Joel 2–3

The Coming Day of Judgment

2Blow the trumpet in Jerusalem;

shout a warning on my holy mountain.

Let all the people who live in the land shake with fear,

because the Lord’s day of judging is coming;

it is near.

²It will be a dark, gloomy day,

cloudy and black.

Like the light at sunrise,

a great and powerful army will spread over the mountains.

There has never been anything like it before,

and there will never be anything like it again.

³In front of them a fire destroys;

in back of them a flame burns.

The land in front of them is like the garden of Eden;

the land behind them is like an empty desert.

Nothing will escape from them.

⁴They look like horses,

and they run like war horses.

⁵It is like the noise of chariots

rumbling over the tops of the mountains,

like the noise of a roaring fire

burning dry stalks.

They are like a powerful army lined up for battle.

⁶When they see them, nations shake with fear,

and everyone’s face becomes pale.

⁷They charge like soldiers;

they climb over the wall like warriors.

They all march straight ahead

and do not move off their path.

⁸They do not run into each other,

because each walks in line.

They break through all efforts to stop them

and keep coming.

⁹They run into the city.

They run at the wall

and climb into the houses,

entering through windows like thieves.

¹⁰Before them, earth and sky shake.

The sun and the moon become dark,

and the stars stop shining.

¹¹The Lord shouts out orders

to his army.

His army is very large!

Those who obey him are very strong!

The Lord’s day of judging

is an overwhelming and terrible day.

No one can stand up against it!

Change Your Hearts

¹²The Lord says, “Even now, come back to me with all your heart.

Fast, cry, and be sad.”

¹³Tearing your clothes is not enough to show you are sad;

let your heart be broken.

Come back to the Lord your God,

because he is kind and shows mercy.

He doesn’t become angry quickly,

and he has great love.

He can change his mind about doing harm.

¹⁴Who knows? Maybe he will turn back to you

and leave behind a blessing for you.

Grain and drink offerings belong to the Lord your God.

¹⁵Blow the trumpet in Jerusalem;

call for a day when everyone fasts.

Tell everyone to stop work.

¹⁶Bring the people together

and make the meeting holy for the Lord.

Bring together the elders,

as well as the children,

and even babies that still feed at their mothers’ breasts.

The bridegroom should come from his room,

the bride from her bedroom.

¹⁷The priests, the Lord’s servants, should cry

between the altar and the entrance to the Temple.

They should say, “Lord, have mercy on your people.

Don’t let them be put to shame;

don’t let other nations make fun of them.

Don’t let people in other nations ask,

‘Where is their God?’ ”

The Lord Restores the Land

¹⁸Then the Lord became concerned about his land

and felt sorry for his people.

¹⁹He said to them:

“I will send you grain, new wine, and olive oil,

so that you will have plenty.

No more will I shame you

among the nations.

²⁰I will force the army from the north to leave your land

and go into a dry, empty land.

Their soldiers in front will be forced into the Dead Sea,

and those in the rear into the Mediterranean Sea.

Their bodies will rot and stink.

The Lord has surely done a wonderful thing!”

²¹Land, don’t be afraid;

be happy and full of joy,

because the Lord has done a wonderful thing.

²²Wild animals, don’t be afraid,

because the open pastures have grown grass.

The trees have given fruit;

the fig trees and the grapevines have grown much fruit.

²³So be happy, people of Jerusalem;

be joyful in the Lord your God.

Because he does what is right,

he has brought you rain;

he has sent the fall rain

and the spring rain for you, as before.

²⁴And the threshing floors will be full of grain;

the barrels will overflow with new wine and olive oil.

The Lord Speaks

²⁵“Though I sent my great army against you—

those swarming locusts and hopping locusts,

the destroying locusts and the cutting locusts ⁿ that ate your crops—

I will pay you back

for those years of trouble.

²⁶Then you will have plenty to eat

and be full.

You will praise the name of the Lord your God,

who has done miracles for you.

My people will never again be shamed.

²⁷Then you will know that I am among the people of Israel,

that I am the Lord your God,

and there is no other God.

My people will never be shamed again.

²⁸“After this,

I will pour out my Spirit on all kinds of people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

your old men will dream dreams,

and your young men will see visions.

²⁹At that time I will pour out my Spirit

also on male slaves and female slaves.

³⁰I will show miracles

in the sky and on the earth:

blood, fire, and thick smoke.

³¹The sun will become dark,

the moon red as blood,

before the overwhelming and terrible day of the Lord comes.

³²Then anyone who calls on the Lord

will be saved,

because on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem

there will be people who will be saved,

just as the Lord has said.

Those left alive after the day of punishment

are the people whom the Lord called.

Punishment for Judah’s Enemies

3“In those days and at that time,

when I will make things better for Judah and Jerusalem,

²I will gather all the nations together

and bring them down into the Valley Where the Lord Judges.

There I will judge them,

because those nations scattered my own people Israel

and forced them to live in other nations.

They divided up my land

³and threw lots for my people.

They traded boys for prostitutes,

and they sold girls to buy wine to drink.

⁴“Tyre and Sidon and all of you regions of Philistia! What did you have against me? Were you punishing me for something I did, or were you doing something to hurt me? I will very quickly do to you what you have done to me. ⁵You took my silver and gold, and you put my precious treasures in your temples. ⁶You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks so that you could send them far from their land.

⁷“You sent my people to that faraway place, but I will get them and bring them back, and I will do to you what you have done to them. ⁸I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabean people far away.” The Lord said this.

God Judges the Nations

⁹Announce this among the nations:

Prepare for war!

Wake up the soldiers!

Let all the men of war come near and attack.

¹⁰Make swords from your plows,

and make spears from your hooks for trimming trees.

Let even the weak person say,

“I am a soldier.”

¹¹All of you nations, hurry,

and come together in that place.

Lord, send your soldiers

to gather the nations.

¹²“Wake up, nations,

and come to attack in the Valley Where the Lord Judges.

There I will sit to judge

all the nations on every side.

¹³Swing the cutting tool,

because the harvest is ripe.

Come, walk on them as you would walk on grapes to get their juice,

because the winepress is full

and the barrels are spilling over,

because these people are so evil!”

¹⁴There are huge numbers of people

in the Valley of Decision, ⁿ

because the Lord’s day of judging is near

in the Valley of Decision.

¹⁵The sun and the moon will become dark,

and the stars will stop shining.

¹⁶The Lord will roar like a lion from Jerusalem;

his loud voice will thunder from that city,

and the sky and the earth will shake.

But the Lord will be a safe place for his people,

a strong place of safety for the people of Israel.

¹⁷“Then you will know that I, the Lord your God,

live on my holy Mount Zion.

Jerusalem will be a holy place,

and strangers will never even go through it again.

A New Life Promised for Judah

¹⁸“On that day wine will drip from the mountains,

milk will flow from the hills,

and water will run through all the ravines of Judah.

A fountain will flow from the Temple of the Lord

and give water to the valley of acacia trees.

¹⁹But Egypt will become empty,

and Edom an empty desert,

because they were cruel to the people of Judah.

They killed innocent people in that land.

²⁰But there will always be people living in Judah,

and people will live in Jerusalem from now on.

²¹Egypt and Edom killed my people,

so I will definitely punish them.”

The Lord lives in Jerusalem!