October 3

Joel 1:1 — 3:21

 Joel

1 The word of Jehovah that occurred to Joel the son of Pethuel:

2 “Hear this, YOU older men, and give ear, all YOU inhabitants of the land. Has this occurred in YOUR days, or even in the days of YOUR forefathers? 3 Concerning it give an account to YOUR own sons, and YOUR sons to their sons, and their sons to the following generation. 4 What was left by the caterpillar, the locust has eaten; and what was left by the locust, the creeping, unwinged locust has eaten; and what the creeping, unwinged locust has left, the cockroach has eaten.

5 “Wake up, YOU drunkards, and weep; and howl, all YOU wine drinkers, on account of sweet wine, for it has been cut off from YOUR mouths. 6 For there is a nation that has come up into my land, mighty and without number. Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the jawbones of a lion. 7 It has set my vine as an object of astonishment, and my fig tree as a stump. It has positively stripped it bare and thrown [it] away. The twigs of it have become white. 8 Wail, as a virgin girded with sackcloth does over the owner of her youth.

9 “Grain offering and drink offering have been cut off from the house of Jehovah; the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, have mourned. 10 [The] field has been despoiled, [the] ground has gone to mourning; for [the] grain has been despoiled, [the] new wine has been dried up, [the] oil has faded away. 11 Farmers have felt shame; vinedressers have howled, on account of wheat and on account of barley; for the harvest of [the] field has perished. 12 The vine itself has shown dryness, and even the fig tree has faded away. As for [the] pomegranate tree, also [the] palm tree and [the] apple tree, all the trees of the field, they have dried up; for exultation has gone ashamed away from the sons of mankind.

13 “Gird yourselves, and beat YOUR breasts, YOU priests. Howl, YOU ministers of [the] altar. Come in, spend the night in sackcloth, YOU ministers of my God; for from the house of YOUR God grain offering and drink offering have been withheld. 14 Sanctify a time of fasting. Call together a solemn assembly. Gather together [the] older men, all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Jehovah YOUR God, and cry to Jehovah for aid.

15 “Alas for the day; because the day of Jehovah is near, and like a despoiling from the Almighty One it will come! 16 Has not food itself been cut off before our very eyes; from the house of our God, rejoicing and joyfulness? 17 Dried figs have shriveled under their shovels. Storehouses have been laid desolate. Barns have been torn down, for [the] grain has dried up. 18 O how the domestic animal has sighed! [How] the droves of cattle have wandered in confusion! For there is no pasturage for them. Also, the droves of the sheep have been the ones made to bear guilt.

19 “To you, O Jehovah, I shall call; for fire itself has devoured the pasture grounds of [the] wilderness, and a very flame has consumed all the trees of the field. 20 The beasts of the field also keep longing for you, because the channels of water have dried up, and fire itself has devoured the pasture grounds of the wilderness.”

2 “Blow a horn in Zion, O men, and shout a war cry in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land get agitated; for the day of Jehovah is coming, for it is near! 2 It is a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick gloom, like light of dawn spread out upon the mountains.

“There is a people numerous and mighty; one like it has not been made to exist from the indefinite past, and after it there will be none again to the years of generation after generation. 3 Ahead of it a fire has devoured, and behind it a flame consumes. Like the garden of Eden the land is ahead of it; but behind it is a desolate wilderness, and there has also proved to be nothing thereof escaping.

4 “Its appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like steeds is the way they keep running. 5 As with the sound of chariots on the tops of the mountains they keep skipping about, as with the sound of a flaming fire that is devouring stubble. It is like a mighty people, drawn up in battle order. 6 Because of it, peoples will be in severe pains. As for all faces, they will certainly collect a glow [of excitement].

7 “Like powerful men they run. Like men of war they go up a wall. And they go each one in his own ways, and they do not alter their paths. 8 And one another they do not shove. As an able-bodied man in his course, they keep going; and should some fall even among the missiles, the [others] do not break off course.

9 “Into the city they rush. On the wall they run. On the houses they go up. Through the windows they go in like the thief. 10 Before it [the] land has become agitated, [the] heavens have rocked. Sun and moon themselves have become dark, and the very stars have withdrawn their brightness. 11 And Jehovah himself will certainly give forth his voice before his military force, for his camp is very numerous. For he who is carrying out his word is mighty; for the day of Jehovah is great and very fear-inspiring, and who can hold up under it?”

12 “And now also,” the utterance of Jehovah is, “come back to me with all YOUR hearts, and with fasting and with weeping and with wailing. 13 And rip apart YOUR hearts, and not YOUR garments; and come back to Jehovah YOUR God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, and he will certainly feel regret on account of the calamity. 14 Who is there knowing whether he will turn back and actually feel regret and let remain after it a blessing, a grain offering and a drink offering for Jehovah YOUR God?

15 “Blow a horn in Zion, O men. Sanctify a time of fasting. Call together a solemn assembly. 16 Gather [the] people together. Sanctify a congregation. Collect [the] old men together. Gather children and those sucking the breasts together. Let [the] bridegroom go forth from his interior room, and [the] bride from her nuptial chamber.

