Core Glossary
Core Glossary: Joel
A. Terms Reused Exactly from the Romans Baseline
These terms already exist in translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json and MUST be reused without modification.
| Term | French rendering (baseline) | Risk (baseline) | Occurrence in Joel | Notes for this curriculum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| holy_spirit | Esprit Saint | Critical | 2:28-29 (3:1-2) | See §B “Spirit poured out” — literal text says “mon Esprit,” conceptually the same divine Person; do not silently substitute the full title into the OT text; teach the identity instead. |
| prophet / prophecy | prophète / prophétie | Low | 2:28 (3:1, “vos fils et vos filles prophétiseront”) | Verb form “prophétiser” derives regularly from the reused noun; no new risk beyond baseline notes. |
| lord (kyrios, NT sense) | Seigneur | High/Critical | Indirectly, via Romans 10:13 / Acts 2:21 quotation of Joel 2:32 (3:5) | Retained ONLY for the NT quotation context. Do NOT use “Seigneur” for the OT tetragrammaton YHWH within Joel itself — see §B “YHWH / the LORD” for the required distinct treatment and the mandatory cross-reference note. |
| god | Dieu | Critical | Throughout | No new risk; standard usage. |
| salvation | salut | Medium | 2:32 (3:5), “quiconque invoquera le nom de l’Éternel sera sauvé” | Direct verbal link to Romans 10:13; reuse “sauvé/salut” exactly so the Joel-to-Romans quotation chain is visible to learners moving between curricula. |
| called / calling | appelé / appel | High | 2:32 (3:5), “les restes que l’Éternel appellera” | Effectual-calling resonance; cross-reference the baseline’s effectual_calling doctrine (Romans 8:28-30, 9:11-12) as the same divine-initiative pattern appearing already in Joel. |
| holy | saint | Medium | Implicit in “assemblée sainte” contexts (cf. 1:14, 2:15-16 assembly language; and 2:1, “ma montagne sainte” if rendered) | No new risk; standard. |
| sanctification | sanctification | Medium | Not directly lexicalized in Joel; relevant only as contrast term — see §B “sanctify a fast” | Must be kept distinct from the ritual “qadash a fast” sense in Joel 1:14, 2:15, which is NOT the same doctrinal category as ongoing moral sanctification. |
| Israel | Israël | Medium | 2:27; 3:2, 16 (4:2, 16) | Reuse baseline caution: keep historical/theological referent distinct from the modern nation-state in contemporary French political discourse. |
| church (as God’s people, conceptual parallel) | Église | High | Not lexically present in Joel; relevant only as forward-looking conceptual bridge (the Spirit-outpoured community of 2:28-29) | No direct rendering decision required in Joel itself; flag for Phase 2 lesson-writers only if drawing an explicit Joel-to-Acts-2-church bridge. |
B. New Terms Required for This Curriculum (Joel-specific)
| Term (English gloss) | Original (Hebrew) | LXX Greek | Transliteration | Category / Doctrine | Risk | Definition | Proposed French rendering | Translation notes / rationale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day of the LORD | יוֹם יְהוָה | ἡμέρα κυρίου | yom YHWH | The Day of the Lord | Critical | God’s climactic, decisive day of judgment and salvation; the book’s organizing theme (1:15; 2:1-2, 11, 31; 3:14/4:14). | le jour de l’Éternel | New Critical risk not present in the Romans baseline. French Catholic liturgical usage, “le jour du Seigneur,” is the established name for Sunday (cf. the papal document Dies Domini), a completely different referent. Using “le jour du Seigneur” for Joel’s eschatological Day risks total collision with an entrenched liturgical meaning. Anchoring the tetragrammaton rendering to “l’Éternel” throughout Joel (see next entry) naturally produces “le jour de l’Éternel,” which avoids this collision and should be treated as mandatory, not optional. |
| YHWH / “the LORD” (tetragrammaton) | יְהוָה | κύριος | YHWH | God’s covenant proper name | Critical | God’s personal, covenant name, revealed to Moses (Exodus 3:14-15); used dozens of times throughout Joel. | l’Éternel (primary); note le SEIGNEUR (small caps) as the TOB/Bible de Jérusalem alternative convention | Distinct from the baseline’s lord entry, which addresses NT Greek kyrios as a title for Jesus. Recommend the Segond-tradition “l’Éternel” for the OT text of Joel to (a) preserve the traditional French rendering of the divine name, (b) avoid the Day-of-the-LORD liturgical collision above, and (c) create a visually distinct term from “Seigneur” that REQUIRES an explicit teaching note at Joel 2:32/3:5 to bridge to Romans 10:13’s “Seigneur,” since the LXX and Paul both render this same name with kyrios. This bridge note is not optional — it is the theological hinge of the whole curriculum’s core passage. |
| Repentance / Return | שׁוּב | ἐπιστρέφω | shuv | Repentance and Return to God | Critical | A whole-person reorientation back to covenant loyalty to God, not a mere emotional or ritual act (2:12-13). | revenir à [Dieu/l’Éternel] / se tourner vers Dieu (verb); repentance (noun, when needed) | Not present in the Romans baseline (which builds its salvation-vocabulary from grace, faith, justification rather than OT shuv-language). Must not be collapsed into the Catholic sacramental sense of “la repentance/le sacrement de la réconciliation”; keep the OT relational-return sense primary, with any sacramental cross-reference clearly flagged as a separate, later theological development. |
