Yoel 1:16

1:16 Our food has been cut off right before our eyes! ¹ 

There is no longer any joy or gladness in the temple of our God! ² 

Yoel 2:16

2:16 Gather the people;

sanctify an assembly!

Gather the elders;

gather the children and the nursing infants.

Let the bridegroom come out from his bedroom

and the bride from her private quarters. ³ 

Yoel 1:15

1:15 How awful that day will be! ⁴ 

For the day of the Lord is near;

it will come as destruction from the Divine Destroyer. ⁵ 

Yoel 3:6

3:6 You sold Judeans and Jerusalemites to the Greeks,

removing them far from their own country. ⁶ 

Yoel 1:9

1:9 No one brings grain offerings or drink offerings

to the temple ⁷  of the Lord anymore. ⁸ 

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

Yoel 3:16

3:16 The Lord roars from Zion;

from Jerusalem ⁹  his voice bellows out. ¹⁰ 

The heavens ¹¹  and the earth shake.

But the Lord is a refuge for his people;

he is a stronghold for the citizens ¹²  of Israel.

Yoel 3:7

3:7 Look! I am rousing them from that place to which you sold them.

I will repay you for what you have done! ¹³ 

Yoel 1:5

1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, ¹⁴  and weep!

Wail, all you wine drinkers, ¹⁵ 

because the sweet wine ¹⁶  has been taken away ¹⁷  from you. ¹⁸ 

Yoel 2:7

2:7 They ¹⁹  charge ²⁰  like warriors;

they scale walls like soldiers. ²¹ 

Each one proceeds on his course;

they do not alter ²²  their path.

Yoel 1:12

1:12 The vine has dried up;

the fig tree languishes –

the pomegranate, date, and apple ²³  as well.

In fact, ²⁴  all the trees of the field have dried up.

Indeed, the joy of the people ²⁵  has dried up!

Yoel 2:20

2:20 I will remove the one from the north ²⁶  far from you.

I will drive him out to a dry and desolate place.

Those in front will be driven eastward into the Dead Sea, ²⁷ 

and those in back westward into the Mediterranean Sea. ²⁸ 

His stench will rise up as a foul smell.” ²⁹ 

Indeed, the Lord ³⁰  has accomplished great things.

Yoel 1:13

1:13 Get dressed ³¹  and lament, you priests!

Wail, you who minister at the altar!

Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God,

because no one brings grain offerings or drink offerings

to the temple of your God anymore. ³² 

Yoel 3:18

3:18 On that day ³³  the mountains will drip with sweet wine, ³⁴ 

and the hills will flow with milk. ³⁵ 

All the dry stream beds ³⁶  of Judah will flow with water.

A spring will flow out from the temple ³⁷  of the Lord,

watering the Valley of Acacia Trees. ³⁸ 

Yoel 3:21

3:21 I will avenge ³⁹  their blood which I had not previously acquitted.

It is the Lord who dwells in Zion!

Yoel 3:11

3:11 Lend your aid ⁴⁰  and come,

all you surrounding nations,

and gather yourselves ⁴¹  to that place.”

Bring down, O Lord, your warriors! ⁴² 

Yoel 2:9

2:9 They rush into ⁴³  the city;

they scale ⁴⁴  its walls.

They climb up into the houses;

they go in through the windows like a thief.

Yoel 3:12

3:12 Let the nations be roused and let them go up

to the valley of Jehoshaphat,

for there I will sit in judgment on all the surrounding nations.

Yoel 2:6

2:6 People ⁴⁵  writhe in fear when they see them. ⁴⁶ 

All of their faces turn pale with fright. ⁴⁷ 

Yoel 2:24

2:24 The threshing floors are full of grain;

the vats overflow with fresh wine and olive oil.

Yoel 2:3

2:3 Like fire they devour everything in their path; ⁴⁸ 

a flame blazes behind them.

The land looks like the Garden of Eden ⁴⁹  before them,

but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness –

for nothing escapes them! ⁵⁰ 

Yoel 2:28

An Outpouring of the Spirit

2:28 (3:1) ⁵¹  After all of this ⁵² 

I will pour out my Spirit ⁵³  on all kinds of people. ⁵⁴ 

Your sons and daughters will prophesy.

Your elderly will have revelatory dreams; ⁵⁵ 

your young men will see prophetic visions.

