Joel 1:5-7

1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, ¹  and weep!

Wail, all you wine drinkers, ² 

because the sweet wine ³  has been taken away ⁴  from you. ⁵ 

1:6 For a nation ⁶  has invaded ⁷  our ⁸  land.

There are so many of them they are too numerous to count. ⁹ 

Their teeth are like those ¹⁰  of a lion;

they tear apart their prey like a lioness. ¹¹ 

1:7 They ¹²  have destroyed our ¹³  vines; ¹⁴ 

they have turned our ¹⁵  fig trees into mere splinters.

They have completely stripped off the bark ¹⁶  and thrown them aside;

the ¹⁷  twigs are stripped bare. ¹⁸ 

[1:5]  ¹ sn The word drunkards has a double edge here. Those accustomed to drinking too much must now lament the unavailability of wine. It also may hint that the people in general have become religiously inebriated and are unresponsive to the Lord. They are, as it were, drunkards from a spiritual standpoint.

[1:5]  ² sn Joel addresses the first of three groups particularly affected by the locust plague. In v. 5 he describes the effects on the drunkards, who no longer have a ready supply of intoxicating wine; in vv. 11-12 he describes the effects on the farmers, who have watched their labors come to naught because of the insect infestation; and in vv. 13-14 he describes the effects on the priests, who are no longer able to offer grain sacrifices and libations in the temple.

[1:5]  ³ tn Heb “over the sweet wine, because it.” Cf. KJV, NIV, TEV, NLT “new wine.”

[1:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “cut off” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV); NAB “will be withheld.”

[1:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “your mouth.” This is a synecdoche of part (the mouth) for whole (the person).

[1:6]  ⁶ sn As becomes increasingly clear in what follows, this nation is to be understood figuratively. It refers to the locust invasion as viewed from the standpoint of its methodical, destructive advance across the land (BDB 156 s.v. גּוֹי 2). This term is used figuratively to refer to animals one other time (Zeph 2:14).

[1:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “has come up against.”

[1:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “my.”

[1:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “[It] is huge and there is not number.”

[1:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “its teeth are the teeth of a lion.”

[1:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “its incisors are those of a lioness.” The sharp, cutting teeth are metonymical for the action of tearing apart and eating prey. The language is clearly hyperbolic. Neither locusts nor human invaders literally have teeth of this size. The prophet is using exaggerated and picturesque language to portray in vivid terms the enormity of the calamity. English versions vary greatly on the specifics: KJV “cheek teeth”; ASV “jaw-teeth”; NAB “molars”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “fangs.”

[1:7]  ¹² tn Heb “it.” Throughout vv. 6-7 the Hebrew uses singular forms to describe the locust swarm, but the translation uses plural forms because several details of the text make more sense in English as if they are describing the appearance and effects of individual locusts.

[1:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “my.”

[1:7]  ¹⁴ tn Both “vines” and “fig trees” are singular in the Hebrew text, but are regarded as collective singulars.

[1:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “my.”

[1:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “it has completely stripped her.”

[1:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “her.”

[1:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “grow white.”