Mazmur 46:5

46:5 God lives within it, ¹  it cannot be moved. ² 

God rescues it ³  at the break of dawn. ⁴ 

Yoel 3:18

3:18 On that day ⁵  the mountains will drip with sweet wine, ⁶ 

and the hills will flow with milk. ⁷ 

All the dry stream beds ⁸  of Judah will flow with water.

A spring will flow out from the temple ⁹  of the Lord,

watering the Valley of Acacia Trees. ¹⁰ 

Yoel 1:1

Introduction

1:1 This ¹¹  is the Lord’s message ¹²  that was given ¹³ 

to Joel ¹⁴  the son of Pethuel:

[46:5]  ¹ tn Heb “God [is] within her.” The feminine singular pronoun refers to the city mentioned in v. 4.

[46:5]  ² tn Another option is to translate the imperfect verbal form as future, “it will not be upended.” Even if one chooses this option, the future tense must be understood in a generalizing sense. The verb מוֹט (mot), translated “upended” here, is used in v. 2 of the mountains “tumbling” into the seas and in v. 6 of nations being “upended.” By way of contrast, Jerusalem, God’s dwelling place, is secure and immune from such turmoil and destruction.

[46:5]  ³ tn Or “helps her.” The imperfect draws attention to the generalizing character of the statement.

[46:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “at the turning of morning.” (For other uses of the expression see Exod 14:27 and Judg 19:26).

[46:5]  sn At the break of dawn. The “morning” is viewed metaphorically as a time of deliverance and vindication after the dark “night” of trouble (see Ps 30:5; Isa 17:14). There may be an allusion here to Exod 14:27 (where the Lord destroyed the Egyptians at the “break of dawn”) or, more likely, to the miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrian siege, when the people discovered the dead bodies of the Assyrian army in the morning (Isa 37:36).

[3:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “and it will come about in that day.”

[3:18]  ⁶ tn Many English translations read “new wine” or “sweet wine,” meaning unfermented wine, i.e., grape juice.

[3:18]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Or “seasonal streams.”

[3:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “house.”

[3:18]  ¹⁰ 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.

[1:1]  ¹¹ sn The dating of the book of Joel is a matter of dispute. Some scholars date the book as early as the ninth century b.c., during the reign of the boy-king Joash. This view is largely based on the following factors: an argument from silence (e.g., the book of Joel does not mention a king, perhaps because other officials de facto carried out his responsibilities, and there is no direct mention in the book of such later Israelite enemies as the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians); inconclusive literary assumptions (e.g., the eighth-century prophet Amos in Amos 9:13 alludes to Joel 3:18); the canonical position of the book (i.e., it is the second book of the Minor Prophets); and literary style (i.e., the book is thought to differ in style from the postexilic prophetic writings). While such an early date for the book is not impossible, none of the arguments used to support it is compelling. Later dates for the book that have been defended by various scholars are, for example, the late seventh century or early sixth century or sometime in the postexilic period (anytime from late sixth century to late fourth century). Most modern scholars seem to date the book of Joel sometime between 400 and 350 b.c. For a helpful discussion of date see J. A. Thompson, “The Date of the Book of Joel,” A Light unto My Path, 453-64. Related to the question of date is a major exegetical issue: Is the army of chapter two to be understood figuratively as describing the locust invasion of chapter one, or is the topic of chapter two an invasion of human armies, either the Babylonians or an eschatological foe? If the enemy could be conclusively identified as the Babylonians, for example, this would support a sixth-century date for the book.

[1:1]  ¹² tn Heb “the word of the Lord.”

[1:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “that was.” The term “given” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[1:1]  ¹⁴ sn The name Joel means in Hebrew “the Lord is God.” There are a dozen or so individuals with this name in the OT.