Discovery BoxJoel 1:14-20
Contextproclaim 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.
1:15 How awful that day will be! 3
For the day of the Lord is near;
it will come as destruction from the Divine Destroyer. 4
1:16 Our food has been cut off right before our eyes! 5
There is no longer any joy or gladness in the temple of our God! 6
1:17 The grains of seed 7 have shriveled beneath their shovels. 8
Storehouses have been decimated
and granaries have been torn down, for the grain has dried up.
1:18 Listen to the cattle groan! 9
The herds of livestock wander around in confusion 10
because they have no pasture.
Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
1:19 To you, O Lord, I call out for help, 11
for fire 12 has burned up 13 the grassy pastures, 14
flames have razed 15 all the trees in the fields.
1:20 Even the wild animals 16 cry out to you; 17
for the river beds 18 have dried up;
[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 (4QXIIc and 4QXIIg).
[1:15] 3 tn Heb “Alas for the day!”
[1:15] 4 tn There is a wordplay in Hebrew here with the word used for “destruction” (שׁוֹד, shod) and the term used for God (שַׁדַּי, shadday). The exact meaning of “Shaddai” in the OT is somewhat uncertain, although the ancient versions and many modern English versions tend to translate it as “Almighty” (e.g., Greek παντοκράτωρ [pantokratwr], Latin omnipotens). Here it might be rendered “Destroyer,” with the thought being that “destruction will come from the Divine Destroyer,” which should not be misunderstood as a reference to the destroying angel. The name “Shaddai” (outside Genesis and without the element “El” [“God”]) is normally used when God is viewed as the sovereign king who blesses/protects or curses/brings judgment. The name appears in the introduction to two of Balaam’s oracles (Num 24:4, 16) of blessing upon Israel. Naomi employs the name when accusing the Lord of treating her bitterly by taking the lives of her husband and sons (Ruth 1:20-21). In Ps 68:14, Isa 13:6, and the present passage, Shaddai judges his enemies through warfare, while Ps 91:1 depicts him as the protector of his people. In Ezek 1:24 and 10:5 the sound of the cherubs’ wings is compared to Shaddai’s powerful voice. The reference may be to the mighty divine warrior’s battle cry which accompanies his angry judgment.
[1:16] 5 tn Heb “Has not the food been cut off right before our eyes?” This rhetorical question expects an affirmative answer; the question has been translated as an affirmation for the sake of clarity and emphasis.
[1:16] 6 tn Heb “joy and gladness from the house of our God?” Verse 16b is a continuation of the rhetorical question begun in v. 16a, but has been translated as an affirmative statement to make the meaning clear. The words “There is no longer any” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[1:17] 7 tn Heb “seed.” The phrase “the grains of” does not appear in the Hebrew, but has been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.
[1:17] 8 tc This line is textually uncertain. The MT reads “the seed shrivels in their shovels/clods.” One Qumran manuscript (4QXXIIc) reads “the heifers decay in [their] s[talls].” LXX reads “the heifers leap in their stalls.”
[1:18] 9 tn Heb “how the cattle groan!”
[1:18] 10 tn Heb “the herds of cattle are confused.” The verb בּוּךְ (bukh, “be confused”) sometimes refers to wandering aimlessly in confusion (cf. Exod 14:3).
[1:19] 11 tn The phrase “for help” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
[1:19] 12 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] 13 tn Heb “consumed.” This entire line is restated at the end of v. 20.
[1:19] 14 tn Heb “the pastures of the wilderness.”
[1:19] 15 tn Heb “a flame has set ablaze.” This fire was one of the effects of the drought.
[1:20] 16 tn Heb “beasts of the field.”
[1:20] 17 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.
