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Joel 1
The word of Yahweh that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
2 Hear this, you old men, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land. Has this been in your days, or in the days of your fathers? 3 Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. 4 That which the palmer-worm has left has the locust eaten; and that which the locust has left has the canker-worm eaten; and that which the canker-worm has left has the caterpillar eaten.
5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. 6 For a nation has come up upon my land, strong, and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the jaw-teeth of a lioness. 7 He has laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he has made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches of it are made white.
8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. 9 The meal-offering and the drink-offering are cut off from the house of Yahweh; the priests, Yahweh’s ministers, mourn. 10 The field is laid waste, the land mourns; for the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil languishes. 11 Be confounded, O you husbandman, wail, O you vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field is perished. 12 The vine is withered, and the fig tree languishes; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field have withered: for joy has withered away from the sons of men.
13 Gird yourselves with sackcloth, and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my Elohim: for the meal-offering and the drink-offering are withheld from the house of your Elohim. 14 Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the old men and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of Yahweh your Elohim, and cry to Yahweh.
15 Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come. 16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, yes, joy and gladness from the house of our Elohim? 17 The seeds rot under their clods; the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the grain has withered. 18 How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. 19 O Yahweh, to you do I cry; for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field. 20 Yes, the beasts of the field pant to you; for the water brooks are dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
Joel 2
Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of Yahweh comes, for it is near at hand; 2 a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, as the dawn spread upon the mountains; a great and a strong people; there has not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after them, even to the years of many generations. 3 A fire devours before them; and behind them a flame burns: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yes, and none has escaped them.
4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so do they run. 5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains do they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. 6 At their presence the peoples are in anguish; all faces have become pale. 7 They run like mighty men; they climb the wall like men of war; and they march every one on his ways, and they break not their ranks. 8 Neither does one thrust another; they march every one in his path; and they burst through the weapons, and break not off their course. 9 They leap upon the city; they run upon the wall; they climb up into the houses; they enter in at the windows like a thief. 10 The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble; the sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining: 11 and Yahweh utters his voice before his army, for his camp is very great; for he is strong who executes his word; for the day of Yahweh is great and very terrible; and who can endure it?
12 Yet even now, says Yahweh, turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh your Elohim; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and he repents concerning the evil. 14 Who knows whether he will not turn and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal-offering and a drink-offering to Yahweh your Elohim?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly; 16 gather the people, sanctify the assembly, assemble the old men, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. 17 Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare your people, O Yahweh, and give not your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them: why should they say among the peoples, Where is their Elohim?
18 Then was Yahweh jealous for his land, and had pity on his people. 19 And Yahweh answered and said to his people, Behold, I will send you grain, and new wine, and oil, and you shall be satisfied with it; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations; 20 but I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive it into a land barren and desolate, its forepart into the eastern sea, and its hinder part into the western sea; and its stench shall come up, and its foul smell shall come up, because it has done great things.
21 Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice; for Yahweh has done great things. 22 Be not afraid, you beasts of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring, for the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and the vine yield their strength. 23 Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in Yahweh your Elohim; for he gives you the former rain in just measure, and he causes to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain, in the first month. 24 And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. 25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you. 26 And you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and shall praise the name of Yahweh your Elohim, that has dealt wondrously with you; and my people shall never be put to shame. 27 And you shall know that I am in the middle of Israel, and that I am Yahweh your Elohim, and there is no one else; and my people shall never be put to shame.
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: 29 and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit. 30 And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes. 32 And it shall come to pass, that whoever shall call on the name of Yahweh shall be delivered; for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those that escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the remnant those whom Yahweh does call.
Joel 3
For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment upon them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations: and they have parted my land, 3 and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink. 4 Yes, and what are you to me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Will you render me a recompense? And if you recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompense upon your own head. 5 Because you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my good precious things, 6 and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Grecians, that you may remove them far from their border; 7 behold, I will stir them up out of the place where you have sold them, and will return your recompense upon your own head; 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 men of Sheba, to a nation far off: for Yahweh has spoken it.
9 Proclaim this among the nations; prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. 10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. 11 Hurry, and come, all you nations all around, and gather yourselves together: there cause your mighty ones to come down, O Yahweh. 12 Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations all around. 13 Put in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe: come, tread; for the winepress is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great.
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Yahweh is near in the valley of decision. 15 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. 16 And Yahweh will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but Yahweh will be a refuge to his people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel. 17 So shall you know that I am Yahweh your Elohim, dwelling in Zion my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.
18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall flow with waters; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of Yahweh, and shall water the valley of Shittim. 19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. 20 But Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. 21 And I will cleanse their blood, that I have not cleansed: for Yahweh dwells in Zion.
