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Lenten Season · Ash Wednesday · Year A

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12

Blow the Trumpet: A Call to Return to the Lord

February 18, 2026

The Fifth Plague of Egypt, J. M. W. Turner
The Fifth Plague of Egypt, J. M. W. Turner, 1800Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis
Turner's title is wrong; he painted the seventh plague, hail and fire. The pyramids are almost lost in a black storm with Moses tiny at the centre.Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain. The reading opens Lent with a warning, and Turner painted the weather of one.J. M. W. TurnerTurner (1775-1851) spent a long career pushing landscape toward light itself, until in his last decades the subject is often barely recoverable from the atmosphere around it.Indianapolis Museum of Art, IndianapolisAn Indiana museum set in a hundred-acre park with a historic house and a nature preserve attached.Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis
Revised Common Lectionary
GospelMatt. 6:1-6, 16-21Mt 6:1-6, 16-21
Epistle2 Cor. 5:20b-6:102 Cor 5:20b-6:10
Old TestamentJoel 2:1-2, 12-17Jl 2:1-2, 12-17 orIsa. 58:1-12Is 58:1-12
PsalterPs. 51:1-17Ps 51:1-17

Overview & Insights

"Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart... rend your hearts and not your clothing." (Joel 2:12-13)

Joel sounds the alarm for an approaching day of the Lord pictured as a locust army, then calls the whole community, priests included, to fast and return to a God who is gracious and merciful. The passage supplies Ash Wednesday's classic summons to communal repentance.

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Take it further: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12

Commentary

Commentary on Joel 2:1-2, 12-17Commentary on Jl 2:1-2, 12-17 Working Preacher

Working Preacher's reading of Joel's alarm and call to communal fasting.

Joel 2 - David GuzikJl 2 - David Guzik Enduring Word · David Guzik

Verse by verse commentary on the locust-army imagery and the call to rend hearts.

Joel 2 CommentaryJl 2 Commentary Precept Austin

Detailed word study on the day of the Lord and Joel's summons to repentance.

Joel 2:1 CommentariesJl 2:1 Commentaries BibleHub

Aggregated classic commentaries on the trumpet alarm that opens the passage.

Joel 2 (Barnes' Notes)Jl 2 (Barnes' Notes) StudyLight

Barnes' notes on the locust-army image and the call to a solemn assembly.

Joel 2:1 InterlinearJl 2:1 Interlinear BibleHub

Hebrew text and parsing for the trumpet and day-of-the-Lord vocabulary.

Background & Word Study

Joel Video OverviewJl Video Overview BibleProject

Video overview of Joel's structure from locust plague to promised restoration.

Joel 2 (Hebrew-English)Jl 2 (Hebrew-English) Sefaria

Hebrew-English parallel text of the chapter for direct comparison.

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