Isaiah 60:5

60:5 Then you will look and smile, ¹ 

you will be excited and your heart will swell with pride. ² 

For the riches of distant lands ³  will belong to you

and the wealth of nations will come to you.

Isaiah 60:16

60:16 You will drink the milk of nations;

you will nurse at the breasts of kings. ⁴ 

Then you will recognize that I, the Lord, am your deliverer,

your protector, ⁵  the powerful ruler of Jacob. ⁶ 

Psalms 36:8

36:8 They are filled with food from your house,

and you allow them to drink from the river of your delicacies.

Joel 3:18

3:18 On that day ⁷  the mountains will drip with sweet wine, ⁸ 

and the hills will flow with milk. ⁹ 

All the dry stream beds ¹⁰  of Judah will flow with water.

A spring will flow out from the temple ¹¹  of the Lord,

watering the Valley of Acacia Trees. ¹² 

Joel 3:1

The Lord Plans to Judge the Nations

3:1 (4:1) ¹³  For look! In those ¹⁴  days and at that time

I will return the exiles ¹⁵  to Judah and Jerusalem. ¹⁶ 

Joel 2:2

2:2 It will be ¹⁷  a day of dreadful darkness, ¹⁸ 

a day of foreboding storm clouds, ¹⁹ 

like blackness ²⁰  spread over the mountains.

It is a huge and powerful army ²¹  –

there has never been anything like it ever before,

and there will not be anything like it for many generations to come! ²² 

[60:5]  ¹ tn Or “shine,” or “be radiant” (NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[60:5]  ² tn Heb “and it will tremble and be wide, your heart.”

[60:5]  ³ tn Heb “the wealth of the sea,” i.e., wealth that is transported from distant lands via the sea.

[60:16]  ⁴ sn The nations and kings are depicted as a mother nursing her children. Restored Zion will be nourished by them as she receives their wealth as tribute.

[60:16]  ⁵ tn Or “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[60:16]  ⁶ sn See 1:24 and 49:26.

[3:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “and it will come about in that day.”

[3:18]  ⁸ tn Many English translations read “new wine” or “sweet wine,” meaning unfermented wine, i.e., grape juice.

[3:18]  ⁹ sn The language used here is a hyperbolic way of describing both a bountiful grape harvest (“the mountains will drip with juice”) and an abundance of cattle (“the hills will flow with milk”). In addition to being hyperbolic, the language is also metonymical (effect for cause).

[3:18]  ¹⁰ tn Or “seasonal streams.”

[3:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “house.”

[3:18]  ¹² tn Heb “valley of Shittim.” The exact location of the Valley of Acacia Trees is uncertain. The Hebrew word שִׁטִּים (shittim) refers to a place where the acacia trees grow, which would be a very arid and dry place. The acacia tree can survive in such locations, whereas most other trees require more advantageous conditions. Joel’s point is that the stream that has been mentioned will proceed to the most dry and barren of locations in the vicinity of Jerusalem.

[3:1]  ¹³ sn Joel 3:1 in the English Bible is 4:1 in the Hebrew text (BHS). See also the note at 2:28.

[3:1]  ¹⁴ tc The MT and LXX read “in those days,” while MurXII reads “in that day.”

[3:1]  ¹⁵ tc The Kethib reads אָשִׁיב (’ashiv, “return the captivity [captives]), while the Qere is אָשׁוּב (’ashuv, “restore the fortunes”). Many modern English versions follow the Qere reading. Either reading seems to fit the context. Joel refers to an exile of the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem in 3:2-6 and their return from exile in 3:7. On the other hand, 2:25-26 describes the reversal of judgment and restoration of the covenant blessings. However, the former seems to be the concern of the immediate context.

[3:1]  ¹⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:2]  ¹⁷ tn The phrase “It will be” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness and style.

[2:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “darkness and gloom.” These two terms probably form a hendiadys here. This picture recalls the imagery of the supernatural darkness in Egypt during the judgments of the exodus (Exod 10:22). These terms are also frequently used as figures (metonymy of association) for calamity and divine judgment (Isa 8:22; 59:9; Jer 23:12; Zeph 1:15). Darkness is often a figure (metonymy of association) for death, dread, distress and judgment (BDB 365 s.v. חשֶׁךְ 3).

[2:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “a day of cloud and darkness.”

[2:2]  ²⁰ tc The present translation here follows the proposed reading שְׁחֹר (shÿkhor, “blackness”) rather than the MT שַׁחַר (shakhar, “morning”). The change affects only the vocalization; the Hebrew consonants remain unchanged. Here the context calls for a word describing darkness. The idea of morning or dawn speaks instead of approaching light, which does not seem to fit here. The other words in the verse (e.g., “darkness,” “gloominess,” “cloud,” “heavy overcast”) all emphasize the negative aspects of the matter at hand and lead the reader to expect a word like “blackness” rather than “dawn.” However, NIrV paraphrases the MT nicely: “A huge army of locusts is coming. They will spread across the mountains like the sun when it rises.”

[2:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “A huge and powerful people”; KJV, ASV “a great people and a strong.” Many interpreters understand Joel 2 to describe an invasion of human armies, either in past history (e.g., the Babylonian invasion of Palestine in the sixth century b.c.) or in an eschatological setting. More probably, however, the language of this chapter referring to “people” and “armies” is a hypocatastic description of the locusts of chapter one. Cf. TEV “The great army of locusts advances like darkness.”

[2:2]  ²² tn Heb “it will not be repeated for years of generation and generation.”