Joel
Chapter 1
1 This is the word of Yahweh that came to Joel son of Pethuel.
2 Hear this, you elders,
and listen, all you inhabitants of the land.
Has anything like this happened in your days
or in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell your sons about it,
and let your sons tell their sons,
and their sons the next generation.
4 What the cutting locust has left the swarming locust has eaten;
what the swarming locust has left the hopping locust has eaten;
and what the hopping locust has left the destroying locust has eaten.
5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
Wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because the sweet wine has been cut off from your mouth.
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.
7 It has made my vine into a waste
and has splintered my fig tree.
It has stripped its bark and thrown it away;
their branches are bare white.
8 Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth.
9 The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from Yahweh’s house.
The priests, Yahweh’s servants, mourn.
10 The fields are ruined,
the ground is mourning because the grain has been destroyed.
The new wine has dried up,
the oil fails.
11 Be ashamed, you farmers,
and wail, you vine growers,
for the wheat and the barley.
For the harvest of the fields has perished.
12 The vines have withered and the fig trees have dried up,
the pomegranate trees, also the palm trees, and the apple trees—
all the trees of the field have withered.
For joy has withered away from the sons of mankind.
13 Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests!
Wail, you servants of the altar.
Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you servants of my God.
For the grain offering and the drink offering have been withheld from the house of your God.
14 Call for a holy fast,
and call a holy assembly.
Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of Yahweh your God,
and cry to Yahweh.
15 Alas for the day!
For the day of Yahweh is almost here.
With it will come destruction from the Almighty.
16 Has not food been cut off from before our eyes,
and joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 The seeds shrivel under their clods,
the storehouses are desolate,
and the granaries have been broken down,
because the grain has dried up.
18 How the animals groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed
because they have no pasture.
Also, the flocks of sheep suffer.
19 Yahweh, I cry to you.
For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness,
and flames have burned all the trees of the fields.
20 Even the animals of the fields pant for you,
for the water brooks have dried up,
and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
Chapter 2
1 Blow the trumpet in Zion,
and sound an alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble in fear,
for the day of Yahweh is coming;
indeed, it is near.
2 It is a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness.
Like the dawn that spreads on the mountains,
a large and mighty army is approaching.
There has never been an army like it before,
and there never will be again,
even after many generations.
3 A fire is consuming everything in front of it,
and behind it a flame is burning.
The land is like the garden of Eden in front of it,
but behind it there is a ruined wilderness.
Indeed, nothing will escape from it.
4 The army’s appearance is like the appearance of horses,
and they run like war horses.
5 With a noise like that of chariots they jump on the tops of the mountains,
like the noise of fiery flames that devour the stubble,
like a mighty army ready for battle.
6 At their presence people are in anguish
and all their faces become pale.
7 They run like mighty warriors;
they climb the walls like soldiers;
they march, every one in step,
and do not swearve from their paths.
8 Neither does one thrust another aside;
they march, each in his path;
they break through the weapons
and do not fall out of line.
9 They rush on the city,
they run on the wall,
they climb into the houses,
they enter through the windows like thieves.
10 The earth shakes in front of them,
the heavens tremble,
the sun and the moon are darkened,
and the stars stop shining.
11 Yahweh raises his voice in front of his army,
for his warriors are very numerous;
for they are strong, those who carry out his commands.
For the day of Yahweh is great and very terrible.
Who can survive it?
12 “Yet even now,” says Yahweh,
“Return to me with all your heart.
Fast, weep, and mourn.”
13 Tear your heart and not only your garments,
and return to Yahweh your God.
For he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abundant in covenant faithfulness,
and he relents from inflicting punishment.
14 Who knows? Will he perhaps turn and have compassion,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering for Yahweh your God?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion,
call for a holy fast,
and call a holy assembly.
16 Gather the people,
call for the holy assembly.
Assemble the elders,
gather the children
and the nursing infants.
Let the bridegrooms come out of their rooms,
and the brides out of their bridal chambers.
17 Let the priests, the servants of Yahweh,
weep between the porch and the altar.
Let them say, “Spare your people, Yahweh,
and do not make your inheritance into an object of scorn,
that the nations mock them.
