Joel 2:3

2:3 Like fire they devour everything in their path; ¹ 

a flame blazes behind them.

The land looks like the Garden of Eden ²  before them,

but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness –

for nothing escapes them! ³ 

Joel 2:10

2:10 The earth quakes ⁴  before them; ⁵ 

the sky reverberates. ⁶ 

The sun and the moon grow dark;

the stars refuse to shine. ⁷ 

[2:3]  ¹ tn Heb “a fire devours before it.”

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

[2:3]  ³ 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.

[2:10]  ⁴ sn Witnesses of locust invasions have described the visual effect of large numbers of these creatures crawling over one another on the ground. At such times the ground is said to appear to be in motion, creating a dizzying effect on some observers. The reference in v. 10 to the darkening of the sun and moon probably has to do with the obscuring of visibility due to large numbers of locusts swarming in the sky.

[2:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “before it.”

[2:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “trembles.”

[2:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “gather their brightness.”