Joel 1:6
New International Version
A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness.

New Living Translation
A vast army of locusts has invaded my land, a terrible army too numerous to count. Its teeth are like lions’ teeth, its fangs like those of a lioness.

English Standard Version
For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions’ teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness.

Berean Standard Bible
For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness.

King James Bible
For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.

New King James Version
For a nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he has the fangs of a fierce lion.

New American Standard Bible
For a nation has invaded my land, Mighty and without number; Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, And it has the jaws of a lioness.

NASB 1995
For a nation has invaded my land, Mighty and without number; Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, And it has the fangs of a lioness.

NASB 1977
For a nation has invaded my land, Mighty and without number; Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, And it has the fangs of a lioness.

Legacy Standard Bible
For a nation has come up against my land, Mighty and without number; Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, And it has the fangs of a lioness.

Amplified Bible
For a [pagan and hostile] nation has invaded My land [like locusts], Mighty and without number; Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, And it has the fangs of a lioness.

Christian Standard Bible
For a nation has invaded my land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of a lioness.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of a lioness.

American Standard Version
For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the jaw-teeth of a lioness.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Because a people went up to my strong land, and there are no numbers to its teeth, as the teeth of a lion, and its fangs as the fangs of a whelp of a lion

Brenton Septuagint Translation
For a strong and innumerable nation is come up against my land, their teeth are lion's teeth, and their back teeth those of a lion's whelp.

Contemporary English Version
A powerful nation with countless troops has invaded our land. They have the teeth and jaws of powerful lions.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number: his teeth are like the teeth of a lion: and his cheek teeth as of a lion's whelp.

English Revised Version
For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the jaw teeth of a great lion.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
A strong nation attacked my land. It has too many soldiers to count. They have teeth like lions. They have fangs like grown lions.

Good News Translation
An army of locusts has attacked our land; they are powerful and too many to count; their teeth are as sharp as those of a lion.

International Standard Version
Indeed, a nation has invaded my land— it is strong and its population is too large to count — with teeth like a lion and fangs like a lioness.

JPS Tanakh 1917
For a people is come up upon my land, Mighty, and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he hath the jaw-teeth of a lioness.

Literal Standard Version
For a nation has come up on My land, | Strong, and there is no number, | Its teeth [are] the teeth of a lion, | And it has the jaw-teeth of a lioness.

Majority Standard Bible
For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness.

New American Bible
For a nation invaded my land, powerful and past counting, With teeth like a lion’s, fangs like those of a lioness.

NET Bible
For a nation has invaded our land. There are so many of them they are too numerous to count. Their teeth are like those of a lion; they tear apart their prey like a lioness.

New Revised Standard Version
For a nation has invaded my land, powerful and innumerable; its teeth are lions’ teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness.

New Heart English Bible
For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.

Webster's Bible Translation
For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.

World English Bible
For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.

Young's Literal Translation
For a nation hath come up on my land, Strong, and there is no number, Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, And it hath the jaw-teeth of a lioness.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Invasion of Locusts
5Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth. 6For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness. 7It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away; the branches have turned white.…

Cross References
Revelation 9:8
They had hair like that of women, and teeth like those of lions.

Joel 2:2
a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come.

Joel 2:11
The LORD raises His voice in the presence of His army. Indeed, His camp is very large, for mighty are those who obey His command. For the Day of the LORD is great and very dreadful. Who can endure it?


Treasury of Scripture

For a nation is come up on my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the cheek teeth of a great lion.

nation.

Joel 2:2-11,25
A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations…

Proverbs 30:25-27
The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer; …

my.

Psalm 107:34
A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.

Isaiah 8:8
And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.

Isaiah 32:13
Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city:

whose.

Proverbs 30:14
There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.

Revelation 9:7-10
And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men…

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Joel 1
1. Joel, declaring various judgments of God, exhorts to observe them,
8. and to mourn.
14. He prescribes a solemn fast to deprecate those judgments.














