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1:1 The word of Jehovah that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
1:2 Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
1:3 Tell your children of it, and [let] your children [tell] their children, and their children another generation:
1:4 that which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.
1:5 Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine: for it is cut off from your mouth.
1:6 For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number: his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a lioness.
1:7 He hath made my vine a desolation, and barked my fig-tree; he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away: its branches are made white.
1:8 Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
1:9 The oblation and the drink-offering are cut off from the house of Jehovah; the priests, Jehovah's ministers, mourn.
1:10 The field is laid waste, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
1:11 Be ashamed, ye husbandmen; howl, ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley: because the harvest of the field hath perished.
1:12 The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth; the pomegranate-tree, the palm also and the apple-tree; all the trees of the field are withered, yea, joy is withered away from the children of men.
1:13 Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests; howl, ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the oblation and the drink-offering are withholden from the house of your God.
1:14 Hallow a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, gather the elders, [and] all the inhabitants of the land to the house of Jehovah your God, and cry unto Jehovah.
1:15 Alas for the day! for the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
1:16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
1:17 The seeds are rotten under their clods, the granaries are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
1:18 How do the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are bewildered, for they have no pasture; the flocks of sheep also are in suffering.
1:19 To thee, Jehovah, do I cry; for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned up all the trees of the field.
1:20 The beasts of the field also cry unto thee; for the water-courses are dried, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
2:1 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 Jehovah cometh, for it is at hand;
2:2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and gross darkness, as the dawn spread upon the mountains; -- a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after them, to the years of generations and generations.
2:3 A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth; the land is as a garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness: yea, and nothing escapeth them.
2:4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so they run.
2:5 Like the noise of chariots, on the tops of the mountains, they leap; like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.
2:6 Before them the peoples are in anguish: all faces turn pale.
2:7 They run like mighty men; they climb the wall like men of war; and they march every one on his ways, and break not their ranks.
2:8 Neither doth one press upon another; they march every one in his path; and fall amid weapons, but are not wounded.
2:9 They spread themselves over the city; they run upon the wall; they climb up into the houses; they enter in by the windows like a thief.
2:10 The earth quaketh before them; the heavens tremble; the sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.
2:11 And Jehovah uttereth his voice before his army; for his camp is very great; for strong is he that executeth his word: for the day of Jehovah is great and very terrible; and who can bear it?
2:12 Yet even now, saith Jehovah, turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning;
2:13 and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto Jehovah your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great loving-kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
2:14 Who knoweth? He might return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, an oblation and a drink-offering for Jehovah your God?
2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, hallow a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly;
2:16 gather the people, hallow the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride from her closet.
2:17 Let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare, O Jehovah, thy people, and give not thine inheritance to reproach, that they should be a byword of the nations. Wherefore should they say among the peoples, Where is their God?
2:18 Then Jehovah will be jealous for his land, and will have pity on his people.
2:19 And Jehovah will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I send you corn, and new wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.
2:20 And I will remove far off from you him [that cometh] from the north, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, his face toward the eastern sea, and his rear toward the hinder sea; and his stench shall come up, and his ill odour shall come up, for he hath exalted himself to do great things.
2:21 -- Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for Jehovah doeth great things.
2:22 Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring; for the tree beareth its fruit; the fig-tree and the vine yield full increase.
2:23 And ye, children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in Jehovah your God; for he giveth you the early rain in due measure, and he causeth to come down for you the rain, the early rain, and the latter rain at the beginning [of the season].
2:24 And the floors shall be full of corn, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.
2:25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you.
2:26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of Jehovah your God, who hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.
2:27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, Jehovah, [am] your God, and there is none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.
2:28 And it shall come to pass afterwards [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.
2:29 Yea, even upon the bondmen and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit.
2:30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
2:31 The sun shall be changed to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come.
2:32 And it shall be that whosoever shall call upon the name of Jehovah shall be saved: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as Jehovah hath said, and for the residue whom Jehovah shall call.
3:1 For behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall turn again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
3:2 I will also gather all the nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of my people and mine inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations: and they have parted my land;
3:3 and they have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, and have drunk [it].
3:4 Yea also, what have ye to do with me, O Tyre and Zidon, and all the districts of Philistia? Will ye render me a recompence? But if ye recompense me, swiftly [and] speedily will I bring your recompence upon your own head;
3:5 because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my beautiful pleasant things,
3:6 and the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the children of the Greeks, that ye might remove them far from their border.
3:7 Behold, I will raise them up out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will bring your recompence upon your own head.
3:8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far off: for Jehovah hath spoken.
3:9 Proclaim this among the nations: prepare war, arouse the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up.
3:10 Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-knives into spears; let the weak say, I am strong.
3:11 Haste ye and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together. Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah.
3:12 Let the nations rouse themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about.
3:13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down, for the press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great.
3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Jehovah is at hand in the valley of decision.
3:15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
3:16 And Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: and Jehovah will be a shelter for his people, and the refuge of the children of Israel.
3:17 And ye shall know that I, Jehovah, [am] your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain; and Jerusalem shall be holy, and no strangers shall pass through her any more.
3:18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the water-courses of Judah shall flow with waters; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of Jehovah, and shall water the valley of Shittim.
3:19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, in that they have shed innocent blood in their land.
3:20 But Judah shall abide for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
3:21 And I will purge them from the blood from which I had not purged them: for Jehovah dwelleth in Zion.