Yesaya 18:5-6

18:5 For before the harvest, when the bud has sprouted,

and the ripening fruit appears, ¹ 

he will cut off the unproductive shoots ²  with pruning knives;

he will prune the tendrils. ³ 

18:6 They will all be left ⁴  for the birds of the hills

and the wild animals; ⁵ 

the birds will eat them during the summer,

and all the wild animals will eat them during the winter.

Ayub 4:8

4:8 Even as I have seen, ⁶  those who plow ⁷  iniquity ⁸ 

and those who sow trouble reap the same. ⁹ 

Yeremia 5:31

5:31 The prophets prophesy lies.

The priests exercise power by their own authority. ¹⁰ 

And my people love to have it this way.

But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes! ¹¹ 

Hosea 8:7

The Fertility Cultists Will Become Infertile

8:7 They sow the wind,

and so they will reap the whirlwind!

The stalk does not have any standing grain;

it will not produce any flour.

Even if it were to yield grain,

foreigners would swallow it all up.

Hosea 9:1-4

Fertility Cult Festivals Have Intoxicated Israel

9:1 O Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly ¹²  like the nations,

for you are unfaithful ¹³  to your God.

You love to receive a prostitute's wages ¹⁴ 

on all the floors where you thresh your grain.

9:2 Threshing floors and wine vats will not feed the people, ¹⁵ 

and new wine only deceives them. ¹⁶ 

Assyrian Exile Will Reverse the Egyptian Exodus

9:3 They will not remain in the Lord’s land.

Ephraim will return to Egypt;

they will eat ritually unclean food in Assyria.

9:4 They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the Lord;

they will not please him with their sacrifices.

Their sacrifices will be like bread eaten while in mourning;

all those who eat them will make themselves ritually unclean.

For their bread will be only to satisfy their appetite;

it will not come into the temple of the Lord.

Hosea 9:16

9:16 Ephraim will be struck down ¹⁷  –

their root will be dried up;

they will not yield any fruit.

Even if they do bear children,

I will kill their precious offspring.

Hosea 10:12-15

10:12 Sow righteousness for yourselves,

reap unfailing love.

Break up the unplowed ground for yourselves,

for it is time to seek the Lord,

until he comes and showers deliverance ¹⁸  on you.

10:13 But you have plowed wickedness;

you have reaped injustice;

you have eaten the fruit of deception.

Because you have depended on your chariots; ¹⁹ 

you have relied ²⁰  on your many warriors.

Bethel Will Be Destroyed Like Beth Arbel

10:14 The roar of battle will rise against your people;

all your fortresses will be devastated,

just as Shalman devastated ²¹  Beth Arbel on the day of battle,

when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.

10:15 So will it happen to you, O Bethel, ²² 

because of your great wickedness!

When that day dawns, ²³ 

the king of Israel will be destroyed. ²⁴ 

Yoel 1:5-12

1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, ²⁵  and weep!

Wail, all you wine drinkers, ²⁶ 

because the sweet wine ²⁷  has been taken away ²⁸  from you. ²⁹ 

1:6 For a nation ³⁰  has invaded ³¹  our ³²  land.

There are so many of them they are too numerous to count. ³³ 

Their teeth are like those ³⁴  of a lion;

they tear apart their prey like a lioness. ³⁵ 

1:7 They ³⁶  have destroyed our ³⁷  vines; ³⁸ 

they have turned our ³⁹  fig trees into mere splinters.

They have completely stripped off the bark ⁴⁰  and thrown them aside;

the ⁴¹  twigs are stripped bare. ⁴² 

A Call to Lament

1:8 Wail ⁴³  like a young virgin ⁴⁴  clothed in sackcloth,

lamenting the death of ⁴⁵  her husband-to-be. ⁴⁶ 

1:9 No one brings grain offerings or drink offerings

to the temple ⁴⁷  of the Lord anymore. ⁴⁸ 

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

1:10 The crops of the fields ⁴⁹  have been destroyed. ⁵⁰ 

The ground is in mourning because the grain has perished.

The fresh wine has dried up;

the olive oil languishes.

1:11 Be distressed, ⁵¹  farmers;

wail, vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley.

For the harvest of the field has perished.

1:12 The vine has dried up;

the fig tree languishes –

the pomegranate, date, and apple ⁵²  as well.

In fact, ⁵³  all the trees of the field have dried up.

