Joel — Hebrew and Greek compared
Choose a chapter to explore the source readings and their notes. Original references, source labels, and review records are retained.
Source guide and review record
SAINTS TRANSLATION
Joel
V1 • Working translation draft • Sep 8, 2026
Complete working translation draft. Every verse in the declared Hebrew and Greek running texts was read directly and independently translated; English, verse alignment and comparison notes received an editorial pass and a final source/reference review. Selective reception passages were checked directly in the sources registered below. No critical apparatus, manuscript collation, exhaustive reception survey or independent specialist review is claimed. Document layout review is a separate production step.
4 chapters • 73 translation rows
Reader’s guide
Read across each row to compare independent literal-smooth English renderings of the declared Hebrew and Greek texts. Rabbinic Priority and Saints Priority identify interpretive traditions, not alternate sources of biblical wording. Actual source references remain visible.
Both directly accessed editions have four chapters containing 20, 27, 5 and 21 verses: 73 source verses in each column and 73 comparison rows. Source chapters 1 and 2 correspond to common English 1:1–20 and 2:1–27; source chapter 3 corresponds to common English 2:28–32; source chapter 4 corresponds to common English chapter 3. Both source columns retain their own sentence boundaries, including the Greek continuation from 1:14 into 1:15. The final unnumbered Greek closing line belongs to 4:21 and is included there once.
Source basis and review scope
Hebrew: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, fifth corrected edition (1997). Greek: Rahlfs–Hanhart Septuaginta, second revised edition (2006). Complete running texts were directly checked; the registered reception passages were consulted selectively.
Same: corresponding meaning. Similar: modest expression or emphasis difference. Different: meaningful specific detail. Divergent: addition, omission, or rearrangement. Disparate: major difference in meaning or consequence. Each row uses one governing category under the updated project reference.
Sources, method and decisions
Source register
[BHS1] Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph, eds., Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; fifth corrected edition prepared by Adrian Schenker (1997), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Joel 1, complete chapter. Access: Direct Hebrew main text. Checked Sep 8, 2026.
[BHS2] Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph, eds., Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; fifth corrected edition prepared by Adrian Schenker (1997), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Joel 2, complete chapter. Access: Direct Hebrew main text. Checked Sep 8, 2026.
[BHS3] Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph, eds., Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; fifth corrected edition prepared by Adrian Schenker (1997), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Joel 3, complete chapter. Access: Direct Hebrew main text. Checked Sep 8, 2026.
[BHS4] Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph, eds., Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; fifth corrected edition prepared by Adrian Schenker (1997), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Joel 4, complete chapter. Access: Direct Hebrew main text. Checked Sep 8, 2026.
[LXX1] Alfred Rahlfs, Septuaginta; second revised edition prepared by Robert Hanhart (2006), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Joel 1, complete chapter. Access: Direct Greek main text. Checked Sep 8, 2026.
[LXX2] Alfred Rahlfs, Septuaginta; second revised edition prepared by Robert Hanhart (2006), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Joel 2, complete chapter. Access: Direct Greek main text. Checked Sep 8, 2026.
[LXX3] Alfred Rahlfs, Septuaginta; second revised edition prepared by Robert Hanhart (2006), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Joel 3, complete chapter. Access: Direct Greek main text. Checked Sep 8, 2026.
[LXX4] Alfred Rahlfs, Septuaginta; second revised edition prepared by Robert Hanhart (2006), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Joel 4, complete chapter. Access: Direct Greek main text. Checked Sep 8, 2026.
[RASHI-JOL2] Rashi, Commentary on Joel 2:23; Chabad.org bilingual presentation. Scope: 2:23, teacher, rain and first month. Access: Direct Hebrew and English commentary reading; biblical English not used as a translation base. Checked Sep 8, 2026.
[ACT2] Nestle–Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece, twenty-eighth revised edition (2012), German Bible Society official online text. Scope: Acts 2:14–21, apostolic quotation of Joel 3:1–5. Access: Direct Greek main text for reception; not a base for Joel. Checked Sep 8, 2026.
[CYRIL17] Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 17.19; Edwin Hamilton Gifford translation, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, volume 7 (1894), New Advent transcription. Scope: 17.19, Joel through the Pentecost citation. Access: Direct English patristic translation; Greek text of Cyril not collated. Checked Sep 8, 2026.
