16 Gather the people. Sanctify the assembly. Assemble the elders. Gather the children, and those who nurse from breasts. Let the bridegroom go forth from his room, and the bride out of her room.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Sanctify the congregation - o: "Do what in you lies, by monishing, exhorting, threatening, giving the example of a holy life, that the whole people present itself holy before its God" , "lest your prayers be hindered, and a little leaven corrupt the whole lump."
Assemble the elders - o: "The judgment concerned all; all then were to join in seeking mercy from God. None were on any pretence to be exempted; not the oldest, whose strength was decayed, or the youngest, who might seem not yet of strength." The old also are commonly freer from sin and more given to prayer.
Gather the children - o: "He Who feedeth the young ravens when they cry, will not neglect the cry of poor children. He assigns as a reason, why it were fitting to spare Nineveh, the "six-score thousand persons that could not discern between their right hand and their left" Jonah 4:11. The sight of them who were involved in their parents' punishment could not but move the parents to greater earnestness. So when Moab and Ammon 2-Chronicles 20:1-4, 2-Chronicles 20:13, a great multitude, came against Jehoshaphat, he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah, and Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord; even out of all the cities of Judah, they came to seek the Lord. And all Judah was standing before the Lord, their little ones also, their wives, and their children." So it is described in the book of Judith, how "with great vehemency did they humble their souls, both they and their wives and their children - and every man and woman and the little children - fell before the temple, and cast ashes upon their heads and spread out their sackcloth before the Face of the Lord" (Judith 4:9-11).
Let the bridegroom go forth - He says not even, the married, or the newly married, he who had taken a new wife, but he uses the special terms of the marriage-day, "bridegroom" and "bride." The new-married man was, during a year, exempted from going out to war, or from any duties which might "press upon him" Deuteronomy 24:5. But nothing was to free from this common affliction of sorrow. Even the just newly married, although it were the very day of the bridal, were to leave the marriage-chamber and join in the common austerity of repentance. It was mockery of God to spend in delights time consecrated by Him to sorrow. He says, "In that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth. And behold joy and gladness - surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you until ye die, saith the Lord God of Hosts" Isaiah 22:12-14. Whence, in times of fasting or prayer, the Apostle suggests the giving up of pure pleasures, "that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer" 1-Corinthians 7:5.
: "He then who, by chastisement in food and by fasting and alms, says that he is doing acts of repentance, in vain doth he promise this in words, unless he "go forth out of his chamber" and fulfill a holy and pure fast by a chaste penitence."
Gather the children - Let all share in the humiliation, for all must feel the judgment, should it come. Let no state nor condition among the people be exempted. The elders, the young persons, the infants, the bridegroom, and the bride; let all leave their houses, and go to the temple of God.
Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the (l) children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.
(l) That as all have sinned, so all may show forth signs of their repentance, so that men seeing the children who are not free from God's wrath, might be the more deeply touched with the consideration of their own sins.
Gather the people,.... The common people, all the inhabitants of the land, Joel 1:14; summon them to meet together in the temple, in order to humble themselves before God for their sins, and implore his mercy, and seek his face to remove his judgments, or avert them:
sanctify the congregation; see that they are sanctified and prepared for a fast, as the law directs in such cases; that they may be clean and free from all ceremonial impurities; that their bodies and clothes be washed, and that they abstain from their wives, and from all lawful pleasures, as well as sinful ones:
assemble the elders; both in age and authority; that they, by their presence and example, might influence others to attend such a service:
gather the children and those that suck the breast; who were involved in the common calamity and distress, were obliged to fasting and whose cries might affect parents, and engage them the more to humiliation and repentance for their sins, which brought such, miseries, not only upon themselves, but upon their tender infants; and they might think their cries would move the pity and compassion of God; all which is suggested in the note of Kimchi:
let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet; where they are adorning themselves and preparing for an interview with each other; or where they are enjoying each other's embraces and the pleasures of the matrimonial state. The sense is, let them put off their nuptial robes, and deny themselves their lawful pleasures, and betake themselves to fasting mourning, and prayer; see 1-Corinthians 7:5. This refers to a custom among the Jews at the time of espousals when the bridegroom and bride were introduced into the nuptial chamber, where the marriage was completed; and, according to the Jewish writes it was not finished before: the blessing of the bridegroom and bride did not complete the marriage but the bringing of them into the chamber did; and then they were said to he married, though as yet they had not cohabited and then, and not before a man might enjoy his wife (x): and the marriage chamber was nothing else but a linen cloth or garment spread upon four poles over the head of the bridegroom and bride; this they called (y); the word is here rendered a "closet" and the same with the "chamber"; and their leaving and coming out of this signifies their abstaining from the lawful enjoyment of each other, which now they had a right unto.
(x) Maimon. Hilchot Ishot, c. 10. sect. 2, 4. Schulchan Aruch, par. 2. Eben Hezer, c. 55. sect. 2, 3. (y) R. Elias Levita, Tishbi in p. 119.
sanctify the congregation--namely, by expiatory rites and purification with water [CALVIN], (Exodus 19:10, Exodus 19:22). MAURER translates, "appoint a solemn assembly," which would be a tautological repetition of Joel 2:15.
elders . . . children--No age was to be excepted (2-Chronicles 20:13).
bridegroom--ordinarily exempted from public duties (Deuteronomy 24:5; compare 1-Corinthians 7:5, 1-Corinthians 7:29).
closet--or, nuptial bed, from a Hebrew root "to cover," referring to the canopy over it.
The children - Though they understand little what is done, yet their cities ascend, and God with pity looks on their tears. These that suck - Their cries and tears may perhaps move the congregation to more earnest supplication to God for mercy. So the Ninevites, Jonah 3:7-8. The bridegroom - Let the new married man leave the mirth of the nuptials and afflict himself with the rest.
*More commentary available at chapter level.