Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain!: These two lines are parallel and synonymous. Blow the trumpet equals sound the alarm, and in Zion equals on my holy mountain. For greater clarity Good News Translation places the synonymous phrases, Blow the trumpet and sound the alarm on the same line. It also does this with Zion and my holy mountain.
The trumpet was a hollow ram’s horn, similar to a sea shell that can be used as a trumpet. New Jerusalem Bible says “ram’s-horn.” The command to blow the trumpet was probably directed to the priests. Trumpets were used in warfare as signals and were used to call or to announce such things as festive gatherings of the people. Here it would warn the people of the approach of an enemy, thus serving to sound the alarm and assemble all available soldiers. The alarm warns the people of the coming day of Yahweh. For the sake of clarity sound the alarm may be rendered “give a warning signal [to the people].”
Zion was the name of the hill in Jerusalem on which the Temple was built, and is called here my holy mountain, which is literally “mountain of my holiness.” The Hebrew noun for “holiness” can also refer to the Temple. Holy in this context means “set apart for God.” The hill was dedicated to him since he was present in the Temple on it. Good News Translation avoids alternating between first and third references for God, so it says “God’s sacred hill.”
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: For all the inhabitants of the land, see the comments on 1.2. This line does not grant permission but is a command in the third person. Good News Translation expresses it well with a second person command: “Tremble, people of Judah!” Contemporary English Version combines this line with the previous one, saying “Warn everyone to tremble!”
For the day of the LORD is coming, it is near: The Hebrew particle rendered for is a logical connector here. It introduces the reason for the command to fear for the future. The day of the LORD was mentioned in 1.15 (see the comments there), and the expression should be translated in a similar manner here. Is coming and is near mean this day will come soon, as in 1.15. Both these expressions refer to time, not to space. Good News Translation combines them by saying “is coming soon.” In Hebrew the clause it is near begins with the particle ki. Here it has an emphatic function, so New English Bible renders it surely. Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation leave it implied.
A few modern translations follow the Peshitta, the ancient Syriac translation, which places it is near at the beginning of verse 2; for example, New English Bible begins verse 2 with “surely … is upon us,” New American Bible has “Yes, it is near,” and An American Translation says “For near is….” Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation follow the preferred Hebrew text, but the meaning remains much the same whether the clause is taken with verse 1 or with verse 2.
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 .