Joel
Introduction
A Locust Plague Foreshadows the Day of the LORD
1:2 Listen to this, you elders,2
and pay attention, all inhabitants of the land.
Did anything like this ever happen in your days
or in the days of your ancestors?3
1:3 Tell your children4 about it,
and have your children tell their children,
and their children the following generation.5
1:4 What the gazam-locust left the `arbeh-locust consumed,
and what the `arbeh-locust left the yeleq-locust consumed,
and what the yeleq-locust left the hasil-locust consumed.6
1:5 Awake, you drunkards,7 and weep!
Wail, all you wine drinkers,8
because of the sweet wine,
for it is removed from your mouth.
1:6 For a nation9 has come up against10 my land,
a nation powerful and too many to count.
Its teeth are those11 of a lion;
its incisors are those of a lioness.12
1:7 It has desolated my vines;13
my fig trees it has left in splinters.
It has stripped them completely bare and thrown them aside.
Their twigs are left whitened by exposure.
A Call to Lament
1:8 Wail14 like a young virgin15 clothed in sackcloth,
because of the death of her husband-to-be.16
1:9 Both the grain offering and the drink offering have been removed
from the temple17 of the LORD.
The priests, the attendants of the LORD,
are engaged in mourning.
1:10 The fields18 have been utterly destroyed.19
The land is in mourning,
because the grain has been destroyed.
The fresh wine has dried up;
the olive oil languishes in depletion.
1:11 Be embarrassed, farmers;
wail, wine dressers,
because of the wheat and the barley.
For the harvest of the field is destroyed.
1:12 The vine is dried up;
the fig tree languishes,
the pomegranate and date and apple20 as well.
In fact, all the trees of the field are dried up.
Indeed, joy has dried up
from humankind!21
1:13 Put on sackcloth and lament, you priests!
Wail, you attendants at the altar!
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
you servants of my God!
For grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld
from the temple of your God.
1:14 Announce a holy fast;
proclaim a sacred assembly.
Gather the elders
and all the inhabitants of the land
to the temple of the LORD your God,
and cry out to the LORD.
1:15 Alas for that day!
For the day of the LORD is near;
it will come like destruction from the Sovereign One.22
1:16 Is it not the case that right before our eyes
the food has been cut off?
From the temple of our God
joy and rejoicing have also been cut off!23
1:17 The grains of seed have shriveled
beneath their shovels.24
Storehouses have been decimated,
and granaries have been torn down,
for the grain is dried up.
1:18 How the animals groan!
Herds of cattle wander in confusion,
because they have no pasture.
Even the flocks of sheep have endured suffering.
1:19 To you, O LORD, I call.
For a fire25 has consumed
the pastures of the wilderness.
A flame has set ablaze
all the trees of the field.
1:20 Even the animals of the field
long for you.26
For the river beds are dried up.
A fire has consumed
the pastures of the wilderness.
The Locusts' Devastation
2:1Blow the trumpet1 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, it is near!
2:2 A day of darkness and gloominess,
a day of cloud and heavy overcast,
like blackness2 spread over the mountains.
A people3 numerous and powerful--
there has been nothing like it from ancient times,
and it will not be repeated
for many generations!
2:3 A fire devours before this people;4
a flame blazes behind them.
The land is like a garden before them;
but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness--
nor is a survivor to be found in it.
2:4 Their appearance is similar to that of horses;5
they run along like horsemen.
2:5 Their skipping about on the mountain tops
is like the noise of chariots,
like the sound of a blazing fire
consuming stubble,
like an army that is powerful
and lined up for battle.
2:6 Peoples6 writhe in fear before it.
All faces pale with fright.7
2:7 They run like warriors;
like soldiers
they scale the wall.
Each one proceeds on his course;
they don't alter8 their path.
2:8 None interferes with his fellow.
Each one advances along his trajectory.
Though they fall on weapons,9
they don't alter their course.
2:9 They dart about in the city;
they run on the its wall.
They climb up the houses;
they go in through the windows like a thief.
2:10 The earth quakes before this people;10
the sky reverberates.
The sun and the moon grow dark;
the stars refuse to shine.
2:11 The LORD utters his voice
before his army.
Indeed, his battle camp is very large;
he causes his word to be powerful.
Yes, the day of the LORD is great
and very marvelous--who can endure it?
An Appeal for Repentance
2:12 "So now," the LORD says,
"return to me with all your heart
and with fasting, weeping, and lamentation.
Tear your hearts,11
and not just your garments!"
2:13 Return to the LORD your God,
for he is merciful and compassionate.
He is slow to anger and displays boundless loyal love;
he relents from sending calamitous punishment.
2:14 Who knows? Perhaps he will grant a reprieve12 and be compassionate
and leave blessing in his wake--
A meal offering and a drink offering
for the LORD your God!
2:15 Blow the trumpet13 in Zion.
Announce a holy fast;
proclaim a sacred assembly.
