Joel 2:25

25 I will give back to you the years which were food for the locust, the plant-worm, the field-fly, and the worm, my great army which I sent among you.

Joel 2:25 Meaning and Commentary

Joel 2:25

And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath
eaten
Or "I will recompense to you the years" ^F13; 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", ( Psalms 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).

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 (Mkl ytmlvw) "et rependam vobis", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Vatablus, Tarnovius; "compensabo", Grotius, Cocceius.

Joel 2:25 In-Context

23 Be glad, then, you children of Zion, and have joy in the Lord your God: for he gives you food in full measure, making the rain come down for you, the early and the late rain as at the first.

24 And the floors will be full of grain, and the crushing-places overflowing with wine and oil.

25 I will give back to you the years which were food for the locust, the plant-worm, the field-fly, and the worm, my great army which I sent among you.

26 You will have food in full measure, and give praise to the name of the Lord your God, who has done wonders for you:

27 And you will be certain that I am in Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and there is no other: and my people will never be shamed.