Why should they say among the nations,
‘Where is their God?’”
18 Then Yahweh was zealous for his land
and had pity on his people.
19 Yahweh answered and said to his people,
“Look, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil.
You will be satisfied with them,
and I will no longer make you a disgrace among the nations.
20 I will remove the northern attackers far from you,
and will drive them into a dry and abandoned land.
The front of their army will go into the eastern sea,
and the rear into the western sea.
Its stench will rise,
and its bad smell will rise.”
Indeed, he has done great things.
21 Do not fear, O land, be glad and rejoice,
for Yahweh will do great things.
22 Do not fear, you beasts of the field,
for the pastures of the wilderness will sprout,
the trees will bear their fruit,
and the fig trees and the vines will yield their full harvest.
23 Be glad, O sons of Zion,
and rejoice in Yahweh your God.
For he will give you the autumn rain for your vindication
and bring down showers for you,
the autumn rain and the spring rain as before.
24 The threshing floors will be full of grain,
and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
25 “I will restore to you the years of crops that the swarming locust has eaten—
the hopping locust, the destroying locust, and the cutting locust—
my mighty army that I sent among you.
26 You will eat plentifully and be full,
and praise the name of Yahweh your God,
who has done wonders among you,
and never again will my people be put to shame.
27 You will know that I am among Israel,
and that I am Yahweh your God,
and there is none else,
and never again will my people be put to shame.
28 It will come about 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.
29 Also on male servants and female servants,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
30 I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth,
blood, fire, and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun will turn into darkness
and the moon into blood,
before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.
32 It will be that everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved.
For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape,
as Yahweh has said,
and among the survivors,
those whom Yahweh calls.
Chapter 3
1 Behold, in those days and at that time,
when I return the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will gather all the nations,
and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
I will judge them there,
because of my people and my inheritance Israel,
whom they scattered among the nations,
and because they divided up my land.
3 They cast lots for my people,
traded a boy for a prostitute,
and sold a girl for wine
so they could drink.
4 Now, what have you against me,
Tyre, Sidon and all the regions of Philistia?
Are you paying me back for something?
If you are paying me back,
I will immediately return your retribution on your own head.
5 For you took my silver and my gold,
and you brought my precious treasures into your temples.
6 You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks,
in order to remove them far from their territory.
7 Look, I am about to stir them up, out of the place where you sold them,
and will return your payment on your own head.
8 I will sell your sons and your daughters,
into the hand of the sons of Judah.
They will sell them to the Sabeans,
to a nation far off,
for Yahweh has spoken.”
9 Proclaim this among the nations,
“Prepare yourselves for war,
rouse the mighty men,
let them come near,
let all the men of battle come up.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords
and your pruning knives into spears.
Let the weak say,
‘I am strong.’
11 Hurry and come,
all you surrounding nations,
gather yourselves together there.
O Yahweh, bring down your mighty warriors.
12 Let the nations wake themselves up
and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
For there will I sit to judge
all the surrounding nations.
13 Put in the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe.
Come, crush the grapes,
for the winepress is full.
The vats overflow,
for their wickedness is enormous.”
14 There are multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Judgment.
For the day of Yahweh is near in the Valley of Judgment.
15 The sun and the moon become dark,
the stars keep back their brightness.
16 Yahweh will roar from Zion,
and raise his voice from Jerusalem.
The heavens and earth will shake,
but Yahweh will be a shelter for his people,
and a fortress for the sons of Israel.
17 “So you will know that I am Yahweh your God
who lives in Zion, my holy mountain.
Then Jerusalem will be holy,
and no strangers will pass through it again.
18 It will come about on that day
that the mountains will drip with sweet wine,
the hills will flow with milk,
all the brooks of Judah will flow with water,
and a fountain will come from the house of Yahweh
and water the Valley of Shittim.
19 Egypt will become an abandoned devastation,
and Edom will become an abandoned wilderness,
because of the violence done to the sons of Judah,
because they shed innocent blood in their land.
20 But Judah will be inhabited forever,
and Jerusalem will be inhabited from generation to generation.
21 I will avenge their blood that I have not yet avenged,
for Yahweh lives in Zion.”