Joel 2:12

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

An Appeal for Repentance“Yet even now,” the LORD says,“return to me with all your heart– with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וְגַם־עַתָּה֙ נְאֻם־יְהוָ֔ה שֻׁ֥בוּ עָדַ֖י בְּכָל־לְבַבְכֶ֑ם וּבְצ֥וֹם וּבְבְכִ֖י וּבְמִסְפֵּֽד׃

Transliteration

And-also-now neʾum-YHWH shūbû to-me with-all-lebabkhem and-with-tsôm and-with-bekhî and-with-mispēd.

Grammar Details

• *neʾum*: masculine singular construct - declaration of/utterance of
• *YHWH*: proper noun - divine name
• *shūbû*: qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural - return/turn
• *lebabkhem*: masculine singular noun with 2nd person masculine plural suffix - your heart
• *tsôm*: masculine singular noun - fasting
• *bekhî*: masculine singular noun - weeping
• *mispēd*: masculine singular noun - mourning/lamentation

Word Meanings

• *neʾum*: declaration of/utterance of/oracle of
• *shūbû*: return/turn/repent
• *tsôm*: fasting/fast
• *bekhî*: weeping/crying
• *mispēd*: mourning/lamentation/wailing

Referenced Verses

• Jer 4:1 : 1 “If you, Israel, want to come back,” says the LORD,“if you want to come back to me, you must get those disgusting idols out of my sight and must no longer go astray.
• Hos 12:6 : 6 But you must return to your God, by maintaining love and justice, and by waiting for your God to return to you.
• Deut 4:29-30 : 29 But if you seek the LORD your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul. 30 In your distress when all these things happen to you in the latter days, if you return to the LORD your God and obey him
• 1 Sam 7:6 : 6 After they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the LORD. They fasted on that day, and they confessed there,“We have sinned against the LORD.”So Samuel led the people of Israel at Mizpah.
• Jas 4:8-9 : 8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into despair.
• Hos 6:1 : 1 Superficial Repentance Breeds False Assurance of God’s Forgiveness“Come on! Let’s return to the LORD! He himself has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us! He has injured us, but he will bandage our wounds!
• 2 Chr 7:13-14 : 13 When I close up the sky so that it doesn’t rain, or command locusts to devour the land’s vegetation, or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who belong to me, humble themselves, pray, seek to please me, and repudiate their sinful practices, then I will respond from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
• 1 Sam 7:3 : 3 Samuel said to all the people of Israel,“If you are really turning to the LORD with all your hearts, remove from among you the foreign gods and the images of Ashtoreth. Give your hearts to the LORD and serve only him. Then he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”
• Isa 55:6-7 : 6 Seek the LORD while he makes himself available; call to him while he is nearby! 7 The wicked need to abandon their lifestyle and sinful people their plans. They should return to the LORD, and he will show mercy to them, and to their God, for he will freely forgive them.
• Jonah 3:5-8 : 5 The people of Nineveh believed in God, and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes. 7 He issued a proclamation and said,“In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, cattle or sheep, is to taste anything; they must not eat and they must not drink water. 8 Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly to God, and everyone must turn from their evil way of living and from the violence that they do.
• Zech 1:3-4 : 3 Therefore say to the people: The LORD of Heaven’s Armies says,“Turn to me,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies,“and I will turn to you,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. 4 “Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets called out, saying,‘This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies has said,“Turn now from your evil wickedness,”’ but they would by no means obey me,” says the LORD.
• Zech 7:3 : 3 by asking both the priests of the temple of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies and the prophets,“Should we weep in the fifth month, fasting as we have done over the years?”
• Zech 7:5 : 5 “Speak to all the people and priests of the land as follows:‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months through all these seventy years, did you truly fast for me– for me, indeed?
• Zech 12:10-14 : 10 “I will pour out on the kingship of David and the population of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication so that they will look to me, the one they have pierced. They will lament for him as one laments for an only son, and there will be a bitter cry for him like the bitter cry for a firstborn. 11 On that day the lamentation in Jerusalem will be as great as the lamentation at Hadad-Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn, each clan by itself– the clan of the royal household of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the clan of the family of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; 13 the clan of the descendants of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; and the clan of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves– 14 all the clans that remain, each separately with their wives.”
• Acts 26:20 : 20 but I declared to those in Damascus first, and then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds consistent with repentance.
• Jer 29:12-13 : 12 When you call out to me and come to me in prayer, I will hear your prayers. 13 When you seek me in prayer and worship, you will find me available to you. If you seek me with all your heart and soul,
• Lam 3:40-41 : 40 נ(Nun) Let us carefully examine our ways, and let us return to the LORD. 41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven:
• 2 Chr 20:3-4 : 3 Jehoshaphat was afraid, so he decided to seek the LORD’s advice. He decreed that all Judah should observe a fast. 4 The people of Judah assembled to ask for the LORD’s help; they came from all the cities of Judah to ask for the LORD’s help.
• Neh 9:1-2 : 1 The People Acknowledge Their Sin before God On the twenty-fourth day of this same month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting and wearing sackcloth, their heads covered with dust. 2 Those truly of Israelite descent separated from all the foreigners, standing and confessing their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors.
• Isa 22:12 : 12 At that time the Sovereign LORD of Heaven’s Armies, called for weeping and mourning, for shaved heads and sackcloth.
• 1 Kgs 8:47-49 : 47 When your people come to their senses in the land where they are held prisoner, they will repent and beg for your mercy in the land of their imprisonment, admitting,‘We have sinned and gone astray; we have done evil.’ 48 When they return to you with all their heart and being in the land where they are held prisoner, and direct their prayers to you toward the land you gave to their ancestors, your chosen city, and the temple I built for your honor, 49 then listen from your heavenly dwelling place to their prayers for help and vindicate them.
• 2 Chr 6:38-39 : 38 When they return to you with all their heart and being in the land where they are held prisoner and direct their prayers toward the land you gave to their ancestors, your chosen city, and the temple I built for your honor, 39 then listen from your heavenly dwelling place to their prayers for help, vindicate them, and forgive your sinful people.
• Judg 20:26 : 26 So all the Israelites, the whole army, went up to Bethel. They wept and sat there before the LORD; they did not eat anything that day until evening. They offered up burnt sacrifices and tokens of peace to the LORD.
• Hos 14:1 : 1 Prophetic Call to Genuine Repentance Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for your sin has been your downfall!