Leviticus 26:19-20

26:19 I will break your strong pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze. 26:20 Your strength will be used up in vain, your land will not give its yield, and the trees of the land ¹  will not produce their fruit.

Deuteronomy 28:23-24

28:23 The ²  sky ³  above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron. 28:24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

Deuteronomy 29:23

29:23 The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger. ⁴ 

Joel 1:19-20

1:19 To you, O Lord, I call out for help, ⁵ 

for fire ⁶  has burned up ⁷  the grassy pastures, ⁸ 

flames have razed ⁹  all the trees in the fields.

1:20 Even the wild animals ¹⁰  cry out to you; ¹¹ 

for the river beds ¹²  have dried up;

fire has destroyed ¹³  the grassy pastures. ¹⁴ 

[26:20]  ¹ tn Heb “the tree of the land will not give its fruit.” The collective singular has been translated as a plural. Tg. Onq., some medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, LXX, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “the field” as in v. 4, rather than “the land.”

[28:23]  ² tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”

[28:23]  ³ tn Or “heavens” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[29:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” This construction is a hendiadys intended to intensify the emotion.

[1:19]  ⁵ tn The phrase “for help” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[1:19]  ⁶ sn Fire here and in v. 20 is probably not to be understood in a literal sense. The locust plague, accompanied by conditions of extreme drought, has left the countryside looking as though everything has been burned up (so also in Joel 2:3).

[1:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “consumed.” This entire line is restated at the end of v. 20.

[1:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “the pastures of the wilderness.”

[1:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “a flame has set ablaze.” This fire was one of the effects of the drought.

[1:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “beasts of the field.”

[1:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “long for you.” Animals of course do not have religious sensibilities as such; they do not in any literal sense long for Yahweh. Rather, the language here is figurative (metonymy of cause for effect). The animals long for food and water (so BDB 788 s.v. עָרַג), the ultimate source of which is Yahweh.

[1:20]  ¹² tn Heb “sources of water.”

[1:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “consumed.”

[1:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the pastures of the wilderness.”