Joel 2:3

God's Word

In front of this army a fire burns. Behind it flames are blazing. In front of it the land is like the garden of Eden. Behind it the land is like a barren desert. Nothing escapes it!

Cross References

Genesis 13:10

Then Lot looked in the direction of Zoar as far as he could see. He saw that the whole Jordan Plain was well-watered like the Lord’s garden or like Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

Genesis 2:8

The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east. That’s where he put the man whom he had formed.

Psalm 50:3

Our God will come and will not remain silent. A devouring fire is in front of him and a raging storm around him.

Psalm 97:3

Fire spreads ahead of him. It burns his enemies who surround him.

Exodus 10:15

They covered all the ground until it was black ⌞with them⌟. They ate all the plants and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left. Nothing green was left on any tree or plant anywhere in Egypt.

Exodus 10:5

They will cover the land so that the ground can’t be seen. They will eat everything left by the hail, including every tree still standing in the fields.

Isaiah 14:17

who made the world like a desert and tore down its cities, who didn’t let his prisoners go home?”

Isaiah 15:6

The Nimrim Brook has run dry! The grass dries up, the vegetation withers, and nothing green is left.

Isaiah 33:4

You nations, your loot is gathered as grasshoppers harvest a crop. Like swarming locusts, people rush for your loot.

Isaiah 51:3

So the Lord will comfort Zion. He will comfort all those who live among its ruins. He will make its desert like Eden. He will make its wilderness like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

Isaiah 9:18

Surely wickedness burns like fire. It burns up briars and thorns. It sets the underbrush in the forest on fire, and it whirls upward in clouds of smoke.

Isaiah 9:19

The land is scorched by the fury of the Lord of Armies, and the people are like fuel for the fire. No one shows concern for others:

Jeremiah 5:17

They will devour your harvest and your food. They will devour your sons and your daughters. They will devour your flocks and your cattle. They will devour your grapevines and your fig trees. With their swords they will destroy the fortified cities you trust.

Ezekiel 36:35

People will say, “This wasteland has become like the garden of Eden. The cities were destroyed. They were empty and ruined, but now they are fortified and have people living in them.”

Amos 7:4

This is what the Almighty Lord showed me: The Almighty Lord was calling for judgment by fire. The fire dried up the ocean and burned up the land.

Habakkuk 1:6

I am going to send the Babylonians, that fierce and reckless nation. They will march throughout the earth to take possession of lands that don’t belong to them.

Zechariah 7:14

I used a windstorm to scatter them among all the nations, nations they hadn’t even heard of. They left behind a land so ruined that no one is able to travel through it. They have turned a pleasant land into a wasteland.”