Translation commentary on Joel 3:12

The nations gather to attack Judah, but God’s purpose in gathering them is to bring them to judgment. It seems best to regard Yahweh as the speaker in verses 12-13. Good News Translation indicates this by placing these two verses in quotation marks.

Let the nations bestir themselves: This is a command in the third person, not a permission to do something. Good News Translation makes this clear by saying “The nations must get ready.” Bestir themselves renders the same Hebrew verb as the one translated “stir up” in Joel 3.9 (see the comments there). Both New Revised Standard Version and New Jerusalem Bible say “arouse themselves.”

And come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: This seems to be a strange command, since someone would normally go down into a valley, not up. Come up is used in a figurative sense here and may be rendered “come to fight” (see the comments on Joel 3.9). Figurative language does not always coordinate with physical experience in apocalyptic writings, and the book of Joel is an early example of this form of writing. For the valley of Jehoshaphat, see the comments on Joel 3.2. Good News Translation again renders it “the Valley of Judgment.”

For there I will sit to judge all the nations round about: In verse 2 Yahweh did not serve as the judge, but as the plaintiff. In this verse he serves as the judge. I will sit to judge expresses the normal posture of a judge in those days as he would officiate in a court. While most languages will have a similar expression, some may normally use another expression for a judge exercising his responsibilities. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “I will sit on the judge-chair.” In this context the term judge emphasizes not the action of determining guilt or innocence but the punishment of the guilty. All the nations round about renders the same Hebrew expression as in the previous verse. An alternative model for this line is “For there I will sit to determine the guilt of the surrounding nations and punish them.”

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 .

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