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
1:6 For a nation 6 has invaded 7 our 8 land.
There are so many of them they are too numerous to count. 9
Their teeth are like those 10 of a lion;
they tear apart their prey like a lioness. 11
1:14 Announce a holy fast; 12
proclaim a sacred assembly.
Gather the elders and 13 all the inhabitants of the land
to the temple of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.
2:1 Blow the trumpet 14 in Zion;
sound the alarm signal on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land shake with fear,
for the day of the Lord is about to come.
Indeed, 15 it is near! 16
2:3 Like fire they devour everything in their path; 17
a flame blazes behind them.
The land looks like the Garden of Eden 18 before them,
but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness –
for nothing escapes them! 19
3:4 Why are you doing these things to me, Tyre and Sidon? 20
Are you trying to get even with me, land of Philistia? 21
I will very quickly repay you for what you have done! 22
3:19 Egypt will be desolate
and Edom will be a desolate wilderness,
because of the violence they did to the people of Judah, 23
in whose land they shed innocent blood.
1 sn Elders here refers not necessarily to men advanced in years, but to leaders within the community.
2 tn Heb “give ear.”
3 tn Heb “days.” The term “days” functions here as a synecdoche for one’s lifespan.
4 tn Heb “days.”
5 tn Heb “fathers.”
6 sn As becomes increasingly clear in what follows, this nation is to be understood figuratively. It refers to the locust invasion as viewed from the standpoint of its methodical, destructive advance across the land (BDB 156 s.v. גּוֹי 2). This term is used figuratively to refer to animals one other time (Zeph 2:14).
7 tn Heb “has come up against.”
8 tn Heb “my.”
9 tn Heb “[It] is huge and there is not number.”
10 tn Heb “its teeth are the teeth of a lion.”
11 tn Heb “its incisors are those of a lioness.” The sharp, cutting teeth are metonymical for the action of tearing apart and eating prey. The language is clearly hyperbolic. Neither locusts nor human invaders literally have teeth of this size. The prophet is using exaggerated and picturesque language to portray in vivid terms the enormity of the calamity. English versions vary greatly on the specifics: KJV “cheek teeth”; ASV “jaw-teeth”; NAB “molars”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “fangs.”
12 tn Heb “consecrate a fast” (so NASB).
13 tc The conjunction “and” does not appear in MT or LXX, but does appear in some Qumran texts (4QXIIc and 4QXIIg).
14 tn The word translated “trumpet” here (so most English versions) is the Hebrew שׁוֹפָר (shofar). The shophar was a wind instrument made from a cow or ram’s horn and used as a military instrument for calling people to attention in the face of danger or as a religious instrument for calling people to occasions of communal celebration.
15 tn Or “for.”
16 sn The interpretation of 2:1-11 is very difficult. Four views may be mentioned here. (1) Some commentators understand this section to be describing a human invasion of Judah on the part of an ancient army. The exact identity of this army (e.g., Assyrian or Babylonian) varies among interpreters depending upon issues of dating for the book of Joel. (2) Some commentators take the section to describe an eschatological scene in which the army according to some is human, or according to others is nonhuman (i.e., angelic). (3) Some interpreters argue for taking the section to refer to the potential advent in the fall season of a severe east wind (i.e., Sirocco) that would further exacerbate the conditions of the land described in chapter one. (4) Finally, some interpreters understand the section to continue the discussion of locust invasion and drought described in chapter one, partly on the basis that there is no clear exegetical evidence in 2:1-11 to suggest a shift of referent from that of chapter one.
17 tn Heb “a fire devours before it.”
18 tn Heb “like the garden of Eden, the land is before them.”
19 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.
20 tn Heb “What [are] you [doing] to me, O Tyre and Sidon?”
21 tn Or “districts.”
22 tn Heb “quickly, speedily, I will return your recompense on your head.” This is an idiom for retributive justice and an equitable reversal of situation.
23 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.