And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you.
Swarms of insects have stripped the land bare, and in that setting God makes one of the most generous promises in the Old Testament: He will give back the harvests they ate. Commentators ask who sent the swarm, when God keeps this promise, and whether lost years can ever come back.
The verse names four destroyers. One writer explains that these are not four insects but one creature at four points in its life:
The Hebrew words do not name four different kinds of insect. They name one insect, the locust, at four stages of growth. Gazam means "to gnaw off," Arbeh is "to be many"; this is the common name of the locusts because of their migratory habits. Jelek is "to lick off," and Chasel means "to devour or consume." The locust grows through four stages. First it is the gnawing locust, newly hatched. Then it gets its wings and flies about. After that it begins its destroying, licking off whatever it finds. At last it reaches full growth and devours everything in its path.
The most startling thing in the verse is that this destroying swarm belonged to God. He calls it His army and says He sent it. One writer sees the proof of that ownership in how the insects behave:
They march in instinctive order under a king no one can see. That shows whose army they are, and who commands them. "His army," the Lord calls them.
The promise does not stand alone. It follows a call to repentance, and writers tie the giving back of the years directly to that humbling:
The Lord would hear His people once they humbled themselves. He would fill their land with plenty, and the nations would no longer look down on them... They would receive the abundance of all the years which had failed. They would know for certain that the Lord was among them. He was their God, and no other. They would never be ashamed.
God does not simply balance the books. Commenting on the promise, one writer says the blessing runs past the damage:
So God will more than undo the harm. He will restore what He did not take away. He will wipe out all their past sorrow and shame with the fullness of His blessing.
Writers here read the promise as still future for Israel, not as something already done. The clue is the promise that follows in the same passage, that God's people will never face shame again:
Then the Lord will make good all the harm done by the locusts — the army He used to judge His people. "And My people shall never again be put to shame" (verse 27). This again is enough proof that all this remains unfulfilled.
Writers also apply the verse to any believer who has wasted time. One calls it unmatched for encouragement:
In the thousand pages of the Bible, no passage encourages a man or a woman who has drifted away from God more than this single verse in Joel... In every case of spiritual decline and later recovery, we must think back to the very spot where the decline began. There we must judge the root of the evil.
That same writer is careful about what "restore" can and cannot mean for us. Clock time does not come back:
As plain time, the years are gone for ever... But the spiritual substance matters far more than the stretch of time that grew it. The restoration applies to that spiritual substance. Mere length of life is nothing if it does not lead us to a greater enjoyment of eternal life.
- Sent — The locust is one insect in four devouring stages. God calls the whole swarm His army, and their ordered march shows who commands them.
- Stripped — What the insects took was real loss, and the loss came as chastening, not accident.
- Softened — The promise follows humbling. God fills the land with plenty for a people brought low before Him.
- Restored — He gives back what He did not take away, wiping out past sorrow and shame with the fullness of His blessing.
- Still ahead — The passage ends with God's people never again put to shame, so writers hold this restoration as still future. Meanwhile it encourages any believer who has drifted: what returns is spiritual substance, not clock time.
And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of Jehovah your God, who hath dealt wondrously with you and my people shall never be ashamed.
Joel has just promised rain, full threshing floors, and repayment for the years the locusts ate. Verse 26 is the human side of that promise, and it raises three questions: is the plenty literal, has it already come, and what is this "never again"?
The promise answers a call made earlier in the chapter: turn back to God. One writer ties the provision that follows to God's kindness.
Joel 2 speaks of "a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness." In view of that day, Joel urges the people to "return to the LORD your God, for He is… of great kindness." Blessing is in His heart for His people. The verses that follow show the provision which, in His kindness, is available for a repentant nation.
Older translations render Joel 2:13 "of great kindness"; the ESV reads "abounding in steadfast love."
The plenty followed a complete humbling:
The humbling was to be universal and complete. Even the priests were called to stand outside the sanctuary and cry to the LORD with the people, appealing to His faithfulness, so that the nations could not say, "Where is their God?" The LORD would hear His people humbled in this way. He would fill their land with plenty. He would pour a full and abundant blessing on the land of Israel, and the children of Zion would rejoice in the LORD their God.
"Eat in plenty and be satisfied" is not simply a return to how things were. The locusts had been God's own army sent against the land, and what He gives back outweighs what He took.
All is reversed. This is not Christianity, with its spiritual blessings in heavenly places and its scorn and suffering on earth for the faithful. It is earthly blessing and reward, along with divine and saving mercy… So God will more than undo the damage. He will restore what He did not take away. By the fullness of His blessing He will wipe out all their past sorrows and shame.
Another writer takes the rain of the earlier verses at face value and points to other Scriptures for support:
The rain has an entirely literal meaning. Read the following passages carefully for confirmation: Lev. 26:4; Deut. 11:14-17; 1 Kings 8:33-35 and Jer. 3:3.
The verse moves from the stomach to the mouth: satisfied people praise. The praise is not for the harvest as such but for the God who "has dealt wondrously" — and it belongs to a nation God now speaks to as belonging to Zion.
