Joel 2:5

2:5 They sound like ¹  chariots rumbling ²  over mountain tops,

like the crackling ³  of blazing fire consuming stubble,

like the noise of ⁴  a mighty army ⁵  being drawn up for battle. ⁶ 

Joel 2:11

2:11 The voice of the Lord thunders ⁷  as he leads his army. ⁸ 

Indeed, his warriors ⁹  are innumerable; ¹⁰ 

Surely his command is carried out! ¹¹ 

Yes, the day of the Lord is awesome ¹² 

and very terrifying – who can survive ¹³  it?

Joel 2:25

2:25 I will make up for the years ¹⁴ 

that the ‘arbeh-locust ¹⁵  consumed your crops ¹⁶  –

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

my great army ¹⁷  that I sent against you.

[2:5]  ¹ tn Heb “like the sound of.”

[2:5]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “sound.”

[2:5]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “people.”

[2:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “being arrayed of battle.”

[2:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “the Lord gives his voice.”

[2:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “before his army.”

[2:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “military encampment.”

[2:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “very large.”

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

[2:11]  ¹² tn Or “powerful.” Heb “great.”

[2:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “endure.” The MT and LXX read “endure,” while one of the Qumran manuscripts (4QXXII^c) has “bear.”

[2:25]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I will restore to you the years.”

[2:25]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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.