| Rend your heart | קָרַע לֵבָב | διαρρήσσω τὴν καρδίαν | qara levav | Repentance and Return to God | High | Contrasts inward, genuine repentance with outward-only ritual mourning (garment-tearing) (2:13). | déchirer son cœur (contrasted with déchirer ses vêtements) | Must preserve the ritual-vs-heart contrast explicitly; risk of being read as mere rhetorical flourish rather than doctrinal content. |
| Steadfast love / covenant kindness | חֶסֶד | ἔλεος | chesed | God’s covenant character (background to Grace) | High | God’s covenant-loyal, committed kindness, part of the Exodus 34:6 self-revelation formula echoed in Joel 2:13. | bonté / amour fidèle | No single French word fully captures chesed. Keep distinct from baseline grace (“grâce”) to avoid implying the NT’s specifically Christ-centered, merit-excluding charis concept is already fully in view in this OT covenant-formula text; a connecting note to the Grace doctrine is appropriate but the terms must remain visibly different. |
| God relents (from disaster) | נִחָם עַל | μετανοέω / (LXX: μετεμελήθη) | nacham al | Repentance and Return to God (contrast case) | Medium-High | God’s anthropopathic “relenting” from a declared judgment in response to genuine human repentance (2:13-14); not moral change in God. | renoncer au mal [envisagé] / se détourner du malheur | Must be lexically distinguished from the human-repentance verb shuv two verses earlier so French readers do not conclude God is “repenting” in a moral sense. Avoid “se repentir” for God’s action. |
| Locust (four terms) | גָּזָם, אַרְבֶּה, יֶלֶק, חָסִיל | βροῦχος, ἀκρίς, κάμπη | gazam, arbeh, yeleq, chasil | The Locust Plague as Divine Judgment | Medium | Successive waves/stages of a devastating locust plague, used as both literal judgment (ch.1) and typological army-of-judgment imagery (ch.2). | sauterelle (for arbeh); retain gazam, yélek/jélek, hasil transliterated (following Segond 1910 precedent) for the other three | Exact species referents are uncertain even in the Hebrew; do not invent four distinct translated species names not supported by the lexical evidence. Footnote the transliterated terms as naming successive stages/waves of the same plague. |
| Locusts-as-army | עַם רַב וְעָצוּם | λαὸς πολὺς καὶ ἰσχυρός | am rav v’atsum | The Locust Plague as Divine Judgment / Day of the LORD | Medium | Deliberate literary blending of literal locust-swarm and apocalyptic invading-army imagery (2:2-11). | un peuple nombreux et puissant | Preserve the double-register; do not resolve into “purely locusts” or “purely soldiers” language. |
| Sanctify a fast / solemn assembly | קַדְּשׁוּ־צוֹם / עֲצָרָה | ἁγιάσατε νηστείαν / πανήγυρις | qaddeshu-tsom / atsarah | Repentance and Return to God (corporate dimension) | Medium | A formally convened, corporate act of fasting/repentance, distinct from private devotion (1:14; 2:15-16). | consacrer un jeûne / assemblée solennelle | Keep distinct from the ongoing-moral-holiness sense of baseline sanctification; here the sense is ritual consecration of a specific corporate event. |
| Restore the years | שִׁלֵּם אֶת־הַשָּׁנִים | ἀνταποδώσω… τὰ ἔτη | shillem et-hashanim | Restoration and Blessing after Repentance | Medium | God’s gracious repayment of what the locust judgment consumed, given in response to repentance (2:25). | je vous remplacerai les années | Avoid a strictly transactional “debt repayment” reading; frame as gracious covenant restoration, not an obligation God owes. |
| Never again be put to shame | לֹא־יֵבֹשׁוּ עוֹד | οὐ μὴ καταισχυνθῆτε | lo yevoshu od | Restoration and Blessing after Repentance | Medium | Restoration includes restored covenant honor/identity, an honor-shame idiom central to the ancient covenant relationship (2:26-27). | ne sera plus jamais couvert de honte | Route per baseline guidance for honor/shame-dynamic segments: native-speaker review, not theologian-required. |
| Remnant / survivors | שְׂרִידִים / פְלֵיטָה | κατάλειμμα / σεσωσμένοι | seridim / pleitah | The Day of the LORD; Restoration | Medium-High | Those who survive God’s judgment by his preserving purpose, not their own merit (2:32/3:5). | les restes / les réchappés | Not yet a baseline TM entry; recommend adding to translation_memory.json with cross-reference to Romans 11:5’s “un reste selon l’élection de la grâce” for vocabulary consistency across the full French Bible-study library. |
| Zion | צִיּוֹן | Σιών | Tsiyon | The Day of the LORD; Restoration | Medium | The temple mount / Jerusalem as the locus of God’s presence, judgment, and end-time deliverance (2:32/3:5; 3:16-17, 21/4:16-17, 21). | Sion | Contemporary French political discourse around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict risks a modern-political misreading; frame historically/theologically, paralleling the baseline’s israel caution. |
| Valley of Jehoshaphat | עֵמֶק יְהוֹשָׁפָט | κοιλάς Ἰωσαφάτ | emeq Yehoshaphat | The Day of the Lord (judgment on nations) | Medium | Symbolic name meaning “the LORD judges,” naming the site/theme of final judgment on the nations (3:2, 12/4:2, 12). | la vallée de Josaphat | Foreground the meaning of the name (“l’Éternel juge”) over speculative literal-geography identification, given French Catholic popular piety’s historical association with the Kidron Valley. |
| Beat plowshares into swords | כֹּתּוּ אִתֵּיכֶם לַחֲרָבוֹת | συγκόψατε τὰ γεωργικὰ ὑμῶν σκεύη εἰς μαχαίρας | kottu ittekhem lacharavot | The Day of the Lord (judgment on nations) | High | Ironic reversal of Isaiah 2:4/Micah 4:3’s peace oracle, mockingly summoning the nations to a battle they cannot win against God (3:10/4:10). | forgez des épées de vos socs de charrue | The Isaiah/Micah original is widely known in French secular culture (UN sculpture, disarmament rhetoric); a required teaching note must cross-reference and explain the deliberate reversal so it is not read as a translation error. |
