Joel chapter 1
Devastation of the land by locusts
1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel.
2 Hear this, you elders, and listen, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your ancestors?
3 Tell your children about it, and let your children tell their children, and their children the next generation.
4 What the locust swarm left, the young locust ate; what the young locust left, the swarming locust ate; and what the swarming locust left, the locust ate.
5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it is taken from your mouths.
6 For a powerful and countless army has invaded my land; their teeth are like lions’ teeth, and their fangs like the fangs of a lion.
7 They have ravaged my vine and stripped the bark off my fig tree; they have utterly stripped it and thrown it down; its branches are white.
8 Weep like a young woman in sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
9 The grain offering and the drink offering have vanished from the house of the Lord; the priests, the ministers of the Lord, mourn.
10 The field is devastated, the land mourns; for the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil is gone.
11 Be ashamed, you farmers; wail, you vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is lost.
12 The vine is withered, the fig tree is dead; the pomegranate, the palm, and the apple tree—all the trees of the field are dried up, so that joy is extinguished from the sons of men.
13 Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar; come, lie in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the grain offering and the drink offering have been taken from the house of your God.
14 Proclaim a holy fast, call a solemn assembly; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.
15 Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and it will come like destruction from the Almighty.
16 Has not the food been cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 The grain rots under the clods, the barns are laid waste, the storehouses are broken down; for the wheat is dried up.
18 How the animals groaned! How the herds of cattle wandered about in confusion, for they had no pasture! The flocks of sheep were also devastated.
19 To you, O Lord, I cry out; for fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flames have consumed all the trees of the field.
20 The beasts of the field also cry out to you, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness.
Joel Chapter 2
1 Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near.
2 A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! As dawn spreads over the mountains, so a great and powerful army comes; there has never been anything like it, nor will there ever be again in all generations.
3 Before it a fire devours, behind it a flame blazes. Before it the land is like the garden of Eden, behind it a desolate wilderness; there is no one who can escape it.
4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and they gallop like horses.
5 Like the thundering of chariots they leap over the mountaintops, like the sound of blazing fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle.
6 Before them the nations will tremble; every face will turn pale.
7 They will run like warriors, they will scale the wall like soldiers; each will march straight ahead, never turning aside.
8 They will not jostle one another, each will press on toward his course; even if they fall by the sword, they will not be wounded.
9 They will advance through the city, they will run along the wall, they will climb into the houses, they will enter through the windows like thieves.
10 Before him the earth will quake, the heavens will tremble; the sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will withdraw their light.
11 The Lord will give his command before his army, for his camp is very great; he who executes his command is mighty. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; who can endure it?
The mercy of Jehovah
12 Therefore, even now, says the Lord, turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
13 Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
14 Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him—grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly.
16 Gather the people; consecrate the congregation. Summon the elders; gather the children, even those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.
17 Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the portico and the altar, and let them say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and do not make your inheritance a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
18 Then the Lord, being zealous for his land, will have pity on his people.
19 The Lord will answer and say to his people, “Behold, I am sending you grain, new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with them; never again will I make you a reproach among the nations.
20 I will drive the northern kingdom far from you and cast it into a parched and desolate land. Its front will be toward the eastern sea, and its rear toward the western sea. Its stench will rise, and its foul odor will ascend, for it has done great things.”
21 Land, do not be afraid; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things.
22 Wild animals, do not be afraid, for the pastures of the wilderness will turn green, the trees will bear their fruit, the fig tree and the vine will yield their produce.
23 Be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God, people of Zion, for he has given you the autumn rains in their season and will send you showers of autumn and spring rains, as before.
24 The threshing floors will be filled with grain, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
25 I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—the great locust swarm—my great army that I sent among you.
26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are satisfied, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be put to shame.
27 And you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and there is no other; and my people will never again be put to shame.
Outpouring of the Spirit of God
28 And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
30 I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.
31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
32 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the remnant whom the Lord calls.
Joel Chapter 3
Jehovah's judgment upon the nations
1 For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgment with them for my people, my inheritance Israel, whom they scattered among the nations and divided up my land.
3 They cast lots for my people, gave the boys for prostitutes, and sold the girls for wine to drink.
4 And also, what have I against you, Tyre and Sidon, and all the territory of Philistia? Will you take revenge on me? If you do, I will quickly repay you.
5 For you have carried off my silver and my gold and put my precious and beautiful things into your temples.
6 You sold the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem to the Greeks, to drive them far from their land.
7 Behold, I will raise them from the place where you sold them, and I will return your wages upon your own heads.
8 I will sell your sons and your daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, a distant nation, for the Lord has spoken.
9 Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men draw near and come up!
10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears! Let the weakling say, “I am strong!”
11 Assemble yourselves and come, all you nations from all around, and assemble there; bring down your warriors, O Lord!
12 Let the nations be roused and advance to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.
13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down, for the winepress is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.
14 Many peoples in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars will withdraw their light.
Liberation of Judah
16 The Lord will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem; the heavens and the earth will tremble. But the Lord will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the Israelites.
17 Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy; no foreigner will ever invade it again.
18 In that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, the hills will flow with milk, and all the streams of Judah will run with water. A fountain will flow from the temple of the Lord and will water the Valley of Shittim.
19 Egypt will be destroyed, and Edom will become a desolate wilderness because of the violence done to the people of Judah, because they shed innocent blood in their land.
20 But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
21 I will cleanse the blood of those I have not cleansed, and the Lord will dwell in Zion.