Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.
He now exhorts the Jews also to rejoice, but in a way different from that of the land and of the beasts. Rejoice, he says, in your God. For the beasts and the sheep, while rejoicing, cannot raise their thoughts higher than to their food: hence, the joy of brute animals, as they say, terminates in its object.
Mark how swift God is to help His people once they truly humble themselves and seek His face. They prayed for sparing; He answers with comfort and covenant faithfulness. He is jealous for His own land and for their dignity, He will not let them lie open to reproach as a miserable people. His compassion toward the penitent is a great encouragement.
AI summary
Commenting on Joel 2:18-27
Be glad then, ye children of Zion,.... The people of the Jews, and especially the spiritual and believing part of them; such as were born again, that were born of Zion, and born in Zion, and brought up by her, and in her; the children of that Zion or Jerusalem that is the mother of us all; and who were looking for the Messiah, and...