| The LORD roars | יְהוָה יִשְׁאָג | κύριος… ἐκκεκράξεται | YHWH yish’ag | The Day of the Lord | Medium | Lion-roar imagery for God’s fearsome, authoritative judgment-voice (3:16/4:16). | l’Éternel rugira | Preserve the specifically leonine, fearsome connotation; avoid softened verbs like “criera/tonnera.” |
| Fountain from the house of the LORD | מַעְיָן מִבֵּית יְהוָה | πηγὴ ἐξ οἴκου κυρίου | ma’ayan mibeit YHWH | Restoration and Blessing after Repentance | Medium | Eschatological life-giving-water imagery from God’s own dwelling (3:18/4:18), paralleled in Ezekiel 47. | une source sortira de la maison de l’Éternel | Positive cross-canonical resonance in French Christian devotional culture; ensure “house of the LORD” is understood as the literal Jerusalem temple, not vaguely spiritualized. |
| I will avenge/cleanse their blood | וְנִקֵּיתִי דָּמָם | καὶ ἐκζητήσω τὸ αἷμα αὐτῶν | v’niqqeiti damam | The Day of the Lord (judgment on nations) | Medium-High | Genuinely ambiguous in Hebrew between “avenge blood not yet avenged” and “acquit/cleanse of blood-guilt” (3:21/4:21). | Je vengerai leur sang que je n’ai point vengé (Segond-tradition reading, recommended for consistency) | Flag the minority acquittal-reading for theologian/native-speaker awareness even though the vengeance-reading is recommended for consistency with the established French Bible tradition. |
| The LORD dwells in Zion | יְהוָה שֹׁכֵן בְּצִיּוֹן | κύριος κατασκηνώσει ἐν Σιών | YHWH shoken b’Tsiyon | Restoration and Blessing after Repentance | Medium | Closing affirmation of God’s permanent presence with his restored people (3:21/4:21). | l’Éternel demeure en Sion | Keep identical to the Zion rendering used at 2:32/3:5 for internal consistency. |
| Spirit poured out | רוּחַ (שָׁפַךְ אֶת־רוּחִי) | πνεῦμα (ἐκχεῶ ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματός μου) | ruach (shaphak et-ruchi) | The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit | High | God’s own Spirit given abundantly, without regard to sex, age, or social status (2:28-29/3:1-2); the OT anchor for Pentecost (Acts 2). | mon Esprit (capitalized), taught as identical with l’Esprit Saint | Retain the literal first-person “mon Esprit” of the Hebrew text rather than silently substituting the full NT title “l’Esprit Saint”; teach the identity via an explicit note rather than a lexical substitution, preserving both fidelity to the OT wording and doctrinal clarity for the Pentecost connection. |
| All flesh | כׇּל־בָּשָׂר | πᾶσα σάρξ | kol-basar | The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit (universal scope) | Medium | The Spirit’s outpouring is not restricted to any group; “flesh” here means embodied humanity in general. | toute chair | Secular/urban French readers may hear only the anatomical sense; a gloss (“tout être humain, sans distinction”) is advisable, paralleling the baseline’s universal_scope_of_gospel handling. |
| Servants and handmaids | עֲבָדִים / שְׁפָחוֹת | δοῦλοι / δοῦλαι | avadim / shephachot | The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit (social inclusivity) | Medium | The Spirit’s outpouring crosses the era’s sharpest social boundary (slave/free) (2:29/3:2). | serviteurs et servantes | Softer than literal “esclaves,” which carries heavy connotations tied to France’s colonial and transatlantic slave-trade history; a teaching note should still make the social-inclusivity point explicit rather than letting “serviteurs” read as mere paid employees. |
| Dream dreams / see visions | חָלַם חֲלוֹמוֹת / חָזוֹן רָאָה | ἐνυπνιάζομαι / ὅρασις | chalam chalomot / chazon ra’ah | The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit | Low-Medium | Spirit-given revelatory modes, distinct from the fulfilled, once-for-all pattern of NT prophetic fulfillment; still Spirit-given communication, not occult divination. | avoir des songes / voir des visions | Ensure these are not conflated with astrology/fortune-telling, consistent with the baseline’s caution on prophet/prophecy. |
| Signs/wonders (cosmic) | אוֹתוֹת | τέρατα | otot | The Day of the Lord | Medium | Supernatural, attention-arresting cosmic portents accompanying the Day of the LORD (2:30/3:3; cf. sun/moon darkened, 2:31/3:4; 3:15/4:15). | prodiges / signes | Risk of a purely literary/poetic reading by secularized readers that drains apocalyptic seriousness; anchor to the Day-of-the-LORD doctrine explicitly. |
| Great and terrible/awesome (Day) | גָּדוֹל וְנוֹרָא | μεγάλη καὶ ἐπιφανής | gadol v’nora | The Day of the Lord | High | Nora denotes appropriate, reverent fear/awe before God’s decisive intervention — never a merely unpleasant or (as modern French colloquialism risks) an impressive/exciting event. | grand et redoutable (preferred over bare “terrible”) | Contemporary colloquial French has drifted “terrible” toward a positive-intensifier register (“c’est terrible!” = amazing); bare “terrible” risks an inadvertently celebratory reading. Prefer “redoutable” or “épouvantable,” or pair adjectives (“grand et redoutable”) if “terrible” is retained for tradition’s sake. |
C. Chapters Explicitly Reviewed with No New Terms
- Joel 2:28-32 (Joël 3:1-5): Core passage — fully covered verse-by-verse in
07_semantic_analysis.mdPart 1; all its terms are listed in §B above and not duplicated here. - No chapter of Joel is without theologically load-bearing vocabulary; all four French chapters (Joël 1-4) contribute new or baseline-reused terms as tabulated above. Full-book coverage is therefore complete with no chapter silently omitted.
