Yoel 1:7

1:7 They ¹  have destroyed our ²  vines; ³ 

they have turned our ⁴  fig trees into mere splinters.

They have completely stripped off the bark ⁵  and thrown them aside;

the ⁶  twigs are stripped bare. ⁷ 

Yoel 3:18

3:18 On that day ⁸  the mountains will drip with sweet wine, ⁹ 

and the hills will flow with milk. ¹⁰ 

All the dry stream beds ¹¹  of Judah will flow with water.

A spring will flow out from the temple ¹²  of the Lord,

watering the Valley of Acacia Trees. ¹³ 

[1:7]  ¹ tn Heb “it.” Throughout vv. 6-7 the Hebrew uses singular forms to describe the locust swarm, but the translation uses plural forms because several details of the text make more sense in English as if they are describing the appearance and effects of individual locusts.

[1:7]  ² tn Heb “my.”

[1:7]  ³ tn Both “vines” and “fig trees” are singular in the Hebrew text, but are regarded as collective singulars.

[1:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “my.”

[1:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “it has completely stripped her.”

[1:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “her.”

[1:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “grow white.”

[1:7]  sn Once choice leafy vegetation is no longer available to them, locusts have been known to consume the bark of small tree limbs, leaving them in an exposed and vulnerable condition. It is apparently this whitened condition of limbs that Joel is referring to here.

[3:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “and it will come about in that day.”

[3:18]  ⁹ tn Many English translations read “new wine” or “sweet wine,” meaning unfermented wine, i.e., grape juice.

[3:18]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Or “seasonal streams.”

[3:18]  ¹² tn Heb “house.”

[3:18]  ¹³ 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.