Joel 2:18

The Lord’s Response

2:18 Then the Lord became ¹  zealous for his land;

he had compassion on his people.

Joel 2:6

2:6 People ²  writhe in fear when they see them. ³ 

All of their faces turn pale with fright. ⁴ 

Joel 3:3

3:3 and they cast lots for my people.

They traded ⁵  a boy for a prostitute;

they sold a little girl for wine so they could drink. ⁶ 

Joel 2:17

2:17 Let the priests, those who serve the Lord, weep

from the vestibule all the way back to the altar. ⁷ 

Let them say, “Have pity, O Lord, on your people;

please do not turn over your inheritance to be mocked,

to become a proverb ⁸  among the nations.

Why should it be said ⁹  among the peoples,

“Where is their God?”

Joel 2:5

2:5 They sound like ¹⁰  chariots rumbling ¹¹  over mountain tops,

like the crackling ¹²  of blazing fire consuming stubble,

like the noise of ¹³  a mighty army ¹⁴  being drawn up for battle. ¹⁵ 

Joel 2:16

2:16 Gather the people;

sanctify an assembly!

Gather the elders;

gather the children and the nursing infants.

Let the bridegroom come out from his bedroom

and the bride from her private quarters. ¹⁶ 

Joel 2:26-27

2:26 You will have plenty to eat,

and your hunger will be fully satisfied; ¹⁷ 

you will praise the name of the Lord your God,

who has acted wondrously in your behalf.

My people will never again be put to shame.

2:27 You will be convinced that I am in the midst of Israel.

I am the Lord your God; there is no other.

My people will never again be put to shame.

Joel 3:16

3:16 The Lord roars from Zion;

from Jerusalem ¹⁸  his voice bellows out. ¹⁹ 

The heavens ²⁰  and the earth shake.

But the Lord is a refuge for his people;

he is a stronghold for the citizens ²¹  of Israel.

Joel 2:2

2:2 It will be ²²  a day of dreadful darkness, ²³ 

a day of foreboding storm clouds, ²⁴ 

like blackness ²⁵  spread over the mountains.

It is a huge and powerful army ²⁶  –

there has never been anything like it ever before,

and there will not be anything like it for many generations to come! ²⁷ 

Joel 2:19

2:19 The Lord responded ²⁸  to his people,

“Look! I am about to restore your grain ²⁹ 

as well as fresh wine and olive oil.

You will be fully satisfied. ³⁰ 

I will never again make you an object of mockery among the nations.

Joel 3:2

3:2 Then I will gather all the nations,

and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. ³¹ 

I will enter into judgment ³²  against them there

concerning my people Israel who are my inheritance, ³³ 

whom they scattered among the nations.

They partitioned my land,

[2:18]  ¹ tn The time-frame entertained by the verbs of v.18 constitutes a crux interpretum in this chapter. The Hebrew verb forms used here are preterites with vav consecutive and are most naturally understood as describing a past situation. However, some modern English versions render these verbs as futures (e.g., NIV, NASV), apparently concluding that the context requires a future reference. According to Joüon 2:363 §112.h, n.1 Ibn Ezra explained the verbs of Joel 2:18 as an extension of the so-called prophetic perfect; as such, a future fulfillment was described with a past tense as a rhetorical device lending certainty to the fulfillment. But this lacks adequate precedent and is very unlikely from a syntactical standpoint. It seems better to take the verbs in the normal past sense of the preterite. This would require a vantage point for the prophet at some time after the people had responded favorably to the Lord’s call for repentance and after the Lord had shown compassion and forgiveness toward his people, but before the full realization of God’s promises to restore productivity to the land. In other words, it appears from the verbs of vv. 18-19 that at the time of Joel’s writing this book the events of successive waves of locust invasion and conditions of drought had almost run their course and the people had now begun to turn to the Lord.

[2:6]  ² tn Or “nations.”

[2:6]  ³ tn Heb “before it.”

[2:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “all faces gather beauty”; or “all faces gather a glow.” The Hebrew word פָּארוּר (pa’rur) is found in the OT only here and in Nah 2:11. Its meaning is very uncertain. Some scholars associate it with a root that signifies “glowing”; hence “all faces gather a glow of dread.” Others associate the word with פָּרוּר (parur, “pot”); hence “all faces gather blackness.” Still others take the root to signify “beauty”; hence “all faces gather in their beauty” in the sense of growing pale due to fear. This is the view assumed here.

[3:3]  ³ tn Heb “gave.”

[3:3]  ⁴ sn Heb “and they drank.” Joel vividly refers to a situation where innocent human life has little value; its only worth is its use in somehow satisfying selfish appetites of wicked people who have control over others (cf. Amos 2:6 and 8:6).

