Joel 1

Introduction

1 Thiss is the Lord’s messaget that was givent
to Joels the son of Pethuel:

A Locust Plague Foreshadows the Day of the Lord

2 Listen to this, you elders;s
pay attention,t all inhabitants of the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your whole lifet
or in the lifetimet of your ancestors?t

3 Tell your childrent about it,
have your children tell their children,
and their children the following generation.s

4 What the gazam-locust left the ‘arbeh-locust consumed,t
what the ‘arbeh-locust left the yeleq-locust consumed,
and what the yeleq-locust left the hasil-locust consumed!ts

5 Wake up, you drunkards,s and weep!
Wail, all you wine drinkers,s
because the sweet winet has been taken awayt from you.t

6 For a nations has invadedt ourt land.
There are so many of them they are too numerous to count.t
Their teeth are like thoset of a lion;
they tear apart their prey like a lioness.t

7 Theyt have destroyed ourt vines;t
they have turned ourt fig trees into mere splinters.
They have completely stripped off the barkt and thrown them aside;
thet twigs are stripped bare.ts

A Call to Lament

8 Wails like a young virgint clothed in sackcloth,
lamenting the death oft her husband-to-be.s

9 No one brings grain offerings or drink offerings
to the templet of the Lord anymore.t
So the priests, those who serve the Lord, are in mourning.

10 The crops of the fieldst have been destroyed.t
The ground is in mourning because the grain has perished.
The fresh wine has dried up;
the olive oil languishes.

11 Be distressed,t farmers;
wail, vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley.
For the harvest of the field has perished.

12 The vine has dried up;
the fig tree languishes –
the pomegranate, date, and applet as well.
In fact,t all the trees of the field have dried up.
Indeed, the joy of the peoplet has dried up!

13 Get dressedt and lament, you priests!
Wail, you who minister at the altar!
Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God,
because no one brings grain offerings or drink offerings
to the temple of your God anymore.t

14 Announce a holy fast;t
proclaim a sacred assembly.
Gather the elders ands all the inhabitants of the land
to the temple of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.

15 How awful that day will be!t
For the day of the Lord is near;
it will come as destruction from the Divine Destroyer.t

16 Our food has been cut off right before our eyes!t
There is no longer any joy or gladness in the temple of our God!t

17 The grains of seedt have shriveled beneath their shovels.st
Storehouses have been decimated
and granaries have been torn down, for the grain has dried up.

18 Listen to the cattle groan!t
The herds of livestock wander around in confusiont
because they have no pasture.
Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

19 To you, O Lord, I call out for help,t
for fires has burned upt the grassy pastures,t
flames have razedt all the trees in the fields.

20 Even the wild animalst cry out to you;t
for the river bedst have dried up;
fire has destroyedt the grassy pastures.t

Joel 2

The Locusts’ Devastation

1 Blow the trumpett in Zion;
sound the alarm signal on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land shake with fear,
for the day of the Lord is about to come.
Indeed,t it is near!s

2 It will bet a day of dreadful darkness,t
a day of foreboding storm clouds,t
like blacknesss spread over the mountains.
It is a huge and powerful armyt –
there has never been anything like it ever before,
and there will not be anything like it for many generations to come!t

3 Like fire they devour everything in their path;t
a flame blazes behind them.
The land looks like the Garden of Edent before them,
but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness –
for nothing escapes them!t

4 They look like horses;ts
they charge ahead like war horses.

5 They sound likets chariots rumblingt over mountain tops,
like the cracklingt of blazing fire consuming stubble,
like the noise oft a mighty armyt being drawn up for battle.t

6 Peoplet writhe in fear when they see them.t
All of their faces turn pale with fright.t

7 Theys charget like warriors;
they scale walls like soldiers.t
Each one proceeds on his course;
they do not alters their path.

8 They do not jostle one another;t
each of them marches straight ahead.t
They burst throught the city defensest
and do not break ranks.

9 They rush intot the city;
they scalet its walls.
They climb up into the houses;
they go in through the windows like a thief.

10 The earth quakess before them;t
the sky reverberates.t
The sun and the moon grow dark;
the stars refuse to shine.t

11 The voice of the Lord thunderst as he leads his army.t
Indeed, his warriorst are innumerable;t
Surely his command is carried out!t
Yes, the day of the Lord is awesomet
and very terrifying – who can survivet it?

An Appeal for Repentance

12 “Yet even now,” the Lord says,
“return to me with all your heart –
with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
Tear your hearts,s
not just your garments!”

13 Return to the Lord your God,
for he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to anger and boundless in loyal lovet – often relenting from calamitous punishment.t

14 Who knows?
Perhaps he will be compassionate and grant a reprieve,t
and leave blessing in his waket –
a meal offering and a drink offering for you to offer to the Lord your God!t

15 Blow the trumpett in Zion.
Announce a holy fast;
proclaim a sacred assembly!

16 Gather the people;
sanctify an assembly!
Gather the elders;
gather the children and the nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom come out from his bedroom
and the bride from her private quarters.s

17 Let the priests, those who serve the Lord, weep
from the vestibule all the way back to the altar.t
Let them say, “Have pity, O Lord, on your people;
please do not turn over your inheritance to be mocked,
to become a proverbt among the nations.
Why should it be saidt among the peoples,
“Where is their God?”

