Joel 2:4-11

2:4 They look like horses; ¹ 

they charge ahead like war horses.

2:5 They sound like ²  chariots rumbling ³  over mountain tops,

like the crackling ⁴  of blazing fire consuming stubble,

like the noise of ⁵  a mighty army ⁶  being drawn up for battle. ⁷ 

2:6 People ⁸  writhe in fear when they see them. ⁹ 

All of their faces turn pale with fright. ¹⁰ 

2:7 They ¹¹  charge ¹²  like warriors;

they scale walls like soldiers. ¹³ 

Each one proceeds on his course;

they do not alter ¹⁴  their path.

2:8 They do not jostle one another; ¹⁵ 

each of them marches straight ahead. ¹⁶ 

They burst through ¹⁷  the city defenses ¹⁸ 

and do not break ranks.

2:9 They rush into ¹⁹  the city;

they scale ²⁰  its walls.

They climb up into the houses;

they go in through the windows like a thief.

2:10 The earth quakes ²¹  before them; ²² 

the sky reverberates. ²³ 

The sun and the moon grow dark;

the stars refuse to shine. ²⁴ 

2:11 The voice of the Lord thunders ²⁵  as he leads his army. ²⁶ 

Indeed, his warriors ²⁷  are innumerable; ²⁸ 

Surely his command is carried out! ²⁹ 

Yes, the day of the Lord is awesome ³⁰ 

and very terrifying – who can survive ³¹  it?

Revelation 9:7-19

9:7 Now ³²  the locusts looked like horses equipped for battle. On ³³  their heads were something like crowns similar to gold, ³⁴  and their faces looked like men’s ³⁵  faces. 9:8 They ³⁶  had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9:9 They had breastplates ³⁷  like iron breastplates, and the sound of their wings was like the noise of many horse-drawn chariots charging into battle. 9:10 They have ³⁸  tails and stingers like scorpions, and their ability ³⁹  to injure people for five months is in their tails. 9:11 They have as king over them the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon. ⁴⁰ 

9:12 The first woe has passed, but ⁴¹  two woes are still coming after these things!

9:13 Then ⁴²  the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a single voice coming from the ⁴³  horns on the golden altar that is before God, 9:14 saying to the sixth angel, the one holding ⁴⁴  the trumpet, “Set free ⁴⁵  the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!” 9:15 Then ⁴⁶  the four angels who had been prepared for this ⁴⁷  hour, day, ⁴⁸  month, and year were set free to kill ⁴⁹  a third of humanity. 9:16 The ⁵⁰  number of soldiers on horseback was two hundred million; ⁵¹  I heard their number. 9:17 Now ⁵²  this is what the horses and their riders ⁵³  looked like in my ⁵⁴  vision: The riders had breastplates that were fiery red, ⁵⁵  dark blue, ⁵⁶  and sulfurous ⁵⁷  yellow in color. ⁵⁸  The ⁵⁹  heads of the horses looked like lions’ heads, and fire, smoke, and sulfur ⁶⁰  came out of their mouths. 9:18 A third of humanity was killed by these three plagues, that is, ⁶¹  by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur that came out of their mouths. 9:19 For the power ⁶²  of the horses resides ⁶³  in their mouths and in their tails, because their tails are like snakes, having heads that inflict injuries.

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

[2:5]  ² tn Heb “like the sound of.”

[2:5]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “sound.”

[2:5]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “people.”

[2:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “being arrayed of battle.”

[2:6]  ⁸ tn Or “nations.”

[2:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “before it.”

[2:6]  ¹⁰ 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.

[2:7]  ¹¹ sn Since the invaders are compared to warriors, this suggests that they are not actually human, but instead an army of locusts.

[2:7]  ¹² tn Heb “run.”

[2:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “men of battle.”

[2:7]  ¹⁴ 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.

[2:8]  ¹⁵ tn “each one does not crowd his brother.”

[2:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “each warrior walks in his own course.”

[2:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “they fall upon.” This line has been interpreted in two different ways: (1) although they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded (KJV), or (2) when they “burst through” the city’s defenses, they will not break ranks (RSV, NASB, NIV, NIrV).

[2:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “missile” or “javelin.” This term appears to function as a synecdoche for the city’s defenses as a whole (cf. NASB, NIV, TEV). Some scholars instead understand the reference to be an aqueduct by which the locusts (or armies) entered the city.

[2:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “dart about in.”

[2:9]  ²⁰ tn Or “they run upon its wall.”

[2:10]  ²¹ 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]  ²² tn Heb “before it.”

[2:10]  ²³ tn Heb “trembles.”

[2:10]  ²⁴ tn Heb “gather their brightness.”

