Joel Chapters

1 | ¹This is the word of the Lord that came to Joel, son of Pethuel.

The Attack of the Locusts

²Hear this, you elders!

Listen, all you land dwellers!

Has such happened in your days or the days of your ancestors? ³Tell it to your children, then your children to their children, and then their children to the next generation.

⁴What the cutting locusts left, the swarming locusts ate. What the swarming locusts left, the hopping locusts ate. What the hopping locusts left, the destroying locusts ate.

⁵Wake up, drunkards, and weep! Wail, drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine withheld from your mouths. ⁶A nation, numerous and mighty, has invaded my country.

It has the teeth of a lion and the fangs of a lioness. ⁷It has destroyed my vines and ruined my fig trees, stripping off their bark and leaving their branches white.

⁸Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth.

⁹Grain and drink offerings are not found in the house of the Lord. The priests who minister before the Lord are in mourning.

¹⁰The fields are in ruin. The earth mourns, for the grain is destroyed; the wine fails, and the oil dries up.

¹¹Grieve, O you farmers; wail, O you vine growers, over the barley and the wheat, for the harvest of the field has perished. ¹²The vine withers, the fig tree wilts away; pomegranate, palm, and apple—all the trees of the field dry up. Oh, how joy has faded away among all these people!

¹³Gird yourselves, O priests, and weep; mourn, O altar ministers. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! For the house of your God is deprived of grain and drink offering.

¹⁴Proclaim a fast and call an assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land into the house of your God,

and cry out to the Lord, ¹⁵“What a dreadful day—the day of the Lord, that draws near, and comes as a ruin, from the Almighty!”

¹⁶Has not the food been taken away from us before our very eyes, and joy and gladness, too, from the house of our God?

¹⁷The seed under the clods lies shriveled; the granaries are in ruins; the barns are broken down, for the harvest has dried up. ¹⁸How the cattle groan! The herds wander and moan, for they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep suffer. ¹⁹To you, Lord, I call. A fire has razed the open pasture; flames have burned the trees. ²⁰Wild beasts cry out to you, for the streams have dried up, for the pastures have been devoured by fire.

2 | ¹Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all dwellers in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming.

Yes, the day is fast approaching—²days of gloom and darkness, clouds and blackness.

A vast and mighty army comes

like dawn spreading over the mountain, as has never occurred before nor will happen again.

³In front, a fire devours;

behind, a flame consumes.

The land ahead that appears like a garden soon becomes like a desert;

nothing escapes their onslaught.

⁴They look like horses,

they gallop along like chargers.

⁵With the clattering of chariots,

they leap over the mountains;

with crackling like burning stubble,

they charge—a mighty army arrayed for battle.

⁶Before them, nations are appalled,

and every face turns pale.

⁷They attack like warriors;

they scale walls like soldiers.

Marching in line, they move onward

without swerving from their course,

⁸without jostling one another, every one of them marches straight ahead;

amid a hail of arrows, they run,

they press without breaking ranks.

⁹They rush upon the city;

they leap over the walls;

they break into the houses,

like thieves enter through the windows.

¹⁰Before them, the earth shakes

and the heavens tremble,

the sun and moon grow dark

and the stars lose their twinkle.

¹¹The Lord thunders before his army,

his vast and mighty forces.

The day of the Lord is exceedingly great, terrible, and dreadful—who can endure it?

Return To Me With Weeping

•  ¹²The Lord says, “Yet even now, return to me with your whole heart; with fasting, weeping, and mourning. ¹³Rend your heart, not your garment. Return to the Lord, your God—gracious and compassionate.”

The Lord is slow to anger, full of kindness, and ready to relent.

¹⁴Who knows? He will probably relent once more and spare some part of the harvest, from which we may bring sacred offerings to the Lord, your God.

¹⁵Blow the trumpet in Zion, proclaim a sacred fast and call a solemn assembly.

¹⁶Gather the people, sanctify the community, and bring together the elders, even the children and infants, at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his bed and the bride her room.

