Bible Strands
Joel 2:17
Let the priests who minister before the LORD weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Joel addresses the priests directly, within a broader assembly that includes the aged, children, and even nursing infants (v. 16), at the moment of national crisis before the locust judgment. The command is to weep and intercede, not merely to perform ritual.
The words — מְשָׁרְתֵי (mĕšārṭê, "servants of") identifies the priests by function, not rank: they are Yahweh's attendants. יִבְכוּ (yibkû, "let them weep") is a jussive, a command to grieve, not a suggestion.
The thread — The refrain "Where is their God?" recurs in Psalms 115:2 and 79:10, where it is the nations' taunt against Israel's helplessness. The spatial detail "between the porch and the altar" echoes Ezekiel 8:16, where that same location is the site of idolatrous defilement.
Why it lands — The verse places the religious leaders first in the line of grief, making their visible repentance the condition on which the nations' verdict depends. It asks the reader to confront whether their own faith is performative or whether it produces the kind of public grief that silences mockery.
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
Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?
Cross-references
- Psalms 115:2 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
- Psalms 79:10 Why should the nations ask, “Where is their God?” Before our eyes, make known among the nations Your vengeance for the bloodshed of Your servants.
- Ezekiel 8:16 So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.
- Exodus 34:9 “O Lord,” he said, “if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, my Lord, please go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our iniquity and sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”
- 1 Kings 6:3 The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple was twenty cubits long, extending across the width of the temple and projecting out ten cubits in front of the temple.
- Daniel 9:18 Incline Your ear, O my God, and hear; open Your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears Your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before You because of our righteous acts, but because of Your great compassion.
- Hosea 14:2 Bring your confessions and return to the LORD. Say to Him: “Take away all our iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips.
- Joel 1:9 Grain and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD.
- Amos 7:2 And when the locusts had eaten every green plant in the land, I said, “Lord GOD, please forgive! How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?”
- Matthew 23:35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.