Yoel 1:3

1:3 Tell your children ⁵⁶  about it,

have your children tell their children,

and their children the following generation. ⁵⁷ 

Yoel 2:10

2:10 The earth quakes ⁵⁸  before them; ⁵⁹ 

the sky reverberates. ⁶⁰ 

The sun and the moon grow dark;

the stars refuse to shine. ⁶¹ 

Yoel 2:31

2:31 The sunlight will be turned to darkness

and the moon to the color of blood, ⁶² 

before the day of the Lord comes –

that great and terrible day!

Yoel 2:13

2:13 Return to the Lord your God,

for he is merciful and compassionate,

slow to anger and boundless in loyal love ⁶³  – often relenting from calamitous punishment. ⁶⁴ 

Yoel 2:27

2:27 You will be convinced that I am in the midst of Israel.

I am the Lord your God; there is no other.

My people will never again be put to shame.

Yoel 3:19

3:19 Egypt will be desolate

and Edom will be a desolate wilderness,

because of the violence they did to the people of Judah, ⁶⁵ 

in whose land they shed innocent blood.

Yoel 2:2

2:2 It will be ⁶⁶  a day of dreadful darkness, ⁶⁷ 

a day of foreboding storm clouds, ⁶⁸ 

like blackness ⁶⁹  spread over the mountains.

It is a huge and powerful army ⁷⁰  –

there has never been anything like it ever before,

and there will not be anything like it for many generations to come! ⁷¹ 

Yoel 2:23

2:23 Citizens of Zion, ⁷²  rejoice!

Be glad because of what the Lord your God has done! ⁷³ 

For he has given to you the early rains ⁷⁴  as vindication.

He has sent ⁷⁵  to you the rains –

both the early and the late rains ⁷⁶  as formerly.

[1:16]  ¹ tn Heb “Has not the food been cut off right before our eyes?” This rhetorical question expects an affirmative answer; the question has been translated as an affirmation for the sake of clarity and emphasis.

[1:16]  ² tn Heb “joy and gladness from the house of our God?” Verse 16b is a continuation of the rhetorical question begun in v. 16a, but has been translated as an affirmative statement to make the meaning clear. The words “There is no longer any” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[2:16]  ³ sn Mosaic law allowed men recently married, or about to be married, to be exempt for a year from certain duties that were normally mandatory, such as military obligation (cf. Deut 20:7; 24:5). However, Joel pictures a time of such urgency that normal expectations must give way to higher requirements.

[1:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “Alas for the day!”

[1:15]  ⁵ tn There is a wordplay in Hebrew here with the word used for “destruction” (שׁוֹד, shod) and the term used for God (שַׁדַּי, shadday). The exact meaning of “Shaddai” in the OT is somewhat uncertain, although the ancient versions and many modern English versions tend to translate it as “Almighty” (e.g., Greek παντοκράτωρ [pantokratwr], Latin omnipotens). Here it might be rendered “Destroyer,” with the thought being that “destruction will come from the Divine Destroyer,” which should not be misunderstood as a reference to the destroying angel. The name “Shaddai” (outside Genesis and without the element “El” [“God”]) is normally used when God is viewed as the sovereign king who blesses/protects or curses/brings judgment. The name appears in the introduction to two of Balaam’s oracles (Num 24:4, 16) of blessing upon Israel. Naomi employs the name when accusing the Lord of treating her bitterly by taking the lives of her husband and sons (Ruth 1:20-21). In Ps 68:14, Isa 13:6, and the present passage, Shaddai judges his enemies through warfare, while Ps 91:1 depicts him as the protector of his people. In Ezek 1:24 and 10:5 the sound of the cherubs’ wings is compared to Shaddai’s powerful voice. The reference may be to the mighty divine warrior’s battle cry which accompanies his angry judgment.

[3:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “border.”

[1:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “house.” So also in vv. 13, 14, 16.

[1:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “grain offering and drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord,”

[3:16]  ⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he sounds forth his voice.”

[3:16]  ¹¹ tn Or “the sky.” See the note on “sky” in 2:30.

[3:16]  ¹² tn Heb “sons.”

[3:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “I will return your recompense on your head.”

[1:5]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “over the sweet wine, because it.” Cf. KJV, NIV, TEV, NLT “new wine.”

[1:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “cut off” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV); NAB “will be withheld.”

[1:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “your mouth.” This is a synecdoche of part (the mouth) for whole (the person).

[2:7]  ¹⁹ sn Since the invaders are compared to warriors, this suggests that they are not actually human, but instead an army of locusts.

[2:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “run.”

[2:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “men of battle.”

[2:7]  ²² 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.

[1:12]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ tn These words are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[1:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the sons of man.”