D. Risk Tier Summary for This Curriculum
| Risk | Count (new terms) | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 3 | Day of the LORD; YHWH/the LORD; Repentance/Return |
| High | 5 | Rend your heart; chesed; Spirit poured out; Great and terrible (Day); Beat plowshares into swords |
| Medium-High | 3 | God relents; Remnant/survivors; I will avenge/cleanse their blood |
| Medium | 12 | All flesh; Servants/handmaids; Locust (4 terms); Locusts-as-army; Sanctify a fast/solemn assembly; Restore the years; Never again be put to shame; Zion; Valley of Jehoshaphat; The LORD roars; Fountain from the house of the LORD; The LORD dwells in Zion; Signs/wonders |
| Low-Medium | 2 | Blow the trumpet; Dream dreams/see visions |
All Critical and High risk terms above require human theologian review in Phase 2 Step 17, per the same routing logic established in the Romans baseline’s doctrine_risk_registry.json; Medium terms require native speaker review; none in this book’s new-term set are Low-only.
Critical Risk Terms
Yhwh
Approved rendering: l’Éternel
Transliteration: YHWH (traditionally read ‘Adonai’)
Doctrine: God’s Covenant Name
Rejected alternatives: Seigneur (reserved exclusively for NT kyrios quotation/cross-reference contexts)
Original: יְהוָה (LXX: κύριος)
Category: God
NEW CRITICAL TERM, not present in the Romans baseline (which addresses NT Greek kyrios, not the OT tetragrammaton). God’s personal covenant name (Exodus 3:14-15), used dozens of times throughout Joel. Required French rendering is the Segond-tradition ‘l’Éternel’ for two grounded reasons: (1) it avoids collision with the Catholic liturgical phrase ‘le jour du Seigneur’ (Sunday, cf. Dies Domini) when combined with ‘jour’ — see ‘day_of_the_lord’; (2) it preserves a term visually distinct from ‘Seigneur,’ making possible the MANDATORY bridging note at Joël 3:5 connecting to Romans 10:13, since the LXX and Paul both render this same name with kyrios and Paul applies it directly to Jesus.
Day Of The Lord
Approved rendering: le jour de l’Éternel
Transliteration: yom YHWH
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Rejected alternatives: le jour du Seigneur (FORBIDDEN — established French Catholic liturgical name for Sunday, cf. Dies Domini), le jugement dernier (too narrow — imports NT/creedal Last Judgment category, collapsing near/far fulfillment)
Original: יוֹם יְהוָה (LXX: ἡμέρα κυρίου)
Category: Eschatology
The book’s organizing theme (Joël 1:15; 2:1-2, 11; 3:4; 4:14). MANDATORY, not stylistic, rendering across every occurrence. Depends on the ‘yhwh’ decision above; this phrase must never be produced by rendering the tetragrammaton as ‘Seigneur’ at any point in Joel.
Repentance Return
Approved rendering: revenir à [Dieu/l’Éternel] / se tourner vers Dieu
Transliteration: shuv
Doctrine: Repentance and Return to God
Rejected alternatives: se repentir / la repentance (bare) — strong pull toward the Catholic sacramental frame (‘le sacrement de la réconciliation’), risking an implied priestly mediator the OT text does not envision, se convertir / la conversion — in ordinary French primarily denotes changing religious affiliation, an inter-religious category foreign to Joel’s intra-covenant call
Original: שׁוּב (LXX: ἐπιστρέφω)
Category: Repentance
The OT’s primary repentance-verb: a whole-person reorientation back to covenant loyalty (Joël 2:12-13), not primarily emotional or ritual. Not present in the Romans baseline, which builds its salvation-vocabulary from grace/faith/justification rather than OT shuv-language. Reserve ‘repentance’ (noun) for the resulting change of heart, kept distinct in register from the sacrament of penance/confession.
High Risk Terms
Lord
Approved rendering: Seigneur
Transliteration: Seigneur
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: maître, patron
Original: κύριος (LXX rendering of יְהוָה; NT title applied to Jesus)
Category: Christology
Romans 10:9 ‘Jésus est Seigneur.’ ‘Seigneur’ carries feudal-historical resonance in French (‘le seigneur du château’), risking a distant, archaic-title reading rather than a living confession of exclusive Lordship. Inherited from Romans package. JOEL-SPECIFIC RESTRICTION: reserved strictly for NT quotation/cross-reference contexts (Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13). ‘Seigneur’ must NEVER appear inside the translated Hebrew text of Joël 1-4, where the tetragrammaton is rendered ‘l’Éternel’ (see ‘yhwh’). This separation is mandatory, not stylistic, and enables the required bridging note at Joël 3:5.