Indeed, the joy of the people ⁵⁴  has dried up!

Galatia 6:7-8

6:7 Do not be deceived. God will not be made a fool. ⁵⁵  For a person ⁵⁶  will reap what he sows, 6:8 because the person who sows to his own flesh ⁵⁷  will reap corruption ⁵⁸  from the flesh, ⁵⁹  but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.

[18:5]  ¹ tn Heb “and the unripe, ripening fruit is maturing.”

[18:5]  ² tn On the meaning of זַלְזַל (zalzal, “shoot [of the vine] without fruit buds”) see HALOT 272 s.v. *זַלְזַל.

[18:5]  ³ tn Heb “the tendrils he will remove, he will cut off.”

[18:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “they will be left together” (so NASB).

[18:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “the beasts of the earth” (so KJV, NASB).

[4:8]  ⁶ tn The perfect verb here represents the indefinite past. It has no specific sighting in mind, but refers to each time he has seen the wicked do this.

[4:8]  ⁷ sn The figure is an implied metaphor. Plowing suggests the idea of deliberately preparing (or cultivating) life for evil. This describes those who are fundamentally wicked.

[4:8]  ⁸ tn The LXX renders this with a plural “barren places.”

[4:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “reap it.”

[5:31]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they shall rule at their hands.” Since the word “hand” can be used figuratively for authority or mean “side” and the pronoun “them” can refer to the priests themselves or the prophets, the following translations have also been suggested: “the priests rule under their [the prophets’] directions,” or “the priests rule in league with them [the prophets].” From the rest of the book it would appear that the prophets did not exercise authority over the priests nor did they exercise the same authority over the people that the priests did. Hence it probably mean “by their own hand/power/authority.”

[5:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “But what will you do at its end?” The rhetorical question implies a negative answer: “Nothing!”

[9:1]  ¹² tn Heb “do not rejoice unto jubilation”; KJV “Rejoice not…for joy”; NASB “Do not rejoice…with exultation.”

[9:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “you have committed adultery”; NRSV “you have played the whore.”

[9:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “you love the wages of the prostitute” (NIV similar); NAB “loving a harlot’s hire.”

[9:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “her” (so KJV, ASV). This is taken as a collective singular (so also most modern English versions).

[9:16]  ¹⁷ tn Or perhaps, following the plant metaphor, “will be blighted” (NIV similar).

[10:12]  ¹⁸ tn Or “righteousness” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “justice.”

[10:13]  ¹⁹ tc The MT (followed by KJV, NASB) reads the enigmatic בְּדַרְכְּךָ (bÿdarkÿkha, “in your own way”) which does not seem to fit the context or the parallelism with בְּרֹב גִּבּוֹרֶיךָ (bÿrov gibborekha, “in your multitude of warriors”). The BHS editors suggest the original reading was בְרִכְבְּךָ (vÿrikhbÿkha, “in your chariots”), a reading followed by NAB, TEV. If this is correct, the textual corruption was caused by orthographic confusion between רֶכֶב (rekhev, “chariot”) and דֶּרֶכ (derekh, “way”).

[10:13]  ²⁰ tn The phrase “you have relied” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the parallelism in the preceding line.

[10:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “as the devastation of Shalman.” The genitive noun שַׁלְמַן (shalman, “Shalman”) functions as a subjective genitive: “as Shalman devastated [Beth Arbel].”

[10:15]  ²² map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[10:15]  ²³ tn Heb “when the dawn is cut off” or “when the day ceases.” Cf. NLT “When the day of judgment dawns.”

[10:15]  ²⁴ tn The root דָמָה (damah, “to be cut off, cease to exist, be destroyed”; BDB 198 s.v. דָמָה; HALOT 225 s.v. דמה) is repeated in the Hebrew text. The form נִדְמֹה (nidmoh, Niphal infinitive absolute) appears in the first colon, and the form נִדְמָה (nidmah, Niphal perfect 3rd person masculine singular) appears in the second colon. This striking repetition creates a dramatic wordplay which, for stylistic reasons, cannot be reproduced in English translations: “The moment the dawn ceases to exist (i.e., at the break of dawn), the king of Israel will cease to exist.”

[1:5]  ²⁵ sn The word drunkards has a double edge here. Those accustomed to drinking too much must now lament the unavailability of wine. It also may hint that the people in general have become religiously inebriated and are unresponsive to the Lord. They are, as it were, drunkards from a spiritual standpoint.

