Joel 2:1

1 Blow the trumpet; sound the alarm on Zion, God's sacred hill. ^[a] Tremble, people of Judah! The day of the Lord is coming soon.

Joel 2:1 Meaning and Commentary

Joel 2:1

Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy
mountain
This is spoken to the priests, whose business it was to blow the trumpets for calling solemn assemblies to meet in Zion, the temple built there, called from thence the holy mountain of God. Here the trumpet is ordered to be blown with a broken quivering voice, a tarantantara, to give notice of approaching danger by the locusts, or those enemies signified by them, and to prepare for it, and return to God by repentance; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble;
at the judgments of God coming upon them, and the alarm of them: for the day of the Lord cometh, for [it is] nigh at hand;
the time fixed by him to punish a wicked people, and to pour out his wrath and vengeance on them; the day of his visitation, not in love, but in anger.

Joel 2:1 In-Context

1 Blow the trumpet; sound the alarm on Zion, God's sacred hill. Tremble, people of Judah! The day of the Lord is coming soon.

2 It will be a dark and gloomy day, a black and cloudy day. The great army of locusts advances like darkness spreading over the mountains. There has never been anything like it, and there never will be again.

3 Like fire they eat up the plants. In front of them the land is like the Garden of Eden, but behind them it is a barren desert. Nothing escapes them.

4 They look like horses; they run like war-horses.

5 As they leap on the tops of the mountains, they rattle like chariots; they crackle like dry grass on fire. They are lined up like a great army ready for battle.

Footnotes

• [a]. sacred hill: [Mount Zion (see Zion in Word List).]