Verses 9-11 are a challenge that God tells the people of Judah to bring to the nations. The nations are told to assemble an army, and it seems that a great battle is about to begin.

Proclaim this among the nations: God addresses this command to one or more heralds who carry his message. The identity of the heralds is not stated. They could be one or more prophets, or they could be the people of Judah, who are assembled to hear the prophet speak on behalf of God. The command may be a rhetorical one, meaning that God spoke it for dramatic effect without expecting that anyone would actually go to the nations with the message. Since this is the beginning of a new section, it may be helpful to make explicit who is speaking here by beginning this verse with “The LORD says again.” For the Hebrew word rendered nations, see the comments on Joel 3.2. Here it may be translated “other nations.”

The commands that follow, of course, are not intended for Judah but for its enemies. It appears at first that the commands encourage the enemies by means of the implied suggestion that they will defeat Jerusalem. But in the verses that follow it is clear that the enemies are being invited to their own destruction. (See Jer 46.3-6, 9-10, for a similar summons to a losing battle.)

Prepare war is literally “Sanctify a war,” since in those times preparations for war included religious rites. Some translations say “Prepare yourselves for a holy war” (so Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). This is an ironic statement, because in this context it refers to a war against God. However, in this way the meaning of the original text is expressed.

Stir up the mighty men is the first act in preparing for the war. The fighters are to be aroused. The Hebrew word for mighty men is a term for soldiers, emphasizing their strength. New Revised Standard Version says “warriors.” For the whole line Revised English Bible has “call your troops to arms.”

Let all the men of war draw near, let them come up: These two lines are one line in the Hebrew text, which is parallel with the previous line. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh renders them as one line, saying “Let all the fighters come and draw near!” Men of war corresponds with mighty men in the previous line. It also refers to soldiers. The verbs rendered draw near and come up are jussive in Hebrew, so they should be rendered as commands; for example, “The soldiers should draw near and come up.” Draw near means they should advance in order to take their position for battle (see Jdg 20.23). It was necessary to come up in order to approach Jerusalem, which is in a mountainous region. It is also possible to understand come up figuratively and render it “prepare to attack” (Contemporary English Version). Good News Translation expresses these verbs in equivalent modern military terms, saying “gather all your soldiers and march!”

This entire verse may need to be restructured according to the constraints of the receptor language. If necessary, mighty men and men of war may be combined into a single term such as “soldiers,” and the actions of stir up, draw near, and come up may need to be rendered with suitable military terms. Contemporary English Version provides a helpful model for this verse with “Say to the nations: ‘Get ready for war! Be eager to fight. Line up for battle and prepare to attack.’ ” De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling uses technical military terms, saying “Call upon the nations: Prepare yourselves for battle, let your mighty warriors advance, let all your soldiers march into battle now!”

Quoted with permission from de Blois, Kees & Dorn, Louis. A Handbook on Joel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2020. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .