Joel 2:3

It is as though the locusts bring flames of fire from which no one can escape. In front of them, the land was beautiful like [SIM] the garden of Eden, but behind them the land is like a desert and nothing survives.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

2That will be a very dark and gloomy day; there will be black clouds and it will be very dark. A huge swarm of locusts has covered the mountains like [SIM] a black cloud. Nothing like this has ever happened before, and nothing like this will ever happen again.

4The locusts resemble horses, and they run like [SIM] war horses.

Read all of Joel 2

Cross References

Genesis 2:8Yahweh God made a park/garden in a place named Eden, which was east of the land of Canaan, and he put there the man that he had created.

Exodus 10:5They will completely cover the ground so that you will not even be able to see the ground. They will eat everything that the hail did not destroy. They will eat everything that is left on the trees.

Psalms 50:3Our God comes to us, and he is not silent. A great fire is in front of him, and a storm is around him.

Isaiah 33:4And after our enemies have been defeated, we, your people, will take away all our enemies’ possessions like [SIM] caterpillars and locusts strip off all the leaves of plants.

Jeremiah 5:17They will eat the food that you have harvested from your fields, and eat your bread. They will kill your sons and daughters, and they will kill your flocks of sheep and herds of cattle. They will eat your grapes and your figs. They will also destroy your cities that have high walls around them and kill the people with their swords.

Joel 1:4I am talking about the locusts that have eaten our crops. The first swarm of locusts came and cut many of the leaves of the crops; then another swarm came and ate the rest of the leaves, then another swarm came hopping along, and finally another swarm came and they destroyed everything else.

Matthew Henry on Joel 2:2-12

Threatenings of Judgment. ( b. c. 720.) 1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; 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. 3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

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