Church
Approved rendering: Église
Transliteration: Église
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: temple (building only)
Original: ἐκκλησία (conceptual parallel only; not lexicalized in the Hebrew text of Joel)
Category: Church
Capitalized ‘l’Église’ strongly denotes the institutional Catholic Church in ordinary usage; French Protestants historically call their building ‘un temple.’ Inherited from Romans package. Not lexically present in Joel itself; relevant only as a forward-looking conceptual bridge from the Spirit-outpoured community of Joël 3:1-2 to Acts 2’s church. Flag for Phase 2 lesson-writers only if drawing an explicit Joel-to-Acts-2 bridge.
Great And Terrible
Approved rendering: grand et redoutable
Transliteration: gadol v’nora
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Rejected alternatives: terrible (bare) — colloquial French has drifted this word toward a positive intensifier, ‘c’est terrible!’ = amazing/awesome
Original: גָּדוֹל וְנוֹרָא (LXX: μεγάλη καὶ ἐπιφανής)
Category: Eschatology
Describes the Day of the LORD’s appropriate, reverent fear/awe (Joël 3:4; cf. 4:14-15 register). If ‘terrible’ is retained for traditional register reasons, it must be paired with a clarifying adjective (‘grand et redoutable’), never left bare.
Spirit Poured Out
Approved rendering: mon Esprit
Transliteration: ruach (shaphak et-ruchi)
Doctrine: The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
Rejected alternatives: l’Esprit Saint (bare substitution into the OT text — erases the Hebrew’s first-person grammar and pre-empts, rather than teaches, the Pentecost identification Peter draws in Acts 2:17)
Original: רוּחַ (שָׁפַךְ אֶת־רוּחִי) (LXX: ἐκχεῶ ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματός μου)
Category: Holy Spirit
God’s own Spirit given abundantly and without restriction of sex, age, or social status (Joël 3:1-2); the direct OT source text Peter cites as fulfilled at Pentecost. Capitalize ‘Esprit’ as a non-negotiable formatting rule (uncapitalized ‘mon esprit’ is common French idiom for one’s own mind/morale). Teach the identity with ‘l’Esprit Saint’ via an explicit note, never by lexical substitution.
Remnant Survivors
Approved rendering: les restes / les réchappés
Transliteration: seridim / pleitah
Doctrine: Remnant and Divine Preservation
Original: שְׂרִידִים / פְלֵיטָה (LXX: κατάλειμμα / σεσωσμένοι)
Category: Salvation
Those who survive God’s judgment by his preserving purpose, not their own merit (Joël 3:5). Not yet a baseline translation-memory entry; must be cross-referenced to Romans 11:5’s ‘un reste selon l’élection de la grâce’ for vocabulary consistency across the full French Bible-study library, so French readers do not understand the remnant as survivors by chance or effort.
Rend Your Heart
Approved rendering: déchirer son cœur (et non ses vêtements)
Transliteration: qara levav
Doctrine: Inward versus Outward Repentance
Original: קָרַע לֵבָב (LXX: διαρρήσσω τὴν καρδίαν)
Category: Repentance
Contrasts inward, genuine repentance with outward-only ritual mourning (garment-tearing) (Joël 2:13). French readers unfamiliar with the ancient Near Eastern garment-tearing mourning custom risk hearing this only as rhetorical flourish; the ritual-vs-heart contrast must be made explicit via a teaching note.
Chesed
Approved rendering: bonté / amour fidèle
Transliteration: chesed
Doctrine: God’s Covenant Character (Steadfast Love)
Rejected alternatives: grâce — would prematurely collapse this OT covenant-formula term into the NT’s specifically Christ-centered, merit-excluding charis concept
Original: חֶסֶד (LXX: ἔλεος)
Category: God
God’s covenant-loyal, committed kindness, part of the Exodus 34:6 self-revelation formula echoed in Joël 2:13. No single French word fully captures chesed. Keep visibly distinct from the baseline’s ‘grâce’; a connecting note to the Grace doctrine is appropriate but the terms must remain visibly different.
Plowshares Into Swords
Approved rendering: forgez des épées de vos socs de charrue
Transliteration: kottu ittekhem lacharavot
Doctrine: Judgment on the Nations
Original: כֹּתּוּ אִתֵּיכֶם לַחֲרָבוֹת (LXX: συγκόψατε τὰ γεωργικὰ ὑμῶν σκεύη εἰς μαχαίρας)
Category: Judgment
Ironic reversal of Isaiah 2:4/Micah 4:3’s peace oracle, mockingly summoning the hostile nations to a battle they cannot win against God (Joël 4:10). The Isaiah/Micah original is widely known in French secular culture (UN disarmament sculpture, peace rhetoric); a mandatory teaching note must cross-reference and explain the deliberate reversal so it is not read as a translation error.
