Joel 2:3 “Before them a fire devours, and behind them a flame scorches. The land…”

Joel 2:3

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.

Berean Standard Bible

Other translations

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.

World English Bible

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.

American Standard 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 none hath escaped them.

Geneva Bible 1599

A fire deuoureth before him, and behinde him a flame burneth vp: the land is as the garden of Eden before him, and behinde him a desolate wildernesse, so that nothing shall escape him.

Darby Translation

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.

Young's Literal Translation

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,

Bible in Basic English

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.

.mt-body { max-height: none !important; -webkit-mask-image: none !important; mask-image: none !important; } .mt-bar { display: none !important; } .o-trans::after { display: block !important; }

Cross references

“fire”

Psalm 50:3 Amos 7:4 Joel 1:19 Joel 1:20

Psalm 50:3 · BSB

Our God approaches and will not be silent! Consuming fire precedes Him, and a tempest rages around Him.

Amos 7:4 · BSB

This is what the Lord GOD showed me: The Lord GOD was calling for judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land.

Joel 1:19 · BSB

To You, O LORD, I call, for fire has consumed the open pastures and flames have scorched all the trees of the field.

Joel 1:20 · BSB

Even the beasts of the field pant for You, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has consumed the open pastures.

“the land”

Isaiah 51:3 Genesis 2:8 Genesis 13:10 Ezekiel 31:8 Ezekiel 31:9

Isaiah 51:3 · BSB

For the LORD will comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and mel…

Genesis 2:8 · BSB

And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed.

Genesis 13:10 · BSB

And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

Ezekiel 31:8 · BSB

The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it; the cypresses could not compare with its branches, nor the plane trees match its boughs. No tree in the garden of God could compare with its beauty.

Ezekiel 31:9 · BSB

I made it beautiful with its many branches, the envy of all the trees of Eden, which were in the garden of God.’

“and behind”

Zechariah 7:14 Joel 1:4–7 Exodus 10:5 Exodus 10:15 Jeremiah 5:17

Zechariah 7:14 · BSB

But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them so that no one could come or go. Thus they turned the pleasant land into a desolation.”

Joel 1:4–7 · BSB

What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.

Exodus 10:5 · BSB

They will cover the face of the land so that no one can see it. They will devour whatever is left after the hail and eat every tree that grows in your fields.

Exodus 10:15 · BSB

They covered the face of all the land until it was black, and they consumed all the plants on the ground and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left behind. Nothing green was left on any tree or plant in all th…

Jeremiah 5:17 · BSB

They will devour your harvest and food; they will consume your sons and daughters; they will eat up your flocks and herds; they will feed on your vines and fig trees. With the sword they will destroy the fortified cities…

Also

Psalm 105:34–35

Psalm 105:34–35 · BSB

He spoke, and the locusts came— young locusts without number.

Cross references adapted from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0) and the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

In context

2a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come.

4Their appearance is like that of horses, and they gallop like swift steeds.

Read Joel 2