Yoel 2:25
Konteks2:25 I will make up for the years 1
that the ‘arbeh-locust 2 consumed your crops 3 –
the yeleq-locust, the hasil-locust, and the gazam-locust –
my great army 4 that I sent against you.
Yoel 2:27
Konteks2:27 You will be convinced that I am in the midst of Israel.
I am the Lord your God; there is no other.
My people will never again be put to shame.
Yoel 3:19
Konteks3:19 Egypt will be desolate
and Edom will be a desolate wilderness,
because of the violence they did to the people of Judah, 5
in whose land they shed innocent blood.
[2:25] 1 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] 2 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] 3 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] 4 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.
[3:19] 5 tn Heb “violence of the sons of Judah.” The phrase “of the sons of Judah” is an objective genitive (cf. KJV “the violence against the children of Judah”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “violence done to the people of Judah”). It refers to injustices committed against the Judeans, not violence that the Judeans themselves had committed against others.