Yoel 2:9

2:9 They rush into ¹  the city;

they scale ²  its walls.

They climb up into the houses;

they go in through the windows like a thief.

Yoel 2:25

2:25 I will make up for the years ³ 

that the ‘arbeh-locust ⁴  consumed your crops ⁵  –

the yeleq-locust, the hasil-locust, and the gazam-locust –

my great army ⁶  that I sent against you.

[2:9]  ¹ tn Heb “dart about in.”

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

[2:25]  ³ tn Heb “I will restore to you the years.”

[2:25]  sn The plural years suggests that the plague to which Joel refers was not limited to a single season. Apparently the locusts were a major problem over several successive years. One season of drought and locust invasion would have been bad enough. Several such years would have been devastating.

[2:25]  ⁴ sn The same four terms for locust are used here as in 1:4, but in a different order. This fact creates some difficulty for the notion that the four words refer to four distinct stages of locust development.

[2:25]  ⁵ tn The term “your crops” does not appear in the Hebrew, but has been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[2:25]  ⁶ sn Here Joel employs military language to describe the locusts. In the prophet’s thinking this invasion was far from being a freak accident. Rather, the Lord is pictured here as a divine warrior who leads his army into the land as a punishment for past sin and as a means of bringing about spiritual renewal on the part of the people.