Bible Strands
Joel 2:12
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses Israel directly, mid-crisis, immediately after the locust army has been identified as His own and the Day of the LORD declared great and dreadful (Joel 2:11). This is a command issued before the judgment fully arrives.
The words — שֻׁבוּ (shu.vu), "return," is the Qal imperative plural of שׁוּב (H7725), the verb at the center of the verse; it is a turning-back, not a mere feeling. The phrase בְּכָל־לְבַבְכֶם (be.khol le.vav.Khem), "with all your heart," sets the scope: total, not partial.
The thread — 2 Chronicles 7:13 explicitly names the locust as one of the instruments God sends, making Joel's context a direct echo; Isaiah 55:6 and James 4:8 both restate the same dynamic of seeking God and being met.
Why it lands — The command is not optional and not partial: "all your heart" leaves no room for half-measures. The specified means—fasting, weeping, mourning—mark this as a crisis response, not a routine devotional habit.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
Cross-references
- James 4:8 Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- Isaiah 55:6 Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.
- 2 Chronicles 7:13 If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people,
- Hosea 12:6 But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and always wait on your God.
- Jeremiah 29:12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
- Jeremiah 4:1 “If you will return, O Israel, return to Me,” declares the LORD. “If you will remove your detestable idols from My sight and no longer waver,
- Hosea 6:1 Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.
- Deuteronomy 4:29 But if from there you will seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
- 1 Samuel 7:6 When they had gathered at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the LORD. On that day they fasted, and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the Israelites at Mizpah.
- Jonah 3:5 And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.