Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.

JOEL 2:6KJV
Know the Bible

Joel 2:6 (KJV)

What does Joel 2:6 mean?

Joel 2:6 describes the effect of an approaching force on the people who see it. The KJV pictures them in intense distress, with their fear showing on their faces. The verse brings the danger close enough for the people to see and react to it.

After the sound and movement described in verse 5, Joel turns to the people facing what is coming. “Before their face” means in the presence of the approaching force. “All faces shall gather blackness” is a vivid picture of faces changing appearance under extreme distress.

The Hebrew behind Joel 2:6

  • “pained” — חוּל (ḥul): This word can describe writhing or trembling in pain. Here the KJV’s “much pained” suggests a powerful bodily reaction, not merely a passing worry.
  • “blackness” — פָּארוּר (paʾrur): This rare word is often understood here as a darkened or changed appearance. The KJV uses “blackness” to convey the visible effect of the people’s distress.

Why Joel 2:6 matters

  • The approaching force affects people as well as the land. Joel shifts attention to “the people” who stand before it.
  • The fear is widespread in the scene Joel describes. The phrase “all faces” presents the reaction as shared rather than limited to one person.
  • The verse prepares the reader to see the force as difficult to stop. The next verses describe its advance as organized and unbroken.

Where else these words appear

“blackness” Hebrew H6289 · used in 2 verses

  • Nahum 2:10 She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.

“pained” Hebrew H2342 · used in 58 verses

  • Genesis 8:10 And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;
  • Psalms 29:8 The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.
  • Isaiah 45:10 Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?

“gather” Hebrew H6908 · used in 121 verses

  • Genesis 41:35 And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities.
  • 2 Chronicles 32:4 So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?
  • Jeremiah 29:14 And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.