Joel 2:3

New American Bible - revised edition

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.

Cross References

Genesis 13:10

Lot looked about and saw how abundantly watered the whole Jordan Plain was as far as Zoar, like the Lord’s own garden, or like Egypt. This was before the Lord had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

Genesis 2:8

The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom he had formed.

Psalm 50:3

Our God comes and will not be silent! Devouring fire precedes him, it rages strongly around him.

Psalm 97:3

Fire goes before him, consuming his foes on every side.

Exodus 10:15

They covered the surface of the whole land, so that it became black. They ate up all the vegetation in the land and all the fruit of the trees the hail had spared. Nothing green was left on any tree or plant in the fields throughout the land of Egypt.

Exodus 10:5

They will cover the surface of the earth, so that the earth itself will not be visible. They will eat up the remnant you saved undamaged from the hail, as well as all the trees that are growing in your fields.

Isaiah 14:17

Who made the world a wilderness, razed its cities, and gave captives no release?”

Isaiah 15:6

The waters of Nimrim have become a waste, The grass is withered, new growth is gone, nothing is green.

Isaiah 33:4

Spoil is gathered up as caterpillars gather, an onrush like the rush of locusts.

Isaiah 51:3

Yes, the Lord shall comfort Zion, shall comfort all her ruins; Her wilderness he shall make like Eden, her wasteland like the garden of the Lord; Joy and gladness shall be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of song.

Isaiah 9:18

At the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land quakes, and the people are like fuel for fire; no one spares his brother.

Isaiah 9:19

They hack on the right, but remain hungry; they devour on the left, but are not filled. Each devours the flesh of the neighbor;

Jeremiah 5:17

They will devour your harvest and your bread, devour your sons and your daughters, Devour your sheep and cattle, devour your vines and fig trees; With their swords they will beat down the fortified cities in which you trust.

Ezekiel 36:35

They will say, “This once-desolate land has become like the garden of Eden. The cities once ruined, laid waste and destroyed, are now resettled and fortified.”

Amos 7:4

This is what the Lord God showed me: He was summoning a rain of fire. It had devoured the great abyss and was consuming the fields.

Habakkuk 1:6

For now I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and impulsive people, Who march the breadth of the land to take dwellings not their own.

Zechariah 7:14

And I will scatter them among all the nations that they do not know. So the land was left desolate behind them with no one moving about, and they made a pleasant land into a wasteland.