Joel 1:19

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

for fire ²  has burned up ³  the grassy pastures, ⁴ 

flames have razed ⁵  all the trees in the fields.

Joel 2:3

2:3 Like fire they devour everything in their path; ⁶ 

a flame blazes behind them.

The land looks like the Garden of Eden ⁷  before them,

but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness –

for nothing escapes them! ⁸ 

Joel 2:5

2:5 They sound like ⁹  chariots rumbling ¹⁰  over mountain tops,

like the crackling ¹¹  of blazing fire consuming stubble,

like the noise of ¹²  a mighty army ¹³  being drawn up for battle. ¹⁴ 

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

[1:19]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “consumed.” This entire line is restated at the end of v. 20.

[1:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “the pastures of the wilderness.”

[1:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “a flame has set ablaze.” This fire was one of the effects of the drought.

[2:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “a fire devours before it.”

[2:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “like the garden of Eden, the land is before them.”

[2:3]  ⁸ 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.

[2:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “like the sound of.”

[2:5]  ¹² tn Heb “jostling” or “leaping.” There is question whether this pictures chariots rumbling over the mountains (e.g., 2 Sam 6:14,16; 1 Chr 15:29; Nah 3:2) or the locusts flying – or “leaping” – over the mountains (e.g., Job 21:11); see BDB 955 s.v. רָקַד.

[2:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “sound.”

[2:5]  ¹⁴ tn The phrase “the noise of” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is implied by the parallelism, so it has been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[2:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “people.”

[2:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “being arrayed of battle.”