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¹ The Word of Jehovah that was to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

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

³ Recount to your sons about it, and your sons to their sons, and their sons to another generation.

⁴ What was left by the cutter, the swarming locust ate; and that left of the swarming locust, the locust larvae ate; and that left of the locust larvae, the stripping locust ate.

⁵ Awake, drunkards, and weep. And wail, all wine drinkers, over the grape must, for it is cut off from your mouth.

⁶ For a nation has come up on My land, strong and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the jaw teeth of a lioness.

⁷ There My vine is a waste, and it has splintered My fig tree. Stripping He has stripped it and thrown it down; its branches grow white.

⁸ Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth over the husband of her youth.

⁹ The food offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of Jehovah; the priests, Jehovah's ministers, mourn.

¹⁰ The field is wasted; the land mourns, for the grain is wasted. The new wine is dried up, the oil tree droops.

¹¹ Be withered, farmers, howl, vine-dressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field has perished.

¹² The vine is withered and the fig tree droops, the pomegranate, and the palm tree, and the apple tree; all the trees of the field are withered, because joy has withered from the sons of men.

¹³ Gird up and lament, priests. Howl, ministers of the altar. Come, pass the night in sackcloth, ministers of my God. For the food offering and the drink offering are held back from the house of your God.

¹⁴ Set apart a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the elders, all those living in the land, into the house of Jehovah your God, and cry to Jehovah.

¹⁵ Alas for the day! For the day of Jehovah is at hand. Yea, it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

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

¹⁷ The seed shrivels under their clods; the storehouses are laid waste, the granaries are torn down, for the grain has withered;

¹⁸ How the beasts groan! The herds of livestock are confused, for there is no pasture for them. Even the flocks of sheep are perishing.

¹⁹ O Jehovah, to You I will call, for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.

²⁰ Also the beasts of the field long for You, for the rivers of water are dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

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¹ Blow a rams' horn in Zion, and shout an alarm in My holy mountain. Let all those living in the land tremble. For the day of Jehovah comes; it is near,

² a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, as the dawn spread out on the mountains, a great and a strong people. After it not has been like it from the past, and not will be again until the years of generation and generations;

³ a fire devours before it, and a flame burns behind it. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them is a desolate wilderness; yea, also there is no escape to them.

⁴ As the appearance of horses is its appearance; and as horsemen, so they run.

⁵ They shall leap like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains, like the noise of flames of fire that devour the chaff, as a strong people set in order for battle.

⁶ Before their face, the peoples are pained; all faces collect heat.

⁷ They shall run as mighty ones; they shall go up the wall as men of battle. And they each man go in his way, and they do not change their paths.

⁸ And a man does not press his brother; they each man go in his paths. And if they fall behind their weapon, they shall not be cut off.

⁹ They shall rush on the city; they shall run on the wall; they shall climb up on the houses; they shall enter in by the windows, like a thief.

¹⁰ The earth quakes before them, the heavens shake. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars gather in their light.

¹¹ And Jehovah gives His voice before His army, for His camp is very great. For he who does His Word is strong. For the day of Jehovah is great and very terrifying, and who can endure it?

¹² Yet even now turn to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with wailing, a statement of Jehovah.

¹³ And tear your heart, and not your clothes; and turn to Jehovah your God. For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and He has pity concerning you.

¹⁴ Who knows if He will turn back and have pity and leave a blessing behind Him, a food offering and a drink offering for Jehovah your God?

¹⁵ Blow a rams' horn in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly.

¹⁶ Gather the people, sanctify the assembly, gather the elders, gather the children, and ones who suck the breasts. Let the bridegroom go out of his room, and the bride out of her room.

¹⁷ Let the priests, ministers of Jehovah, weep between the porch and the altar; and let them say, Have pity on Your people, O Jehovah, and do not give Your inheritance to shame, for a proverb among those of the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, Where is their God?

¹⁸ And Jehovah will be jealous for His land and have pity on His people.

¹⁹ Yea, Jehovah will answer and say to His people, Behold, I am sending you grain, and wine, and oil, and you shall be satisfied with it. And I will no more give you to be among the nations.

²⁰ But I will remove the northern army far from you, and I will drive him into a land of dryness and desolation with his face toward the eastern sea, and his rear toward the western sea. And his stench shall come up, and his ill odor shall come up, because he was doing great things.

²¹ Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice, for Jehovah is doing great things.

²² Fear not, cattle of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness grow green, for the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and the vine give their strength.

²³ And be glad, sons of Zion, and rejoice in Jehovah your God. For He has given to you the early rain according to righteousness, and He will cause the rain to come down for you, the early rain and the latter rain in the first month.

²⁴ And the threshing-floors shall be full with grain, and the wine vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

²⁵ And I will restore to you the years which the swarming locust has eaten, the locust larvae, and the stripping locust, and the cutting locust, My great army which I sent among you.

²⁶ And you shall eat fully and be satisfied; and you shall praise the name of Jehovah your God, who has done wondrously with you. And My people shall not be ashamed forever.

²⁷ And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Jehovah your God, and there is no other. And My people shall not be ashamed forever.

²⁸ And it shall be afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.

²⁹ And also I will pour out My Spirit on the slaves and on the slave-girls in those days.

³⁰ And I will give signs in the heavens and in the earth: blood, and fire, and columns of smoke.

³¹ The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of Jehovah.

³² For it shall be, all who shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be saved. For salvation shall be in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, as Jehovah has said, and among the survivors whom Jehovah shall call.

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