Joel 2–3

Chapter 2

Locusts Invade like an Army

¹Sound the trumpet in Jerusalem!

Raise the alarm on my holy mountain!

Let everyone tremble in fear

because the day of the Lord is upon us.

²It is a day of darkness and gloom,

a day of thick clouds and deep blackness.

Suddenly, like dawn spreading across the mountains,

a great and mighty army appears.

Nothing like it has been seen before

or will ever be seen again.

³Fire burns in front of them,

and flames follow after them.

Ahead of them the land lies

as beautiful as the Garden of Eden.

Behind them is nothing but desolation;

not one thing escapes.

⁴They look like horses;

they charge forward like warhorses.

⁵Look at them as they leap along the mountaintops.

Listen to the noise they make—like the rumbling of chariots,

like the roar of fire sweeping across a field of stubble,

or like a mighty army moving into battle.

⁶Fear grips all the people;

every face grows pale with terror.

⁷The attackers march like warriors

and scale city walls like soldiers.

Straight forward they march,

never breaking rank.

⁸They never jostle each other;

each moves in exactly the right position.

They break through defenses

without missing a step.

⁹They swarm over the city

and run along its walls.

They enter all the houses,

climbing like thieves through the windows.

¹⁰The earth quakes as they advance,

and the heavens tremble.

The sun and moon grow dark,

and the stars no longer shine.

¹¹The Lord is at the head of the column.

He leads them with a shout.

This is his mighty army,

and they follow his orders.

The day of the Lord is an awesome, terrible thing.

Who can possibly survive?

A Call to Repentance

¹²That is why the Lord says,

“Turn to me now, while there is time.

Give me your hearts.

Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

¹³Don’t tear your clothing in your grief,

but tear your hearts instead.”

Return to the Lord your God,

for he is merciful and compassionate,

slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.

He is eager to relent and not punish.

¹⁴Who knows? Perhaps he will give you a reprieve,

sending you a blessing instead of this curse.

Perhaps you will be able to offer grain and wine

to the Lord your God as before.

¹⁵Blow the ram’s horn in Jerusalem!

Announce a time of fasting;

call the people together

for a solemn meeting.

¹⁶Gather all the people—

the elders, the children, and even the babies.

Call the bridegroom from his quarters

and the bride from her private room.

¹⁷Let the priests, who minister in the Lord’s presence,

stand and weep between the entry room to the Temple and the altar.

Let them pray, “Spare your people, Lord!

Don’t let your special possession become an object of mockery.

Don’t let them become a joke for unbelieving foreigners who say,

‘Has the God of Israel left them?’ ”

The Lord’s Promise of Restoration

¹⁸Then the Lord will pity his people

and jealously guard the honor of his land.

¹⁹The Lord will reply,

“Look! I am sending you grain and new wine and olive oil,

enough to satisfy your needs.

You will no longer be an object of mockery

among the surrounding nations.

²⁰I will drive away these armies from the north.

I will send them into the parched wastelands.

Those in the front will be driven into the Dead Sea,

and those at the rear into the Mediterranean.

The stench of their rotting bodies will rise over the land.”

Surely the Lord has done great things!

²¹Don’t be afraid, O land.

Be glad now and rejoice,

for the Lord has done great things.

²²Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field,

for the wilderness pastures will soon be green.

The trees will again be filled with fruit;

fig trees and grapevines will be loaded down once more.

²³Rejoice, you people of Jerusalem!

Rejoice in the Lord your God!

For the rain he sends demonstrates his faithfulness.

Once more the autumn rains will come,

as well as the rains of spring.

²⁴The threshing floors will again be piled high with grain,

and the presses will overflow with new wine and olive oil.

²⁵The Lord says, “I will give you back what you lost

to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts,

the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts.

It was I who sent this great destroying army against you.

²⁶Once again you will have all the food you want,

and you will praise the Lord your God,

who does these miracles for you.

Never again will my people be disgraced.

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

that I am the Lord your God, and there is no other.

Never again will my people be disgraced.

The Lord’s Promise of His Spirit

²⁸ “Then, after doing all those things,

I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy.

Your old men will dream dreams,

and your young men will see visions.

²⁹In those days I will pour out my Spirit

even on servants—men and women alike.

³⁰And I will cause wonders in the heavens and on the earth—

blood and fire and columns of smoke.

³¹The sun will become dark,

and the moon will turn blood red

before that great and terrible day of the Lord arrives.

³²But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord

will be saved,

for some on Mount Zion in Jerusalem will escape,

just as the Lord has said.

These will be among the survivors

whom the Lord has called.

Chapter 3

Judgment against Enemy Nations

¹ “At the time of those events,” says the Lord,

“when I restore the prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem,

²I will gather the armies of the world

into the valley of Jehoshaphat.

There I will judge them

for harming my people, my special possession,

for scattering my people among the nations,

and for dividing up my land.

³They threw dice to decide which of my people

would be their slaves.

They traded boys to obtain prostitutes

and sold girls for enough wine to get drunk.

⁴“What do you have against me, Tyre and Sidon and you cities of Philistia? Are you trying to take revenge on me? If you are, then watch out! I will strike swiftly and pay you back for everything you have done. ⁵You have taken my silver and gold and all my precious treasures, and have carried them off to your pagan temples. ⁶You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, so they could take them far from their homeland.

⁷“But I will bring them back from all the places to which you sold them, and I will pay you back for everything you have done. ⁸I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the people of Arabia, a nation far away. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

⁹Say to the nations far and wide:

“Get ready for war!

Call out your best warriors.

Let all your fighting men advance for the attack.

¹⁰Hammer your plowshares into swords

and your pruning hooks into spears.

Train even your weaklings to be warriors.

¹¹Come quickly, all you nations everywhere.

Gather together in the valley.”

And now, O Lord, call out your warriors!

¹²“Let the nations be called to arms.

Let them march to the valley of Jehoshaphat.

There I, the Lord, will sit

to pronounce judgment on them all.

¹³Swing the sickle,

for the harvest is ripe.

Come, tread the grapes,

for the winepress is full.

The storage vats are overflowing

with the wickedness of these people.”

¹⁴Thousands upon thousands are waiting in the valley of decision.

There the day of the Lord will soon arrive.

¹⁵The sun and moon will grow dark,

and the stars will no longer shine.

¹⁶The Lord’s voice will roar from Zion

and thunder from Jerusalem,

and the heavens and the earth will shake.

But the Lord will be a refuge for his people,

a strong fortress for the people of Israel.

Blessings for God’s People

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

live in Zion, my holy mountain.

Jerusalem will be holy forever,

and foreign armies will never conquer her again.

¹⁸In that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine,

and the hills will flow with milk.

Water will fill the streambeds of Judah,

and a fountain will burst forth from the Lord’s Temple,

watering the arid valley of acacias.

¹⁹But Egypt will become a wasteland

and Edom will become a wilderness,

because they attacked the people of Judah

and killed innocent people in their land.

²⁰“But Judah will be filled with people forever,

and Jerusalem will endure through all generations.

²¹I will pardon my people’s crimes,

which I have not yet pardoned;

and I, the Lord, will make my home

in Jerusalem with my people.”