Yoel 2:18

18 Then will Hashem be jealous for His land, and take pity on His people.

Yoel 2:18 Meaning and Commentary

Joel 2:18

Then will the Lord be jealous for his land
Or "zealous" for it; for the honour of it, and the good of its inhabitants, and for the glory of his own name, it being the chief place in the world for his worship and service; and his indignation will be moved against those who have brought desolation on it: and pity his people;
as a father his children, who had suffered much, and had been reduced to great distress by the locusts, or by their enemies: this the prophet foretells would be done upon their repentance, fasting, prayers, and tears; or, as some think, this is a narrative of what had been done, and the prophet was a witness of; that the people meeting together with their princess and priests, and humbling themselves before the Lord, and crying to him, he expressed a zeal and compassion for them, and delivered them out of their troubles; for though their humiliation is not expressed, it may be understood and supposed, as doubtless, it was fact.

Yoel 2:18 In-Context

16 Gather the people, set apart as kodesh the kahal (congregation), assemble the zekenim, gather the olalim, even those nursing at the breast; let the choson go forth of his cheder, and the kallah out of her chuppah (canopy).

17 Let the kohanim, the mesharetim of Hashem, weep between the Ulam and the Mizbe’ach, and let them say, Spare Thy people, Hashem, and make not Thine nachalah (inheritance) an object of scorn, a byword among the Goyim. Why should they say among the peoples, Where is their G-d?

18 Then will Hashem be jealous for His land, and take pity on His people.

19 Yea, Hashem will answer and say unto His people, Hineni, I am sending you dagan, and tirosh, and yitzhar, and ye shall be satisfied therewith; and I will no more make you an object of scorn among the Goyim;

20 But I will remove far off from you the northern [army, army of locusts], and will drive him into an eretz barren and desolate, with his vanguard toward the eastern sea [Dead Sea], and his rearguard toward the western sea [Mediterranean Sea], and his stench and foul smell will go up. Surely it hath done great things.