1:6 For a nation 1 has invaded 2 our 3 land.
There are so many of them they are too numerous to count. 4
Their teeth are like those 5 of a lion;
they tear apart their prey like a lioness. 6
2:3 Like fire they devour everything in their path; 7
a flame blazes behind them.
The land looks like the Garden of Eden 8 before them,
but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness –
for nothing escapes them! 9
1 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).
2 tn Heb “has come up against.”
3 tn Heb “my.”
4 tn Heb “[It] is huge and there is not number.”
5 tn Heb “its teeth are the teeth of a lion.”
6 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.”
7 tn Heb “a fire devours before it.”
8 tn Heb “like the garden of Eden, the land is before them.”
9 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.