Joel 2:12

World English Bible (2000)

"Yet even now," says Yahweh, "turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with 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 will return, Israel," says Yahweh, "if you will return to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you shall not be removed;
• Hos 12:6 : 6 Therefore turn to your God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait continually for your God.
• Deut 4:29-30 : 29 But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in oppression, and all these things are come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God, and listen to his voice:
• 1 Sam 7:6 : 6 They gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before Yahweh, and fasted on that day, and said there, "We have sinned against Yahweh." Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah.
• Jas 4:8-9 : 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
• Hos 6:1 : 1 "Come, and let us return to Yahweh; for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us; he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds.
• 2 Chr 7:13-14 : 13 "If I shut up the sky so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; 14 if my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
• 1 Sam 7:3 : 3 Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, "If you do return to Yahweh with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and direct your hearts to Yahweh, and serve him only; and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines."
• Isa 55:6-7 : 6 Seek Yahweh while he may be found; call you on him while he is near: 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
• Jonah 3:5-8 : 5 The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6 The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, "Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; 8 but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands.
• Zech 1:3-4 : 3 Therefore tell them: Thus says Yahweh of Armies: 'Return to me,' says Yahweh of Armies, 'and I will return to you,' says Yahweh of Armies. 4 Don't you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: Thus says Yahweh of Armies, 'Return now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings;' but they did not hear, nor listen to me, says Yahweh.
• Zech 7:3 : 3 and to speak to the priests of the house of Yahweh of Armies, and to the prophets, saying, "Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?"
• Zech 7:5 : 5 "Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for these seventy years, did you at all fast to me, really to me?
• Zech 12:10-14 : 10 I will pour on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn. 11 In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. 12 The land will mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; 13 the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart; 14 all the families who remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
• Acts 26:20 : 20 but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.
• Jer 29:12-13 : 12 You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.
• Lam 3:40-41 : 40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh. 41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
• 2 Chr 20:3-4 : 3 Jehoshaphat was alarmed, and set himself to seek to Yahweh. He proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. 4 Judah gathered themselves together, to seek help from Yahweh. They came out of all the cities of Judah to seek Yahweh.
• Neh 9:1-2 : 1 Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth on them. 2 The seed of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.
• Isa 22:12 : 12 In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth:
• 1 Kgs 8:47-49 : 47 yet if they shall repent in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of those who carried them captive, saying, 'We have sinned, and have done perversely; we have dealt wickedly;' 48 if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name: 49 then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, your dwelling place, and maintain their cause;
• 2 Chr 6:38-39 : 38 if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have carried them captive, and pray toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, and the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name: 39 then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling place, their prayer and their petitions, and maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.
• Judg 20:26 : 26 Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Yahweh, and fasted that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh.
• Hos 14:1 : 1 Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen because of your sin.