Joel 2–3

Chapter 2

The Terrible Visitation

^1aBlow a trumpet in Zion,

And sound an alarm on My holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,

For the ^bday of the Lord is coming;

Surely it is near,

²A day of ^adarkness and gloom,

A day of clouds and thick darkness.

As the dawn is spread over the mountains,

So there is a ^bgreat and mighty people;

There has ^cnever been anything like it,

Nor will there be again after it

To the years of many generations.

³A ^afire consumes before them

And behind them a flame burns.

The land is ^blike the garden of Eden before them

But a ^cdesolate wilderness behind them,

And nothing at all escapes them.

⁴Their ^aappearance is like the appearance of horses;

And like war horses, so they run.

⁵¹With a ^anoise as of chariots

They leap on the tops of the mountains,

Like the ²crackling of a ^bflame of fire consuming the stubble,

Like a mighty people arranged for battle.

⁶Before them the people are in ^aanguish;

All ^bfaces ¹turn pale.

⁷They run like mighty men,

They climb the wall like soldiers;

And they each ^amarch ¹in line,

Nor do they deviate from their paths.

⁸They do not crowd each other,

They march everyone in his path;

When they ¹burst through the ²defenses,

They do not break ranks.

⁹They rush on the city,

They run on the wall;

They climb into the ^ahouses,

They ^benter through the windows like a thief.

¹⁰Before them the earth ^aquakes,

The heavens tremble,

The ^bsun and the moon grow dark

And the stars lose their brightness.

¹¹The Lord ^autters His voice before ^bHis army;

Surely His camp is very great,

For ^cstrong is he who carries out His word.

The ^dday of the Lord is indeed great and very awesome,

And ^ewho can endure it?

¹²“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,

“^aReturn to Me with all your heart,

And with ^bfasting, weeping and mourning;

¹³And ^arend your heart and not ^byour garments.”

Now return to the Lord your God,

For He is ^cgracious and compassionate,

Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness

And ^drelenting of evil.

¹⁴Who knows ^awhether He will not turn and relent

And leave a ^bblessing behind Him,

Even ^ca grain offering and a drink offering

For the Lord your God?

^15aBlow a trumpet in Zion,

^bConsecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly,

¹⁶Gather the people, ^asanctify the congregation,

Assemble the elders,

Gather the children and the nursing infants.

Let the ^bbridegroom come out of his room

And the bride out of her bridal chamber.

¹⁷Let the priests, the Lord’s ministers,

Weep ^abetween the porch and the altar,

And let them say, “^bSpare Your people, O Lord,

And do not make Your inheritance a ^creproach,

A byword among the nations.

Why should they among the peoples say,

‘^dWhere is their God?’ ”

Deliverance Promised

¹⁸Then the Lord ¹will be ^azealous for His land

And ²will have ^bpity on His people.

¹⁹The Lord ¹will answer and say to His people,

“Behold, I am going to ^asend you grain, new wine and oil,

And you will be satisfied in full with ²them;

And I will ^bnever again make you a reproach among the nations.

²⁰“But I will remove the ^anorthern army far from you,

And I will drive it into a parched and desolate land,

And its vanguard into the ^beastern sea,

And its rear guard into the ^cwestern sea.

And its ^dstench will arise and its foul smell will come up,

For it has done great things.”

^21aDo not fear, O land, rejoice and be glad,

For the Lord has done ^bgreat things.

²²Do not fear, beasts of the field,

For the ^apastures of the wilderness have turned green,

For the tree has borne its fruit,

The fig tree and the vine have yielded ¹in full.

²³So rejoice, O ^asons of Zion,

And ^bbe glad in the Lord your God;

For He has ^cgiven you ¹the early rain for your vindication.

And He has poured down for you the rain,

The ²early and ^3dlatter rain ⁴as before.

²⁴The threshing floors will be full of grain,

And the vats will ^aoverflow with the new wine and oil.

²⁵“Then I will make up to you for the years

That the swarming ^alocust has eaten,

The creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust,

My great army which I sent among you.

