A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness: These two lines continue the description of the day of Yahweh, using four terms often associated with the manner in which God shows his presence, as on Mount Sinai. The Hebrew words rendered darkness and gloom are synonyms. The first term is usually associated with the kind of darkness that covers and hides things, and the second one refers to ordinary darkness. The Hebrew words for clouds and thick darkness are also synonyms, the first referring to ordinary clouds, and the second usually associated with the kind of clouds that hide and cover. Since God did not permit his people to see him, the idea of hiding and covering him with darkness and clouds was important. These terms also imply a sense of respect and fear of the unseen and unknown. Good News Translation uses good English style here by beginning a new sentence, and by changing the four terms describing the day into adjectives: “It will be a dark and gloomy day, a black and cloudy day.” Translators may wish to follow this model, using appropriate words for the ideas of darkness and clouds. If it is not possible to distinguish different kinds of darkness and clouds, they could introduce similes by saying “It will be as dark as the night and cloudy like before a storm.” They could also use qualifiers to mark the intensity of the darkness and cloudiness; for example, “It will be an extremely dark and cloudy day” or “It will be a threatening dark and cloudy day.” However, the ideas of darkness and clouds are images for calamity and divine judgment (compare Isa 8.22; 59.9; Jer 23.12; Zeph 1.15). The NET Bible expresses this clearly with “It will be a day of dreadful darkness, a day of foreboding storm clouds.” Some languages may prefer to say “time” instead of day.
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people: In Hebrew Like blackness is literally “like the dawn,” referring to the early light before dawn, perhaps reddish in color. The Hebrew words for “blackness” and “dawn” have the same consonants but different vowels. Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have accepted the view of some scholars that “blackness” should be read here. (Vowel markings were not added to the consonantal Hebrew text until several centuries after Christ.) The word for “dawn” in the traditional Hebrew text has more evidence in its favor, and is recommended by Hebrew Old Testament Text Project. If this reading is accepted, these two lines refer to an approaching army that spreads out over the mountains the way the light of dawn gradually grows brighter and spreads out over the earth. If it has this sense here, it is ironical since the imagery of dawn usually has a positive connotation in the Old Testament (for example, Isa 8.20; 58.8). This is the meaning translated by the New International Version, King James Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Segond, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, and Luther. For these two lines New Jerusalem Bible has “Like the dawn, across the mountains spreads a vast and mighty people,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “As suddenly as the morning light spreads out over the mountains, so an enormous army of enemies, which cannot be numbered, falls on the land.” If “blackness” is the accepted reading, then these two lines refer to an immense army that spreads out over the mountains like a black shadow or a dark cloud. This meaning is translated by Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New English Bible, Revised English Bible, An American Translation, and Bible en français courant. Bible en français courant has “Here arrives the army of the insects, numerous and fearsome, like the night that spreads over the mountains,” and Contemporary English Version says “Troops will cover the mountains like thunderclouds.” Although blackness has the opposite meaning of “dawn,” these two lines have basically the same meaning no matter which reading is accepted. Contemporary English Version uses the future tense here, but the present tense is better (so Good News Translation) since these two lines refer to the locusts (or, army) approaching Jerusalem. God is using them to punish the people of Judah.
The mountains are the great hills in the neighborhood of Jerusalem and surrounding the city. They reach almost 820 meters (2,700 feet) above sea level, and the hill on which the Temple in Jerusalem was built is about 740 meters (2,400 feet) above sea level. Translators must determine whether to call them “mountains” because of their height above sea level, or “hills” because of their smaller appearance when one is already in the rather high city of Jerusalem.
The Hebrew word for people can also mean “nation.” Good News Translation interprets this as a figure for the plague of locusts, and calls it an “army of locusts.” Many translators will be inclined to follow this clear model, which unfortunately takes away the ambiguity of what this section describes: a plague of locusts, a foreign invasion, or perhaps both. If possible, it is better to preserve the ambiguity. The adjective great refers to their large size because of their numbers, and the word powerful reflects their strength, also due to their large number.
Good News Translation reverses the order of lines three and four for clear English style and adds the verb “advances” as a synonym for “spreading.”
Their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations: These lines state that no “people” like those attacking have ever existed in the past, nor will there be such devastating “people” in the future. The expression their like is not modern English, so Good News Translation has restructured this sentence in order to say “like it” (that is, like the “army of locusts”). From of old is literally “from always.” Biblical Hebrew does not have a term that clearly expresses the idea of eternity, but it does use such expressions as this one to say that certain things “always” have existed or “always” will be, or in the negative, that they “never” have been or will be.
The last two lines use emphatic terms to indicate that no group of “people” like this one will ever again exist. Good News Translation states this in simple terms that are not quite as emphatic: “and there will never be again.” Nor will be again after them is literally “and after it there will not be additional,” which means there will be no more attackers as destructive as these “people.” Through the years of all generations is literally “until the years of generation and generation,” which means it will never, never happen again! For the last two lines New Jerusalem Bible says “such as will never be again to the remotest ages,” and Revised English Bible has “nor will be in all the ages to come.” Some receptor languages may make use of devices like figurative language, ideophones or rhetorical questions to capture the emphasis and impact of the original text here.
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 .