Yoel 2:3

2:3 Like fire they devour everything in their path; ¹ 

a flame blazes behind them.

The land looks like the Garden of Eden ²  before them,

but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness –

for nothing escapes them! ³ 

Yoel 3:18

3:18 On that day ⁴  the mountains will drip with sweet wine, ⁵ 

and the hills will flow with milk. ⁶ 

All the dry stream beds ⁷  of Judah will flow with water.

A spring will flow out from the temple ⁸  of the Lord,

watering the Valley of Acacia Trees. ⁹ 

[2:3]  ¹ tn Heb “a fire devours before it.”

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

[2:3]  ³ 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.

[3:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “and it will come about in that day.”

[3:18]  ⁵ tn Many English translations read “new wine” or “sweet wine,” meaning unfermented wine, i.e., grape juice.

[3:18]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Or “seasonal streams.”

[3:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “house.”

[3:18]  ⁹ 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.