Joel 2:3
A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
Joel 2:3 in other translations
| BSB | Before them a fire devours, and behind them a flame scorches. The land before them is like the Garden of Eden, but behind them, it is like a desert wasteland— surely nothing will escape them. |
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| WEB | A fire devours before them, and behind them, a flame burns. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them, a desolate wilderness. Yes, and no one has escaped them. |
| ASV | A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and none hath escaped them. |
| YLT | Before it consumed hath fire, And after it burn doth a flame, As the garden of Eden is the land before it, And after it a wilderness--a desolation! And also an escape there hath not been to it, |
| DARBY | A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth; the land is as a garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness: yea, and nothing escapeth them. |
| BBE | Before them fire sends destruction, and after them flame is burning: the land is like the garden of Eden before them, and after them an unpeopled waste; truly, nothing has been kept safe from them. |
| Webster | A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; and nothing shall escape them. |
What does Joel 2:3 mean?
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
Adam Clarke's Commentary
Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Joel 2:1-14
God's judgments. (Joel 2:1-14) Exhortations to fasting and prayer; blessings promised. (Joel 2:15-27) A promise of the Holy Spirit, and of future mercies. (Joel 2:28-32) Verses 1-14 The priests were to alarm the people with the near approach of the Divine judgments. It is the work of ministers to warn of the fatal consequences of sin, and to reveal the wrath from heaven against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of…
Joel 2:3 in the original Hebrew
Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.
Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).
Cross references for Joel 2:3
- Isaiah 51:3
For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
- Genesis 2:8
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
- Joel 1:19-20
O Lord, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
- Zechariah 7:14
But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.
- Amos 7:4
Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.
- Psalms 50:3
Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
- Ezekiel 31:8-9
The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.
- Genesis 13:10
And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.
- Exodus 10:5
And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field:
- Psalms 105:34-35
He spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillers, and that without number, And did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground.
- Jeremiah 5:17
And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword.
- Joel 1:4-7
That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten. Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.
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Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Context
- Joel 2:2
A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.
- Joel 2:3
A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
- Joel 2:4
The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.
Joel 2:3 in other languages
| Spanish Reina-Valera 1909 | Delante de él consumirá fuego, tras de él abrasará llama; como el huerto de Edén será la tierra delante de él, y detrás de él como desierto asolado; ni tampoco habrá quien de él escape. |
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| French Bible J.N. Darby 1885 | Devant lui un feu dévore, et une flamme brûle après lui; devant lui le pays est comme le jardin d’Éden, et après lui, la solitude d’un désert; et rien ne lui échappe. |
| German Elberfelder 1871 | Vor ihm her verzehrt das Feuer, und nach ihm lodert die Flamme; vor ihm ist das Land wie der Garten Eden, und nach ihm eine öde Wüste, und auch keine Entronnenen läßt es übrig. |
| Latin Clementine Vulgate | Ante faciem ejus ignis vorans, et post eum exurens flamma. Quasi hortus voluptatis terra coram eo, et post eum solitudo deserti, neque est qui effugiat eum. |