Joel 1:14

1:14 Announce a holy fast; ¹ 

proclaim a sacred assembly.

Gather the elders and ²  all the inhabitants of the land

to the temple of the Lord your God,

and cry out to the Lord.

Joel 1:19-20

1:19 To you, O Lord, I call out for help, ³ 

for fire ⁴  has burned up ⁵  the grassy pastures, ⁶ 

flames have razed ⁷  all the trees in the fields.

1:20 Even the wild animals ⁸  cry out to you; ⁹ 

for the river beds ¹⁰  have dried up;

fire has destroyed ¹¹  the grassy pastures. ¹² 

Joel 3:8

3:8 I will sell your sons and daughters to ¹³  the people of Judah. ¹⁴ 

They will sell them to the Sabeans, ¹⁵  a nation far away.

Indeed, the Lord has spoken!

Joel 3:12

3:12 Let the nations be roused and let them go up

to the valley of Jehoshaphat,

for there I will sit in judgment on all the surrounding nations.

[1:14]  ¹ tn Heb “consecrate a fast” (so NASB).

[1:14]  ² tc The conjunction “and” does not appear in MT or LXX, but does appear in some Qumran texts (4QXII^c and 4QXII^g).

[1:19]  ³ tn The phrase “for help” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[1:19]  ⁴ sn Fire here and in v. 20 is probably not to be understood in a literal sense. The locust plague, accompanied by conditions of extreme drought, has left the countryside looking as though everything has been burned up (so also in Joel 2:3).

[1:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “consumed.” This entire line is restated at the end of v. 20.

[1:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “the pastures of the wilderness.”

[1:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “a flame has set ablaze.” This fire was one of the effects of the drought.

[1:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “beasts of the field.”

[1:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “long for you.” Animals of course do not have religious sensibilities as such; they do not in any literal sense long for Yahweh. Rather, the language here is figurative (metonymy of cause for effect). The animals long for food and water (so BDB 788 s.v. עָרַג), the ultimate source of which is Yahweh.

[1:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “sources of water.”

[1:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “consumed.”

[1:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “the pastures of the wilderness.”

[3:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “into the hand of.”

[3:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “the sons of Judah.”

[3:8]  ⁹ sn The Sabeans were Arabian merchants who were influential along the ancient caravan routes that traveled through Arabia. See also Job 1:15; Isa 43:3; 45:14; Ps 72:10.