Key terms
גזם; ארבה; ילק; חסיל / κάμπη; ἀκρίς; βροῦχος; ἐρυσίβη — cutting, swarming, creeping, consuming locust / caterpillar, locust, bruchus locust, blight. 1:4; 2:25. Distinct descriptive labels; no verified species or life-stage identifications claimed. Greek blight stays distinct.
פתואל / Βαθουηλ — Pethuel / Bathuel. 1:1. Source-specific paternal name forms preserved.
מנחה / θυσία — grain offering / sacrifice. Agricultural cultic contexts; do not import the Hebrew cereal specificity into the Greek general term.
שדי / ταλαιπωρία — Shaddai / suffering. 1:15. Hebrew divine title and Greek calamity noun are not harmonized.
המורה לצדקה / τὰ βρώματα εἰς δικαιοσύνην — the teacher for righteousness / food for righteousness. 2:23. Teacher is a provisional contextual reading supported in the consulted Rashi passage; early rain for vindication remains possible. Latter Hebrew môreh is early rain.
רוחי / ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματός μου — My Spirit / from My Spirit. 3:1–2. Greek partitive wording preserved without asserting division of the Spirit.
שרידים / εὐαγγελιζόμενοι — survivors / bearers of good news. 3:5. Different role at the conclusion; not reduced to a common remnant label.
שטים / σχοῖνοι — acacias / rushes. 4:18. Preserve both source plant terms in the wadi designation.
נקה / ἐκδικέω; ἀθῳόω — cleanse / avenge; acquit. 4:21. Hebrew syntax and sense remain a specialist-review question; no reconstructed reading adopted.
Editorial decisions
Independently translated every verse in the complete directly read BHS and Rahlfs–Hanhart main texts, all four source chapters. Publisher edition footers were checked; no apparatus or manuscript collation was performed.
Retained the four-chapter numbering and supplied its common English mapping. Included the final Greek Zion line once within 4:21.
Kept Hebrew locust labels distinct from the Greek caterpillar/bruchus/blight sequence, without imposing insect species or growth stages.
Preserved the major differences in 1:11–12,15,17; 3:5; 4:11,21 and the difficult teacher/food wording in 2:23. Provisional readings remain visibly flagged.
Used the explicitly checked Rashi interpretation to document the teacher and first-month option in 2:23; did not insert a named prophetic or messianic figure.
Distinguished Joel from the additions and rearrangement in Acts 2:16–21, and distinguished Cyril’s later interpretation from both biblical texts.
Reviewed clause coverage, negatives, person, names, numbers and English continuity; classification labels describe the two declared readings and do not claim historical causes for their differences.
Final review Sep 11, 2026. All 73 Hebrew and Greek units and all comparison notes were rechecked against the final project reference and the registered sources. Greek futures in 2:4–5, 7–9 were restored explicitly; speech punctuation at 3:5 was closed in both columns. The Acts 2:19 expansions are now noted at 3:3. Source numbering, every clause, independent Hebrew wording, all category totals and the eight Disparate entries are preserved. Cyril 17.19 is passage-level reception of 3:1–2 through Pentecost; Rashi’s 2:23 interpretation remains provisional. Specialist questions below remain open.
Source chapter and verse references remain visible throughout.
Open questions
1:4; 2:25: obtain specialist lexical review of the Hebrew insect labels and Greek brouchos; no species identification should be inferred from the descriptive renderings.
1:7–8,11–12,17–18: review the Greek searching/bride comparison, estate address, human shaming of joy and heifer scene alongside the difficult Hebrew seed/clod words.
2:6,8,17: review pāʾrûr, weapon syntax and the Greek altar-platform phrase; present literal choices remain provisional.
2:23: evaluate teacher versus early rain, the force of liṣdāqāh, and first month versus formerly with specialist Hebrew evidence; Rashi’s reception is evidence of an interpretation, not proof of the sole lexical meaning.
4:14,19,21: review decision/threshing nuances, the violence/injustices genitives and the final cleanse/acquit construction against an actually accessed critical apparatus before proposing emendation.
Arrange independent Hebrew, Greek and reception review before a publication edition; full running-text and structural review do not establish publication readiness.
Classification totals
Different: 33 • Same: 16 • Divergent: 2 • Disparate: 8 • Similar: 14. Counting unit: one aligned verse row. These are affected rows, not unique textual variants.
Disparate index
1:11, 1:12, 1:15, 1:17, 2:23, 3:5, 4:11, 4:21