1 {1:1} The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of
Pethuel. {1:2} Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye
inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even
in the days of your fathers? {1:3} Tell ye your children of it,
and [let] your children [tell] their children, and their
children another generation. {1:4} That which the
palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which
the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that
which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
{1:5} Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye
drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off
from your mouth. {1:6} For a nation is come up upon my
land, strong, and without number, whose teeth [are] the
teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.
{1:7} He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree:
he hath made it clean bare, and cast [it] away; the branches
thereof are made white.
{1:8} Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the
husband of her youth. {1:9} The meat offering and the drink
offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests,
the LORD’S ministers, mourn. {1:10} The field is wasted,
the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is
dried up, the oil languisheth. {1:11} Be ye ashamed, O ye
husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for
the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.
{1:12} 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. {1:13} Gird
yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the
altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my
God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is
withholden from the house of your God.
{1:14} Sanctify ye 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 unto the LORD,
{1:15} Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD [is] at
hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
{1:16} Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, [yea,] joy
and gladness from the house of our God? {1:17} The seed is
rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the
barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. {1:18}
How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed,
because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are
made desolate. {1:19} O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the
fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the
flame hath burned all the trees of the field. {1:20} The
beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters
are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the
wilderness.
2 {2:1}Blow ye 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; {2:2} 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 hath not
been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, [even]
to the years of many generations. {2:3} 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; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
{2:4} The appearance of them [is] as the appearance of
horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. {2:5} Like the
noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap,
like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble,
as a strong people set in battle array. {2:6} Before their face
the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather
blackness. {2:7} They shall run like mighty men; they shall
climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every
one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: {2:8}
Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one
in his path: and [when] they fall upon the sword, they shall
not be wounded. {2:9} They shall run to and fro in the city;
they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the
houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.
{2:10} The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall
tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars
shall withdraw their shining: {2:11} And the LORD shall
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?
{2:12} Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye [even]
to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with
weeping, and with mourning: {2:13} And rend your heart,
and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God:
for he [is] gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great
kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. {2:14} Who
knoweth [if] he will return and repent, and leave a blessing
behind him; [even] a meat offering and a drink offering unto
the LORD your God?
{2:15} Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a
solemn assembly: {2:16} Gather the people, sanctify the
congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and
those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of
his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. {2:17} Let the
priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch
and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD,
and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen
should rule over them: wherefore should they say among
the people, Where [is] their God?
{2:18} Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and
pity his people. {2:19} Yea, the LORD will answer and say
unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and
oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more
make you a reproach among the heathen: {2:20} But I will
remove far off from you the northern [army,] and will drive
him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the
east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his
stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up,
because he hath done great things.
{2:21} Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the
LORD will do great things. {2:22} Be not afraid, ye beasts
of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for
the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield
their strength. {2:23} Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and
rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath 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.] {2:24} And the floors shall be full of wheat, and
the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. {2:25} And I will
restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the
cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my
great army which I sent among you. {2:26} And ye shall eat
in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the
LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and
my people shall never be ashamed. {2:27} And ye shall
know that I [am] in the midst of Israel, and [that] I [am] the
LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never
be ashamed.
{2:28} And it shall come to pass afterward, [that] I will
pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams,
your young men shall see visions: {2:29} And also upon the
servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour
out my spirit. {2:30} And I will shew wonders in the
heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of
smoke. {2:31} The sun shall be turned into darkness, and
the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of
the LORD come. {2:32} And it shall come to pass, [that]
whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be
delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be
deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant
whom the LORD shall call.
3 {3:1} For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I
shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
{3:2} 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 parted my
land. {3:3} And they have cast lots for my people; and have
given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they
might drink. {3:4} Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O
Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye
render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly
[and] speedily will I return your recompence upon your own
head; {3:5} Because ye have taken my silver and my gold,
and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant
things: {3:6} The children also of Judah and the children of
Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might
remove them far from their border. {3:7} Behold, I will
raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and
will return your recompence upon your own head: {3:8}
And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand
of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the
Sabeans, to a people far off: for the LORD hath spoken [it.]
{3:9} Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war,
wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near;
let them come up: {3:10} Beat your plowshares into
swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak
say, I [am] strong. {3:11} Assemble yourselves, and come,
all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about:
thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.
{3:12} Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the
valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the
heathen round about. {3:13} Put ye in the sickle, for the
harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the
fats overflow; for their wickedness [is] great. {3:14}
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day
of the LORD [is] near in the valley of decision. {3:15} The
sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall
withdraw their shining. {3:16} The LORD also shall roar
out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the
heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD [will be]
the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of
Israel. {3:17} So shall ye know that I [am] the LORD your
God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall
Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through
her any more.
{3:18} And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] the
mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall
flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with
waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the
LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim. {3:19} Egypt
shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate
wilderness, for the violence [against] the children of Judah,
because they have shed innocent blood in their land. {3:20}
But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from
generation to generation. {3:21} For I will cleanse their
blood [that] I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in
Zion.