Joel 1–3

1The word of the Lord that came to ^aJoel the son of Pethuel.

The Land Laid Waste

²Hear this, you elders,

And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land!

^bHas anything like this happened in your days,

Or even in the days of your fathers?

^3cTell your children about it,

Let your children tell their children,

And their children another generation.

^4dWhat the chewing ¹locust left, the ^eswarming locust has eaten;

What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten;

And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.

⁵Awake, you ^fdrunkards, and weep;

And wail, all you drinkers of wine,

Because of the new wine,

^gFor it has been cut off from your mouth.

⁶For ^ha nation has come up against My land,

Strong, and without number;

ⁱHis teeth are the teeth of a lion,

And he has the fangs of a ²fierce lion.

⁷He has ^jlaid waste My vine,

And ³ruined My fig tree;

He has stripped it bare and thrown it away;

Its branches are made white.

^8kLament like a virgin girded with sackcloth

For ^lthe husband of her youth.

^9mThe grain offering and the drink offering

Have been cut off from the house of the Lord;

The priests ⁿmourn, who minister to the Lord.

¹⁰The field is wasted,

^oThe land mourns;

For the grain is ruined,

^pThe new wine is dried up,

The oil fails.

^11qBe ashamed, you farmers,

Wail, you vinedressers,

For the wheat and the barley;

Because the harvest of the field has perished.

^12rThe vine has dried up,

And the fig tree has withered;

The pomegranate tree,

The palm tree also,

And the apple tree—

All the trees of the field are withered;

Surely ^sjoy has withered away from the sons of men.

Mourning for the Land

^13tGird yourselves and lament, you priests;

Wail, you who minister before the altar;

Come, lie all night in sackcloth,

You who minister to my God;

For the grain offering and the drink offering

Are withheld from the house of your God.

^14uConsecrate a fast,

Call ^va sacred assembly;

Gather the elders

And ^wall the inhabitants of the land

Into the house of the Lord your God,

And cry out to the Lord.

^15xAlas for the day!

For ^ythe day of the Lord is at hand;

It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.

¹⁶Is not the food ^zcut off before our eyes,

^aJoy and gladness from the house of our God?

¹⁷The seed shrivels under the clods,

Storehouses are in shambles;

Barns are broken down,

For the grain has withered.

¹⁸How ^bthe animals groan!

The herds of cattle are restless,

Because they have no pasture;

Even the flocks of sheep ⁴suffer punishment.

¹⁹O Lord, ^cto You I cry out;

For ^dfire has devoured the ⁵open pastures,

And a flame has burned all the trees of the field.

²⁰The beasts of the field also ^ecry out to You,

For ^fthe water brooks are dried up,

And fire has devoured the ⁶open pastures.

The Day of the Lord

2Blow ^athe ¹trumpet in Zion,

And ^bsound an alarm in My holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble;

For ^cthe day of the Lord is coming,

For it is at hand:

^2dA day of darkness and gloominess,

A day of clouds and thick darkness,

Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains.

^eA people come, great and strong,

^fThe like of whom has never been;

Nor will there ever be any such after them,

Even for many successive generations.

³A fire devours before them,

And behind them a flame burns;

The land is like ^gthe Garden of Eden before them,

^hAnd behind them a desolate wilderness;

Surely nothing shall escape them.

⁴ⁱTheir appearance is like the appearance of horses;

And like ²swift steeds, so they run.

^5jWith a noise like chariots

Over mountaintops they leap,

Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble,

Like a strong people set in battle array.

⁶Before them the people writhe in pain;

^kAll faces ³are drained of color.

⁷They run like mighty men,

They climb the wall like men of war;

Every one marches in formation,

And they do not break ^lranks.

⁸They do not push one another;

Every one marches in his own ⁴column.

Though they lunge between the weapons,

They are not ⁵cut down.

⁹They run to and fro in the city,

They run on the wall;

They climb into the houses,

They ^menter at the windows ⁿlike a thief.

^10oThe earth quakes before them,

The heavens tremble;

^pThe sun and moon grow dark,

And the stars diminish their brightness.

^11qThe Lord gives voice before His army,

For His camp is very great;

^rFor strong is the One who executes His word.

For the ^sday of the Lord is great and very terrible;

^tWho can endure it?

A Call to Repentance

¹²“Now, therefore,” says the Lord,

^u“Turn to Me with all your heart,

With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”

¹³So ^vrend your heart, and not ^wyour garments;

Return to the Lord your God,

For He is ^xgracious and merciful,

Slow to anger, and of great kindness;

And He relents from doing harm.

^14yWho knows if He will turn and relent,

And leave ^za blessing behind Him—

^aA grain offering and a drink offering

For the Lord your God?

