Joel 2:20 - But I will remove far off from you the northern [army], and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.

“Northern” in Hebrew is “tsaphown”, which is a noun meaning “Northern” or “from the North”. It’s usage can be found in Jeremiah 15:12.

However, in Joel 2:20, the word “Northern” is translated from a slightly different word “tsĕphowniy” , which is an adjective meaning “Zephonites”. Instead of describing a place or location, it is describing the army itself as being Zephonites.

Zephon means “treasure”. The Zephonites were descendants of Gad. (Genesis 46:16)

The Word “Barren” means “Dryness, Desert”. Taken into context, I believe Matthew 12:43 mentions this. “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.”

The word “Desolate” is again found in Ezekiel 35:3 “And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O mount Seir, I [am] against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate.”

Verse 15 says” As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, [even] all of it: and they shall know that I [am] the LORD.”

So it is talking about Seir and Idumea here. Idumea being Edom.

Now we can look at the history of Seir.

The word "demon", which is exclusive to the Greek, was translated from the words "seirim" and "shedim", in the Hebrew. "Seirim", is the name of a "tribe" of nephillim, which were native to the area of Mt. Seir, south of the Dead Sea. The name comes from the Hebrew [Strong's ref. 8165 Seiyr, say - eer; seir, a mountain of Idumaea and its aboriginal occupants.]. But the root for this word is the most revealing[Strongs ref. 8163 saiyr, saw - eer; shaggy, a he-goat; by anal. a faun:- devil, goat, hairy, satyr.]. And even more [Strong's ref. 8175 saar, saw - ar; a prim. root, to storm, i.e. fear:- be horribly afraid, be tempestuous, come like a storm.]. It is the root "saiyr", that we get the Greek translation for"daemon" (demon). The scary thing about these root words for the name "Seirim", is they all indicate that these things were REAL TANGIBLE CREATURES. They were "aboriginal occupants", they were "hairy" and "shaggy", they are related to being "fauns" (fairies), "satyrs", and DEVILS, but they were tangible, PHYSICAL manifestations that lived and were "native" to some areas. The word "shedim" in the Hebrew means [Strong's ref. 7700 shed, shade; a demon:- devil.]. This comes from an earlier, and quite interesting [Strong's ref. 7736 shuwd, shood; a prim. root; to swell up, fig. (by impl. of insolence),to devastate:- waste.]. It was the combination of these two Hebrew words, that we get our version, demons. The "shedim" are the most ancient of all nephillim tribes listed in the bible.

The rest of the Nephilim tribes listed in scripture are:
Raphiam - from the root word rafa (spirits) Gen. 14:5
Anikim - The prideful ones. Num. 13:28-33
Emim - The proud deserters. Gen.14:5
Zuzim - The evil ones. Num 14:5
Zamzuzamim - The evil plotters. Deut. 2:20
Zophim - The watchers. Dan 4:17 & Num. 23


Moving right along with Joel 2:20, it says “with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea”

Instead of making this particular study of ONE VERSE more than eight pages in length, I encourage you to look up the meanings of these words for yourself. I will just give the meaning here instead of going into too much detail.

Properly translated, (I believe) this verse says “With his beginning in the East at the Dead Sea, and his end in the west at the Mediterranean Sea.”

Meaning, he comes from the Dead Sea, where Sier is located, and his end comes at the Mediterranean Sea, where Megiddo is located.

The “stink” mentioned here is only mentioned two other times in the bible. In Isaiah 34:3, and Amos 4:10. In both instances, it is talking about this same war of Armageddon.