The Lord’s Response

18 Then the Lord becamet zealous for his land;
he had compassion on his people.

19 The Lord respondedt to his people,
“Look! I am about to restore your graint
as well as fresh wine and olive oil.
You will be fully satisfied.s
I will never again make you an object of mockery among the nations.

20 I will remove the one from the norths far from you.
I will drive him out to a dry and desolate place.
Those in front will be driven eastward into the Dead Sea,t
and those in back westward into the Mediterranean Sea.t
His stench will rise up as a foul smell.”s
Indeed, the Lordt has accomplished great things.

21 Do not fear, my land!
Rejoice and be glad,
because the Lord has accomplished great things!

22 Do not fear, wild animals!t
For the pastures of the wilderness are again green with grass.
Indeed, the trees bear their fruit;
the fig tree and the vine yield to their fullest.t

23 Citizens of Zion,t rejoice!
Be glad because of what the Lord your God has done!t
For he has given to you the early rainst as vindication.
He has sentt to you the rains –
both the early and the late rainss as formerly.

24 The threshing floors are full of grain;
the vats overflow with fresh wine and olive oil.

25 I will make up for the yearsts
that the ‘arbeh-locusts consumed your cropst –
the yeleq-locust, the hasil-locust, and the gazam-locust –
my great armys that I sent against you.

26 You will have plenty to eat,
and your hunger will be fully satisfied;t
you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
who has acted wondrously in your behalf.
My people will never again be put to shame.

27 You will be convinced that I am in the midst of Israel.
I am the Lord your God; there is no other.
My people will never again be put to shame.

An Outpouring of the Spirit

28 s After all of thist
I will pour out my Spirits on all kinds of people.t
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your elderly will have revelatory dreams;t
your young men will see prophetic visions.

29 Even on male and female servants
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

30 I will produce portents both in the skyt and on the earth –
blood, fire, and columns of smoke.

31 The sunlight will be turned to darkness
and the moon to the color of blood,t
before the day of the Lord comes –
that great and terrible day!

32 It will so happen that
everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered.t
For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalems there will be those who survive,t
just as the Lord has promised;
the remnantt will be those whom the Lord will call.t

Joel 3

The Lord Plans to Judge the Nations

1 ssss For look! In thoses days and at that time
I will return the exiless to Judah and Jerusalem.s

2 Then I will gather all the nations,
and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.s
I will enter into judgmentt against them there
concerning my people Israel who are my inheritance,t
whom they scattered among the nations.
They partitioned my land,

3 and they cast lots for my people.
They tradedt a boy for a prostitute;
they sold a little girl for wine so they could drink.s

4 Why are you doing these things to me, Tyre and Sidon?t
Are you trying to get even with me, land of Philistia?t
I will very quickly repay you for what you have done!t

5 For you took my silver and my gold
and brought my precious valuables to your own palaces.t

6 You sold Judeans and Jerusalemites to the Greeks,
removing them far from their own country.t

7 Look! I am rousing them from that place to which you sold them.
I will repay you for what you have done!t

8 I will sell your sons and daughters tot the people of Judah.t
They will sell them to the Sabeans,s a nation far away.
Indeed, the Lord has spoken!

Judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat

9 Proclaim this among the nations:
“Prepare for a holy war!
Call out the warriors!
Let all these fighting men approach and attack!t

10 Beat your plowsharess into swords,
and your pruning hookss into spears!s
Let the weak say, ‘I too am a warrior!’s

11 Lend your aidt and come,
all you surrounding nations,
and gather yourselvess to that place.”
Bring down, O Lord, your warriors!s

12 Let the nations be roused and let them go up
to the valley of Jehoshaphat,
for there I will sit in judgment on all the surrounding nations.

13 Rush forth witht the sickle, for the harvest is ripe!
Come, stomp the grapes,t for the winepress is full!
The vats overflow.
Indeed, their evil is great!s

14 Crowds, great crowds are in the valley of decision,
for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision!s

15 The sun and moon are darkened;
the stars withholdt their brightness.

16 The Lord roars from Zion;
from Jerusalems his voice bellows out.t
The heavenst and the earth shake.
But the Lord is a refuge for his people;
he is a stronghold for the citizenst of Israel.

The Lord’s Presence in Zion

17 You will be convincedt that I the Lord am your God,
dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain.
Jerusalems will be holy –
conquering armiest will no longer pass through it.

18 On that dayt the mountains will drip with sweet wine,t
and the hills will flow with milk.s
All the dry stream bedst of Judah will flow with water.
A spring will flow out from the templet of the Lord,
watering the Valley of Acacia Trees.t

19 Egypt will be desolate
and Edom will be a desolate wilderness,
because of the violence they did to the people of Judah,t
in whose land they shed innocent blood.

20 But Judah will reside securely forever,
and Jerusalem will be securet from one generation to the next.

21 I will avenges their blood which I had not previously acquitted.
It is the Lord who dwells in Zion!