Joel 2–3

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 come to pass in that day

That the mountains shall drip with new wine,

The hills shall flow with milk,

And all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water;

A ^tfountain shall flow from the house of the Lord

And water the Valley of ⁸Acacias.

¹⁹“Egypt shall be a desolation,

And Edom a desolate wilderness,

Because of violence against the people of Judah,

For they have shed innocent blood in their land.

²⁰But Judah shall abide forever,

And Jerusalem from generation to generation.

²¹For I will ^uacquit them of the guilt of bloodshed, whom I had not acquitted;

For the Lord dwells in Zion.