Joel 1:19

To you, O Lord, I call out for help, ¹  for fire ²  has burned up ³  the grassy pastures, ⁴  flames have razed ⁵  all the trees in the fields.

To you, O LORD, I call, for fire has devoured the open pastures and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.

To You, O LORD, I cry; For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.

LORD, help us! The fire has consumed the pastures and burned up all the trees.

GOD! I pray, I cry out to you! The fields are burning up, The country is a dust bowl, forest and prairie fires rage unchecked.

O Lord, my cry goes up to you: for fire has put an end to the grass-lands of the waste, and all the trees of the field are burned with its flame.

To you, O LORD, I cry. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flames have burned all the trees of the field.

O LORD, to You I cry out; For fire has devoured the open pastures, And a flame has burned all the trees of the field.

To you, O Lord, I call out for help, ¹  for fire ²  has burned up ³  the grassy pastures, ⁴  flames have razed ⁵  all the trees in the fields.

¹ tn The phrase “for help” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

² sn Fire here and in v. 20 is probably not to be understood in a literal sense. The locust plague, accompanied by conditions of extreme drought, has left the countryside looking as though everything has been burned up (so also in Joel 2:3).

³ tn Heb “consumed.” This entire line is restated at the end of v. 20.

⁴ tn Heb “the pastures of the wilderness.”

⁵ tn Heb “a flame has set ablaze.” This fire was one of the effects of the drought.