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The Book of Joel

Joel 1

The Invasion of Locusts

1 the Word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

2 Hear this, you old men, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

3 Tell you your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

4 That which the palmer-worm has left has the locust eaten; and that which the locust has left has the canker-worm eaten; and that which the canker-worm has left has the caterpillar eaten.

5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and howl, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

6 For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the cheek teeth of a great lion.

7 He has laid my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree: he has made it clean bare, and cast it away; its branches are made white.

A Call to Mourning

8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

9 The meat-offering and the drink-offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD’S ministers, mourn.

10 The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted; the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

11 Be you ashamed, O you husbandmen; howl, O you vine-dressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field has perished.

12 The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth; the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

A Call to Repentance
(Amos 5:4–15; Zephaniah 2:1–3; Luke 13:1–5)

13 Gird yourselves, and lament, you priests: howl, you ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God: for the meat-offering and the drink-offering is withheld from the house of your God.

14 Sanctify you a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry to the LORD,

15 Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty will it come.

16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, and joy and gladness from the house of our God?

17 The seed has perished under their clods, the granaries are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.

18 How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

19 O LORD, to you will I cry: for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.

20 The beasts of the field cry also to you: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

 

Joel 2

WBT

The Army of Locusts
(Amos 7:1–9)

1 Blow you the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

2 A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there has not been ever the like, neither will be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; and nothing will escape them.

4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so will they run.

5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains will they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

6 Before their face the people will be much pained: all faces will gather blackness.

7 They will run like mighty men; they will climb the wall like men of war; and they will march everyone on his ways, and they will not break their ranks:

8 Neither will one thrust another; they will walk everyone in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they will not be wounded.

9 They will run to and fro in the city; they will run upon the wall, they will climb upon the houses; they will enter in at the windows like a thief.

10 The earth will quake before them; the heavens will tremble: the sun and the moon will be dark, and the stars will withdraw their shining:

11 And the LORD will utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

Return with All Your Heart

12 Therefore also now, says the LORD, Turn you even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:

13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn to the LORD your God: for he is cheerful and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth of the evil.

14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat-offering and a drink-offering to the LORD your God?

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:

16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.

17 Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare your people, O LORD, and give not your heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: why should they say among the people, Where is their God?

Restoration Promised

18 Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people.

19 And the LORD will answer and say to his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with it; and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen:

20 But I will remove far from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face towards the east sea, and his hinder part towards the utmost sea, and his odious scent will come up, and his ill savor will come up, because he has done great things.

21 Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things.

22 Be not afraid, you beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth its fruit, the fig-tree and the vine do yield their strength.

23 Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he has given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.

24 And the floors will be full of wheat, and the vats will overflow with wine and oil.

25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you.

26 And you will eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that has dealt wondrously with you: and my people will never be ashamed.

27 And you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people will never be ashamed.

I Will Pour Out My Spirit
(Acts 2:14–36)

28 And it will come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions:

29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

30 And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

31 The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD will come.

32 And it will come to pass, that whoever will call on the name of the LORD will be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, and in the remnant whom the LORD will call.

 

Joel 3

WBT

The LORD Judges the Nations

1 For behold, in those days, and in that time, when I will bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and divided my land.

3 And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

4 Yes, and what have you to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will you render me a recompense? and if you recompense me, swiftly and speedily I will return your recompense upon your own head; 5 Because you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things. 6 The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have you sold to the Grecians, that you might remove them far from their border. 7 Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither you have sold them, and will return your recompense upon your own head: 8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the LORD has spoken it.

9 Proclaim you this among the Nations; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:

10 Beat your plow-shares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

11 Assemble yourselves, and come, all you heathen, and gather yourselves together around: thither cause your mighty ones to come down, O LORD.

12 Let the heathen be awakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen on every side.

13 Put you in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, go down; for the press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great.

14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and the moon will be darkened, and the stars will withdraw their shining.

16 The LORD also will roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will shake; but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

Blessings for God’s People

17 So will you know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then will Jerusalem be holy, and there will no strangers pass through her any more.

18 And it will come to pass in that day, that the mountains will drop down new wine, and the hills will flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah will flow with waters, and a fountain will come forth from the house of the LORD, and will water the valley of Shittim.

19 Egypt will be a desolation, and Edom will be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

20 But Judah will dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

21 For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.