[2:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “between the vestibule and the altar.” The vestibule was located at the entrance of the temple and the altar was located at the other end of the building. So “between the vestibule and the altar” is a merism referring to the entire structure. The priestly lament permeates the entire house of worship.

[2:17]  ⁵ tn For the MT reading לִמְשָׁל (limshol, an infinitive, “to rule”), one should instead read לְמָשָׁל (lÿmashal, a noun, “to a byword”). While the consonantal Hebrew text permits either, the context suggests that the concern here is more one of not wanting to appear abandoned by God to ongoing economic depression rather than one of concern over potential political subjection of Israel (cf. v. 19). The possibility that the form in the MT is an infinitive construct of the denominative verb II מָשַׁל (mashal, “to utter a proverb”) does not seem likely because of the following preposition (Hebrew בְּ [bÿ], rather than עַל [’al]).

[2:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “Why will they say?”

[2:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “like the sound of.”

[2:5]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “sound.”

[2:5]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “people.”

[2:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “being arrayed of battle.”

[2:16]  ⁶ sn Mosaic law allowed men recently married, or about to be married, to be exempt for a year from certain duties that were normally mandatory, such as military obligation (cf. Deut 20:7; 24:5). However, Joel pictures a time of such urgency that normal expectations must give way to higher requirements.

[2:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “you will surely eat and be satisfied.”

[3:16]  ⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “he sounds forth his voice.”

[3:16]  ¹⁰ tn Or “the sky.” See the note on “sky” in 2:30.

[3:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “sons.”

[2:2]  ⁹ tn The phrase “It will be” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness and style.

[2:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “darkness and gloom.” These two terms probably form a hendiadys here. This picture recalls the imagery of the supernatural darkness in Egypt during the judgments of the exodus (Exod 10:22). These terms are also frequently used as figures (metonymy of association) for calamity and divine judgment (Isa 8:22; 59:9; Jer 23:12; Zeph 1:15). Darkness is often a figure (metonymy of association) for death, dread, distress and judgment (BDB 365 s.v. חשֶׁךְ 3).

[2:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a day of cloud and darkness.”

[2:2]  ¹² tc The present translation here follows the proposed reading שְׁחֹר (shÿkhor, “blackness”) rather than the MT שַׁחַר (shakhar, “morning”). The change affects only the vocalization; the Hebrew consonants remain unchanged. Here the context calls for a word describing darkness. The idea of morning or dawn speaks instead of approaching light, which does not seem to fit here. The other words in the verse (e.g., “darkness,” “gloominess,” “cloud,” “heavy overcast”) all emphasize the negative aspects of the matter at hand and lead the reader to expect a word like “blackness” rather than “dawn.” However, NIrV paraphrases the MT nicely: “A huge army of locusts is coming. They will spread across the mountains like the sun when it rises.”

[2:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “A huge and powerful people”; KJV, ASV “a great people and a strong.” Many interpreters understand Joel 2 to describe an invasion of human armies, either in past history (e.g., the Babylonian invasion of Palestine in the sixth century b.c.) or in an eschatological setting. More probably, however, the language of this chapter referring to “people” and “armies” is a hypocatastic description of the locusts of chapter one. Cf. TEV “The great army of locusts advances like darkness.”

[2:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “it will not be repeated for years of generation and generation.”

[2:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[2:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Look! I am sending grain to you.” The participle used in the Hebrew text seems to suggest imminent action.

[2:19]  ¹² tc One of the Qumran manuscripts (4QXXII^c) inserts “and you will eat” before “and you will be fully satisfied” (the reading of the MT, LXX).

[3:2]  ¹¹ sn There is a play on words here. Jehoshaphat in Hebrew means “the Lord has judged,” and the next line in v. 2 further explicates this thought. The location of this valley is uncertain (cf. v. 12). Many interpreters have understood the Valley of Jehoshaphat to be the Kidron Valley, located on the east side of old Jerusalem. Since this is described as a scene of future messianic activity and judgment, many Jews and Muslims have desired to be buried in the vicinity, a fact attested to in modern times by the presence of many graves in the area. A variation of this view is mentioned by Eusebius, Onomasticon 1:10. According to this view, the Valley of Jehoshaphat is located in the Hinnom Valley, on the south side of the old city. Yet another view is held by many modern scholars, who understand the reference to this valley to be one of an idealized and nonliteral scene of judgment.

[3:2]  ¹² tn Heb “I will execute judgment.”

[3:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “concerning my people and my inheritance Israel.”