Joel 2:8

2:8 They do not jostle one another; ¹ 

each of them marches straight ahead. ² 

They burst through ³  the city defenses ⁴ 

and do not break ranks.

Joel 3:21

3:21 I will avenge ⁵  their blood which I had not previously acquitted.

It is the Lord who dwells in Zion!

Joel 2:2-3

2:2 It will be ⁶  a day of dreadful darkness, ⁷ 

a day of foreboding storm clouds, ⁸ 

like blackness ⁹  spread over the mountains.

It is a huge and powerful army ¹⁰  –

there has never been anything like it ever before,

and there will not be anything like it for many generations to come! ¹¹ 

2:3 Like fire they devour everything in their path; ¹² 

a flame blazes behind them.

The land looks like the Garden of Eden ¹³  before them,

but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness –

for nothing escapes them! ¹⁴ 

Joel 3:17

The Lord’s Presence in Zion

3:17 You will be convinced ¹⁵  that I the Lord am your God,

dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain.

Jerusalem ¹⁶  will be holy –

conquering armies ¹⁷  will no longer pass through it.

[2:8]  ¹ tn “each one does not crowd his brother.”

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

[2:8]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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.

[3:21]  ⁵ tc The present translation follows the reading וְנִקַּמְתִּי (vÿniqqamti, “I will avenge”) rather than וְנִקֵּתִי (vÿniqqeti, “I will acquit”) of the MT.

[2:2]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a day of cloud and darkness.”

[2:2]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “it will not be repeated for years of generation and generation.”

[2:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “a fire devours before it.”

[2:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “like the garden of Eden, the land is before them.”

[2:3]  ¹⁵ 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.

[3:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “know.”

[3:17]  ¹⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:17]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “strangers” or “foreigners.” In context, this refers to invasions by conquering armies.