Joel 2:3
Good News Translation
Like fire they eat up the plants. In front of them the land is like the Garden of Eden, but behind them it is a barren desert. Nothing escapes them.

New Revised Standard Version
Fire devours in front of them, and behind them a flame burns. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, but after them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them.

Contemporary English Version
Fiery flames surround them; no one escapes. Before they invaded, the land was like Eden; now only a desert remains.

New American Bible
Before it, fire devours, behind it flame scorches. The land before it is like the garden of Eden, and behind it, a desolate wilderness; from it nothing escapes.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Before the face thereof a devouring fire, and behind it a burning flame: the land is like a garden of pleasure before it, and behind it a desolate wilderness, neither is there any one that can escape it.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Before the face thereof a devouring fire, and behind it a burning flame: the land is like a garden of pleasure before it, and behind it a desolate wilderness, neither is there any one that can escape it.

fire.

Joel 1:19,20 To thee, O Lord, will I cry: because fire hath devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness: and the flame hath burnt all the trees of the country. . . .

Psalm 50:3 God shall come manifestly: our God shall come, and shall not keep silence. A fire shall burn before him: and a mighty tempest shall be round about him.

Amos 7:4 The Lord had pity upon this: It shall not be, said the Lord.

the land.

Genesis 2:8 And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning: wherein he placed man whom he had formed.

Genesis 13:10 And Lot lifting up his eyes, saw all the country about the Jordan, which was watered throughout, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha, as the paradise of the Lord, and like Egypt as one comes to Segor.

Isaiah 51:3 The Lord therefore will comfort Sion, and will comfort all the ruins thereof: and he will make her desert as a place of pleasure, and her wilderness as the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of praise.

Ezekiel 31:8,9 The cedars in the paradise of God were not higher than he, the fir trees did not equal his top, neither were the plane trees to be compared with him for branches: no tree in the paradise of God was like him in his beauty. . . .

and behind.

Joel 1:4-7 That which the palmerworm hath left, the locust hath eaten: and that which the locust hath left, the bruchus hath eaten: and that which the bruchus hath left, the mildew hath destroyed. . . .

Exodus 10:5,15 To cover the face of the earth, that nothing thereof may appear, but that which the hail hath left may be eaten: for they shall feed upon all the trees that spring in the fields. . . .

Jeremiah 5:17 And they shall eat up thy corn, and thy bread: they shall devour thy sons, and thy daughters: they shall eat up thy flocks, and thy herds: they shall eat thy vineyards, and thy figs: and with the sword they shall destroy thy strong cities, wherein thou trustest.

Zechariah 7:14 And I dispersed them throughout all kingdoms, which they know not: and the land was left desolate behind them, so that no man passed through or returned: and they changed the delightful land into a wilderness.

Context
The Army of Locusts
2A day of darkness, and of gloominess, a day of clouds and whirlwinds: a numerous and strong people as the morning spread upon the mountains: the like to it hath not been from the beginning, nor shall be after it, even to the years of generation and generation. 3Before the face thereof a devouring fire, and behind it a burning flame: the land is like a garden of pleasure before it, and behind it a desolate wilderness, neither is there any one that can escape it.4The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and they shall run like horsemen.…
Cross References
Exodus 10:5
To cover the face of the earth, that nothing thereof may appear, but that which the hail hath left may be eaten: for they shall feed upon all the trees that spring in the fields.

Exodus 10:15
And they covered the whole face of the earth, wasting all things. And the grass of the earth was devoured, and what fruits soever were on the trees, which the hail had left; and there remained not any thing that was green on the trees, or in the herbs of the earth, in all Egypt.

Psalm 97:3
A fire shall go before him, and shall burn his enemies round about.

Psalm 105:34
He spoke, and the locust came, and the bruchus, of which there was no number.

Psalm 105:35
And they devoured all the grass in their land, and consumed all the fruit of their ground.

Isaiah 9:18
For wickedness is kindled as a fire, it shall devour the brier and the thorn: and shall kindle in the thicket of the forest, and it shall be wrapped up in smoke ascending on high.

Isaiah 9:19
By the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is troubled, and the people shall be as fuel for the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

Isaiah 14:17
That made the world a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the prison to his prisoners?

Isaiah 15:6
For the waters of Nemrim shall be desolate, for the grass is withered away, the spring is faded, all the greenness is perished.

Isaiah 51:3
The Lord therefore will comfort Sion, and will comfort all the ruins thereof: and he will make her desert as a place of pleasure, and her wilderness as the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of praise.

Ezekiel 36:35
They shall say: This land that was untilled is become as a garden of pleasure: and the cities that were abandoned, and desolate, and destroyed, are peopled and fenced.

Zechariah 7:14
And I dispersed them throughout all kingdoms, which they know not: and the land was left desolate behind them, so that no man passed through or returned: and they changed the delightful land into a wilderness.

Joel 2:2
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