[1:5]  ²⁶ sn Joel addresses the first of three groups particularly affected by the locust plague. In v. 5 he describes the effects on the drunkards, who no longer have a ready supply of intoxicating wine; in vv. 11-12 he describes the effects on the farmers, who have watched their labors come to naught because of the insect infestation; and in vv. 13-14 he describes the effects on the priests, who are no longer able to offer grain sacrifices and libations in the temple.

[1:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “over the sweet wine, because it.” Cf. KJV, NIV, TEV, NLT “new wine.”

[1:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “cut off” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV); NAB “will be withheld.”

[1:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “your mouth.” This is a synecdoche of part (the mouth) for whole (the person).

[1:6]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ tn Heb “has come up against.”

[1:6]  ³² tn Heb “my.”

[1:6]  ³³ tn Heb “[It] is huge and there is not number.”

[1:6]  ³⁴ tn Heb “its teeth are the teeth of a lion.”

[1:6]  ³⁵ 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.”

[1:7]  ³⁶ tn Heb “it.” Throughout vv. 6-7 the Hebrew uses singular forms to describe the locust swarm, but the translation uses plural forms because several details of the text make more sense in English as if they are describing the appearance and effects of individual locusts.

[1:7]  ³⁷ tn Heb “my.”

[1:7]  ³⁸ tn Both “vines” and “fig trees” are singular in the Hebrew text, but are regarded as collective singulars.

[1:7]  ³⁹ tn Heb “my.”

[1:7]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “it has completely stripped her.”

[1:7]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “her.”

[1:7]  ⁴² tn Heb “grow white.”

[1:7]  sn Once choice leafy vegetation is no longer available to them, locusts have been known to consume the bark of small tree limbs, leaving them in an exposed and vulnerable condition. It is apparently this whitened condition of limbs that Joel is referring to here.

[1:8]  ⁴³ sn The verb is feminine singular, raising a question concerning its intended antecedent. A plural verb would be expected here, the idea being that all the inhabitants of the land should grieve. Perhaps Joel is thinking specifically of the city of Jerusalem, albeit in a representative sense. The choice of the feminine singular verb form has probably been influenced to some extent by the allusion to the young widow in the simile of v. 8.

[1:8]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “a young woman” (TEV, CEV). See the note on the phrase “husband-to-be” in the next line.

[1:8]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “over the death of.” The term “lamenting” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.

[1:8]  ⁴⁶ sn Heb “the husband of her youth.” The woman described here may already be married, so the reference is to the death of a husband rather than a fiancé (a husband-to-be). Either way, the simile describes a painful and unexpected loss to which the national tragedy Joel is describing may be compared.

[1:9]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “house.” So also in vv. 13, 14, 16.

[1:9]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “grain offering and drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord,”

[1:10]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “the field has been utterly destroyed.” The term “field,” a collective singular for “fields,” is a metonymy for crops produced by the fields.

[1:10]  ⁵⁰ tn Joel uses intentionally alliterative language in the phrases שֻׁדַּד שָׂדֶה (shuddad sadeh, “the field is destroyed”) and אֲבְלָה אֲדָמָה (’avlah ’adamah, “the ground is in mourning”).

[1:11]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “embarrassed”; or “be ashamed.”

[1:12]  ⁵² 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]  ⁵³ tn These words are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[1:12]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “the sons of man.”

[6:7]  ⁵⁵ tn Or “is not mocked,” “will not be ridiculed” (L&N 33.409). BDAG 660 s.v. μυκτηρίζω has “of God οὐ μ. he is not to be mocked, treated w. contempt, perh. outwitted Gal 6:7.”

[6:7]  ⁵⁶ tn Here ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used in a generic sense, referring to both men and women.

[6:8]  ⁵⁷ tn BDAG 915 s.v. σάρξ 2.c.α states: “In Paul’s thought esp., all parts of the body constitute a totality known as σ. or flesh, which is dominated by sin to such a degree that wherever flesh is, all forms of sin are likew. present, and no good thing can live in the σάρξ…Gal 5:13, 24;…Opp. τὸ πνεῦμα…Gal 3:3; 5:16, 17ab; 6:8ab.”

[6:8]  ⁵⁸ tn Or “destruction.”

[6:8]  ⁵⁹ tn See the note on the previous occurrence of the word “flesh” in this verse.