Table of Contents
Joel
1:1 The Word of Yahweh that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
- 1:2 Hear this, you elders,
- And listen, all you inhabitants of the land.
- Has this ever happened in your days,
- or in the days of your fathers?
- 1:3 Tell your children
about it,
- and have your children tell their children,
- and their children, another generation.
- 1:4 What the swarming
locust has left, the great locust has eaten.
- What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten.
- What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten.
- 1:5 Wake up, you
drunkards, and weep!
- Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine;
- for it is cut off from your mouth.
- 1:6 For a nation has come
up on my land, strong, and without number.
- His teeth are the teeth of a lion,
- and he has the fangs of a lioness.
- 1:7 He has laid my vine
waste,
- and stripped my fig tree.
- He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away.
- Its branches are made white.
- 1:8 Mourn like a virgin
dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth! 1:9 The meal offering and the drink
offering are cut off from Yahweh’s house.
- The priests, Yahweh’s ministers, mourn.
- 1:10 The field is laid
waste.
- The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed,
- The new wine has dried up,
- and the oil languishes.
- 1:11 Be confounded, you
farmers!
- Wail, you vineyard keepers;
- for the wheat and for the barley;
- for the harvest of the field has perished.
- 1:12 The vine has dried
up, and the fig tree withered;
- the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree,
- even all of the trees of the field are withered;
- for joy has withered away from the sons of men.
- 1:13 Put on sackcloth and
mourn, you priests!
- Wail, you ministers of the altar.
- Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God,
- for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your
God’s house.
- 1:14 Sanctify a fast.
- Call a solemn assembly.
- Gather the elders,
- and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Yahweh, your God,
- and cry to Yahweh.
- 1:15 Alas for the day!
- For the day of Yahweh is at hand,
- and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
- 1:16 Isn’t the food cut
off before our eyes;
- joy and gladness from the house of our God?
- 1:17 The seeds rot under
their clods.
- The granaries are laid desolate.
- The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.
- 1:18 How the animals groan!
- The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture.
- Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
- 1:19 Yahweh, I cry to you,
- For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness,
- and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.
- 1:20 Yes, the animals of
the field pant to you,
- for the water brooks have dried up,
- And the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
-
2:1 Blow the trumpet in
Zion,
- and sound an alarm in my holy mountain!
- Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
- for the day of Yahweh comes,
- for it is close at hand:
- 2:2 A day of darkness and
gloominess,
- a day of clouds and thick darkness.
- As the dawn spreading on the mountains,
- a great and strong people;
- there has never been the like,
- neither will there be any more after them,
- even to the years of many generations.
- 2:3 A fire devours before
them,
- and behind them, a flame burns.
- The land is as the garden of Eden before them,
- and behind them, a desolate wilderness.
- Yes, and no one has escaped them.
- 2:4 Their appearance is as
the appearance of horses,
- and as horsemen, so do they run.
- 2:5 Like the noise of
chariots on the tops of the mountains do they leap,
- like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble,
- as a strong people set in battle array.
- 2:6 At their presence the
peoples are in anguish.
- All faces have grown pale.
- 2:7 They run like mighty
men.
- They climb the wall like warriors.
- They each march in his line, and they don’t swerve off course.
- 2:8 Neither does one
jostle another;
- they march everyone in his path,
- and they burst through the defenses,
- and don’t break ranks.
- 2:9 They rush on the city.
- They run on the wall.
- They climb up into the houses.
- They enter in at the windows like thieves.
- 2:10 The earth quakes
before them.
- The heavens tremble.
- The sun and the moon are darkened,
- and the stars withdraw their shining.
- 2:11 Yahweh thunders his
voice before his army;
- for his forces are very great;
- for he is strong who obeys his command;
- for the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome,
- and who can endure it?
- 2:12 “Yet even now,”
says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart,
- and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”
- 2:13 Tear your heart, and
not your garments,
- and turn to Yahweh, your God;
- for he is gracious and merciful,
- slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness,
- and relents from sending calamity.
- 2:14 Who knows? He may
turn and relent,
- and leave a blessing behind him,
- even a meal offering and a drink offering to Yahweh, your God.
- 2:15 Blow the trumpet in
Zion!
- Sanctify a fast.
- Call a solemn assembly.
- 2:16 Gather the people.
- Sanctify the assembly.
- Assemble the elders.
- Gather the children, and those who nurse from breasts.
- Let the bridegroom go forth from his room,
- and the bride out of her room.
- 2:17 Let the priests, the
ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar,
- and let them say, “Spare your people, Yahweh,
- and don’t give your heritage to reproach,
- that the nations should rule over them.
- Why should they say among the peoples,
- ‘Where is their God?’”
- 2:18 Then Yahweh was
jealous for his land,
- And had pity on his people.
- 2:19 Yahweh answered his
people,
- “Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil,
- and you will be satisfied with them;
- and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.
