Joel 2:4

2:4 They look like horses; ¹ 

they charge ahead like war horses.

Joel 3:17

The Lord’s Presence in Zion

3:17 You will be convinced ²  that I the Lord am your God,

dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain.

Jerusalem ³  will be holy –

conquering armies ⁴  will no longer pass through it.

Joel 2:2

2:2 It will be ⁵  a day of dreadful darkness, ⁶ 

a day of foreboding storm clouds, ⁷ 

like blackness ⁸  spread over the mountains.

It is a huge and powerful army ⁹  –

there has never been anything like it ever before,

and there will not be anything like it for many generations to come! ¹⁰ 

Joel 2:17

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

from the vestibule all the way back to the altar. ¹¹ 

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

please do not turn over your inheritance to be mocked,

to become a proverb ¹²  among the nations.

Why should it be said ¹³  among the peoples,

“Where is their God?”

Joel 1:6

1:6 For a nation ¹⁴  has invaded ¹⁵  our ¹⁶  land.

There are so many of them they are too numerous to count. ¹⁷ 

Their teeth are like those ¹⁸  of a lion;

they tear apart their prey like a lioness. ¹⁹ 

Joel 1:9

1:9 No one brings grain offerings or drink offerings

to the temple ²⁰  of the Lord anymore. ²¹ 

So the priests, those who serve the Lord, are in mourning.

Joel 3:3

3:3 and they cast lots for my people.

They traded ²²  a boy for a prostitute;

they sold a little girl for wine so they could drink. ²³ 

Joel 3:13

3:13 Rush forth with ²⁴  the sickle, for the harvest is ripe!

Come, stomp the grapes, ²⁵  for the winepress is full!

The vats overflow.

Indeed, their evil is great! ²⁶ 

Joel 1:12

1:12 The vine has dried up;

the fig tree languishes –

the pomegranate, date, and apple ²⁷  as well.

In fact, ²⁸  all the trees of the field have dried up.

Indeed, the joy of the people ²⁹  has dried up!

Joel 2:13-14

2:13 Return to the Lord your God,

for he is merciful and compassionate,

slow to anger and boundless in loyal love ³⁰  – often relenting from calamitous punishment. ³¹ 

2:14 Who knows?

Perhaps he will be compassionate and grant a reprieve, ³² 

and leave blessing in his wake ³³  –

a meal offering and a drink offering for you to offer to the Lord your God! ³⁴ 

Joel 2:23

2:23 Citizens of Zion, ³⁵  rejoice!

Be glad because of what the Lord your God has done! ³⁶ 

For he has given to you the early rains ³⁷  as vindication.

He has sent ³⁸  to you the rains –

both the early and the late rains ³⁹  as formerly.

Joel 2:25

2:25 I will make up for the years ⁴⁰ 

that the ‘arbeh-locust ⁴¹  consumed your crops ⁴²  –

the yeleq-locust, the hasil-locust, and the gazam-locust –

my great army ⁴³  that I sent against you.

Joel 2:32

2:32 It will so happen that

everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered. ⁴⁴ 

For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem ⁴⁵  there will be those who survive, ⁴⁶ 

just as the Lord has promised;

the remnant ⁴⁷  will be those whom the Lord will call. ⁴⁸ 

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

[3:17]  ² tn Heb “know.”

[3:17]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “strangers” or “foreigners.” In context, this refers to invasions by conquering armies.

[2:2]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “a day of cloud and darkness.”

[2:2]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “it will not be repeated for years of generation and generation.”

[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?”

[1:6]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “has come up against.”

[1:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “my.”

[1:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “[It] is huge and there is not number.”

[1:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “its teeth are the teeth of a lion.”

[1:6]  ¹⁰ 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.”

[1:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “house.” So also in vv. 13, 14, 16.

[1:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “grain offering and drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord,”

[3:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “gave.”

[3:3]  ⁸ 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).

[3:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “send.”

