Discovery BoxJoel 2:3 
Context2:3 Like fire they devour everything in their path; 1
a flame blazes behind them.
The land looks like the Garden of Eden 2 before them,
but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness –
for nothing escapes them! 3
Joel 2:22
Context2:22 Do not fear, wild animals! 4
For the pastures of the wilderness are again green with grass.
Indeed, the trees bear their fruit;
the fig tree and the vine yield to their fullest. 5
Joel 3:19
Context3:19 Egypt will be desolate
and Edom will be a desolate wilderness,
because of the violence they did to the people of Judah, 6
in whose land they shed innocent blood.
1 tn Heb “a fire devours before it.”
2 tn Heb “like the garden of Eden, the land is before them.”
3 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.
4 tn Heb “beasts of the field.”
5 tn Heb “their strength.” The trees and vines will produce a maximum harvest, in contrast to the failed agricultural conditions previously described.
6 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.
