Joel 2:25

25 And I will recompense you for the years which the locust, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, and the cankerworm have eaten, my great army, which I sent against 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 Rejoice then and be glad, ye children of Sion, in the Lord your God: for he has given you food fully, and he will rain on you the early and the latter rain, as before.

24 And the floors shall be filled with corn, and the presses shall overflow with wine and oil.

25 And I will recompense you for the years which the locust, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, and the cankerworm have eaten, my great army, which I sent against you.

26 And ye shall eat abundantly, and be satisfied, and shall praise the name of the Lord your God which he has wrought wonderfully with you: and my people shall not be ashamed for ever.

27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and I am the Lord your God, and there is none else beside me; and my people shall no more be ashamed for ever.