Excerpt from A New and Concise Bible Dictionary: Embracing Some Special Features; To Which Are Added Some New Testament Synonyms Chapter I. The prophet takes occasion by the devastation wrought in his day by an army of insects to 'call the priests, the princes, and the people to a fast, and a solemn assembly in the house of the Lord, there to cry unto Jehovah. Then he adds, Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Here it is destruction, open judgment, as in the day when God will judge the world in righteousness. The army of insects was but a precursor, but as a present thing, instead of joy and gladness being in the house of God, God was judging. The prophet said 'is at hand but God's long suffering deferred its full execution, and defers it still. Chapter II. The day of Jehovah is nigh at hand, and the trumpet is to sound an alarm-oi war: cf. Num. X. 9. The army of insects is still alluded to, but it looks forward to the future, when God will bring His judgments upon the land. The army is His, and the camp is His: the day of Jehovah is great and very terrible. The people are called to repentance, to rend their hearts and not their garments, for God is merciful and gracious. The trumpet was to be blown in Zion for a solemn assembly: of. Num. X. 7. Priests and all are called to weep and pray.. God will hear, and will destroy their enemies, especially the northern army (ver. 20, elsewhere alluded to -as Assyria), and He will bring His people into great blessing. When they repent, the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon them and upon all flesh. This was quoted by Peter in Acts ii. 16-21, but the nation did not then repent, it was Only a remnant that turned to the Lord and entered into the blessing that God was bestowing - not outward and visible benefits as it will be in the future. There will also be signs in the heavens and in the earth before the great and terrible day of the Lord. There were some such omens, according to the historians, before the destruction of Jerusalem, so this passage, quoted in Acts ii., may have had a partial fulfilment then, though it remains to be fully verified in a future day. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.