Joel

Chapter 1

1 The word of the Lord, which came to Joel the son of Bathuel.

2 Hear these things, you elders, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land. Have such things happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

3 Tell of them to your children, and your children to their children, and their children to another generation.

4 What the caterpillar left, the locust devoured; and what the locust left, the grub devoured; and what the grub left, the mildew devoured.

5 Awake, you drunkards, from your wine, and weep; wail, all you who drink wine to drunkenness, for gladness and joy have been taken away from your mouth.

6 For a nation has come up upon my land, strong and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its molars those of a lion's cub.

7 It has made my vine a desolation and my fig trees into splinters; searching, it has utterly searched it out and cast it down; it has made its branches white.

8 Lament to me more than a bride girded with sackcloth for the husband of her virginity.

9 Sacrifice and drink offering have been taken away from the house of the Lord. Mourn, you priests who minister at the altar,

10 for the fields have suffered misery; let the land mourn, for the grain has suffered misery, the wine is dried up, the oil has grown scarce.

11 The farmers are withered; wail, you farms, for the wheat and the barley, for the harvest has perished from the field.

12 The vine is dried up, and the fig trees have grown scarce; pomegranate and palm and apple and all the trees of the field are dried up, for the sons of men have put joy to shame.

13 Gird yourselves and beat your breasts, you priests; wail, you who minister at the altar; go in, sleep in sackcloth, you who minister to God, for sacrifice and drink offering have been withheld from the house of your God.

14 Sanctify a fast, proclaim a solemn service, gather the elders, all the inhabitants of the land, into the house of your God, and cry out earnestly to the Lord:

15 Alas, alas, alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and it will come as misery upon misery.

16 Before your eyes food has been destroyed, gladness and joy from the house of your God.

17 The heifers have leapt at their mangers; the storehouses are laid waste, the wine presses are broken down, for the grain is dried up.

18 What shall we store up for ourselves? The herds of cattle have wept, for they had no pasture, and the flocks of sheep have perished.

19 To you, O Lord, will I cry, for fire has consumed the pleasant places of the wilderness, and flame has kindled all the trees of the field.

20 And the beasts of the plain have looked up to you, for the springs of waters are dried up, and fire has devoured the pleasant places of the wilderness.

Chapter 2

1 Blow the trumpet in Zion, proclaim upon my holy mountain, and let all the inhabitants of the land be confounded, for the day of the Lord is at hand, for it is near

2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and mist. Like the dawn a people great and mighty shall be spread upon the mountains; there has been none like it from of old, and after it none shall be added for years, unto generations of generations.

3 Before it is a devouring fire, and behind it a kindled flame; the land before its face is like a garden of delight, and behind it a plain of desolation, and there shall be none escaping from it.

4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like horsemen so shall they pursue.

5 Like the sound of chariots they shall leap upon the tops of the mountains, and like the sound of a flame of fire devouring stubble, and like a people great and mighty arrayed for war.

6 Before its face peoples shall be crushed; every face shall be as the blackening of a pot.

7 They shall run like warriors, and like men of war they shall climb upon the walls, and each shall go in his own way, and they shall by no means turn aside from their paths,

8 and each shall not draw back from his brother; weighed down with their weapons they shall go, and among their missiles they shall fall, and they shall by no means be brought to an end.

9 They shall seize the city and run upon the walls, and climb upon the houses, and enter through the windows like thieves.

10 Before their face the earth shall be confounded and the heaven shall be shaken; the sun and the moon shall grow dark, and the stars shall withdraw their brightness.

11 And the Lord shall utter his voice before the face of his host, for his camp is exceedingly great, for the works of his words are mighty. For great is the day of the Lord, great and exceedingly manifest and who shall be sufficient for it?

12 And now says the Lord your God: Return to me with all your heart, and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning;

13 and rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, long-suffering and abounding in mercy, and repenting over the evils.

14 Who knows whether he will turn and repent, and leave behind him a blessing, a sacrifice and a drink-offering to the Lord our God?

