Joel 2:3
in Joel 2Before them a fire devours, and behind them a flame scorches. The land before them is like the Garden of Eden, but behind them, it is like a desert wasteland—surely nothing will escape them.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and none hath escaped them.
KJV
A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
⋯
This verse in Joel 2
Commentary
12 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
A fire devoureth before them ... - Travelers, of different nations and characters, and in different lands, some unacquainted with the Bible words, have agreed to describe under this image the ravages of locusts. : “They scorch many things with their touch.” : “Whatever of herb or leaf they gnaw, is, as it were, scorched by fire.” : “Wherever they come, the ground seems burned, as it were with fire.” : “Wherever they pass, they burn and spoil everything, and that irremediably.” : “I have myself observed that the places where they had browsed were as scorched, as if the fire had passed there.” : “They covered a square mile so completely, that it appeared, at a little distance, to have been burned and strewn over with brown ashes.
This site's exposition
A fire devoureth before them
on Joel 2:3-5
A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth pictures the swarm's approach and its wake, the land as the garden of Eden before them and a desolate wilderness behind, Eden and its ruin separated only by the locusts' own passing. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses draws a comparison ancient and modern observers of locust swarms have both made independently, the insect's head resembling a horse's in shape, which the older commentators offer as evidence the description still runs on a real plague rather than a coded reference to cavalry. The noise of chariots on the tops of mountains gives the swarm's sound its own simile, a dry rushing roar the verse itself compares to fire crackling in stubble.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
(Chapter 2 — Verses 1 onwards) Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like the dawn spreading over the mountains, a large and strong people appears, such as has never been before and will never be again in generations to come. Before them, a devouring fire; behind them, a blazing flame.
A commentator
Gregory of NazianzusON HIS FATHER'S SILENCE, ORATION 16:6 · Written before 390.
proposed
Terrible is an unfruitful season, and the loss of the crops. It could not be otherwise, when people are already rejoicing in their hopes and counting on their all but harvested stores. Terrible again is an unseasonable harvest, when the farmers labor with heavy hearts, sitting as it were beside the grave of their crops, which the gentle rain nourished but the wild storm has rooted up, "with which the reaper does not fill his hand or the binder of sheaves his bosom." Nor have they obtained the blessing which passers-by bestow upon the farmers.
The Reformation1 voice
A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
A fire - The Chaldeans, as a fire shall utterly consume all things. Behind them - What is left behind is as burnt with a flame. As Eden - Fruitful and pleasant.
An earnest call to repentance, ver. 12-17. A promise of all good things to the penitent, ver. 18-27. A prophecy of the Messiah's kingdom, ver. 28-32.
quarantine:anchor (2026-07-29) — cites-ver-18/28-anchored-1-11
5 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
A fire devoureth before them, and behind them aflame burneth,....
A serious call to the people, when they are under this sore judgment, to return and repent, to fast and pray, and to seek unto God for mercy, with directions how to do this aright,
View it in the rear, and you will see those that come behind as furious as the foremost: Behind them a flame burns. When they are gone, then it will appear what destruction they have made. Look upon the fields that they have not yet invaded, and they are as the garden of Eden, pleasant to the eye, and full of good fruits; they are the pride and glory of the country.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
before . . . behind--that is, on every side (1Ch 19:10). fire . . . flame--destruction . . . desolation (Isa 10:17). as . . . Eden . . . wilderness--conversely (Isa 51:3;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens
A fire devoureth before them - They consume like a general conflagration. “They destroy the ground, not only for the time, but burn trees for two years after.” Sir Hans Sloane, Nat. Hist. of Jamaica, vol. i., p. 29. Behind them a flame burneth - “Wherever they feed,” says Ludolf, in his History of Ethiopia, “their leavings seem as if parched with fire.” Nothing shall escape them - “After devouring the herbage,” says Adanson, “with the fruits and leaves of trees, they attacked even the buds and the very bark; they did not so much as spare the reeds with which the huts were thatched.”
The words behind it
18 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לְפָנָיו֙ | lefanav | <to> before it | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| אָ֣כְלָה | ʾakhelah | it has consumed | H398 → | 810 times |
| אֵ֔שׁ | ʾesh | fire | H784 → | 378 times |
| וְאַחֲרָ֖יו | veacharav | and after it | H310 → | 715 times |
| תְּלַהֵ֣ט | telahet | it sets ablaze | H3857 → | |
| לֶֽהָבָ֑ה | lehavah | a flame | H3852 → | |
| כְּגַן־ | kegan- | [is] like [the] garden of | H1588 → | |
| עֵ֨דֶן | ʾeden | Eden | H5731 → | |
| הָאָ֜רֶץ | haaretz | the land | H776 → | 2504 times |
| לְפָנָ֗יו | lefanav | <to> before it | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| וְאַֽחֲרָיו֙ | veacharav | and after it | H310 → | 715 times |
| מִדְבַּ֣ר | midbar | a wilderness of | H4057 → | 270 times |
| שְׁמָמָ֔ה | shemamah | desolation | H8077 → | 57 times |
| וְגַם־ | vegam- | and also | H1571 → | 769 times |
| פְּלֵיטָ֖ה | peleitah | escape | H6413 → | |
| לֹא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| הָ֥יְתָה | hayetah | it belongs | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| לּֽוֹ׃ | lo | to it |
לְפָנָיו֙<to> before it
lefanavH6440 →2123 times
אָ֣כְלָהit has consumed
ʾakhelahH398 →810 times
אֵ֔שׁfire
ʾeshH784 →378 times
וְאַחֲרָ֖יוand after it
veacharavH310 →715 times
תְּלַהֵ֣טit sets ablaze
telahetH3857 →
לֶֽהָבָ֑הa flame
lehavahH3852 →
כְּגַן־[is] like [the] garden of
kegan-H1588 →
עֵ֨דֶןEden
ʾedenH5731 →
הָאָ֜רֶץthe land
haaretzH776 →2504 times
לְפָנָ֗יו<to> before it
lefanavH6440 →2123 times
וְאַֽחֲרָיו֙and after it
veacharavH310 →715 times
מִדְבַּ֣רa wilderness of
midbarH4057 →270 times
שְׁמָמָ֔הdesolation
shemamahH8077 →57 times
וְגַם־and also
vegam-H1571 →769 times
פְּלֵיטָ֖הescape
peleitahH6413 →
לֹא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
הָ֥יְתָהit belongs
hayetahH1961 →3559 times
לּֽוֹ׃to it
lo
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 51:3For the LORD will comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness…
it leads to
- Isaiah 49:13
Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; break forth in song, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people, and He will have compassion on His afflicted ones.
- Isaiah 52:9
Break forth in joy, sing together, O ruins of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted His people; He has redeemed Jerusalem.
- Isaiah 49:13
Through
Genesis 2:8And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 28:13
You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every kind of precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald. Your mountings and settings were crafted in…
- Genesis 3:24
So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.
- Genesis 13:10
And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was…
- Genesis 4:16
So Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
- Ezekiel 31:8–9
The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it; the cypresses could not compare with its branches, nor the plane trees match its boughs. No tree in the garden of God could…
- Ezekiel 28:13
Through
Zechariah 7:14But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them so that no one could come or go. Thus they…
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 28:64
Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you…
- Deuteronomy 28:64
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies10
About Joel
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Gregory of Nazianzus, ON HIS FATHER'S SILENCE, ORATION 16:6; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Joel; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.