[2:20]  ²⁶ sn The allusion to the one from the north is best understood as having locusts in view. It is not correct to say that this reference to the enemy who came form the north excludes the possibility of a reference to locusts and must be understood as human armies. Although locust plagues usually approached Palestine from the east or southeast, the severe plague of 1915, for example, came from the northeast.

[2:20]  ²⁷ tn Heb “his face to the eastern sea.” In this context the eastern sea is probably the Dead Sea.

[2:20]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and his rear to the western sea.” The western sea refers to the Mediterranean Sea.

[2:20]  ²⁹ sn Heb “and his foul smell will ascend.” The foul smell probably refers to the unpleasant odor of decayed masses of dead locusts. The Hebrew word for “foul smell” is found only here in the Old Testament. The Hebrew word for “stench” appears only here and in Isa 34:3 and Amos 4:10. In the latter references it refers to the stench of dead corpses on a field of battle.

[2:20]  ³⁰ tn The Hebrew text does not have “the Lord.” Two interpretations are possible. This clause may refer to the enemy described in the immediately preceding verses, in which case it would have a negative sense: “he has acted in a high-handed manner.” Or it may refer to the Lord, in which case it would have a positive sense: “the Lord has acted in a marvelous manner.” This is clearly the sense of the same expression in v. 21, where in fact “the Lord” appears as the subject of the verb. It seems best to understand the clause the same way in both verses.

[1:13]  ³¹ tn Heb “put on.” There is no object present in the Hebrew text, but many translations assume “sackcloth” to be the understood object of the verb “put on.” Its absence in the Hebrew text of v. 13 is probably due to metrical considerations. The meter here is 3 + 3, and that has probably influenced the prophet’s choice of words.

[1:13]  ³² tn Heb “for grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.”

[3:18]  ³³ tn Heb “and it will come about in that day.”

[3:18]  ³⁴ tn Many English translations read “new wine” or “sweet wine,” meaning unfermented wine, i.e., grape juice.

[3:18]  ³⁵ sn The language used here is a hyperbolic way of describing both a bountiful grape harvest (“the mountains will drip with juice”) and an abundance of cattle (“the hills will flow with milk”). In addition to being hyperbolic, the language is also metonymical (effect for cause).

[3:18]  ³⁶ tn Or “seasonal streams.”

[3:18]  ³⁷ tn Heb “house.”

[3:18]  ³⁸ tn Heb “valley of Shittim.” The exact location of the Valley of Acacia Trees is uncertain. The Hebrew word שִׁטִּים (shittim) refers to a place where the acacia trees grow, which would be a very arid and dry place. The acacia tree can survive in such locations, whereas most other trees require more advantageous conditions. Joel’s point is that the stream that has been mentioned will proceed to the most dry and barren of locations in the vicinity of Jerusalem.

[3:21]  ³⁹ tc The present translation follows the reading וְנִקַּמְתִּי (vÿniqqamti, “I will avenge”) rather than וְנִקֵּתִי (vÿniqqeti, “I will acquit”) of the MT.

[3:11]  ⁴⁰ tn This Hebrew verb is found only here in the OT; its meaning is uncertain. Some scholars prefer to read here עוּרוּ (’uru, “arouse”) or חוּשׁוּ (khushu, “hasten”).

[3:11]  ⁴¹ tc The present translation follows the reading of the imperative הִקָּבְצוּ (hiqqavÿtsu) rather than the perfect with vav (ו) consecutive וְנִקְבָּצוּ (vÿniqbbatsu) of the MT.

[3:11]  ⁴² tc Some commentators prefer to delete the line “Bring down, O Lord, your warriors,” understanding it to be a later addition. But this is unnecessary. Contrary to what some have suggested, a prayer for the Lord’s intervention is not out of place here.

[2:9]  ⁴³ tn Heb “dart about in.”

[2:9]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “they run upon its wall.”

[2:6]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “nations.”

[2:6]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “before it.”

[2:6]  ⁴⁷ 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.

[2:3]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “a fire devours before it.”

[2:3]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “like the garden of Eden, the land is before them.”

[2:3]  ⁵⁰ 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.

[2:28]  ⁵¹ sn Beginning with 2:28, the verse numbers through 3:21 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 2:28 ET = 3:1 HT, 2:29 ET = 3:2 HT, 2:30 ET = 3:3 HT, 2:31 ET = 3:4 HT, 2:32 ET = 3:5 HT, 3:1 ET = 4:1 HT, etc., through 3:21 ET = 4:21 HT. Thus Joel in the Hebrew Bible has 4 chapters, the 5 verses of ch. 3 being included at the end of ch. 2 in the English Bible.

[2:28]  ⁵² tn Heb “Now it will be after this.”