17 “Between the porch and the altar let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep and say, ‘Do feel sorry, O Jehovah, for your people, and do not make your inheritance a reproach, for nations to rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples: “Where is their God?”’ 18 And Jehovah will be zealous for his land and will show compassion upon his people. 19 And Jehovah will answer and say to his people, ‘Here I am sending to YOU the grain and the new wine and the oil, and YOU people will certainly be satisfied with it; and I shall not make YOU anymore a reproach among the nations. 20 And the northerner I shall put far away from upon YOU, and I shall actually disperse him to a waterless land and desolated waste, with his face to the eastern sea and his rear section to the western sea. And the stink from him will certainly ascend, and the stench from him will keep ascending; for He will actually do a great thing in what He does.’

21 “Do not be fearful, O ground. Be joyful and rejoice; for Jehovah will actually do a great thing in what He does. 22 Do not be fearful, YOU beasts of the open field, for the pasture grounds of [the] wilderness will certainly grow green. For the tree will actually give its fruitage. The fig tree and the vine must give their vital energy. 23 And, YOU sons of Zion, be joyful and rejoice in Jehovah YOUR God; for he will be bound to give YOU the autumn rain in right measure, and he will bring down upon YOU people a downpour, autumn rain and spring rain, as at the first. 24 And the threshing floors must be full of [cleansed] grain, and the press vats must overflow with new wine and oil. 25 And I will make compensation to YOU for the years that the locust, the creeping, unwinged locust, and the cockroach and the caterpillar have eaten, my great military force that I have sent among YOU. 26 And YOU will certainly eat, eating and becoming satisfied, and YOU will be bound to praise the name of Jehovah YOUR God, who has done with YOU so wonderfully; and my people will not be ashamed to time indefinite. 27 And YOU people will have to know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Jehovah YOUR God and there is no other. And my people will not be ashamed to time indefinite.

28 “And after that it must occur that I shall pour out my spirit on every sort of flesh, and YOUR sons and YOUR daughters will certainly prophesy. As for YOUR old men, dreams they will dream. As for YOUR young men, visions they will see. 29 And even on the menservants and on the maidservants in those days I shall pour out my spirit.

30 “And I will give portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun itself will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and fear-inspiring day of Jehovah. 32 And it must occur that everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will get away safe; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will prove to be the escaped ones, just as Jehovah has said, and in among the survivors, whom Jehovah is calling.”

3 “For, look! in those days and in that time, when I shall bring back the captive ones of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I will also collect together all the nations and bring them down to the low plain of Jehoshaphat; and I will put myself on judgment with them there on account of my people and my inheritance Israel, whom they scattered among the nations; and they apportioned out my own land. 3 And for my people they kept casting lots; and they would give the male child for a prostitute, and the female child they sold for wine, that they might drink.

4 “And, also, what do YOU have to do with me, O Tyre and Sidon and all YOU regions of Philistia? Is it the treatment that YOU are giving me as a reward? And if YOU are giving such treatment to me, swiftly, speedily I shall pay back YOUR treatment upon YOUR heads. 5 Because YOU men have taken my own silver and my own gold, and YOU have brought my own desirable good things into YOUR temples; 6 and the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem YOU have sold to the sons of the Greeks, for the purpose of removing them far from their own territory; 7 here I am arousing them [to come] from the place where YOU have sold them, and I will pay back YOUR treatment upon YOUR own heads. 8 And I will sell YOUR sons and YOUR daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they must sell them to the men of Sheba, to a nation far away; for Jehovah himself has spoken [it].

9 “Proclaim this, YOU people, among the nations, ‘Sanctify war! Arouse the powerful men! Let them draw near! Let them come up, all the men of war! 10 Beat YOUR plowshares into swords and YOUR pruning shears into lances. As for the weak one, let him say: “I am a powerful man.” 11 Lend YOUR aid and come, all YOU nations round about, and collect yourselves together.’”

To that place, O Jehovah, bring your powerful ones down.

12 “Let the nations be aroused and come up to the low plain of Jehoshaphat; for there I shall sit in order to judge all the nations round about.

13 “THRUST in a sickle, for harvest has grown ripe. Come, descend, for [the] winepress has become full. The press vats actually overflow; for their badness has become abundant. 14 Crowds, crowds are in the low plain of the decision, for the day of Jehovah is near in the low plain of the decision. 15 Sun and moon themselves will certainly become dark, and the very stars will actually withdraw their brightness. 16 And out of Zion Jehovah himself will roar, and out of Jerusalem he will give forth his voice. And heaven and earth certainly will rock; but Jehovah will be a refuge for his people, and a fortress for the sons of Israel. 17 And YOU people will have to know that I am Jehovah YOUR God, residing in Zion my holy mountain. And Jerusalem must become a holy place; and as regards strangers, they will no more pass through her.

18 “And it must occur in that day that the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the very hills will flow with milk, and the very streambeds of Judah will all flow with water. And out of the house of Jehovah there will go forth a spring, and it must irrigate the torrent valley of the Acacia Trees. 19 As regards Egypt, a desolate waste it will become; and as regards Edom, a wilderness of desolate waste it will become, because of the violence to the sons of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood. 20 But as for Judah, to time indefinite it will be inhabited, and Jerusalem to generation after generation. 21 And I will consider innocent their blood that I had not considered innocent; and Jehovah will be residing in Zion.”