Avenge Cleanse Blood
Approved rendering: Je vengerai leur sang que je n’ai point vengé
Transliteration: v’niqqeiti damam lo niqqeiti
Doctrine: Judgment on the Nations
Rejected alternatives: Je purifierai leur sang que je n’avais pas purifié (minority acquittal-reading — not adopted for consistency with established French Bible tradition, but flagged for theologian awareness)
Original: וְנִקֵּיתִי דָּמָם לֹא־נִקֵּיתִי (LXX: καὶ ἐκζητήσω τὸ αἷμα αὐτῶν)
Category: Judgment
Genuinely ambiguous in Hebrew between ‘avenge blood not yet avenged’ and ‘acquit/cleanse of blood-guilt not yet acquitted’ (Joël 4:21). Follow the Segond-tradition vengeance-reading for consistency; flag the minority acquittal-reading for theologian/native-speaker awareness.
Medium Risk Terms
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Esprit Saint
Transliteration: Esprit Saint
Doctrine: Sanctification
Original: רוּחַ (LXX: πνεῦμα)
Category: God
Segond tradition uses ‘Saint-Esprit’; ecumenical/modern translations (TOB, NBS) prefer ‘Esprit Saint’. Keep consistent within this curriculum; both refer to the same personal third Person of the Trinity. Inherited from Romans package. JOEL-SPECIFIC CAVEAT: the literal Hebrew text of Joël 3:1-2 says ‘mon Esprit’ (first-person divine speech), not ‘l’Esprit Saint’. Do NOT substitute this NT title directly into the OT text of Joel; use it only to teach the doctrinal identity of the Spirit named there, via an explicit note, not a lexical substitution. See the new ‘spirit_poured_out’ entry.
God
Approved rendering: Dieu
Transliteration: Dieu
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: אֱלֹהִים
Category: God
Secularization risk: ‘Dieu’ is used as a casual interjection (‘Mon Dieu!’) and, in academic/philosophical French, can be treated as an abstract deist concept rather than the personal, triune God of Scripture. Inherited from Romans package. In Joel, ‘Dieu’ is frequently paired with the covenant name ‘l’Éternel’ (see ‘yhwh’), which helps anchor the referent as personal and specific rather than generic.
Salvation
Approved rendering: salut
Transliteration: salut
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: délivrance
Original: יָשַׁע / מַלָּט (LXX: σῴζω)
Category: Salvation
Stable shared term. Chief risk is Catholic sacramental-economy framing versus Protestant faith-alone framing; keep both traditions’ readers in view by grounding salvation explicitly in God’s own initiative. Inherited from Romans package. JOEL-SPECIFIC LINK: direct verbal bridge to Romans 10:13 via Joël 3:5, ‘quiconque invoquera le nom de l’Éternel sera sauvé.’ Reuse this exact rendering so the Joel-to-Romans quotation chain remains visible; requires the mandatory bridging note discussed under ‘yhwh’ and ‘day_of_the_lord’.
Called
Approved rendering: appelé
Transliteration: appelé
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: invité
Original: קָרָא (LXX: καλέω / προσκαλέομαι)
Category: Salvation
Context-sensitive across at least three senses in Romans (apostleship, sainthood, salvation). Inherited from Romans package. JOEL-SPECIFIC APPLICATION: Joël 3:5, ‘les restes que l’Éternel appellera’ — cross-reference the baseline’s effectual_calling doctrine (Romans 8:28-30, 9:11-12); the same divine-initiative pattern already appears in this OT text.
Calling
Approved rendering: appel
Transliteration: appel
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: vocation (clergy-narrowing risk)
Reserve ‘vocation’ with caution due to its Catholic priesthood/religious-life connotation. Inherited from Romans package. Not directly lexicalized as a noun in Joel’s core passage, but retained here for curriculum-wide vocabulary consistency of the appelé/appel word-family.
Holy
Approved rendering: saint
Transliteration: saint
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: pur
Original: קָדוֹשׁ (LXX: ἅγιος)
Category: Sanctification
Set apart for God and morally pure; ‘pur’ alone loses the set-apart sense. Inherited from Romans package. Underlies Joel’s implicit ‘holy mountain’/‘assemblée sainte’ language (e.g., 2:1, 2:15-16); no new risk beyond the baseline’s general caution against a purely ritual-purity reading.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: sanctification
Transliteration: sanctification
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: purification
Original: קדשׁ (root, cf. קַדְּשׁוּ) (LXX: ἁγιάζω)
Category: Sanctification
The Spirit’s ongoing work of making believers holy; ‘purification’ risks a ritual-cleansing reading. Inherited from Romans package. JOEL-SPECIFIC CAVEAT: must be kept lexically and conceptually distinct from Joel’s ritual ‘sanctify a fast’ sense (Joël 1:14; 2:15) — see the new ‘sanctify_fast_solemn_assembly’ entry, which names a one-time corporate ritual convening, not ongoing moral transformation.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israël
Transliteration: Israël
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Original: יִשְׂרָאֵל (LXX: Ἰσραήλ)
Category: Covenant
Contemporary Middle East politics and France’s significant Jewish community make it easy for readers to conflate biblical Israel with the modern nation-state. Inherited from Romans package. Applies to Joël 2:27; 4:2, 16 — keep the referent historical/theological in this curriculum, as in the Romans baseline.
All Flesh
Approved rendering: toute chair
Transliteration: kol-basar
Doctrine: The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
Original: כׇּל־בָּשָׂר (LXX: πᾶσα σάρξ)
Category: Holy Spirit
Embodied humanity in general (Joël 3:1); signals the Spirit’s outpouring is not restricted to any one group. Secular/urban French readers may hear only the anatomical sense; a gloss (‘tout être humain, sans distinction’) is advisable, paralleling the baseline’s universal_scope_of_gospel handling.
