Yoel 2:32

2:32 It will so happen that

everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered. ¹ 

For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem ²  there will be those who survive, ³ 

just as the Lord has promised;

the remnant ⁴  will be those whom the Lord will call. ⁵ 

Yoel 2:3

2:3 Like fire they devour everything in their path; ⁶ 

a flame blazes behind them.

The land looks like the Garden of Eden ⁷  before them,

but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness –

for nothing escapes them! ⁸ 

[2:32]  ¹ tn While a number of English versions render this as “saved” (e.g., NIV, NRSV, NLT), this can suggest a “spiritual” or “theological” salvation rather than the physical deliverance from the cataclysmic events of the day of the Lord described in the context.

[2:32]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:32]  ³ tn Heb “deliverance”; or “escape.” The abstract noun “deliverance” or “escape” probably functions here as an example of antimeria, referring to those who experience deliverance or escape with their lives: “escaped remnant” or “surviving remnant” (Gen 32:8; 45:7; Judg 21:17; 2 Kgs 19:30, 31; Isa 4:2; 10:20; 15:9; 37:31, 32; Ezek 14:22; Obad 1:17; Ezra 9:8, 13-15; Neh 1:2; 1 Chr 4:43; 2 Chr 30:6).

[2:32]  ⁴ tn Heb “and among the remnant.”

[2:32]  ⁵ tn The participle used in the Hebrew text seems to indicate action in the imminent future.

[2:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “a fire devours before it.”

[2:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “like the garden of Eden, the land is before them.”

[2:3]  ⁸ 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.