Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the aged, gather the children, even those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.
Proclaim, he says, a meeting עצרה otsare is not properly an assembly, but the deed itself: That is, restraint. Literally it is, Proclaim a restraint. And as it means a restraint generally from labor as well as from food, it is applied to designate a feast-day, when men are detained or restrained from labor. — Ed. hence also the word is transferred to festivals.
The prophet demands total participation: old men, children at the breast, bridegroom and bride all abandon their delight to join the penitential worship. No age escapes sin; no rank is exempt from the judgment. The very presence of infants carried to prayer witnesses the universal guilt of the nation.
AI summary
Commenting on Joel 2:15-17
Gather the people,.... The common people, all the inhabitants of the land, Joe 1:14; summon them to meet together in the temple, in order to humble themselves before God for their sins, and implore his mercy, and seek his face to remove his judgments, or avert them: sanctify the congregation; see that they are sanctified and prepared for a fast, as the law directs in...