Yoel 2:24

2:24 The threshing floors are full of grain;

the vats overflow with fresh wine and olive oil.

Yoel 1:10

1:10 The crops of the fields ¹  have been destroyed. ² 

The ground is in mourning because the grain has perished.

The fresh wine has dried up;

the olive oil languishes.

Yoel 3:18

3:18 On that day ³  the mountains will drip with sweet wine, ⁴ 

and the hills will flow with milk. ⁵ 

All the dry stream beds ⁶  of Judah will flow with water.

A spring will flow out from the temple ⁷  of the Lord,

watering the Valley of Acacia Trees. ⁸ 

Yoel 2:19

2:19 The Lord responded ⁹  to his people,

“Look! I am about to restore your grain ¹⁰ 

as well as fresh wine and olive oil.

You will be fully satisfied. ¹¹ 

I will never again make you an object of mockery among the nations.

Yoel 1:5

1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, ¹²  and weep!

Wail, all you wine drinkers, ¹³ 

because the sweet wine ¹⁴  has been taken away ¹⁵  from you. ¹⁶ 

Yoel 1:20

1:20 Even the wild animals ¹⁷  cry out to you; ¹⁸ 

for the river beds ¹⁹  have dried up;

fire has destroyed ²⁰  the grassy pastures. ²¹ 

Yoel 3:3

3:3 and they cast lots for my people.

They traded ²²  a boy for a prostitute;

they sold a little girl for wine so they could drink. ²³ 

Yoel 3:6

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

removing them far from their own country. ²⁴ 

Yoel 3:13

3:13 Rush forth with ²⁵  the sickle, for the harvest is ripe!

Come, stomp the grapes, ²⁶  for the winepress is full!

The vats overflow.

Indeed, their evil is great! ²⁷ 

[1:10]  ¹ 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]  ² 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”).

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

[3:18]  ⁴ tn Many English translations read “new wine” or “sweet wine,” meaning unfermented wine, i.e., grape juice.

[3:18]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Or “seasonal streams.”

[3:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “house.”

[3:18]  ⁸ 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.

[2:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[2:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Look! I am sending grain to you.” The participle used in the Hebrew text seems to suggest imminent action.

[2:19]  ¹¹ tc One of the Qumran manuscripts (4QXXII^c) inserts “and you will eat” before “and you will be fully satisfied” (the reading of the MT, LXX).

[1:5]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “over the sweet wine, because it.” Cf. KJV, NIV, TEV, NLT “new wine.”

[1:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “cut off” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV); NAB “will be withheld.”

[1:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “your mouth.” This is a synecdoche of part (the mouth) for whole (the person).

[1:20]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “beasts of the field.”

[1:20]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “sources of water.”

[1:20]  ²⁰ tn Heb “consumed.”

[1:20]  ²¹ tn Heb “the pastures of the wilderness.”

[3:3]  ²² tn Heb “gave.”

[3:3]  ²³ sn Heb “and they drank.” Joel vividly refers to a situation where innocent human life has little value; its only worth is its use in somehow satisfying selfish appetites of wicked people who have control over others (cf. Amos 2:6 and 8:6).

[3:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “border.”

[3:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “send.”

[3:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “go down” or “tread.” The Hebrew term רְדוּ (rÿdu) may be from יָרַד (yarad, “to go down”) or from רָדָה (radah, “have dominion,” here in the sense of “to tread”). If it means “go down,” the reference would be to entering the vat to squash the grapes. If it means “tread,” the verb would refer specifically to the action of those who walk over the grapes to press out their juice. The phrase “the grapes” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[3:13]  ²⁷ sn The immediacy of judgment upon wickedness is likened to the urgency required for a harvest that has reached its pinnacle of development. When the harvest is completely ripe, there can be no delay by the reapers in gathering the harvest. In a similar way, Joel envisions a time when human wickedness will reach such a heightened degree that there can be no further stay of divine judgment (cf. the “fullness of time” language in Gal 4:4).