary course of nature for the land to recover from the ravages of the “great army.”

Benson Commentary

Joel 2:25-27. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten — I will compensate you, or make you amends, for what the locusts have eaten in the foregoing years, by an extraordinary plenty of the fruits of the earth. This verse proves, beyond a doubt, that they mistake who interpret this prophecy of a hostile invasion of Judea; for it seems to be a general rule in the prophecies, that when any thing of a common nature is expressed by metaphors, that which is the literal sense of these metaphors is generally signified in the conclusion, that there may be no mistake about it. Of this many instances have been given; and perhaps no instances of the use of metaphors in the prophetic writings, about things of a common nature, can be brought, but that in the end the metaphor is explained, and what is meant by it expressly declared. But here, instead of any indication in the conclusion of a metaphor’s being used, or what is meant by that metaphor, the locust is literally spoken of as being the cause of that calamity, and, indeed, in such very express terms, that the passage cannot, without great violence, be interpreted of a hostile invasion. “We have here,” says Archbishop Newcome, “a key to the grand and beautiful description which runs through these two chapters. And if we consider Joel 2:7, and the propriety of the adjuncts, as applicable to locusts, and often to locusts only, there can remain no doubt but that the prophet is to be understood in a literal sense, as foretelling a plague of locusts. Every reader of taste must be struck with the poetical and sublime manner in which the allegory is conducted. There is not a more splendid piece of poetry extant.” And my people shall never be ashamed — Provided they continue to serve me. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel — God’s giving tokens of his especial blessing and protection to his people, is expressed by his dwelling among them, or in the midst of them, Joel 3:17; Leviticus 26:11-12; Ezekiel 37:26. This is a favour he never promises, but upon condition of their sincere and steady obedience: as appears in the fore-cited places. And that I am the Lord your God, and none else — You will then be convinced that I am always ready to protect you, and you need not apply yourselves to any other gods in your wants or troubles. And my people shall never be ashamed — Shall not be any more disappointed of the trust they place in me, nor be reproached by the heathen, as if I had forsaken them.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:15-27 The priests and rulers are to appoint a solemn fast. The sinner's supplication is, Spare us, good Lord. God is ready to succour his people; and he waits to be gracious. They prayed that God would spare them, and he answered them. His promises are real answers to the prayers of faith; with him saying and doing are not two things. Some understand these promises figuratively, as pointing to gospel grace, and as fulfilled in the abundant comforts treasured up for believers in the covenant of grace.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten - The order in which these destroyers are named not being the same as before, it is plain that the stress is not on the order, but on the successiveness of the inroads, scourge after scourge. It is plain too that they did not come in the same year, or two years, but year after year, for he says, not "year," but in the plural, "years." The locusts, although not the whole plague, intended, are not excluded. : "As the power of God was shewn in the plagues of Egypt by small animals, such as the cyniphes, gnats so small as scarce to be seen, so also now," in creatures so small "is shown the power of God and weakness of man. If a creature so small is stronger than man, "why are earth and ashes proud?" The locusts, small as they are, are in God's hands "a great army," (and from this place probably, Muhammed taught his followers so to call them) and mighty empires are but "the forces of God and messengers of His Providence for the punishing of" His people "by them," "the rod of His Anger;" and when they have done their commission and are cast away by Him, they are as the vilest worms.

: "Since then after repentance God promises such richness, what will Novatus say, who denies repentance or that sinners can be reformed into their former state, if they but do works meet for repentance? For God in such wise receives penitents, as to call them His people, and to say, that they "shall never be confounded," and to promise, that He will dwell in the midst of them, and that they shall have no other God, but shall, with their whole mind, trust in Him who abides in them forever."

Through repentance all which had been lost by sin, is restored. In itself deadly sin is an irreparable evil. It deprives the soul of grace, of its hope of glory; it forfeits heaven, it merits hell. God, through Christ, restores the sinner, blots out sin, and does away with its eternal consequences. He replaces the sinner where he was before he fell. So God says by Ezekiel; "If the wicked will turn from all the sins which he hath committed and keep all My statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die; all his transgressions that he hath committed shall not be mentioned unto him" Ezekiel 18:21-22; and, "as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness" Ezekiel 33:12. God forgives that wickedness, as though it had never been. If it had never been, man would have all the grace, which he had before his fall.

So then also, after he has been forgiven, none of his former grace, no store of future glory, will be taken from him. The time which the sinner lost, in which he might have gained increase of grace and glory, is lost forever. But all which he had gained before, returns. All his lost love returns through penitence; all his past attainments, which were before accepted by God, are accepted still for the same glory. "Former works which were deadened by sins following, revive through repentance" . The penitent begins anew God's service, but he is not at the beginning of that service, nor of his preparation for life eternal. If the grace which he had before, and the glory corresponding to that grace, and to his former attainments through that grace, were lost to him, then, although eternally blessed, he would be punished eternally for forgiven sin, which, God has promised, should "not be remembered."

