What Does Joel 2:1 Mean?
Blow the ram's horn in Zion, and shout on my set-apart mountain. Let all the settlers of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD comes, for it is drawing near.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;THE KEY
The alarm sounds because the day is already near enough to shake every inhabitant.
THE MEANING
The warning cuts into the present, reaching everyone in the land. The day of the LORD is near, and its nearness unsettles the people who hear the alarm.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the warning can be put off because the day is far away: the verse calls it near.
THE ROOT
קָרוֹב
qārōv
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
Approach; draw near.
“drawing near” in this verse is qārōv. The word for “nigh” carries the sense of approach in its root. The day is described as nearing, not merely as a date on a distant calendar.
ALSO GROWS
qārab: Approach; come near.
קָרַב
It makes the movement within “nigh” visible: what is near has come within reach.
qorbān: Drawing near; an offering brought near.
קָרְבָּן
This branch shares the root of approach, showing how the same root can describe nearness and what is brought near.
הָרִיעוּ
hārīʿû
GROWS FROM
רוע
r-w-ʿ
Raise a shout; cry out.
The Hebrew verb is a raised cry, and תְּרוּעָה (teruʿāh) can name an alarm or shout itself. Alongside the שׁוֹפָר (shofar, trumpet), the warning becomes a public sound that cannot remain private.
ALSO GROWS
teruʿāh: Alarm shout; shout of warning.
תְּרוּעָה
The noun makes explicit the alarm carried by the verb in this verse.
rūaʿ: Shout aloud; raise a cry.
רוּעַ
This verbal form shows the cry at the root of the alarm.
יִרְגְּזוּ
yirgəzû
GROWS FROM
רגז
r-g-z
Quake; be agitated.
“tremble” in this verse is yirgəzû. The verb names agitation and shaking, giving the inhabitants’ response a bodily force. The alarm does not leave the land’s people untouched; they are unsettled by what is near.
ALSO GROWS
rāgaz: Quake; become agitated.
רָגַז
This is the verb’s root form and makes the force of “tremble” plain.
rōgez: Agitation; tumult.
רֹגֶז
This noun shows the same root describing the disturbance itself.
THE PATTERN
The approach of the LORD’s day is made audible, and its public sound unsettles those who hear it.
Will a ram's horn be blown in the city, and the people not tremble? Will there be evil in a city, and the LORD not have done it?Drawing near is the great day of the LORD, near and hastening greatly. The sound of the day of the LORD is bitter, and the strong man shrieks there.For the Lord himself, with a shout of command, with the voice of the chief messenger, and with the trumpet of God, will step down from heaven, and the dead in the Anointed One will rise first.THE THREAD
Cry aloud, do not hold back, lift your voice like a ram's horn, and declare to my people their rebellion, and the house of Jacob their shortcomings.Isaiah uses the same שׁוֹפָר (shofar, trumpet) as Joel. Here the trumpet-like cry exposes what is hidden; Joel’s trumpet announces that the day is near.
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