Yoel 1:19-20

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

for fire ²  has burned up ³  the grassy pastures, ⁴ 

flames have razed ⁵  all the trees in the fields.

1:20 Even the wild animals ⁶  cry out to you; ⁷ 

for the river beds ⁸  have dried up;

fire has destroyed ⁹  the grassy pastures. ¹⁰ 

Yoel 2:25

2:25 I will make up for the years ¹¹ 

that the ‘arbeh-locust ¹²  consumed your crops ¹³  –

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

my great army ¹⁴  that I sent against you.

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

[1:19]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “consumed.” This entire line is restated at the end of v. 20.

[1:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “the pastures of the wilderness.”

[1:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “a flame has set ablaze.” This fire was one of the effects of the drought.

[1:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “beasts of the field.”

[1:20]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “sources of water.”

[1:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “consumed.”

[1:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the pastures of the wilderness.”

[2:25]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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.