Discovery BoxJoel 1:18-20
Context1:18 Listen to the cattle groan! 1
The herds of livestock wander around in confusion 2
because they have no pasture.
Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
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
Psalms 36:6
Context36:6 Your justice is like the highest mountains, 13
your fairness like the deepest sea;
you preserve 14 mankind and the animal kingdom. 15
Psalms 104:11-14
Context104:11 They provide water for all the animals in the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
104:12 The birds of the sky live beside them;
they chirp among the bushes. 16
104:13 He waters the mountains from the upper rooms of his palace; 17
the earth is full of the fruit you cause to grow. 18
104:14 He provides grass 19 for the cattle,
and crops for people to cultivate, 20
so they can produce food from the ground, 21
Psalms 104:27-29
Context104:27 All of your creatures 22 wait for you
to provide them with food on a regular basis. 23
104:28 You give food to them and they receive it;
you open your hand and they are filled with food. 24
104:29 When you ignore them, they panic. 25
When you take away their life’s breath, they die
and return to dust.
Psalms 145:15-16
Context145:15 Everything looks to you in anticipation, 26
and you provide them with food on a regular basis. 27
145:16 You open your hand,
and fill every living thing with the food they desire. 28
Psalms 147:8-9
Context147:8 He covers 29 the sky with clouds,
provides the earth with rain,
and causes grass to grow on the hillsides. 30
147:9 He gives food to the animals,
and to the young ravens when they chirp. 31
Isaiah 30:23-24
Context30:23 He will water the seed you plant in the ground,
and the ground will produce crops in abundance. 32
At that time 33 your cattle will graze in wide pastures.
30:24 The oxen and donkeys used in plowing 34
will eat seasoned feed winnowed with a shovel and pitchfork. 35
Jonah 4:11
Context4:11 Should I 36 not be even more 37 concerned 38 about Nineveh, this enormous city? 39 There are more than one hundred twenty thousand people in it who do not know right from wrong, 40 as well as many animals!” 41
[1:18] 1 tn Heb “how the cattle groan!”
[1:18] 2 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] 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] 8 tn Heb “beasts of the field.”
[1:20] 9 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] 10 tn Heb “sources of water.”
[1:20] 12 tn Heb “the pastures of the wilderness.”
[36:6] 13 tn Heb “mountains of God.” The divine name אֵל (’el, “God”) is here used in an idiomatic manner to indicate the superlative.
[36:6] 15 sn God’s justice/fairness is firm and reliable like the highest mountains and as abundant as the water in the deepest sea. The psalmist uses a legal metaphor to describe God’s preservation of his creation. Like a just judge who vindicates the innocent, God protects his creation from destructive forces.
[104:12] 16 tn Heb “among the thick foliage they give a sound.”
[104:13] 17 tn Heb “from his upper rooms.”
[104:13] 18 tn Heb “from the fruit of your works the earth is full.” The translation assumes that “fruit” is literal here. If “fruit” is understood more abstractly as “product; result,” then one could translate, “the earth flourishes as a result of your deeds” (cf. NIV, NRSV, REB).
[104:14] 19 tn Heb “causes the grass to sprout up.”
[104:14] 20 tn Heb “for the service of man” (see Gen 2:5).
[104:14] 21 tn Heb “to cause food to come out from the earth.”
[104:27] 22 tn Heb “All of them.” The pronoun “them” refers not just to the sea creatures mentioned in vv. 25-26, but to all living things (see v. 24). This has been specified in the translation as “all of your creatures” for clarity.
[104:27] 23 tn Heb “to give their food in its time.”
[104:28] 24 tn Heb “they are satisfied [with] good.”
[104:29] 25 tn Heb “you hide your face, they are terrified.”
[145:15] 26 tn Heb “the eyes of all wait for you.”
[145:15] 27 tn Heb “and you give to them their food in its season” (see Ps 104:27).
[145:16] 28 tn Heb “[with what they] desire.”
[147:8] 29 tn Heb “the one who covers.”
[147:9] 31 tn Heb “which cry out.”
[30:23] 32 tn Heb “and he will give rain for your seed which you plant in the ground, and food [will be] the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and abundant.”
[30:23] 33 tn Or “in that day” (KJV).
[30:24] 34 tn Heb “the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground.”
[30:24] 35 sn Crops will be so abundant that even the work animals will eat well.
[4:11] 36 tn The emphatic use of the independent pronouns “you” and “I” (אַתָּה, ’attah, and אֲנִי, ’ani) in vv. 10 and 11 creates an ironic comparison and emphasizes the strong contrast between the attitudes of Jonah and the
[4:11] 37 tn Heb “You…Should I not spare…?” This is an a fortiori argument from lesser to greater. Since Jonah was “upset” (חוּס, khus) about such a trivial matter as the death of a little plant (the lesser), God had every right to “spare” (חוּס) the enormously populated city of Nineveh (the greater). The phrase “even more” does not appear in Hebrew but is implied by this a fortiori argument.
[4:11] 38 tn Heb “Should I not spare?”; or “Should I not show compassion?” The verb חוּס (khus) has a basic three-fold range of meanings: (1) “to be troubled about,” (2) “to look with compassion upon,” and (3) “to show pity, to spare (someone from death/judgment)” (HALOT 298 s.v. חוס; BDB 299 s.v. חוּס). In v. 10 it refers to Jonah’s lament over the death of his plant, meaning “to be upset about” or “to be troubled about” (HALOT 298 s.v. 1.c). However, here in v. 11 it means “to show pity, spare” from judgment (BDB 298 s.v. b; HALOT 298 s.v. 1.a; e.g., 1 Sam 24:11; Jer 21:7; Ezek 24:14). It is often used in contexts which contemplate whether God will or will not spare a sinful people from judgment (Ezek 5:11; 7:4, 9; 8:19; 9:5, 10; 20:17). So this repetition of the same verb but in a different sense creates a polysemantic wordplay in vv. 10-11. However, the wordplay is obscured by the appropriate translation for each usage – “be upset about” in v. 10 and “to spare” in v. 11 – therefore, the translation above attempts to bring out the wordplay in English: “to be [even more] concerned about.”
[4:11] 39 tn Heb “the great city.”
[4:11] 40 tn Heb “their right from their left.” Interpreters wonder exactly what deficiency is meant by the phrase “do not know their right from their left.” The expression does not appear elsewhere in biblical Hebrew. It probably does not mean, as sometimes suggested, that Nineveh had 120,000 small children (the term אָדָם, ’adam, “people,” does not seem to be used of children alone). In any case, it refers to a deficiency in discernment that Jonah and the initial readers of Jonah would no doubt have considered themselves free of. For partial parallels see 2 Sam 19:35; Eccl 10:2; Ezek 22:26; 44:23.