2:16 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.14
2:17 Let the priests, the attendants of the LORD,
weep between the porch and the altar,
and let them say, "Have pity, O LORD, on your people;
don't turn over your inheritance to be mocked,
to become a proverb among the nations.
Why should it be said among the peoples,
"Where is their God?"
The LORD's Response
2:18 Then the LORD became zealous for his land;
he had compassion on his people.
2:19 The LORD responded to his people,
"Look! I am about to send to you
grain, new wine, and olive oil.
You will be fully satisfied.
I will not deliver you over again
to be an object of mockery among the nations.
2:20 I will remove the one from the north15 far from you.
I will push him back to a land
that is desolate and devastated.
I will turn his face to the eastern sea
and his back to the western sea.16
His stench will rise up
as a foul smell."17
Indeed, the LORD18 has accomplished great things.
2:21 Don't fear, my land!
Rejoice and be glad,
because the LORD has accomplished great things!
2:22 Don't fear, wild animals,19
for the pastures of the wilderness are green with grass.
Indeed, the trees bear their fruit;
the fig tree and the vine yield to their fullest.
2:23 Citizens of Zion,20
rejoice and be glad
in the LORD your God!
For he has given to you
the early rains21 for your vindication.
He has sent to you the rains--
both the early and the late rains22 as formerly.
2:24 The threshing floors are full of grain;
the vats overflow with new wine and olive oil.
2:25 I will restore to you the years23
that the `arbeh-locust consumed,24
the yeleq-locust, the hasil-locust, and the gazam-locust--
my great army, that I sent against you.
2:26 You will eat to your fill;
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.
2:27 You will know 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
2:28 (3:1)25 After all of this
I will pour out my Spirit26 on all kinds of people.27
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your elderly will dream dreams;
your young men will see revelatory visions.
2:29 Even on male and female servants
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
2:30 I will produce portents both in the sky28 and on the earth--
blood, fire, and columns of smoke.
2:31 The sun will be reduced to darkness
and the moon to the color of blood,29
before the day of the LORD comes--
that great and terrible day!
2:32 It will so happen that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be delivered.30
For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance,
just as the LORD has said,
and among the survivors whom the LORD is about to call as well.
The LORD Plans to Judge the Nations
3:1 (4:1)1 For look! In those days and at that time
I will return the captives2 of Judah and of Jerusalem.
3:2 I will gather all the nations,
and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.3
I will enter into judgment against them there
concerning my people Israel who are my inheritance,
whom they scattered among the nations.
They partitioned my land,
3:3 and they cast lots for my people.
They traded a boy for a prostitute;
they sold a little girl for wine, so they could drink.4
Judgment for Past Sins Against Judah
3:4 But what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon,
and all the territory of Philistia?
Are you repaying me a benefit?
I will very quickly
return what you have done5 on your own heads,
3:5 because you took my silver and my gold
and brought my precious valuables to your own palaces.
3:6 Both Judeans and Jerusalemites
you sold to the Greeks,
in order to remove them from their own border.
3:7 But look! I am rousing them from that place
to which you sold them.
I will return your recompense on your own heads.
3:8 I will sell your sons and daughters
to6 the people of Judah.7
They will sell them to the Sabaeans,8
a nation far away.
Indeed, the LORD has spoken!
Judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat
3:9 Proclaim this among the nations:
"Prepare for a holy war!
Call out the warriors!
Let all these fighting men approach and attack!9
3:10 Beat your plowshares into swords,
and your pruning hooks into spears.
Let the weak say,
`I too am a warrior!'
3:11 Lend your aid10 and come,
all you surrounding nations,
and gather yourselves11 to that place."
Bring down, O LORD, your warriors!12
3:12 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.
3:13 Rush forth with the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe!
Come, stomp the grapes,13
for the winepress is full!
The vats overflow.
Indeed, their evil is great!14
3:14 Crowds, great crowds
are in the valley of decision,
for the day of the LORD is near
in the valley of decision!
3:15 The sun and moon are darkened;
the stars withhold15 their brightness.
3:16 The LORD roars from Zion;
from Jerusalem he sounds forth his voice.
The heavens16 and the earth shake.
But the LORD is a refuge for his people;
he is a stronghold for the citizens17 of Israel.
The LORD's Presence in Zion
3:17 You will be convinced that I the LORD am your God,
dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain.
Jerusalem will be holy--
conquering armies18 will no longer pass through it.
3:18 On that day19
the mountains will drip with grape juice,20
and the hills will flow with milk.
All the dry stream beds21 of Judah
will flow with water.
A spring will flow out from the temple22 of the LORD,
watering the valley of acacia trees.23
3:19 Egypt will be desolate
and Edom a desolate wilderness,
because of the violence they did to the people of Judah,24
in whose land they shed innocent blood.
3:20 But Judah will reside securely forever,
and Jerusalem from one generation to the next.
3:21 And I will avenge25 their blood which I had not previously acquitted.
It is the LORD who dwells in Zion!