2:12 “Yet even now,” the Lord says,
“return to me with all your heart –
with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
Tear your hearts, 1
not just your garments!”
2:29 Even on male and female servants
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
2:3 Like fire they devour everything in their path; 2
a flame blazes behind them.
The land looks like the Garden of Eden 3 before them,
but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness –
for nothing escapes them! 4
3:4 Why are you doing these things to me, Tyre and Sidon? 5
Are you trying to get even with me, land of Philistia? 6
I will very quickly repay you for what you have done! 7
1 sn The figurative language calls for genuine repentance, and not merely external ritual that goes through the motions.
2 tn Heb “a fire devours before it.”
3 tn Heb “like the garden of Eden, the land is before them.”
4 tn Heb “and surely a survivor there is not for it.” The antecedent of the pronoun “it” is apparently עַם (’am, “people”) of v. 2, which seems to be a figurative way of referring to the locusts. K&D 26:191-92 thought that the antecedent of this pronoun was “land,” but the masculine gender of the pronoun does not support this.
3 tn Heb “What [are] you [doing] to me, O Tyre and Sidon?”
4 tn Or “districts.”
5 tn Heb “quickly, speedily, I will return your recompense on your head.” This is an idiom for retributive justice and an equitable reversal of situation.