[2:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the Lord gives his voice.”

[2:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “before his army.”

[2:11]  ²⁷ tn Heb “military encampment.”

[2:11]  ²⁸ tn Heb “very large.”

[2:11]  ²⁹ tn Heb “he makes his word powerful.”

[2:11]  ³⁰ tn Or “powerful.” Heb “great.”

[2:11]  ³¹ tn Heb “endure.” The MT and LXX read “endure,” while one of the Qumran manuscripts (4QXXII^c) has “bear.”

[9:7]  ³² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the introduction of the description of the locusts, which is somewhat parenthetical in the narrative.

[9:7]  ³³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[9:7]  ³⁴ tn The translation attempts to bring out the double uncertainty in this clause in the Greek text, involving both the form (ὡς στέφανοι, Jw" stefanoi, “like crowns”) and the material (ὅμοιοι χρυσῷ, {omoioi crusw, “similar to gold”).

[9:7]  ³⁵ tn Or “human faces.” The Greek term ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpos) is often used in a generic sense, referring to both men and women. However, because “women’s hair” in the next clause suggests a possible gender distinction here, “men’s” was retained.

[9:8]  ³⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[9:9]  ³⁷ tn Or perhaps, “scales like iron breastplates” (RSV, NRSV) although the Greek term θώραξ (qwrax) would have to shift its meaning within the clause, and elsewhere in biblical usage (e.g., Eph 6:14; 1 Thess 5:8) it normally means “breastplate.” See also L&N 8.38.

[9:10]  ³⁸ tn In the Greek text there is a shift to the present tense here; the previous verbs translated “had” are imperfects.

[9:10]  ³⁹ tn See BDAG 352 s.v. ἐξουσία 2, “potential or resource to command, control, or govern, capability, might, power.”

[9:11]  ⁴⁰ sn Both the Hebrew Abaddon and the Greek Apollyon mean “Destroyer.”

[9:12]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “behold.” Here ἰδού (idou) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in the context.

[9:13]  ⁴² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[9:13]  ⁴³ tc ‡ Several key mss (Ì⁴⁷ א¹ A 0207 1611 2053 2344 pc lat sy^h co) lack the word τεσσάρων (tessarwn, “four”) before κεράτων (keratwn, “horns”). The word seems to have been added by scribes because a “horned” altar (described in the OT [Exod 30:2, 10]) could have only four “horns” or projections at the corners. NA²⁷ includes the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

[9:14]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “having.”

[9:14]  ⁴⁵ tn On λῦσον (luson) BDAG 606-7 s.v. λύω 2 states, “set free, loose, untie – a. lit. a pers., animal, or thing that is bound or tied…Angels that are bound Rv 9:14f.”

[9:15]  ⁴⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[9:15]  ⁴⁷ tn The Greek article τήν (thn) has been translated with demonstrative force here.

[9:15]  ⁴⁸ tn The Greek term καί (kai) has not been translated here and before the following term “month” since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[9:15]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “so that they might kill,” but the English infinitive is an equivalent construction to indicate purpose here.

[9:16]  ⁵⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[9:16]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “twenty thousand of ten thousands.”

[9:17]  ⁵² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the introduction of the description of the horses and riders, which is somewhat parenthetical in the narrative.

[9:17]  ⁵³ tn Grk “and those seated on them.”

[9:17]  ⁵⁴ tn Grk “the vision”; the Greek article has been translated as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[9:17]  ⁵⁵ tn L&N 79.31 states, “‘fiery red’ (probably with a tinge of yellow or orange).”

[9:17]  ⁵⁶ tn On this term BDAG 1022 s.v. ὑακίνθινος states, “hyacinth-colored, i.e. dark blue (dark red?) w. πύρινος Rv 9:17.”

[9:17]  ⁵⁷ tn On this term BDAG 446 s.v. θειώδης states, “sulphurous Rv 9:17.”

[9:17]  ⁵⁸ sn The colors of the riders’ breastplates parallel the three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur in v. 18.

[9:17]  ⁵⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[9:17]  ⁶⁰ tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”

[9:18]  ⁶¹ tn The phrase ἐκ τοῦ πυρὸς καὶ τοῦ καπνοῦ καὶ τοῦ θείου τοῦ ἐκπορευομένου ἐκ τῶν στομάτων αὐτῶν (“by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur that came out of their mouths”) is taken as epexegetical (explanatory) to the phrase τῶν τριῶν πληγῶν τούτων (“these three plagues”).

[9:19]  ⁶² tn See BDAG 352 s.v. ἐξουσία 2, “potential or resource to command, control, or govern, capability, might, power.”

[9:19]  ⁶³ tn Grk “is.”