(6) A nation.--It was not uncommon with Hebrew writers to apply the name people or folk to animals, as, "The ants are a people not strong;" "The conies are but a feeble folk" (Proverbs 30:25-26); but the word used by Joel is different from that in the Proverbs. He selected a word indicative of foreign nations, suggestive of attack, including both the irrational invader and the foreign conqueror. The surpassing strength of the nation is indicated by the extraordinary power of the locust's teeth, compared to that of the lion's jaws. The same comparison is made by St. John (Revelation 9:8): "Their teeth (the locusts) were as the teeth of lions."

Verse 6. - For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number. The loss of the wine and of the sweet juice of the grape would be a source of genuine sorrow to the drinkers of wine; that loss would be occasioned by the destruction of the vines. In this and the following verse the prophet explains the instrumentality by which that destruction would be brought about. The prophet, fully identifying himself with his countrymen, speaking in their name and as their representative, says "my land." Kimchi understands the suffix to "land," like "my vine" and "my fig tree" in the next verse, as referring either to the prophet himself or to the people of the land; while some refer it to Jehovah, the great Proprietor, who had given the land to his people for their inheritance while they observed his covenant and obeyed his commandments. The locusts ore called a nation, just as the "ants are a people not strong," and the "conies are" said to be "but a feeble folk." Kimchi lays that "every collection of living things is called a nation (qoy); accordingly the prophet applies 'nation' to the locust." Nor deem the weed "nation" thus applied support the allegorical sense any more than the Homeric -

"Even as go the swarms [literally nations]
of closely thronging bees." This army of locusts is characterized by the two qualities of strength and number. The preterite עָלָה, though past, really refers to the future, to express the certain occurrence of what is predicted; so with שָׂם in the following verse, of which Kimchi says, "The past is in place of the future;" and Aben Ezra more fully, "A thing that is decreed to take place is spoken of in the past." This army has peculiar weapons, yet nothing the less powerful. Whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek-teeth of a great lion; or, lioness. Different descriptive terms are applied to lions - the lion's whelp is גּוּר; the young lion, which, though young, is no longer a whelp, is כְּפִיר; also the lion, from its hoarseness at a certain age, is called שַׁחַלֹ; the lion, from its cry, is called by onomatopoeia, לָבִיּא; the lion, from its strength, is called לַיִשׁ; while the common name of a lion, derived probably from אָרָה, to pluck or tear, is אַרְיֵה. Having compared the invading locusts to an army powerful and countless, the prophet proceeds to speak of the weapons wielded by these warlike and hostile invaders. They are their teeth. While the common name for locust respects their multitude, the other names are of the nature of epithets, and all, as we have seen, derived from the vigour and voracity with which they use their teeth. Those teeth, so destructive, are compared to those of a lion and the molars or grinders of a great, stout, old lion or lioness, for the word has been translated in each of these ways.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
For
כִּֽי־ (kî-)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

a nation
גוֹי֙ (ḡō·w)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1471: A foreign nation, a Gentile, a troop of animals, a flight of locusts

has invaded
עָלָ֣ה (‘ā·lāh)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 5927: To ascend, in, actively

My land,
אַרְצִ֔י (’ar·ṣî)
Noun - feminine singular construct | first person common singular
Strong's 776: Earth, land

powerful
עָצ֖וּם (‘ā·ṣūm)
Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 6099: Powerful, numerous

and without
וְאֵ֣ין (wə·’ên)
Conjunctive waw | Adverb
Strong's 369: A non-entity, a negative particle

number;
מִסְפָּ֑ר (mis·pār)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4557: A number, definite, indefinite, narration

its teeth
שִׁנָּיו֙ (šin·nāw)
Noun - cdc | third person masculine singular
Strong's 8127: A tooth, ivory, a cliff

are [those]
שִׁנֵּ֣י (šin·nê)
Noun - cdc
Strong's 8127: A tooth, ivory, a cliff

of a lion,
אַרְיֵ֔ה (’ar·yêh)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 738: A lion

and its fangs
וּֽמְתַלְּע֥וֹת (ū·mə·ṯal·lə·‘ō·wṯ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine plural construct
Strong's 4973: A biter, a tooth

[are those] of a lioness.
לָבִ֖יא (lā·ḇî)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3833: To roar, a lion,


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OT Prophets: Joel 1:6 For a nation has come up (Jl Joe.)
Joel 1:5
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