¹⁷Let the priests, the Lord’s ministers, weep between the vestibule and the altar and say, Spare your people, Lord. Do not humble or make them an object of scorn among the nations. Why should it be said among the people: Where is their God?

¹⁸The Lord has become jealous of his land; he pitied his people. ¹⁹The Lord has answered; he tells them, “I am sending you grain, new wine, and oil, which will fully satisfy you; never again will you be scorned by the nations.

²⁰I will drive far from you, the enemy from the North, and pursue him, towards a land of drought and desolation: his vanguard to the Eastern Sea, his rearguard to the Western Sea. Its stench will rise everywhere. See that, I do great things.”

²¹Fear not, O earth! Exult and rejoice, for the Lord has acted magnificently! ²²Do not be afraid, beasts of the field, for the desert prairies, are green again; the trees are with fruit; the fig tree and the vine have yielded their riches.

²³Sons of Zion, be glad! Rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has sent you the blessing of autumn rain and showers—the autumn and spring rains as in the past. ²⁴The threshing floors will be grainy, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

²⁵I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, the powerful army I sent against you. ²⁶You will eat and be satisfied, and you will praise the name of the Lord, your God, who has done wonders for you.

²⁷And then you will know that I am amid Israel; I, the Lord, your God, no other! Never again will my people be shamed.

I Will Pour Out My Spirit

3 | •  ¹I will pour my spirit on every mortal in the last days.

                               Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

your old men will dream dreams,

your young men will see visions.

²Even upon my servants and maidens,

I will pour out my spirit on that day.

³I will show wonders in the heavens,

and on earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.

⁴The sun will darken, and the moon will turn to blood

at the approach of the great and dreadful day of God.

⁵Then, all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

For on Mount Zion, there will be a remnant,

as the Lord has said;

in Jerusalem, some will be saved—

those whom the Lord will call.

The Final Battle and Salvation

4 | •  ¹In those days, and at that time, when I reestablish Judah and Jerusalem, ²I shall let all the nations gather together, and come to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Then, I shall uphold against them the cause of Israel, my people, and my heritage. For they have dispersed them among the nations and divided my land. ³They cast lots for my people; they gave a boy for a harlot and a girl for the wine they drank.

⁴And, you, Tyre and Sidon, and all the districts of Philistia, what are you for me? Will you take revenge on me? If you want to do that, I will swiftly and immediately take reprisals against you! ⁵You carried off my silver, gold, and finest jewelry to your temples!

⁶You sold to the Greeks the people of Judah and Jerusalem, removing them far away from their own land. ⁷But now I will summon them from wherever you sold them, and I will return your deed on your head. ⁸The Lord says: I will sell your sons and daughters to the Judeans, who will then sell them to the Sabaeans in a distant land.

⁹Make this known among the nations; proclaim the holy war; call the warriors; let men of war advance! ¹⁰Hammer your plowshares into swords, your sickles into spears! Let the weak say: I am a warrior! And the meek: I, too, will fight!

¹¹Come quickly, neighboring nations, and assemble! ¹²Rise up, O people, and come to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, nations.

¹³Bring a sickle for the harvest is ripe; come and tread, for the winepress is full, and the vats overflow; so great is their wickedness!

¹⁴Multitudes and more multitudes in the Valley of Verdict! The day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Verdict! ¹⁵The sun and the moon become dark, and the stars lose their radiance. ¹⁶The Lord roars from Zion and raises his voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth are shaken. Indeed, the Lord is a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the Israelites. ¹⁷You will know that I am the Lord, your God, dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem will be a holy place, and foreigners will never pass there again.

¹⁸On that day, the mountains will drip wine, and the hills will flow with milk; all the streams of Judah will run with water, and a fountain will spring from the house of the Lord, watering the valley of Shittim.

¹⁹On the other hand, Egypt will be devastated, and Edom will become a deserted wasteland because they committed violence against Judah and shed innocent blood in their country. ²⁰But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem through all generations. ²¹And I shall avenge their blood and not leave it unpunished, for the Lord dwells in Zion.