ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף יואל 4:21

אש תמיד, a continuous and ongoing fire; even though G'd will inflict severe blows on the nations who have abused us, the fire (of punishment) on the altar will not go out; this is similar to the final message of the prophet Yoel (Yoel 4,21): "I will not treat their blood as having been avenged;" this will not occur until the earth has been cleansed of the spirit of impurity and "G'd rules as King over the whole earth" (Zachariah 14,9).

The meaning of this verse is: God will in future visit those nations that trouble Israel with punishment (comp. Joel 4:21): but at present the chastisement of our peace is upon him; for it is well known that so long as Israel is in exile, the heathen peoples will enjoy happiness; while of the time of our deliverance it is predicted, And there will be a time of trouble (Dan. 12:1); moreover, when the angels said, All the earth is dwelling in peace; one of them asked, How long wilt Thou not pity Jerusalem ? (Zech. 1:11, 12), because he thought that so long as the heathen people have peace, Jerusalem would not find mercy.

All the fat ones of earth shall eat and worship: All that go down to the dust shall bow before Him, even he who cannot keep his soul alive. – My revered father of blessed memory explained the verse as having two applications: that the Gentiles – those, that is, who are prosperous and flourishing and who turn to the Lord – shall remain so then, for God will accept them on their repentance, and they shall eat, and worship God, and praise Him for all the goodness; but there are some of the Gentiles whom He will not receive, even if they should bow before Him – those, namely, who have harried Israel; for they are those that go down to the dust, meaning they shall be in Gehenna; neither will God preserve alive the soul of one of them, as the Prophet says (Joel 4:21): “I will cleanse – (but of) their blood I do not cleanse.” For for all the evil things they have done to Israel they shall be able to give indemnity, as it says (Is. 60:17): “For brass I will bring gold”; but the blood of man they shall not be able to indemnify, therefore their life shall be (taken) in the place of their life: and this interpretation is correct. The learned Rabbi Abraham, however, has expounded the whole verse in another sense. He says: “the fat ones of the earth are those who enjoy themselves in this world, in eating every kind of delicacy; and if they have their delight in this world, in their latter days they shall worship and bow down before the angel who gathers their spirit, and not one of them shall be able to save his soul alive. And this is an intimation that their soul shall perish in the world to come, in contradistinction to the meek, of whom he says that their soul shall live for ever.” And what he says about (bowing down) “before the angel who gathers their spirit” is Midrashic (interpretation): and so they say in the Haggadic interpretation (Babli, Niddah 30 b; Shoher Tob, with a slight change): “For to Me every knee shall bow” (Is. 45:23) that is, at the day of death, as it is said, “before Him shall they bow, all that go down to the dust.”