Joel

Joel

The word of YHWH that came to Joel son of Pethuel:

Hear this, you elders;

give ear, all inhabitants of the land.

Has such a thing happened in your days,

or in the days of your ancestors?

Tell your children of it,

and let your children tell their children,

and their children another generation.

What the cutting locust left,

the swarming locust has eaten.

What the swarming locust left,

the hopping locust has eaten.

And what the hopping locust left,

the devouring locust has eaten.

Awake, you drunkards, and weep!

Wail, all you drinkers of wine,

because of the sweet wine—

for it is cut off from your mouth.

For a nation has come up against My land,

powerful and without number;

its teeth are lion’s teeth,

its fangs like a lioness.

It has laid waste My vine

and splintered My fig tree.

It has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;

their branches are made white.

Lament like a young woman

girded with sackcloth

for the husband of her youth.

The grain offering and the drink offering

are cut off from the house of YHWH.

The priests mourn—ministers of YHWH.

The field is destroyed;

the ground mourns.

The grain is ruined,

the new wine dries up,

the oil languishes.

Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil;

wail, O vinedressers,

for the wheat and the barley—

because the harvest of the field has perished.

The vine dries up,

the fig tree withers;

pomegranate, palm, and apple—

all the trees of the field are dried up,

and joy withers away from the children of humanity.

Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;

wail, O ministers of the altar.

Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,

O ministers of my God.

For the grain offering and the drink offering

are withheld from the house of your God.

Consecrate a fast;

call a solemn assembly.

Gather the elders

and all the inhabitants of the land

to the house of YHWH your God,

and cry out to YHWH.

Alas for the day!

For the day of YHWH is near,

and as devastation from the Almighty it comes.

Is not the food cut off

before our eyes—

joy and gladness

from the house of our God?

The seed shrivels under the clods;

the storehouses are desolate.

The granaries are broken down

because the grain has dried up.

How the beasts groan!

The herds of cattle are perplexed

because there is no pasture for them—

even the flocks of sheep suffer.

To You, O YHWH, I call,

for fire has devoured

the pastures of the wilderness,

and flame has burned

all the trees of the field.

Even the wild animals cry to You

because the water brooks are dried up,

and fire has devoured the open pastures.

———

Blow the trumpet in Zion;

sound the alarm on My holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,

for the day of YHWH is coming—it is near:

a day of darkness and gloom,

a day of clouds and thick darkness!

Like blackness spread upon the mountains

a great and powerful people comes—

their like has never been before,

nor will be again after them

through the years of all generations.

Fire devours before them,

and behind them a flame burns.

The land is like the garden of Eden before them,

but behind them a desolate wilderness—

and nothing escapes them.

Their appearance is like war horses,

and like cavalry they charge.

With the noise of chariots

they leap on the mountaintops—

like the crackling of a flame of fire

devouring the stubble,

like a powerful army

drawn up for battle.

Before them peoples are in anguish;

all faces grow pale.

Like warriors they charge;

like soldiers they scale the wall.

They march, each on their way;

they do not swerve from their paths.

They do not jostle one another;

each marches in line.

They burst through the weapons

and are not halted.

They leap upon the city;

they run upon the walls;

they climb into the houses;

they enter through the windows like a thief.

The earth quakes before them;

the heavens tremble.

The sun and the moon grow dark,

and the stars withdraw their shining.

YHWH utters His voice

before His army—

for His camp is exceedingly great.

He who executes His word is powerful.

For the day of YHWH is great and very awesome—

who can endure it?

Yet even now, declares YHWH,

“Return to Me with all your heart,

with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.

Tear your hearts, not your garments.”

Return to YHWH your God,

for He is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love—

and He relents from sending calamity.

Who knows whether He will not turn and relent,

and leave behind a blessing—

a grain offering and a drink offering

for YHWH your God?

Blow the trumpet in Zion;

consecrate a fast;

call a solemn assembly.

Gather the people;

consecrate the congregation.

Assemble the elders;

gather the children,

even nursing infants.

Let the bridegroom leave his chamber,

and the bride her canopy.

Let the priests, ministers of YHWH,

weep between the porch and the altar,

and let them say,

“Spare Your people, O YHWH,

and make not Your heritage a reproach,

a byword among the nations.

Why should they say among the peoples,

‘Where is their God?’”

Then YHWH became jealous for His land

and had pity on His people.

YHWH answered and said to His people:

“Behold, I am sending you

grain, wine, and oil,

and you will be satisfied—

and I will no more make you

a disgrace among the nations.

I will remove the northern army far from you

and drive it into a parched and desolate land,

its front into the eastern sea,

and its rear into the western sea.

Its stench will rise—its foul smell will come up,

for it has done great evil.”

Fear not, O land—be glad and rejoice,

for YHWH has done great things!

Fear not, you beasts of the field,

for the pastures of the wilderness are green;

the tree bears its fruit;

the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

Be glad, O children of Zion,

and rejoice in YHWH your God,

for He gives the early rain in justice—

He sends down for you abundant rain,

the early and the latter rain, as before.

The threshing floors shall be full of grain;

the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

I will restore to you the years

that the swarming locust has eaten—

the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter—

My great army, which I sent among you.

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,

and praise the Name of YHWH your God,

who has dealt wondrously with you.

And My people shall never again be put to shame.

You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,

and that I am YHWH your God and there is no other.

And My people shall never again be put to shame.

———

And it shall come to pass afterward,

that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh.

Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

your old men shall dream dreams,

and your young men shall see visions.

Even on the male and female servants

in those days I will pour out My Spirit.

And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth:

blood and fire and columns of smoke.

The sun shall be turned to darkness,

and the moon to blood,

before the great and awesome day of YHWH comes.

And it shall come to pass

that everyone who calls on the name of YHWH shall be rescued.

For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem

there shall be deliverance,

as YHWH has said—

and among the survivors shall be those whom YHWH calls.