Servants Handmaids
Approved rendering: serviteurs et servantes
Transliteration: avadim / shephachot
Doctrine: The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
Rejected alternatives: esclaves (more literal, but carries heavy, live connotations tied to France’s colonial and transatlantic slave-trade history and public memory-work)
Original: עֲבָדִים / שְׁפָחוֹת (LXX: δοῦλοι / δοῦλαι)
Category: Holy Spirit
Pairs with free-status ‘sons and daughters’ (Joël 3:2) to make the Spirit’s outpouring cross the era’s sharpest social boundary. ‘Serviteurs et servantes’ undersells the ancient chattel-slavery referent; a teaching note must make the social-inclusivity point explicit so it is not read as merely ‘employees.‘
Dream Visions
Approved rendering: avoir des songes / voir des visions
Transliteration: chalam chalomot / chazon ra’ah
Doctrine: The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
Original: חָלַם חֲלוֹמוֹת / חָזוֹן רָאָה (LXX: ἐνυπνιάζομαι / ὅρασις)
Category: Holy Spirit
Spirit-given revelatory modes granted to elders (dreams) and young men (visions) (Joël 3:1). Must be clearly distinguished from astrology or fortune-telling (‘voyance’), consistent with the baseline’s caution on ‘prophet’/‘prophecy.‘
Signs Wonders
Approved rendering: prodiges / signes
Transliteration: otot
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Original: אוֹתוֹת (LXX: τέρατα)
Category: Eschatology
Supernatural, attention-arresting cosmic portents (blood, fire, columns of smoke, sun/moon darkened) accompanying the Day of the LORD (Joël 3:3-4). Risk of a purely literary/poetic reading by secularized French readers that drains apocalyptic seriousness; anchor explicitly to the Day-of-the-Lord doctrine.
Zion
Approved rendering: Sion
Transliteration: Tsiyon
Doctrine: God’s Presence in Zion
Original: צִיּוֹן (LXX: Σιών)
Category: Eschatology
The temple mount/Jerusalem as the locus of God’s presence, judgment, and end-time deliverance (Joël 3:5; 4:16-17, 21). Contemporary French political discourse around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict makes ‘Sion’ liable to a modern political-Zionist misreading; frame historically/theologically, paralleling the baseline’s caution on ‘israel.‘
God Relents
Approved rendering: renoncer au mal [envisagé] / se détourner du malheur
Transliteration: nacham al
Doctrine: God’s Relenting from Judgment
Rejected alternatives: se repentir (would wrongly imply God confesses moral fault)
Original: נִחָם עַל (LXX: μετανοέω / μετεμελήθη)
Category: God
God’s anthropopathic ‘relenting’ from a declared judgment in response to genuine human repentance (Joël 2:13-14); not moral change in God. Must be lexically distinguished from the human-repentance verb shuv used two verses earlier.
Sanctify Fast Solemn Assembly
Approved rendering: consacrer un jeûne / assemblée solennelle
Transliteration: qaddeshu-tsom / atsarah
Doctrine: Corporate Repentance and Fasting
Rejected alternatives: sanctifiez un jeûne (conflates the one-time ritual convening of a corporate event with the baseline’s ongoing-moral-transformation sense of sanctification)
Original: קַדְּשׁוּ־צוֹם / עֲצָרָה (LXX: ἁγιάσατε νηστείαν / πανήγυρις)
Category: Repentance
A formally convened, corporate act of fasting/repentance, distinct from private devotion (Joël 1:14; 2:15-16).
Trumpet
Approved rendering: trompette
Transliteration: shofar
Doctrine: Corporate Repentance and Fasting
Rejected alternatives: chofar (loanword — not the stable French Bible-tradition term)
Original: שׁוֹפָר (LXX: σάλπιγξ)
Category: Judgment
The ram’s-horn alarm-signal instrument, blown both as a warning of judgment (Joël 2:1) and as a summons to sacred assembly and repentance (Joël 2:15); the French rendering must not obscure this dual function.
Locusts Four Stages
Approved rendering: sauterelle (arbeh); gazam, jélek, hasil (transliterated)
Transliteration: gazam, arbeh, yeleq, chasil
Doctrine: The Locust Plague as Divine Judgment
Rejected alternatives: criquet (overly clinical, not the established French Bible-tradition term), inventing four distinct translated species names (overstates lexical certainty the Hebrew itself does not have)
Original: גָּזָם, אַרְבֶּה, יֶלֶק, חָסִיל (LXX: βροῦχος, ἀκρίς, κάμπη)
Category: Judgment
Four Hebrew terms (Joël 1:4) naming successive stages/waves of a devastating locust plague. Following Segond 1910 precedent: translate arbeh as ‘sauterelle’; retain the other three transliterated with a footnote explaining they name successive stages of the same catastrophe.
