Joel 2:12-17
“Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”
King James Version
Between devastation and outpouring stands the summons: 'Turn ye even to me with all your heart… and rend your heart, and not your garments.' Everything Joel promises after — restored years, poured Spirit, delivered remnant — hangs on this hinge. It is the Old Testament's altar call.
Fulfillment References
Joel 2:18-32 Acts 2:37-38 Jonah 3:9
How Traditions Read This Prophecy
Apostolic (Oneness) PentecostalJoel's altar call got its answer at Pentecost: hearts 'pricked' (rent, Acts 2:37) asked what to do, and the outpouring Joel promised came through the door Joel specified — wholehearted turning.
JewishRead on Shabbat Shuvah between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur — the tradition's chosen text for the season of return.
Catholic'Rend your heart, and not your garments' opens Lent (Ash Wednesday's reading) — interior conversion over external display.
ProtestantThe 'who knoweth if he will return' (v.14) preserves repentance from presumption: mercy is sure in character, sovereign in application.
AcademicThe heart/garment antithesis is the prophetic critique of ritualism in its most quotable form; the passage's liturgical career (Shabbat Shuvah, Ash Wednesday) spans both traditions.
Scholarship & Sources
Ash Wednesday and Shabbat Shuvah lectionary usage; Wolff (Hermeneia) on the passage's pivot function in Joel's structure.
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Bible Prophecy Explorer · based on J. Barton Payne’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy catalogue · an openly Apostolic (Oneness) Pentecostal study resource — all traditions presented fairly. Pastor: C. Myles Young, PhD · Bishop: Nathaniel J. Wilson, Ed.D.