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, proclaim a solemn service;

16 gather the people, sanctify the assembly, choose elders, gather the infants sucking the breasts; let the bridegroom come out of his chamber and the bride out of her bridal room.

17 Between the base of the altar the priests who minister to the Lord shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, your people, and do not give your inheritance over to reproach, that the nations should rule over them, lest they say among the nations, Where is their God?

18 And the Lord was zealous for his land and spared his people.

19 And the Lord answered and said to his people: Behold, I am sending you the grain and the wine and the oil, and you shall be filled with them, and I will no longer give you over to reproach among the nations;

20 and him from the north I will drive away from you, and I will thrust him out into a waterless land, and I will destroy his face into the first sea and his rear into the last sea, and his stench shall rise up, and his foul odor shall rise up, because he magnified his works.

21 Take courage, O land; rejoice and be glad, for the Lord has done great things.

22 Take courage, beasts of the field, for the plains of the wilderness have sprouted, for the tree has brought forth its fruit; the vine and the fig tree have yielded their strength.

23 And you children of Zion, rejoice and be glad in the Lord your God, for he has given you food unto righteousness, and he will rain upon you the early and the late rain as before,

24 and the threshing floors shall be filled with grain, and the presses shall overflow with wine and oil.

25 And I will repay you for the years which the locust and the grasshopper and the blight and the caterpillar devoured—my great host, which I sent against you.

26 And you shall surely eat and be filled, and you shall praise the name of the Lord your God for the wonders he has done with you, and my people shall by no means be put to shame forever.

27 And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and there is none besides me, and my whole people shall never again be put to shame forever.

Chapter 3

1 And it shall come to pass after these things that I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions;

2 and upon the male servants and upon the female servants in those days I will pour out of my spirit.

3 And I will give wonders in the heaven and on the earth: blood and fire and vapor of smoke.

4 The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and manifest day of the Lord comes.

5 And it shall be that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be one who is delivered, as the Lord has said, and those who have good news proclaimed, whom the Lord has called.

Chapter 4

1 For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

2 I will also gather all the nations and bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will contend with them there on behalf of my people and my inheritance Israel, who were scattered among the nations; and they divided up my land

3 and cast lots over my people, and gave the boys to prostitutes and sold the girls for wine, and drank.

4 And what are you also to me, Tyre and Sidon and all Galilee of the foreigners? Are you repaying me a recompense? Or are you bearing a grudge against me? Swiftly and speedily I will return your recompense upon your own heads,

5 because you took my silver and my gold, and brought my choice and beautiful things into your temples,

6 and you sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, in order to drive them out of their borders.

7 Behold, I am rousing them from the place to which you sold them, and I will return your recompense upon your own heads,

8 and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them into captivity to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.

9 Proclaim these things among the nations; consecrate war; rouse the warriors; draw near and come up, all you men of war.

10 Beat your plows into swords and your sickles into spears; let the weak man say, "I am strong."

11 Gather yourselves together and come in, all you nations round about, and be assembled there; let the meek man be a warrior.

12 Let all the nations be roused and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations round about.

13 Send forth sickles, for the vintage is at hand; come in, tread, for the winepress is full; the vats overflow, for their evils have multiplied.

14 Sounds have resounded in the valley of judgment, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of judgment.

15 The sun and the moon will grow dark, and the stars will withdraw their light.

16 But the Lord will cry out from Zion and give his voice from Jerusalem, and heaven and earth will be shaken; but the Lord will spare his people, and the Lord will strengthen the sons of Israel.

17 And you will know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion on my holy mountain; and Jerusalem will be a holy city, and foreigners will pass through her no more.

18 And it shall be in that day the mountains will drip sweetness, and the hills will flow with milk, and all the streams of Judah will flow with water, and a spring will go out from the house of the Lord and water the wadi of the rushes.

19 Egypt will become a desolation, and Idumea will become a plain of desolation, because of the wrongs done to the sons of Judah, because they shed righteous blood in their land.

20 But Judea will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem for generations of generations.

21 And I will avenge their blood, and I will by no means leave it unpunished. And the Lord will dwell in Zion.