But now is literally “Behold me” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh “Behold”). This expression serves as an attention-getter, directing the hearer to listen carefully to what the speaker will say (see 2.19). There is also contrast with the previous verse that is implied, and every translator will have to express this in a normal manner. Good News Translation and Jerusalem Bible have simply “Now”; Revised English Bible, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy use “But”; and New Jerusalem Bible says “Look.” In some languages it may be more natural to translate “Pay attention [to what I am going to do].”
I will stir them up in the Hebrew implies both awakening the slaves from Judah and setting them in motion. New Revised Standard Version and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh say “I will rouse them.” God will cause them to take action so that they will return from their place of captivity. The form of action is not specified, whether they would rebel or find other means of gaining freedom. Contemporary English Version translates “I will make the people of Judah determined [to come home].” Some translations emphasize God’s part in the action; for example, Good News Translation says “I am going to bring them out,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “I am calling them back.”
From the place to which you have sold them primarily refers to the land of the Greeks (verse 6), but includes all the other lands to which the people of Judah had been sold as slaves, so Good News Translation says “places” instead of place. For this whole clause Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch simply says “from there.”
And I will requite your deed upon your own head closely repeats the last clause in Joel 3.4. Here it means that the people of Tyre, Sidon, and Philistia will become slaves, as proper punishment for their making slaves of the people of Judah. Good News Translation says “I will do to you what you have done to them,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “and I will cause your misdeeds to fall back upon yourselves.”
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 .