Joel 1:20

1:20 Even the wild animals ¹  cry out to you; ² 

for the river beds ³  have dried up;

fire has destroyed ⁴  the grassy pastures. ⁵ 

Joel 3:18

3:18 On that day ⁶  the mountains will drip with sweet wine, ⁷ 

and the hills will flow with milk. ⁸ 

All the dry stream beds ⁹  of Judah will flow with water.

A spring will flow out from the temple ¹⁰  of the Lord,

watering the Valley of Acacia Trees. ¹¹ 

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

[1:20]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “sources of water.”

[1:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “consumed.”

[1:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “the pastures of the wilderness.”

[3:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “and it will come about in that day.”

[3:18]  ⁷ tn Many English translations read “new wine” or “sweet wine,” meaning unfermented wine, i.e., grape juice.

[3:18]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Or “seasonal streams.”

[3:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “house.”

[3:18]  ¹¹ 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.