[2:28]  ⁵³ sn This passage plays a key role in the apostolic explanation of the coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost recorded in Acts 2:17-21. Peter introduces his quotation of this passage with “this is that spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16; cf. the similar pesher formula used at Qumran). The New Testament experience at Pentecost is thus seen in some sense as a fulfillment of this Old Testament passage, even though that experience did not exhaustively fulfill Joel’s words. Some portions of Joel’s prophecy have no precise counterpart in that experience. For example, there is nothing in the experience recorded in Acts 2 that exactly corresponds to the earthly and heavenly signs described in Joel 3:3-4. But inasmuch as the messianic age had already begun and the “last days” had already commenced with the coming of the Messiah (cf. Heb 1:1-2), Peter was able to point to Joel 3:1-5 as a text that was relevant to the advent of Jesus and the bestowal of the Spirit. The equative language that Peter employs (“this is that”) stresses an incipient fulfillment of the Joel passage without precluding or minimizing a yet future and more exhaustive fulfillment in events associated with the return of Christ.

[2:28]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “all flesh.” As a term for humanity, “flesh” suggests the weakness and fragility of human beings as opposed to God who is “spirit.” The word “all” refers not to all human beings without exception (cf. NAB, NASB “all mankind”; NLT “all people”), but to all classes of human beings without distinction (cf. NCV).

[2:28]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “your old men will dream dreams.”

[1:3]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “sons.” This word occurs several times in this verse.

[1:3]  ⁵⁷ sn The circumstances that precipitated the book of Joel surrounded a locust invasion in Palestine that was of unprecedented proportions. The locusts had devastated the country’s agrarian economy, with the unwelcome consequences extending to every important aspect of commercial, religious, and national life. To further complicate matters, a severe drought had exhausted water supplies, causing life-threatening shortages for animal and human life (cf. v. 20). Locust invasions occasionally present significant problems in Palestine in modern times. The year 1865 was commonly known among Arabic-speaking peoples of the Near East as sent el jarad, “year of the locust.” The years 1892, 1899, and 1904 witnessed significant locust invasions in Palestine. But in modern times there has been nothing equal in magnitude to the great locust invasion that began in Palestine in February of 1915. This modern parallel provides valuable insight into the locust plague the prophet Joel points to as a foreshadowing of the day of the Lord. For an eyewitness account of the 1915 locust invasion of Palestine see J. D. Whiting, “Jerusalem’s Locust Plague,” National Geographic 28 (December 1915): 511-50.

[2:10]  ⁵⁸ 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]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “before it.”

[2:10]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “trembles.”

[2:10]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “gather their brightness.”

[2:31]  ⁶² tn Heb “to blood,” but no doubt this is intended to indicate by metonymy the color of blood rather than the substance itself. The blood red color suggests a visual impression here – something that could be caused by fires, volcanic dust, sandstorms, or other atmospheric phenomena.

[2:13]  ⁶³ tn Heb “and great of loyal love.”

[2:13]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “and he relents from calamity.”

[3:19]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “violence of the sons of Judah.” The phrase “of the sons of Judah” is an objective genitive (cf. KJV “the violence against the children of Judah”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “violence done to the people of Judah”). It refers to injustices committed against the Judeans, not violence that the Judeans themselves had committed against others.

[2:2]  ⁶⁶ 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]  ⁶⁷ 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]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “a day of cloud and darkness.”

[2:2]  ⁶⁹ 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]  ⁷⁰ 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]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “it will not be repeated for years of generation and generation.”

[2:23]  ⁷² tn Heb “sons of Zion.”

[2:23]  ⁷³ tn Heb “be glad in the Lord your God.”

[2:23]  ⁷⁴ tn Normally the Hebrew word הַמּוֹרֶה (hammoreh) means “the teacher,” but here and in Ps 84:7 it refers to “early rains.” Elsewhere the word for “early rains” is יוֹרֶה (yoreh). The phrase here הַמּוֹרֶה לִצְדָקָה (hammoreh litsdaqah) is similar to the expression “teacher of righteousness” (Heb., מוֹרֶה הַצֶּדֶק , moreh hatsedeq) found in the Dead Sea Scrolls referring to a particular charismatic leader, although the Qumran community seems not to have invoked this text in support of that notion.

[2:23]  ⁷⁵ tn Heb “caused to come down.”

[2:23]  ⁷⁶ sn For half the year Palestine is generally dry. The rainy season begins with the early rains usually in late October to early December, followed by the latter rains in March and April. Without these rains productive farming would not be possible, as Joel’s original readers knew only too well.