God has also promised to reward all which is "done in the body 2 Corinthians 5:10. What is evil, is effaced by the Blood of Jesus. What, through His Grace, was good, and done for love of Himself, He rewards, whether it was before anyone fell, or after his restoration. Else He would not, as He says He will, reward all. And who would not believe, that, after David's great fall and great repentance, God still rewarded all that great early simple faith and patience, which He gave him? Whence writers of old say , "It is pious to believe that the recovered grace of God which destroys a man's former evils, also reintegrates his good, and that God, when He hath destroyed in a man what is not His, loves the good which He implanted even in the sinner." : "God is pleased alike with the virtue of the just, and the meet repentance of sinners, which restored to their former estate David and Peter." "Penitence is an excellent thing which recalleth to perfection every defect." : "God letteth His sun arise on sinners, nor doth He less than before, give them, most large gifts of life and salvation."

Whence, since the cankerworm, etc. are images of spiritual enemies, this place has been paraphrased ; "I will not allow the richness of spiritual things to perish which ye lost through the passions of the mind." Nay, since none can recover without the grace of God and using that grace, the penitent, who really rises again by the grace of God, rises with larger grace than before, since he has both the former grace, and; in addition, this new grace, whereby he rises.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. locust … cankerworm … caterpiller … palmer worm—the reverse order from Joe 1:4, where (see on [1134]Joe 1:4) God will restore not only what has been lost by the full-grown consuming locust, but also what has been lost by the less destructive licking locust, and swarming locust, and gnawing locust.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I will restore; make up to you, or compensate: the lean years of Egypt did eat up the fat, but with you now the fat years shall feed and enrich the lean ones.

The years: by this it appears that this dreadful famine by these insects was longer than of one year’s continuance, and perhaps countenanceth the Jewish conjecture of four because four sorts of insects are mentioned. These in the late years devoured the fruit of the earth, but now God will restore the fruits.

The locust, & c.; all recounted Joel 1:4, with little variation of the order wherein named.

My great army: see Joel 2:3-11.

Which I sent: there was somewhat extraordinary in these armies of insects by which the people then living and afflicted by them might see they were sent immediately from Heaven, though history do not report it to us.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten,.... Or "I will recompense to you the years" (m); give you fruitful ones, as a full compensation for those in which the locust ate up the fruits of the earth for some years running:

the canker worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer worm; of which see Joel 1:4;

my great army which I sent among you; as in Joel 2:11; the Targum of the whole is,

"and I will recompense unto you good years, in the room of the years in which the people, nations, and tongues, the governors and kingdoms of vengeance, spoiled you, my great army which I sent among you;''

and Kimchi observes, that the sense of the Targumist is, that this verse is a prophecy of the days of the Messiah; as no doubt it is, in which the Lord has done for his people, as Moses prayed he would, "make them glad according to the days wherein he afflicted them, and the years wherein they had seen evil", Psalm 90:15; the times of the Messiah, in which so many good things come to the people of God, are a sufficient recompence for what they endured in times past. Of the Mahometan notion of locusts being the army of God; see Gill on Joel 2:11.

(m) "et rependam vobis", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Vatablus, Tarnovius; "compensabo", Grotius, Cocceius.

Geneva Study Bible

And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. Abundance in place of the deprivations of Joel 1:4.

And I] The discourse of the prophet passing imperceptibly, as often, into that of Jehovah: cf. e.g. Isaiah 3:4; Isaiah 13:11; Isaiah 56:7; Isaiah 60:7; Isaiah 60:21.

the years] The expression shews that the visitation of locusts, spoken of in ch. 1, was not confined to a single year.

the locust …, the cankerworm, the caterpillar, and the palmerworm] the swarmer …, the lapper, the finisher, and the shearer: see on Joel 1:4. Army, as Joel 2:11.

Joel 2:25

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Effects of the rain. Joel 2:24. "And the barns become full of corn, and the vats flow over with new wine and oil. Joel 2:25. And I repay to you the years which the locust has eaten, the licker, and the devourer, and the gnawer, my great army which I sent among you. Joel 2:26. And ye will eat, eat and be satisfied, and praise the name of Jehovah your God, who hath done wondrously with you; and my people shall not be put to shame to all eternity. Joel 2:27. And ye will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and I((am) Jehovah your God, and none else, and my people shall not be put to shame to all eternity." Joel 2:24 is practically the same as Joel 2:19, and the counterpart to Joel 1:10-12. השׁיק from שׁוּק, to run, hiphil only here and Joel 3:13, to run over, to overflow; pilel, Psalm 65:10, shōqēq, to cause to overflow. יקבים, the vats of the wine-presses, into which the wine flows when trodden out; here it also applies to the vats of the oil-presses, into which the oil ran as it was pressed out. Through these bountiful harvests God would repay to the people the years, i.e., the produce of the years, which the locusts ate. The plural, shânı̄m, furnishes no certain proof that Joel referred in ch. 1 to swarms of locusts of several successive years; but is used either with indefinite generality, as in Genesis 21:7, or with a distinct significance, viz., as a poetical expression denoting the greatness and violence of the devastation. On the different names of the locusts, see at Joel 1:4. It is to be observed here that the copula stands before the last two names, but not before yeleq, so that the last three names belong to one another as co-ordinates (Hitzig), i.e., they are merely different epithets used for 'arbeh, the locusts.