Joel 2:13

And rent your heart, and not your garments The rending of garments was an expression of exceptional emotion, whether of grief, or terror, or horror, upon occasion of some specially overwhelming misfortune (see e.g. Genesis 37:29; Genesis 37:34; Genesis 44:13; Numbers 14:6; Judges 11:35; 2 Samuel 1:2; 2 Samuel 3:31; 1 Kings 21:27; 2Ki 5:7-8; 2 Kings 11:14; 2 Kings 19:1; 2 Kings 22:11; Ezra 9:3; Esther 4:1): deep, however, as the grief was, which thus found expression, the prophet demands, for sin, a deeper grief still, one viz. which should, speaking figuratively, rendthe hard and stony (Ezekiel 36:26; Zechariah 7:12) heart, and make it pervious to godlike thoughts and emotions. Comp. the -broken and crushed (contrite) heart" of Psalms 51:17; and the figure of the circumcision of the heart, Deuteronomy 10:16; Jeremiah 4:4. Fasting, like other external ordinances (cf. on Amos 5:21 f.), was liable to degenerate into an unspiritual form (see Isaiah 58:3 b, Isaiah 58:4; Isaiah 58:5; Zechariah 7:5); and the prophet insists accordingly, with earnestness, on the spiritual conditions which must accompany it, if it is to be a reality. Comp. especially the eloquent development of the same theme in Isaiah 58:3-12, where the true fast, in which Jehovah delights, is said to consist in acts of mercy, philanthropy, and liberality. See also Matthew 6:16-18; and Sir 34:26.

gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great kindness Almost verbatimfrom Exodus 34:6 (the great declaration of Jehovah's character, made to Moses): similarly Psalms 86:15; Psalms 103:8; Psalms 145:8; Jonah 4:2 b, Nehemiah 9:17; comp. also the first two epithets in Numbers 14:18; Psalms 111:4; Nehemiah 9:31; 2 Chronicles 30:9.

and repenteth him of the evil So also Jonah 4:2 b. The evil meant is that which He has threatened to bring upon an individual or a nation. The implicit condition of Jehovah's repentance is, of course, the prior repentance of the individual or nation concerned, and their unreserved abandonment of their evil way: see Jeremiah 18:5-12; Jonah 3:10. (Other motives are, however, sometimes assigned for Jehovah's repentance, as Exodus 32:12-14; Amos 7:2-3; Amos 7:5-6; cf. 2 Samuel 24:16.)