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Joe_2:23 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first [month].
Ver. 23. Be glad then, ye children of Zion] "Ye righteous ones," Psa_32:11, and none else; for joy is the just man’s portion, and none have any reason to rejoice but such; nay, they are flatly forbidden it, Hos_9:1. See the note there. "Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let the saints be joyful in glory," Psa_149:2; Psa_149:5. Gaudeant in re, gaudeant in spe, gaudeant de possessione, gaudeant de promissione, saith Bernard. If Plato could tell the musicians, philosophers knew how to dine and sup without them, they could be merry without a fiddler, how much more may Zion’s children! Be it that there is a cord in the sin of the wicked, to strangle their joy with, yet the "righteous sing and are merry," Pro_29:6. In the greatest fail of all outward comforts, they can "rejoice in the Lord their God," as here, and as David at the sack of Ziklag, 1Sa_30:6; and Habakkuk, amidst all the miseries of the world and malice of Satan, iii. 17. It is in the Lord their God that they rejoice, it is a holy and spiritual joy, not profane and carnal, as is the wordling’s, who feedeth upon ashes, &c., Isa_44:20, rejoiceth in a thing of nought, Amo_6:13; his joy is no better than a little counterfeit complexion, crackling of thorns, &c.
For he hath given you the former rain moderately] As a pledge of his love, and as a fruit of the covenant. Moderate showers ye shall have, neither too much nor too hasty; rain of righteousness in such measure and moderation as shall be needful.
And he will cause to come down for you] The vanities of the heathen cannot give rain, Jer_14:22, nor can the heavens yield showers. God therefore must be waited upon, Jam_5:7; and prayed unto, Joe_2:18, and the thundering legion, êåñáõíïâïëïò , so famous in Church history. He must not have cause given him to complain of men’s brutishness and inadvertence, as Jer_10:18; Jer_10:14.
The former rain] That fell in October, when they had sown. St James calleth it the morning rain, ðñùéìïí , Jam_5:7.
And the latter rain] Heb. the gathering rain, because it fills and fits the corn for ingathering; as falling about May and a little before their harvest.
In the first] Not month, but primo quoque tempore, as soon as is fit. See Zec_10:1. {See Trapp on "Zec_10:1"}