Locusts As Army
Approved rendering: un peuple nombreux et puissant
Transliteration: am rav v’atsum
Doctrine: The Locust Plague as Divine Judgment
Original: עַם רַב וְעָצוּם (LXX: λαὸς πολὺς καὶ ἰσχυρός)
Category: Judgment
Deliberate literary blending of literal locust-swarm and apocalyptic invading-army imagery (Joël 2:2, 5, 11). Must preserve the double register, not resolve into either ‘purely locusts’ or ‘purely soldiers.‘
Priests
Approved rendering: prêtres
Transliteration: kohanim
Doctrine: The Locust Plague as Divine Judgment
Original: כֹּהֲנִים (LXX: ἱερεῖς)
Category: Covenant
The Levitical, sacrificial priesthood of the Jerusalem temple, whose grain/wine offerings the locust plague disrupts (Joël 1:9, 13). Catholic French readers will default to the ordained sacerdotal office; a brief note clarifying this is the OT Levitical priesthood — distinct from any NT/contemporary pastoral or priestly role — avoids conflation.
Restore The Years
Approved rendering: je vous remplacerai les années
Transliteration: shillem et-hashanim
Doctrine: Restoration and Blessing after Repentance
Original: שִׁלֵּם אֶת־הַשָּׁנִים (LXX: ἀνταποδώσω… τὰ ἔτη)
Category: Restoration
God’s gracious repayment of what the locust judgment consumed, given in response to repentance (Joël 2:25). Guard against a strictly transactional debt-repayment reading, as though God owes compensation; frame explicitly as gracious covenant restoration in surrounding lesson prose.
Never Again Shame
Approved rendering: ne sera plus jamais couvert de honte
Transliteration: lo yevoshu od
Doctrine: Restored Covenant Honor and Identity
Original: לֹא־יֵבֹשׁוּ עוֹד (LXX: οὐ μὴ καταισχυνθῆτε)
Category: Restoration
Restoration includes restored covenant honor/identity, an honor-shame idiom central to ancient covenant relationships (Joël 2:26-27). Modern individualist French culture may read this as private emotional relief rather than restored corporate covenant standing; route for native speaker review per the baseline’s honor/shame guidance.
Valley Of Jehoshaphat
Approved rendering: la vallée de Josaphat
Transliteration: emeq Yehoshaphat
Doctrine: Judgment on the Nations
Original: עֵמֶק יְהוֹשָׁפָט (LXX: κοιλὰς Ἰωσαφάτ)
Category: Eschatology
Symbolic name meaning ‘the LORD judges,’ naming the site/theme of final judgment on the nations (Joël 4:2, 12). Foreground the name’s meaning (‘l’Éternel juge’) over speculative literal-geography identification with the Kidron Valley, given French Catholic popular piety’s historical association.
Lord Roars
Approved rendering: l’Éternel rugira
Transliteration: YHWH yish’ag
Doctrine: God’s Sovereign Judgment Authority
Rejected alternatives: criera / tonnera (softens the specifically leonine, fearsome connotation)
Original: יְהוָה מִצִּיּוֹן יִשְׁאָג (LXX: κύριος… ἐκκεκράξεται)
Category: Eschatology
Lion-roar imagery for God’s fearsome, authoritative judgment-voice, resuming the Day-of-the-Lord theme (Joël 4:16).
Fountain House Of Lord
Approved rendering: une source sortira de la maison de l’Éternel
Transliteration: ma’ayan mibeit YHWH
Doctrine: Eschatological Renewal of Creation
Original: מַעְיָן מִבֵּית יְהוָה יֵצֵא (LXX: πηγὴ ἐξ οἴκου κυρίου)
Category: Restoration
Eschatological life-giving-water imagery flowing from God’s own dwelling (Joël 4:18), paralleled in Ezekiel 47. Positive resonance in French Christian devotional culture; ensure ‘house of the LORD’ is understood as the literal Jerusalem temple, not vaguely spiritualized.
Lord Dwells Zion
Approved rendering: l’Éternel demeure en Sion
Transliteration: YHWH shoken b’Tsiyon
Doctrine: Restoration and Blessing after Repentance
Original: יְהוָה שֹׁכֵן בְּצִיּוֹן (LXX: κύριος κατασκηνώσει ἐν Σιών)
Category: Restoration
The book’s closing affirmation of God’s permanent presence with his restored people (Joël 4:21). Keep identical to the Zion rendering used at Joël 3:5 for internal consistency.
Low Risk Terms
Prophet
Approved rendering: prophète
Transliteration: prophète
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: voyant
Original: נָבִיא (LXX: προφήτης)
Category: Covenant
God’s spokesperson; avoid ‘voyant’ (fortune-teller connotation). Inherited from Romans package. Underlies Joël 3:1’s promise that sons and daughters will ‘prophétiser’; no new risk.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: prophétie
Transliteration: prophétie
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: נְבוּאָה (LXX: προφητεία)
Category: Covenant
God-inspired declaration, not astrological prediction. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Joël 3:1’s Spirit-enabled prophesying; distinct from astrology/fortune-telling (‘voyance’), per the baseline caution.
Jerusalem
Approved rendering: Jérusalem
Transliteration: Yerushalayim
Doctrine: God’s Presence in Zion
Original: יְרוּשָׁלִַם (LXX: Ἰερουσαλήμ)
Category: Covenant
The covenant capital, paired with Zion at Joël 3:5 and in the final restoration of Joël 4. Stable, established proper-name form across all French Bible traditions; low risk beyond the general Zion caution.
Lament Mourn
Approved rendering: se lamenter / pleurer
Transliteration: elal / sephod
Doctrine: Lament as an Appropriate Response to Judgment
Original: אֵלֵל / סְפוֹד (LXX: θρηνέω / κόπτομαι)
Category: Repentance
Public, communal ritual lament in response to the locust judgment (Joël 1:5, 8, 13), modeling the posture that precedes repentance. Low risk.