^15bBlow the ⁶trumpet in Zion,

^cConsecrate a fast,

Call a sacred assembly;

¹⁶Gather the people,

^dSanctify the congregation,

Assemble the elders,

Gather the children and nursing babes;

^eLet the bridegroom go out from his chamber,

And the bride from her dressing room.

¹⁷Let the priests, who minister to the Lord,

Weep ^fbetween the porch and the altar;

Let them say, ^g“Spare Your people, O Lord,

And do not give Your heritage to reproach,

That the nations should ⁷rule over them.

^hWhy should they say among the peoples,

‘Where is their God?’ ”

The Land Refreshed

¹⁸Then the Lord will ⁱbe zealous for His land,

And pity His people.

¹⁹The Lord will answer and say to His people,

“Behold, I will send you ^jgrain and new wine and oil,

And you will be satisfied by them;

I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.

²⁰“But ^kI will remove far from you ^lthe northern army,

And will drive him away into a barren and desolate land,

With his face toward the eastern sea

And his back ^mtoward the western sea;

His stench will come up,

And his foul odor will rise,

Because he has done ⁸monstrous things.”

²¹Fear not, O land;

Be glad and rejoice,

For the Lord has done ⁹marvelous things!

²²Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field;

For ⁿthe open pastures are springing up,

And the tree bears its fruit;

The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.

²³Be glad then, you children of Zion,

And ^orejoice in the Lord your God;

For He has given you the ¹former rain faithfully,

And He ^pwill cause the rain to come down for you—

The former rain,

And the latter rain in the first month.

²⁴The threshing floors shall be full of wheat,

And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.

²⁵“So I will restore to you the years ^qthat the swarming ²locust has eaten,

The crawling locust,

The consuming locust,

And the chewing locust,

My great army which I sent among you.

²⁶You shall ^reat in plenty and be satisfied,

And praise the name of the Lord your God,

Who has dealt wondrously with you;

And My people shall never be put to ^sshame.

²⁷Then you shall know that I am ^tin the midst of Israel:

^uI am the Lord your God

And there is no other.

My people shall never be put to shame.

God’s Spirit Poured Out

²⁸“And ^vit shall come to pass afterward

That ^wI will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;

^xYour sons and your ^ydaughters shall prophesy,

Your old men shall dream dreams,

Your young men shall see visions.

²⁹And also on My ^zmenservants and on My maidservants

I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

³⁰“And ^aI will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:

Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.

^31bThe sun shall be turned into darkness,

And the moon into blood,

^cBefore the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

³²And it shall come to pass

That ^dwhoever calls on the name of the Lord

Shall be ³saved.

For ^ein Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be ⁴deliverance,

As the Lord has said,

Among ^fthe remnant whom the Lord calls.

God Judges the Nations

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

When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,

^2bI will also gather all nations,

And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;

And I ^cwill enter into judgment with them there

On account of My people, My heritage Israel,

Whom they have scattered among the nations;

They have also divided up My land.

³They have ^dcast lots for My people,

Have given a boy as payment for a harlot,

And sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.

⁴“Indeed, what have you to do with Me,

^eO Tyre and Sidon, and all the coasts of Philistia?

Will you ¹retaliate against Me?

But if you ²retaliate against Me,

Swiftly and speedily I will return your ³retaliation upon your own head;

⁵Because you have taken My silver and My gold,

And have carried into your temples My ⁴prized possessions.

⁶Also the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem

You have sold to the Greeks,

That you may remove them far from their borders.

⁷“Behold, ^fI will raise them

Out of the place to which you have sold them,

And will return your ⁵retaliation upon 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 ^gSabeans, ⁶

To a people ^hfar off;

For the Lord has spoken.”

⁹ⁱProclaim this among the nations:

“Prepare for war!

Wake up the mighty men,

Let all the men of war draw near,

Let them come up.

^10jBeat your plowshares into swords

And your ⁷pruning hooks into spears;

^kLet the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ”

¹¹Assemble and come, all you nations,

And gather together all around.

Cause ^lYour mighty ones to go down there, O Lord.

¹²“Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;

For there I will sit to ^mjudge all the surrounding nations.

¹³ⁿPut in the sickle, for ^othe harvest is ripe.

Come, go down;

For the ^pwinepress is full,

The vats overflow—

For their wickedness is great.”

¹⁴Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!

For ^qthe day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

¹⁵The sun and moon will grow dark,

And the stars will diminish their brightness.

¹⁶The Lord also will roar from Zion,

And utter His voice from Jerusalem;

The heavens and earth will shake;

^rBut the Lord will be a shelter for His people,

And the strength of the children of Israel.

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

Dwelling in Zion My ^sholy mountain.

Then Jerusalem shall be holy,

And no aliens shall ever pass through her again.”

God Blesses His People

¹⁸And it will…