Joel 3:18
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk: and waters shall flow through all the rivers of Juda: and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et erit in die illa : stillabunt montes dulcedinem, et colles fluent lacte, et per omnes rivos Juda ibunt aquæ ; et fons de domo Domini egredietur, et irrigabit torrentem spinarum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Καὶ ἔσται ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ἀποσταλάξει τὰ ὄρη γλυκασμόν, καὶ οἱ βουνοὶ ῥυήσονται γάλα, καὶ πᾶσαι αἱ ἀφέσεις Ἰούδα ῥυήσονται ὕδατα, καὶ πηγὴ ἐξ οἴκου Κυρίου ἐξελεύσεται καὶ ποτιεῖ τὸν χειμάρρουν τῶν σχοίνων.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Joel 4:18
- וְהָיָה֩ בַיּ֨וֹם הַה֜וּא יִטְּפ֧וּ הֶהָרִ֣ים עָסִ֗יס וְהַגְּבָעוֹת֙ תֵּלַ֣כְנָה חָלָ֔ב וְכָל אֲפִיקֵ֥י יְהוּדָ֖ה יֵ֣לְכוּ מָ֑יִם וּמַעְיָ֗ן מִבֵּ֤ית יְהוָה֙ יֵצֵ֔א וְהִשְׁקָ֖ה אֶת נַ֥חַל הַשִּׁטִּֽים
Haydock's commentary
Sweetness; oil and honey. (Calmet)
Fountain, &c., viz., the fountain of grace in the Church militant, and of glory in the Church triumphant; which shall water the torrent or valley of thorns, that is, the souls that before, like barren ground, brought forth nothing but thorns, or that were afflicted with the thorns of crosses and tribulations. (Challoner)
Septuagint have, "bands." Hebrew shittim. (Haydock)
Abundance shall ensue after the death of Cambyses, as a figure of the graces which shall be granted to Christians, Ezechiel xlvii. 2.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Tertullian The Five Books Against Marcion, Sundry Features of the Prophetic Style: Principles of Its Interpretation
These preliminary remarks I have ventured to make at this first step of the discussion and while the conflict is, as it were, from a distance. But inasmuch as I shall now from this point have to grapple with my opponent on a distinct issue and in close combat, I perceive that I must advance even here some lines, at which the battle will have to be delivered; they are the Scriptures of the Creator. For as I shall have to prove that Christ was from the Creator, according to these (Scriptures), which were afterwards accomplished in the Creator’s Christ, I find it necessary to set forth the form and, so to speak, the nature of the Scriptures themselves, that they may not distract the reader’s attention by being called into controversy at the moment of their application to subjects of discussion, and by their proof being confounded with the proof of the subjects themselves. …