Joel Chapter 2 verse 6 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 6. - Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. Peoples or nations writhe in pain or tremble at the sight of them, lest they should settle on their fields and gardens, destroying the "golden glories" of the one, and the "leafy honours" of the other. In the second member the word פָארוּר is (1) generally connected with פָרוּר, a pot, rad. פדר, to break in pieces, and translated accordingly. Thus the Septuagint: "Every face is as the blackness of a pot;" the Syriac also: "Every face shall be black as the blackness of a pot;" in like manner the Chaldee: "All faces are covered with soot, so that they are black as a pot." (2) But Aben Ezra connects the word with פֵאֵר, to beautify, glorify, adorn, and translates, "They withdraw (gather to themselves)their redness (ruddiness);" that is, they become pale. The 'Speaker's Commentary ' adopts this view of the expression, and illustrates it by Shakespeare's fancy of the blood being summoned from the face to help the heart in its death-struggle - "Being all descended to the labouring heart;Who, in the conflict that it holds with death,Attracts the same for aidance 'gainst the enemy:Which with the heart there cools and ne'er returnethTo blush and beautify the cheek again." The parallel usually cited in favour of asaph being employed in the sense of withdrawing is, "And the stars shall withdraw their shining" (Joel 2:10; Joel 3:15). This proceeds on the supposition that asaph and qabhats have the same meaning of "gathering " - gathering up, gathering in, withdrawing. But D. Kimchi quotes his father (Joseph Kimchi) as objecting to this rendering, on the ground of the distinction which he asserts to prevail between them. Asaph, he says, "is used of gathering together, or in, that which is dispersed, or net present; but qabhats is not so used."

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(6) All faces shall gather blackness.--There are different explanations of this Hebrew phrase, which expresses the result of terror. Some translate it "withdraw their ruddiness," i.e., grow pale; others, "draw into themselves their colour;" others, "contract a livid character." The alternative rendering in the margin, "pot," which is that of the LXX., the Vulg., and of Luther's translation, is obtained from the similarity of the Hebrew words for "ruddiness" and "pot." The comparison is in this case between the faces growing black under the influence of fear, and of pots under the action of fire. The prophet Nahum uses the same expression (Joel 2:10).