What Does Joel 2:1 Mean in the King James?
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 analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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.
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.
“sound an alarm” in this verse is hārīʿû. 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.
Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:THE THREAD
Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.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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