Yesaya 9:18

9:18 For ¹  evil burned like a fire, ² 

it consumed thorns and briers;

it burned up the thickets of the forest,

and they went up in smoke. ³ 

Daniel 7:10

7:10 A river of fire was streaming forth

and proceeding from his presence.

Many thousands were ministering to him;

Many tens of thousands stood ready to serve him. ⁴ 

The court convened ⁵ 

and the books were opened.

Yoel 1:19

1:19 To you, O Lord, I call out for help, ⁶ 

for fire ⁷  has burned up ⁸  the grassy pastures, ⁹ 

flames have razed ¹⁰  all the trees in the fields.

Yoel 2:3

2:3 Like fire they devour everything in their path; ¹¹ 

a flame blazes behind them.

The land looks like the Garden of Eden ¹²  before them,

but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness –

for nothing escapes them! ¹³ 

[9:18]  ¹ tn Or “Indeed” (cf. NIV “Surely”). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[9:18]  ² sn Evil was uncontrollable and destructive, and so can be compared to a forest fire.

[9:18]  ³ tn Heb “and they swirled [with] the rising of the smoke” (cf. NRSV).

[7:10]  ⁴ tn Aram “were standing before him.”

[7:10]  ⁵ tn Aram “judgment sat.”

[1:19]  ⁶ tn The phrase “for help” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[1:19]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “consumed.” This entire line is restated at the end of v. 20.

[1:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “the pastures of the wilderness.”

[1:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a flame has set ablaze.” This fire was one of the effects of the drought.

[2:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a fire devours before it.”

[2:3]  ¹² tn Heb “like the garden of Eden, the land is before them.”

[2:3]  ¹³ 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.