Joel

(Joel 1:1) The Word of Jehovah that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

(Joel 1:2) Hear this, you old men, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land. Has this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

(Joel 1:3) Tell your sons about it, and your sons to their sons, and their sons to another generation.

(Joel 1:4) What was left by the chewing locust, the swarming locust ate; and that left by the swarming locust, the locust larvae ate; and that left by the locust larvae, the consuming locust ate.

(Joel 1:5) Awake, you drunkards, and weep. And wail, all you wine drinkers, because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.

(Joel 1:6) For a nation has come up against My land, strong and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of a lioness.

(Joel 1:7) He has made My vine desolation, and he has splintered My fig tree. He has stripped it bare, and thrown it down; its branches grow white.

(Joel 1:8) Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

(Joel 1:9) The food offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of Jehovah; the priests, Jehovah’s ministers, mourn.

(Joel 1:10) The field is wasted; the land mourns, for the grain is wasted. The new wine is dried up, the oil tree droops.

(Joel 1:11) Be dried up, you farmers, howl, you vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field has perished.

(Joel 1:12) The vine is dried up and the fig tree droops, the pomegranate, and the palm tree, and the apple tree; all the trees of the field are dried up, because joy has dried up from the sons of men.

(Joel 1:13) Gird yourselves and lament, you priests. Howl, you ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who serve my God. For the food offering and the drink offering are held back from the house of your God.

(Joel 1:14) Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the elders, all the inhabitants of the land, into the house of Jehovah your God, and cry unto Jehovah.

(Joel 1:15) Alas for the day! For the day of Jehovah is at hand. And it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

(Joel 1:16) Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

(Joel 1:17) The seed shrivels under their clods; the storehouses are laid waste, the granaries are broken down, for the grain has dried up.

(Joel 1:18) How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment.

(Joel 1:19) O Jehovah, to You I will cry, for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and has burned all the trees of the field.

(Joel 1:20) The beasts of the field also pant after You, for the rivers of water are dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

(Joel 2:1) Blow the shofar in Zion, and shout an alarm in My holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble. For the day of Jehovah approaches, it is near;

(Joel 2:2) a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, as the dawn spread out on the mountains, a great and a strong people. There has never been the like, nor shall there ever be again to the years of many generations;

(Joel 2:3) a fire devours before them, and a flame burns behind them. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them is a desolate wilderness; yea, also nothing shall escape them.

(Joel 2:4) Their appearance is like horses; and as horsemen, so they run.

(Joel 2:5) They leap on the tops of the mountains with a sound like chariots, like the sound of flames of fire that devour the chaff, as a strong people set in battle array.

(Joel 2:6) Before their face the people writhe in pain; all faces gather heat.

(Joel 2:7) They run like mighty ones; they go up the wall as men of war. And they each go on his way, and they do not break ranks.

(Joel 2:8) And each does not press his brother; they each go in their own paths. And if they fall behind their weapon, they are not cut off.

(Joel 2:9) They run to and fro in the city; they run on the wall; they climb up on the houses; they enter in by the windows, like a thief.

(Joel 2:10) The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars withdraw their brightness.

(Joel 2:11) And Jehovah gives His voice before His army, for His camp is very great. For he who does His Word is strong. For the day of Jehovah is very great and terrifying, and who can endure it?

(Joel 2:12) Yet even now turn to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, declares Jehovah.

(Joel 2:13) So, tear your heart, and not your garments; and return to Jehovah your God. For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and He has compassion concerning the evil.

(Joel 2:14) Who knows if He will turn and have pity and leave a blessing behind Him, a food offering and a drink offering for Jehovah your God?

(Joel 2:15) Blow the shofar in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a solemn assembly.

(Joel 2:16) Gather the people, consecrate the assembly, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those who suck the breasts. Let the bridegroom go out of his chamber, and the bride out of her room.

(Joel 2:17) Let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep between the porch and the altar; and let them say, Have compassion on Your people, O Jehovah, and do not give Your possession to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, Where is their God?

(Joel 2:18) Then Jehovah will be jealous for His land and have pity on His people.

(Joel 2:19) Yea, Jehovah will answer and say to His people, Behold, I will send you grain, and wine, and oil, and you shall be satisfied with it. And I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.

(Joel 2:20) But I will remove the northern army far from you, and I will drive him into a dry and desolate land with his face toward the eastern sea, and his back toward the western sea. And his stench shall come up, and his foul odor shall rise, because he did things to magnify himself.

(Joel 2:21) Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice, for Jehovah will do things to magnify Himself.

(Joel 2:22) Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness grow green, for the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and the vine yield their strength.

(Joel 2:23) Be glad then, you sons of Zion, and rejoice in Jehovah your God. For He has given to you the early rain according to righteousness, and He will cause the rain to come down for you, the early rain and the latter rain in the first month.

(Joel 2:24) And the threshing floors shall be full with grain, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

(Joel 2:25) And I will restore to you the years which the swarming locust has eaten, the locust larvae, and the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.

(Joel 2:26) And you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied; and you shall praise the name of Jehovah your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And My people shall never be be put to shame.

(Joel 2:27) And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Jehovah your God, and there is no other. And My people shall never be put to shame.

(Joel 2:28) And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.

(Joel 2:29) And also I will pour out My Spirit on the menservants and on the maidservants in those days.

(Joel 2:30) And I will show signs in the heavens and in the earth: blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

(Joel 2:31) The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of Jehovah.

(Joel 2:32) And it shall be, that whoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall escape. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as Jehovah has said, and among the survivors whom Jehovah shall call.

(Joel 3:1) For, behold, in those days and in that time, when I bring back again the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,

(Joel 3:2) I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of My people and My possession, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; and divided up My land.

(Joel 3:3) And they have cast lots for My people. And have given a boy as payment for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

(Joel 3:4) And also, what are you to Me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Will you restore a recompense to Me? And if you are dealing out to Me, I will return your dealings upon your own head, swiftly, speedily,

(Joel 3:5) because you have taken My silver and My gold and have carried My desirable good things to your temples.

(Joel 3:6) You have also sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, that you might remove them far from their borders.

(Joel 3:7) Behold, I will arouse them from the place where you have sold them, and will return your dealings upon your own head.

(Joel 3:8) And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far off. For Jehovah has spoken.

(Joel 3:9) Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate a war; wake up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near; let them come up.

(Joel 3:10) Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am strong.

(Joel 3:11) Assemble yourselves and come, all you nations; and gather yourselves together all around. O Jehovah, bring down Your mighty ones.

(Joel 3:12) Let the nations be awakened and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. For there I will sit to judge all the nations all around.

(Joel 3:13) Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down, for the press is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.

(Joel 3:14) Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision.

(Joel 3:15) The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their brightness.

(Joel 3:16) Jehovah roars from Zion, and He utters His voice from Jerusalem. And the heavens and the earth quake. But Jehovah is a refuge for His people and a fortress to the sons of Israel.

(Joel 3:17) And you shall know that I am Jehovah your God dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and foreigners shall no more pass through her.

(Joel 3:18) And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drip with new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the ravines of Judah shall flow with waters. And a fountain shall come forth from the house of Jehovah, and it shall water the valley of Shittim.

(Joel 3:19) Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, because of the violence done to the sons of Judah, whose innocent blood they poured out in their land.

(Joel 3:20) But Judah will dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

(Joel 3:21) For I will acquit them of the guilt of blood which I had not acquitted; for Jehovah dwells in Zion.