Yoel 1:2

A Locust Plague Foreshadows the Day of the Lord

1:2 Listen to this, you elders; ¹ 

pay attention, ²  all inhabitants of the land.

Has anything like this ever happened in your whole life ³ 

or in the lifetime ⁴  of your ancestors? ⁵ 

Yoel 2:32

2:32 It will so happen that

everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered. ⁶ 

For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem ⁷  there will be those who survive, ⁸ 

just as the Lord has promised;

the remnant ⁹  will be those whom the Lord will call. ¹⁰ 

[1:2]  ¹ sn Elders here refers not necessarily to men advanced in years, but to leaders within the community.

[1:2]  ² tn Heb “give ear.”

[1:2]  ³ tn Heb “days.” The term “days” functions here as a synecdoche for one’s lifespan.

[1:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “days.”

[1:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “fathers.”

[2:32]  ⁶ tn While a number of English versions render this as “saved” (e.g., NIV, NRSV, NLT), this can suggest a “spiritual” or “theological” salvation rather than the physical deliverance from the cataclysmic events of the day of the Lord described in the context.

[2:32]  ⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:32]  ⁸ tn Heb “deliverance”; or “escape.” The abstract noun “deliverance” or “escape” probably functions here as an example of antimeria, referring to those who experience deliverance or escape with their lives: “escaped remnant” or “surviving remnant” (Gen 32:8; 45:7; Judg 21:17; 2 Kgs 19:30, 31; Isa 4:2; 10:20; 15:9; 37:31, 32; Ezek 14:22; Obad 1:17; Ezra 9:8, 13-15; Neh 1:2; 1 Chr 4:43; 2 Chr 30:6).

[2:32]  ⁹ tn Heb “and among the remnant.”

[2:32]  ¹⁰ tn The participle used in the Hebrew text seems to indicate action in the imminent future.