Joel 2:4

2:4 They look like horses; ¹ 

they charge ahead like war horses.

Joel 2:7

2:7 They ²  charge ³  like warriors;

they scale walls like soldiers. ⁴ 

Each one proceeds on his course;

they do not alter ⁵  their path.

Joel 2:5

2:5 They sound like ⁶  chariots rumbling ⁷  over mountain tops,

like the crackling ⁸  of blazing fire consuming stubble,

like the noise of ⁹  a mighty army ¹⁰  being drawn up for battle. ¹¹ 

Joel 1:8

A Call to Lament

1:8 Wail ¹²  like a young virgin ¹³  clothed in sackcloth,

lamenting the death of ¹⁴  her husband-to-be. ¹⁵ 

Joel 2:9

2:9 They rush into ¹⁶  the city;

they scale ¹⁷  its walls.

They climb up into the houses;

they go in through the windows like a thief.

Joel 2:2-3

2:2 It will be ¹⁸  a day of dreadful darkness, ¹⁹ 

a day of foreboding storm clouds, ²⁰ 

like blackness ²¹  spread over the mountains.

It is a huge and powerful army ²²  –

there has never been anything like it ever before,

and there will not be anything like it for many generations to come! ²³ 

2:3 Like fire they devour everything in their path; ²⁴ 

a flame blazes behind them.

The land looks like the Garden of Eden ²⁵  before them,

but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness –

for nothing escapes them! ²⁶ 

Joel 1:2

A Locust Plague Foreshadows the Day of the Lord

1:2 Listen to this, you elders; ²⁷ 

pay attention, ²⁸  all inhabitants of the land.

Has anything like this ever happened in your whole life ²⁹ 

or in the lifetime ³⁰  of your ancestors? ³¹ 

Joel 1:6

1:6 For a nation ³²  has invaded ³³  our ³⁴  land.

There are so many of them they are too numerous to count. ³⁵ 

Their teeth are like those ³⁶  of a lion;

they tear apart their prey like a lioness. ³⁷ 

Joel 1:15

1:15 How awful that day will be! ³⁸ 

For the day of the Lord is near;

it will come as destruction from the Divine Destroyer. ³⁹ 

Joel 2:26-27

2:26 You will have plenty to eat,

and your hunger will be fully satisfied; ⁴⁰ 

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 2:20

2:20 I will remove the one from the north ⁴¹  far from you.

I will drive him out to a dry and desolate place.

Those in front will be driven eastward into the Dead Sea, ⁴² 

and those in back westward into the Mediterranean Sea. ⁴³ 

His stench will rise up as a foul smell.” ⁴⁴ 

Indeed, the Lord ⁴⁵  has accomplished great things.

[2:4]  ¹ tn Heb “Like the appearance of horses [is] its appearance.”

[2:7]  ² sn Since the invaders are compared to warriors, this suggests that they are not actually human, but instead an army of locusts.

[2:7]  ³ tn Heb “run.”

[2:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “men of battle.”

[2:7]  ⁵ tc The translation reads יְעַבְּתוּן (yÿ’abbÿtun) for MT יְעַבְּטוּן (yÿ’abbÿtun). The verb found in MT (עָבַט, ’avat) means “take or give a pledge” (cf. Deut 15:6, 8; 24:10) and does not fit the context. Some scholars have proposed various emendations: (1) יְעָוְּתוּן (yÿ’avvÿtun, “they make crooked”); (2) יָטּוּן (yattun, “they turn aside”); (3) יָעַוּוּן (ya’avvun, “they err”); and (4) יְעָבְּתוּן (adopted in the present translation) from the root I עָבַת (’avat, “to twist, pervert”) or II עָבַת (’avat, “to change, abandon”). KBL adopt the latter option, but the only biblical evidence for this is the problematic reference in Joel 2:7. Another option is to view it as a variant of the root חבט (khavat, “turn aside from”), a meaning attested for the Arabic cognate. The difference in spelling would be due to the interchange of the guttural letters khet (ח) and ayin (ע). This may lay behind LXX rendering ἐκκλίνωσιν (ekklinwsin; cf. Syriac Peshitta nstwn and Vg declinabunt). See S. F. Whitley, “‘bt in Joel 2, 7,” Bib 65 (1984): 101-2.

[2:5]  ³ tn Heb “like the sound of.”

[2:5]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “sound.”

[2:5]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “people.”

[2:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “being arrayed of battle.”