[3:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “go down” or “tread.” The Hebrew term רְדוּ (rÿdu) may be from יָרַד (yarad, “to go down”) or from רָדָה (radah, “have dominion,” here in the sense of “to tread”). If it means “go down,” the reference would be to entering the vat to squash the grapes. If it means “tread,” the verb would refer specifically to the action of those who walk over the grapes to press out their juice. The phrase “the grapes” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[3:13]  ¹⁰ sn The immediacy of judgment upon wickedness is likened to the urgency required for a harvest that has reached its pinnacle of development. When the harvest is completely ripe, there can be no delay by the reapers in gathering the harvest. In a similar way, Joel envisions a time when human wickedness will reach such a heightened degree that there can be no further stay of divine judgment (cf. the “fullness of time” language in Gal 4:4).

[1:12]  ⁹ tn This Hebrew word וְתַפּוּחַ (vÿtappuakh) probably refers to the apple tree (so most English versions), but other suggestions that scholars have offered include the apricot, citron, or quince.

[1:12]  ¹⁰ tn These words are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[1:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the sons of man.”

[2:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and great of loyal love.”

[2:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he relents from calamity.”

[2:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “turn” or “turn back.”

[2:14]  ¹² tn Heb “leave a blessing behind him.”

[2:14]  ¹³ tn The phrase “for you to offer” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[2:23]  ¹² tn Heb “sons of Zion.”

[2:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “be glad in the Lord your God.”

[2:23]  ¹⁴ tn Normally the Hebrew word הַמּוֹרֶה (hammoreh) means “the teacher,” but here and in Ps 84:7 it refers to “early rains.” Elsewhere the word for “early rains” is יוֹרֶה (yoreh). The phrase here הַמּוֹרֶה לִצְדָקָה (hammoreh litsdaqah) is similar to the expression “teacher of righteousness” (Heb., מוֹרֶה הַצֶּדֶק , moreh hatsedeq) found in the Dead Sea Scrolls referring to a particular charismatic leader, although the Qumran community seems not to have invoked this text in support of that notion.

[2:23]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “caused to come down.”

[2:23]  ¹⁶ sn For half the year Palestine is generally dry. The rainy season begins with the early rains usually in late October to early December, followed by the latter rains in March and April. Without these rains productive farming would not be possible, as Joel’s original readers knew only too well.

[2:25]  ¹³ tn Heb “I will restore to you the years.”

[2:25]  ¹⁴ sn The same four terms for locust are used here as in 1:4, but in a different order. This fact creates some difficulty for the notion that the four words refer to four distinct stages of locust development.

[2:25]  ¹⁵ tn The term “your crops” does not appear in the Hebrew, but has been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[2:25]  ¹⁶ sn Here Joel employs military language to describe the locusts. In the prophet’s thinking this invasion was far from being a freak accident. Rather, the Lord is pictured here as a divine warrior who leads his army into the land as a punishment for past sin and as a means of bringing about spiritual renewal on the part of the people.

[2:32]  ¹⁴ tn While a number of English versions render this as “saved” (e.g., NIV, NRSV, NLT), this can suggest a “spiritual” or “theological” salvation rather than the physical deliverance from the cataclysmic events of the day of the Lord described in the context.

[2:32]  ¹⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:32]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “deliverance”; or “escape.” The abstract noun “deliverance” or “escape” probably functions here as an example of antimeria, referring to those who experience deliverance or escape with their lives: “escaped remnant” or “surviving remnant” (Gen 32:8; 45:7; Judg 21:17; 2 Kgs 19:30, 31; Isa 4:2; 10:20; 15:9; 37:31, 32; Ezek 14:22; Obad 1:17; Ezra 9:8, 13-15; Neh 1:2; 1 Chr 4:43; 2 Chr 30:6).

[2:32]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and among the remnant.”

[2:32]  ¹⁸ tn The participle used in the Hebrew text seems to indicate action in the imminent future.