- 2:20 But I will remove the
northern army far away from you,
- and will drive it into a barren and desolate land,
- its front into the eastern sea,
- and its back into the western sea;
- and its stench will come up,
- and its bad smell will rise.”
- Surely he has done great things.
- 2:21 Land, don’t be
afraid.
- Be glad and rejoice, for Yahweh has done great things.
- 2:22 Don’t be afraid,
you animals of the field;
- for the pastures of the wilderness spring up,
- for the tree bears its fruit.
- The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.
-
- 2:23 “Be glad then, you
children of Zion,
- and rejoice in Yahweh, your God;
- for he gives you the former rain in just measure,
- and he causes the rain to come down for you,
- the former rain and the latter rain,
- as before.
- 2:24 The threshing floors
will be full of wheat,
- and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
- 2:25 I will restore to you
the years that the swarming locust has eaten,
- the great locust, the grasshopper, and the caterpillar,
- my great army, which I sent among you.
- 2:26 You will have plenty
to eat, and be satisfied,
- and will praise the name of Yahweh, your God,
- who has dealt wondrously with you;
- and my people will never again be disappointed.
- 2:27 You will know that I
am in the midst of Israel,
- and that I am Yahweh, your God, and there is no one else;
- and my people will never again be disappointed.
-
- 2:28 “It will happen
afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
- and your sons and your daughters will prophesy.
- Your old men will dream dreams.
- Your young men will see visions.
- 2:29 And also on the
servants and on the handmaids in those days,
- I will pour out my Spirit.
- 2:30 I will show wonders
in the heavens and in the earth:
- blood, fire, and pillars of smoke.
- 2:31 The sun will be
turned into darkness,
- and the moon into blood,
- before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.
- 2:32 It will happen that
whoever will call on the name of Yahweh shall be saved;
- for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape,
- as Yahweh has said,
- and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls.
-
-
3:1 “For, behold, in
those days,
- and in that time,
- when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
- 3:2 I will gather all
nations,
- and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat;
- and I will execute judgment on them there for my people,
- and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the
nations.
- They have divided my land,
- 3:3 and have cast lots for
my people,
- and have given a boy for a prostitute,
- and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.
-
- 3:4 “Yes, and what are
you to me, Tyre, and Sidon,
- and all the regions of Philistia?
- Will you repay me?
- And if you repay me,
- I will swiftly and speedily return your repayment on your own head.
- 3:5 Because you have taken
my silver and my gold,
- and have carried my finest treasures into your temples,
- 3:6 and have sold the
children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks,
- that you may remove them far from their border.
- 3:7 Behold, I will stir
them up out of the place where you have sold them,
- and will return your repayment on your own head;
- 3:8 and I will sell your
sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah,
- and they will sell them to the men of Sheba,
- to a faraway nation,
- for Yahweh has spoken it.”
-
- 3:9 Proclaim this among
the nations:
- “Prepare for war!
- Stir up the mighty men.
- Let all the warriors draw near.
- Let them come up. 3:10 Beat your plowshares into swords,
- and your pruning hooks into spears.
- Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’
- 3:11 Hurry and come, all
you surrounding nations,
- and gather yourselves together.”
- Cause your mighty ones to come down there, Yahweh.
- 3:12 “Let the nations
arouse themselves,
- and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat;
- for there will I sit to judge all the surrounding nations.
- 3:13 Put in the sickle;
- for the harvest is ripe.
- Come, tread, for the winepress is full,
- the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.”
- 3:14 Multitudes,
multitudes in the valley of decision!
- For the day of Yahweh is near, in the valley of decision.
- 3:15 The sun and the moon
are darkened,
- and the stars withdraw their shining.
- 3:16 Yahweh will roar from
Zion,
- and thunder from Jerusalem;
- and the heavens and the earth will shake;
- but Yahweh will be a refuge to his people,
- and a stronghold to the children of Israel.
- 3:17 “So you will know
that I am Yahweh, your God,
- dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain.
- Then Jerusalem will be holy,
- and no strangers will pass through her any more.
- 3:18 It will happen in
that day,
- that the mountains will drop down sweet wine,
- the hills will flow with milk,
- all the brooks of Judah will flow with waters,
- and a fountain will come forth from the house of Yahweh,
- and will water the valley of Shittim.
- 3:19 Egypt will be a
desolation,
- and Edom will be a desolate wilderness,
- for the violence done to the children of Judah,
- because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
- 3:20 But Judah will be
inhabited forever,
- and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
- 3:21 I will cleanse their
blood,
- that I have not cleansed:
- for Yahweh dwells in Zion.”
-
Notes:
[1] back to 1:1
“Yahweh” is God’s proper Name, sometimes rendered “LORD” (all
caps) in other translations.
[2] back to 1:13 The Hebrew word rendered “God” is
“Elohim.”
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