[1:8]  ⁴ sn The verb is feminine singular, raising a question concerning its intended antecedent. A plural verb would be expected here, the idea being that all the inhabitants of the land should grieve. Perhaps Joel is thinking specifically of the city of Jerusalem, albeit in a representative sense. The choice of the feminine singular verb form has probably been influenced to some extent by the allusion to the young widow in the simile of v. 8.

[1:8]  ⁵ tn Or “a young woman” (TEV, CEV). See the note on the phrase “husband-to-be” in the next line.

[1:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “over the death of.” The term “lamenting” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.

[1:8]  ⁷ sn Heb “the husband of her youth.” The woman described here may already be married, so the reference is to the death of a husband rather than a fiancé (a husband-to-be). Either way, the simile describes a painful and unexpected loss to which the national tragedy Joel is describing may be compared.

[2:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “dart about in.”

[2:9]  ⁶ tn Or “they run upon its wall.”

[2:2]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “a day of cloud and darkness.”

[2:2]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “it will not be repeated for years of generation and generation.”

[2:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “a fire devours before it.”

[2:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “like the garden of Eden, the land is before them.”

[2:3]  ⁹ 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.

[1:2]  ⁸ sn Elders here refers not necessarily to men advanced in years, but to leaders within the community.

[1:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “give ear.”

[1:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “days.” The term “days” functions here as a synecdoche for one’s lifespan.

[1:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “days.”

[1:2]  ¹² tn Heb “fathers.”

[1:6]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “has come up against.”

[1:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “my.”

[1:6]  ¹² tn Heb “[It] is huge and there is not number.”

[1:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “its teeth are the teeth of a lion.”

[1:6]  ¹⁴ 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.”

[1:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Alas for the day!”

[1:15]  ¹¹ tn There is a wordplay in Hebrew here with the word used for “destruction” (שׁוֹד, shod) and the term used for God (שַׁדַּי, shadday). The exact meaning of “Shaddai” in the OT is somewhat uncertain, although the ancient versions and many modern English versions tend to translate it as “Almighty” (e.g., Greek παντοκράτωρ [pantokratwr], Latin omnipotens). Here it might be rendered “Destroyer,” with the thought being that “destruction will come from the Divine Destroyer,” which should not be misunderstood as a reference to the destroying angel. The name “Shaddai” (outside Genesis and without the element “El” [“God”]) is normally used when God is viewed as the sovereign king who blesses/protects or curses/brings judgment. The name appears in the introduction to two of Balaam’s oracles (Num 24:4, 16) of blessing upon Israel. Naomi employs the name when accusing the Lord of treating her bitterly by taking the lives of her husband and sons (Ruth 1:20-21). In Ps 68:14, Isa 13:6, and the present passage, Shaddai judges his enemies through warfare, while Ps 91:1 depicts him as the protector of his people. In Ezek 1:24 and 10:5 the sound of the cherubs’ wings is compared to Shaddai’s powerful voice. The reference may be to the mighty divine warrior’s battle cry which accompanies his angry judgment.

[2:26]  ¹¹ tn Heb “you will surely eat and be satisfied.”

[2:20]  ¹² sn The allusion to the one from the north is best understood as having locusts in view. It is not correct to say that this reference to the enemy who came form the north excludes the possibility of a reference to locusts and must be understood as human armies. Although locust plagues usually approached Palestine from the east or southeast, the severe plague of 1915, for example, came from the northeast.

[2:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “his face to the eastern sea.” In this context the eastern sea is probably the Dead Sea.

[2:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and his rear to the western sea.” The western sea refers to the Mediterranean Sea.

[2:20]  ¹⁵ sn Heb “and his foul smell will ascend.” The foul smell probably refers to the unpleasant odor of decayed masses of dead locusts. The Hebrew word for “foul smell” is found only here in the Old Testament. The Hebrew word for “stench” appears only here and in Isa 34:3 and Amos 4:10. In the latter references it refers to the stench of dead corpses on a field of battle.

[2:20]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text does not have “the Lord.” Two interpretations are possible. This clause may refer to the enemy described in the immediately preceding verses, in which case it would have a negative sense: “he has acted in a high-handed manner.” Or it may refer to the Lord, in which case it would have a positive sense: “the Lord has acted in a marvelous manner.” This is clearly the sense of the same expression in v. 21, where in fact “the Lord” appears as the subject of the verb. It seems best to understand the clause the same way in both verses.