Yoel 2:5

2:5 They sound like ¹  chariots rumbling ²  over mountain tops,

like the crackling ³  of blazing fire consuming stubble,

like the noise of ⁴  a mighty army ⁵  being drawn up for battle. ⁶ 

Yoel 2:11

2:11 The voice of the Lord thunders ⁷  as he leads his army. ⁸ 

Indeed, his warriors ⁹  are innumerable; ¹⁰ 

Surely his command is carried out! ¹¹ 

Yes, the day of the Lord is awesome ¹² 

and very terrifying – who can survive ¹³  it?

Yoel 2:25

2:25 I will make up for the years ¹⁴ 

that the ‘arbeh-locust ¹⁵  consumed your crops ¹⁶  –

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

my great army ¹⁷  that I sent against you.

Yoel 1:6

1:6 For a nation ¹⁸  has invaded ¹⁹  our ²⁰  land.

There are so many of them they are too numerous to count. ²¹ 

Their teeth are like those ²²  of a lion;

they tear apart their prey like a lioness. ²³ 

[2:5]  ¹ tn Heb “like the sound of.”

[2:5]  sn The repetition of the word of comparison (“like”) in vv. 4-7 should not go unnoticed. The author is comparing the locust invasion to familiar aspects of human invasion. If the preposition has its normal force here, it is similarity and not identity that is intended. In other words, locusts are being likened to human armies, but human armies are not actually present. On the other hand, this Hebrew preposition is also on occasion used to indicate exactitude, a function described by grammarians as kaph veritatis.

[2:5]  ² tn Heb “jostling” or “leaping.” There is question whether this pictures chariots rumbling over the mountains (e.g., 2 Sam 6:14,16; 1 Chr 15:29; Nah 3:2) or the locusts flying – or “leaping” – over the mountains (e.g., Job 21:11); see BDB 955 s.v. רָקַד.

[2:5]  ³ tn Heb “sound.”

[2:5]  ⁴ tn The phrase “the noise of” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is implied by the parallelism, so it has been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[2:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “people.”

[2:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “being arrayed of battle.”

[2:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “the Lord gives his voice.”

[2:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “before his army.”

[2:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “military encampment.”

[2:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “very large.”

[2:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he makes his word powerful.”

[2:11]  ¹² tn Or “powerful.” Heb “great.”

[2:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “endure.” The MT and LXX read “endure,” while one of the Qumran manuscripts (4QXXII^c) has “bear.”

[2:25]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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.

[1:6]  ¹⁸ sn As becomes increasingly clear in what follows, this nation is to be understood figuratively. It refers to the locust invasion as viewed from the standpoint of its methodical, destructive advance across the land (BDB 156 s.v. גּוֹי 2). This term is used figuratively to refer to animals one other time (Zeph 2:14).

[1:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “has come up against.”

[1:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “my.”

[1:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “[It] is huge and there is not number.”

[1:6]  ²² tn Heb “its teeth are the teeth of a lion.”

[1:6]  ²³ tn Heb “its incisors are those of a lioness.” The sharp, cutting teeth are metonymical for the action of tearing apart and eating prey. The language is clearly hyperbolic. Neither locusts nor human invaders literally have teeth of this size. The prophet is using exaggerated and picturesque language to portray in vivid terms the enormity of the calamity. English versions vary greatly on the specifics: KJV “cheek teeth”; ASV “jaw-teeth”; NAB “molars”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “fangs.”