²⁶“You will have plenty to ^aeat and be satisfied

And ^bpraise the name of the Lord your God,

Who has ^cdealt wondrously with you;

Then My people will ^dnever be put to shame.

²⁷“Thus you will ^aknow that I am in the midst of Israel,

And that I am the Lord your God,

And there is ^bno other;

And My people will never be ^cput to shame.

The Promise of the Spirit

²⁸“^1aIt will come about after this

That I will ^bpour out My Spirit on all ^2cmankind;

And your sons and daughters will prophesy,

Your old men will dream dreams,

Your young men will see visions.

²⁹“Even on the ^amale and female servants

I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

The Day of the Lord

³⁰“I will ^adisplay wonders in the sky and on the earth,

Blood, fire and columns of smoke.

³¹“The ^asun will be turned into darkness

And the moon into blood

Before the ^bgreat and awesome day of the Lord comes.

³²“And it will come about that ^awhoever calls on the name of the Lord

Will be delivered;

For ^bon Mount Zion and in Jerusalem

There will be those who ^cescape,

As the Lord has said,

Even among the ^dsurvivors whom the Lord calls.

Chapter 3

The Nations Will Be Judged

¹“¹For behold, ^ain those days and at that time,

When I ^brestore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

²I will ^agather all the nations

And bring them down to the ^bvalley of ¹Jehoshaphat.

Then I will ^center into judgment with them there

On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel,

Whom they have ^dscattered among the nations;

And they have ^edivided up My land.

³“They have also ^acast lots for My people,

^1bTraded a boy for a harlot

And sold a girl for wine that they may drink.

⁴“Moreover, what are you to Me, O ^aTyre, Sidon and all the regions of ^bPhilistia? Are you rendering Me a recompense? But if you do recompense Me, swiftly and speedily I will ^creturn your recompense on your head.

⁵“Since you have ^ataken My silver and My gold, brought My precious ¹treasures to your temples,

⁶and sold the ^asons of Judah and Jerusalem to the ¹Greeks in order to remove them far from their territory,

⁷behold, I am going to ^aarouse them from the place where you have sold them, and return your recompense on your head.

⁸“Also I will ^asell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the ^bSabeans, to a distant nation,” for the Lord has spoken.

^9aProclaim this among the nations:

^bPrepare a war; ^crouse the mighty men!

Let all the soldiers draw near, let them come up!

^10aBeat your plowshares into swords

And your pruning hooks into spears;

^bLet the weak say, “I am a mighty man.”

^111aHasten and come, all you surrounding nations,

And gather yourselves there.

Bring down, O Lord, Your ^bmighty ones.

¹²Let the nations be aroused

And come up to the ^avalley of ¹Jehoshaphat,

For there I will sit to ^bjudge

All the surrounding nations.

^13aPut in the sickle, for the ^bharvest is ripe.

Come, ^ctread, for the ^dwine press is full;

The vats overflow, for their ^ewickedness is great.

^14aMultitudes, multitudes in the ^bvalley of ¹decision!

For the ^cday of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

¹⁵The ^asun and moon grow dark

And the stars lose their brightness.

¹⁶The Lord ^aroars from Zion

And ^butters His voice from Jerusalem,

And the ^cheavens and the earth tremble.

But the Lord is a ^drefuge for His people

And a ^estronghold to the sons of Israel.

¹⁷Then you will ^aknow that I am the Lord your God,

Dwelling in Zion, My ^bholy mountain.

So Jerusalem will be ^choly,

And ^dstrangers will pass through it no more.

Judah Will Be Blessed

¹⁸And in that day

The ^amountains will drip with ¹sweet wine,

And the hills will ^bflow with milk,

And all the ^cbrooks of Judah will flow with water;

And a ^dspring will go out from the house of the Lord

To water the valley of ²Shittim.

¹⁹Egypt will become a waste,

And Edom will become a desolate wilderness,

Because of the ^aviolence ¹done to the sons of Judah,

In whose land they have shed innocent blood.

²⁰But Judah will be ^ainhabited forever

And Jerusalem for all generations.

²¹And I will ^aavenge their blood which I have not avenged,

For the Lord dwells in Zion.