Joel 2–3

The Day of the Lord

2^jBlow a trumpet in ^kZion;

sound an alarm on ^kmy holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,

for ^lthe day of the Lord is coming; it is near,

^2ma day of darkness and gloom,

^ma day of clouds and thick darkness!

Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains

ⁿa great and powerful people;

^otheir like has never been before,

nor will be again after them

through the years of all generations.

^3pFire devours before them,

and behind them a flame burns.

The land is like ^qthe garden of Eden before them,

but ^rbehind them a desolate wilderness,

and nothing escapes them.

^4sTheir appearance is like the appearance of horses,

and like war horses they run.

^5tAs with the rumbling of chariots,

they leap on the tops of the mountains,

like the crackling of ^ua flame of fire

devouring the stubble,

ⁿlike a powerful army

drawn up for battle.

⁶Before them peoples are in anguish;

^vall faces grow pale.

⁷Like warriors they charge;

like soldiers they scale the wall.

They march each on his way;

they do not swerve from their paths.

⁸They do not jostle one another;

^weach marches in his path;

they burst through the weapons

and are not halted.

^9xThey leap upon the city,

they run upon the walls,

^ythey climb up into the houses,

^ythey enter through the windows ^zlike a thief.

^10aThe earth quakes before them;

the heavens tremble.

^bThe sun and the moon are darkened,

and the stars withdraw their shining.

^11cThe Lord utters his voice

before ^dhis army,

for his camp is exceedingly great;

^ehe who executes his word is powerful.

^fFor the day of the Lord is ^ggreat and very awesome;

^hwho can endure it?

Return to the Lord

¹²“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,

ⁱ“return to me with all your heart,

^jwith fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

¹³and ^krend your hearts and not ^lyour garments.”

Return to the Lord your God,

^mfor he is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;

ⁿand he relents over disaster.

^14oWho knows whether he will not turn and relent,

and ^pleave a blessing behind him,

^qa grain offering and a drink offering

for the Lord your God?

^15rBlow the trumpet in Zion;

^sconsecrate a fast;

call a solemn assembly;

¹⁶gather the people.

^tConsecrate the congregation;

assemble the elders;

^ugather the children,

even nursing infants.

^vLet the bridegroom leave his room,

and the bride her chamber.

^17wBetween the ^xvestibule and the ^yaltar

^zlet the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep

and say, “Spare your people, O Lord,

and make not your heritage a reproach,

a byword among the nations.¹

^aWhy should they say among the peoples,

‘Where is their God?’ ”

The Lord Had Pity

^18bThen the Lord became jealous for his land

^cand had pity on his people.

¹⁹The Lord answered and said to his people,

“Behold, ^dI am sending to you

grain, wine, and oil,

^dand you will be satisfied;

and I will no more make you

a reproach among the nations.

²⁰“I will remove the northerner far from you,

and drive him into a parched and desolate land,

his vanguard² into ^ethe eastern sea,

and his rear guard³ into ^fthe western sea;

^gthe stench and foul smell of him will rise,

for he has done great things.

²¹“Fear not, O land;

be glad and rejoice,

for ^hthe Lord has done great things!

²²Fear not, ⁱyou beasts of the field,

for ^jthe pastures of the wilderness are green;

^kthe tree bears its fruit;

the fig tree and ^kvine give their full yield.

^23l“Be glad, O children of Zion,

and ^lrejoice in the Lord your God,

for he has given ^mthe early rain for your vindication;

he has poured down for you abundant rain,

^mthe early and ⁿthe latter rain, as before.

²⁴“The threshing floors shall be full of grain;

the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

²⁵I will restore⁴ to you the years

that ^othe swarming locust has eaten,

^othe hopper, ^othe destroyer, and ^othe cutter,

^pmy great army, which I sent among you.

^26q“You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,

and praise the name of the Lord your God,

who has dealt wondrously with you.

And my people ^rshall never again be put to shame.

^27sYou shall know that I am ^tin the midst of Israel,

and that ^uI am the Lord your God ^vand there is none else.

And my people ^rshall never again be put to shame.

The Lord Will Pour Out His Spirit

^{285 w}“And it shall come to pass afterward,

that ^xI will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;

^yyour sons and ^zyour daughters shall prophesy,

your old men shall dream dreams,

and your young men shall see visions.

^29aEven on the male and female servants

in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

³⁰“And I will show ^bwonders in the heavens and ^bon the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. ^31cThe sun shall be turned to darkness, ^dand the moon to blood, ^ebefore the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. ³²And it shall come to pass that ^feveryone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. ^gFor in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among ^hthe survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

The Lord Judges the Nations

3¹ “For behold, ⁱin those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, ^2jI will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And ^kI will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, ³and ^lhave cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.

⁴“What are you to me, ^mO Tyre and Sidon, and all ⁿthe regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, ^oI will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily. ⁵For ^pyou have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.^{2 6}You have sold ^qthe people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. ⁷Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and ^oI will return your payment on your own head. ⁸I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the ^rSabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.”

⁹Proclaim this among the nations:

^sConsecrate for war;³

stir up the mighty men.

Let all the men of war draw near;

let them come up.

^10tBeat your plowshares into swords,

and ^tyour pruning hooks into spears;

let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”

^11uHasten and come,

all you surrounding nations,

and gather yourselves there.

^vBring down your warriors, O Lord.

¹²Let the nations stir themselves up

and come up to ^wthe Valley of Jehoshaphat;

^xfor there I will sit to judge

all the surrounding nations.

^13yPut in the sickle,

^zfor the harvest is ripe.

^aGo in, tread,

^afor the winepress is full.

The vats overflow,

for their evil is great.

¹⁴Multitudes, multitudes,

in the valley of decision!

For ^bthe day of the Lord is near

in the valley of decision.

^15cThe sun and the moon are darkened,

and the stars withdraw their shining.

^16dThe Lord roars from Zion,

and ^dutters his voice from Jerusalem,

^eand the heavens and the earth quake.

But the Lord is ^fa refuge to his people,

a stronghold to the people of Israel.

The Glorious Future of Judah

^17g“So you shall know that I am the Lord your God,

^hwho dwells in Zion, ⁱmy holy mountain.

And Jerusalem shall be holy,

and ^jstrangers shall never again pass through it.

¹⁸“And in that day

^kthe mountains shall drip sweet wine,

and the hills shall flow with milk,

and ^lall the streambeds of Judah

shall flow with water;

^mand a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord

and water the Valley of ⁿShittim.

^19o“Egypt shall become a desolation

and ^pEdom a desolate wilderness,

^qfor the violence done to the people of Judah,

because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

^20rBut Judah shall be inhabited forever,

and Jerusalem to all generations.

^21sI will avenge their blood,

blood I have not avenged,⁴

^hfor the Lord dwells in Zion.”