1 The word of Jehovah that came to Joel the son of Pethuel:
2 »Hear this, you older men! Listen all you inhabitants of the land. Did this take place in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
3 »Tell your children about it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to each new generation.
4 »That which the gnawing locust left the swarming locust ate. That which the swarming locust left the creeping locust ate. That which the creeping locust left other locusts ate.
5 »Awake, you drunkards, and weep! Wail you drinkers of wine. The sweet wine is removed from your mouth.
6 »A nation has invaded my land. It is strong and very large. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the jaw-teeth of a lioness.
7 »He has laid my vine waste and stripped off the bark of my fig tree. He stripped its branches white and clean and threw it away.
8 »Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
9 »The meal offering and the drink offering are removed from the house of Jehovah. The priests and Jehovah's ministers mourn.
10 »The field is laid waste, the land mourns. The grain is destroyed, the new wine dried up, the oil fails.
11 »Be ashamed you farmers. Cry you vinedressers. The wheat, the barley and the harvest of the field have perished.
12 »The vine and the fig tree fails. The pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field have dried up. Joy has withered away from the sons of men.
13 »Gird yourselves with sackcloth, and lament, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth you ministers of my God! The meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from the House of your God.
14 »Sanctify a fast! Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the House of Jehovah your God. Call out to Jehovah.
15 »Alas for the day! For the day of Jehovah is near! Destruction will come from the Almighty!
16 »Is not the food consumed before our eyes? Is joy and gladness removed from the House of our God?
17 »The seeds rot under dirt clods. The storehouses are desolate. The barns are torn down because the grain has dried up.
18 »How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle wander about because they have no pasture. The flocks of sheep suffer.
19 »I cry to you Jehovah! For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame burned all the trees of the field.
20 »Yes, the beasts of the field pant for you. The water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.«
1 Blow the trumpet in Zion! Sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of Jehovah comes. It is near!
2 »It is a day of darkness and gloom! It is a day of clouds and thick darkness! The dawn spreads upon the mountains. This great and mighty people have never seen anything like this. Nor will it be like this again even to the years of many generations.
3 »A fire devours before them and behind them a flame burns! The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness. Yes, none have escaped them.
4 »Their appearance is like the appearance of horses. They run like horsemen into war.
5 »Like the noise of chariots they leap on the tops of the mountains. It is like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble. They are a strong people set in battle array.
6 »At their presence the peoples are in anguish; all faces are waxed pale.
7 »They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like men of war. They march every one on his way and do not break their ranks.
8 »They do not crowd each other. They march every one in his path. They burst through the weapons and do not break ranks.
9 »They rush to the city. They run on the wall. They climb into the houses. They enter in at the windows like a thief.
10 »The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble! The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars cease to shine.
11 »Jehovah speaks before his army. His camp is very great! He is strong that executes his word. The Day of Jehovah is great and very terrible! Who can endure it?«
12 »Even now,« said Jehovah, »turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning!
13 »Rip apart your heart, and not your garments. Turn to Jehovah your God! He is gracious and merciful. He is slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness. He will turn back from doing harm.
14 »Who knows whether he will turn back, feel regret and leave a blessing behind him, a meal offering and a drink offering to Jehovah your God?
15 »Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast and 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 and the ministers of Jehovah weep between the Temple porch and the altar! Let them say: Spare your people, O Jehovah, and do not give reproach to your heritage. That the nations should rule over them and say among the peoples, where is their God?«
18 Jehovah was zealous for his land, and had pity on his people.
19 Jehovah answered his people: »Behold, I will send you grain, new wine and oil. You will be satisfied with it. I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.«
20 »I will remove the northern army far from you. I will drive it into a land barren and desolate. Its advance troops into the eastern sea and its rearguard into the western sea. It has done great things so its stench shall arise and its foul smell shall come up.
21 »Do not fear, O land, be glad and rejoice. Jehovah has done great things.
22 »Do not be afraid you beasts of the field. The pastures of the wilderness have turned green. The tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.
23 »Be glad you children of Zion, and rejoice in Jehovah your God! For he gives you the early rain in just measure, and he causes it to rain, the early rain and the latter rain, in the first month.
24 »The threshing floors will be full of wheat, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
25 »I will make up to you the years that the locust has eaten, my great army that I sent among you.
26 »You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied. You will praise the name of Jehovah your God. He has dealt wondrously with you. My people will never again be put to shame.
27 »You will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Jehovah your God! There is none else and my people shall never be put to shame.
28 »In the last days I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions! (Ac 2:17; Isa 44:3)
29 »I will also pour out my Spirit upon the male and female servants in those days. (Ac 10:45; Zec 12:10; Eze 36:27)
30 »I will show wonders in the sky 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 awesome Day of Jehovah comes!
32 »It will happen that who ever calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved. There will be those on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem that will escape, even among the survivors whom Jehovah calls.«
1 »Behold! At that time I will bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem.
2 »I will gather all nations! I will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will execute judgment upon them there for my people and for my heritage, Israel. They have scattered my people among the nations and they have divided up my land.
3 »They cast lots for my people, and traded a boy for a prostitute, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.
4 »What are you to me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Will you pay recompense compensation to me? If you pay recompense to me swiftly and speedily, will I return your recompense upon your own head?
5 »You have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my precious treasures into your temples.
6 »You sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks. You remove them far from their border.
7 »Behold, I will arouse them out of the place where you sold them and will return your recompense upon your head.
8 »I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah. And they will sell them to the men of Sheba, to a nation far off: for Jehovah has spoken it.
9 »Proclaim this among the nations! Prepare for war! Stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near let them come up.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears! Let the weak say, I am strong.
11 »Hurry and come all you nations round about. Gather yourselves there and cause your mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah.
12 »Let the nations be aroused and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat Jehovahs Judgment ! I will sit there to judge all the nations round about.
13 »Thrust in the sickle for the harvest is ripe! Come and tread for the winepress is full and the vats overflow. Their wickedness is great.
14 »Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! The day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision.
15 »The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars diminish their shining.
16 »Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem. The heavens and the earth will shake: but Jehovah will be a refuge to his people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel.
17 »You will know that I am Jehovah your God, dwelling in Zion my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem will be holy and no strangers will pass through invade her any more.
18 »It will happen in that day that the mountains will drop sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk. All the brooks of Judah will flow with water. A fountain will come forth from the house of Jehovah and water the valley of Shittim.
19 »Egypt will be desolation, and Edom will be a desolate wilderness. This is because of the violence done to the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
20 »Judah will abide for a very long time, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
21 »I will cleanse forgive their blood guilt that which I have not cleansed. Jehovah dwells in Zion!«