God now identifies the people with Zion and addresses them as "children of Zion." Suffering and sorrow are things of the past. Joy and gladness fill their cup to overflowing.
Shame here is public: being a reproach among the nations. Both the blessing and the Giver end it:
They would know for certain that the LORD was among them — He, the LORD, their God, and no other. They would never be ashamed. The blessing, and the One who gave it, would keep them from being a reproach among the nations.
The locust plague was real. But commentators say the promise is still unfulfilled, and the word "never" is their proof.
Then the Lord will repair all the harm done by the locusts — the army He used to judge His people. "And my people shall never again be put to shame." This again is enough proof that all of this remains unfulfilled.
One writer sees the famine as only the occasion; the prophecy itself runs on into the future:
Could anyone read the book and fail to see what God is doing? His present judgments and mercies are the occasion for drawing Israel's attention to their state. They lead the awakened conscience to God's judgment of evil, and on to full deliverance for those who repented and called on the name of the Lord. That is when the people would never be ashamed, and the Spirit poured out on all flesh… The famine linked their present circumstances to this promise of plenty and blessing. But no one can miss that the prophet looks on into future times.
- Repentance first. The plenty of verse 26 is God's answer to a nation called to return to Him, because He is of great kindness.
- Plenty next. God does more than repair the loss. He restores what He did not take away, and covers past sorrow with the fullness of His blessing.
- Satisfaction, not just supply. They eat and are satisfied, and their sorrow is past.
- Praise as the outcome. Their cup overflows with joy, and the praise goes to the God who has dealt wondrously with them.
- Shame ended for good. The blessing and the Giver together remove Israel's reproach among the nations. That "never" is why commentators say the promise still awaits its day.
And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, Jehovah, [am] your God, and there is none else and my people shall never be ashamed.
Locusts had stripped the land bare. This verse closes God's promise to repair it, and it raises two questions: who is standing among Israel, and when will their shame end for good?
The verse closes a passage where the people humble themselves before God. One writer follows the movement from their cry to God's answer.
Jehovah would hear His people humbled in this way. He would fill their land with plenty. They would no longer be a disgrace among the nations… They should know for certain that Jehovah was among them — He, Jehovah, their God, and not another; and they should never be ashamed. The blessing, and the One who gave the blessing, would keep them from being a disgrace among the nations.
The two halves of the verse lock together. Their shame ends because the Giver Himself stands among them — "not another," with no rival and no substitute.
The size of the promise fixes its date. A repair this complete has not happened yet.
Then all the harm done by the locusts, the army the Lord used in judging His people, will be restored. "And My people shall never be ashamed" (verse 27). This again is enough proof that all this remains unfulfilled.
What kind of blessing is this? One writer keeps it firmly on earth, and separates it from the heavenly blessings Christians know now.
The millennial day of joy for the earth and all creation is before us here… This is not Christianity, with its spiritual blessings in heavenly places and its scorn and suffering on earth for the faithful. It is earthly blessing and reward, along with divine and saving mercy… God will more than undo the damage. He will restore what He did not take away. He will wipe out, by the fullness of His blessing, all their past sorrows and shame.
That last line explains the promise about shame. God does not merely repair the loss; He buries it under blessing.
Verse 27 is a boundary. Everything up to it concerns one nation; what follows reaches wider.
The Lord comes in with many blessings. In Joel 2:27, "you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel." There you get Israel fully restored, and that is one division. Then in Joel 2:28, He goes outside Israel.
Why a break at all, if Israel is already fully restored? Because a restored land is not the deepest thing God has to give.
But could this satisfy? Could it be enough even for the renewed mind? It certainly could not satisfy Him. He must be God not only in righteous government, whether of friends or of foes, but also in His love for His people. So a completely different kind of blessing comes in after this, where the Hebrew text begins the third chapter.
Who is the "I" that Israel will come to know? One writer names Him.
Joel ends as nearly all the other prophetic books do. It closes with the vision of the kingdom, and the Lord dwelling among His people. He will appear in all His glory… Then they will come to the knowledge they refused for so long: the Jehovah who delivers them is their God. But the Jehovah who appears there is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the One among them, the One the people handed over to be crucified. What a day it will be when "they shall look on Me, whom they have pierced… and they shall mourn for Him" (Zechariah 12:10).
So the promise closes where their mourning begins. They will know Him, and their shame will be over for good.
- Humbled — God answers a people brought low. He hears them, fills their land, and lifts the disgrace the nations threw at them.
- Present — The heart of the verse is not the harvest but the Host. Jehovah stands among His people, and no other God shares that place.
- Restored — He gives back more than was lost. The fullness of the blessing wipes out the old sorrow and shame, and the earthly terms stand as they are.
- Unfulfilled — Israel's shame has not yet ended for good. Commentators take that as proof the promise still waits.
- Beyond — Verse 27 completes Israel's restoration. Verse 28 opens a wider blessing, flowing from God's love and reaching past Israel.