Yoel 2:11

2:11 The voice of the Lord thunders ¹  as he leads his army. ² 

Indeed, his warriors ³  are innumerable; ⁴ 

Surely his command is carried out! ⁵ 

Yes, the day of the Lord is awesome ⁶ 

and very terrifying – who can survive ⁷  it?

Yoel 2:13

2:13 Return to the Lord your God,

for he is merciful and compassionate,

slow to anger and boundless in loyal love ⁸  – often relenting from calamitous punishment. ⁹ 

Yoel 3:13

3:13 Rush forth with ¹⁰  the sickle, for the harvest is ripe!

Come, stomp the grapes, ¹¹  for the winepress is full!

The vats overflow.

Indeed, their evil is great! ¹² 

[2:11]  ¹ tn Heb “the Lord gives his voice.”

[2:11]  ² tn Heb “before his army.”

[2:11]  ³ tn Heb “military encampment.”

[2:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “very large.”

[2:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “he makes his word powerful.”

[2:11]  ⁶ tn Or “powerful.” Heb “great.”

[2:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “endure.” The MT and LXX read “endure,” while one of the Qumran manuscripts (4QXXII^c) has “bear.”

[2:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “and great of loyal love.”

[2:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “and he relents from calamity.”

[3:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “send.”

[3:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “go down” or “tread.” The Hebrew term רְדוּ (rÿdu) may be from יָרַד (yarad, “to go down”) or from רָדָה (radah, “have dominion,” here in the sense of “to tread”). If it means “go down,” the reference would be to entering the vat to squash the grapes. If it means “tread,” the verb would refer specifically to the action of those who walk over the grapes to press out their juice. The phrase “the grapes” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[3:13]  ¹² sn The immediacy of judgment upon wickedness is likened to the urgency required for a harvest that has reached its pinnacle of development. When the harvest is completely ripe, there can be no delay by the reapers in gathering the harvest. In a similar way, Joel envisions a time when human wickedness will reach such a heightened degree that there can be no further stay of divine judgment (cf. the “fullness of time” language in Gal 4:4).