The word of the LORD that came to Joel the
son of Pethuel.
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?
Tell ye your children of it, and let your
children tell their children, and their children another
generation.
That which the palmerworm 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
caterpiller eaten.
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.
For a nation is come up upon my land, strong,
and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he
hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.
He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig
tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches
thereof are made white.
Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth
for the husband of her youth.
The meat offering and the drink offering is
cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD's
ministers, mourn.
The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for
the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil
languisheth.
Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye
vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest
of the field is perished.
The vine is dried up, and the fig tree
languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the
apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because
joy is withered away from the sons of men.
Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests:
howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth,
ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink
offering is withholden from the house of your God.
Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly,
gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the
house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,
Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is
at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
Is not the meat cut off before our eyes,
yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
The seed is rotten under their clods, the
garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn
is withered.
How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle
are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of
sheep are made desolate.
O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire
hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath
burned all the trees of the field.
The beasts of the field cry also unto thee:
for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured
the pastures of the wilderness.
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an
alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land
tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at
hand;
A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of
clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the
mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever
the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of
many generations.
A fire devoureth before them; and behind them
a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and
behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape
them.
The appearance of them is as the appearance
of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.
Like the noise of chariots on the tops of
mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that
devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.
Before their face the people shall be much
pained: all faces shall gather blackness.
They shall run like mighty men; they shall
climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on
his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:
Neither shall one thrust another; they shall
walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they
shall not be wounded.
They shall run to and fro in the city; they
shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they
shall enter in at the windows like a thief.
The earth shall quake before them; the
heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the
stars shall withdraw their shining:
And the LORD shall utter his voice before
his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that
executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very
terrible; and who can abide it?
Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye
even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping,
and with mourning:
And rend your heart, and not your garments,
and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the
evil.
Who knoweth if he will return and repent,
and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink
offering unto the LORD your God?
Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast,
call a solemn assembly:
Gather the people, sanctify the
congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those
that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber,
and the bride out of her closet.
Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD,
weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy
people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the
heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the
people, Where is their God?
Then will the LORD be jealous for his land,
and pity his people.
Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto his
people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye
shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a
reproach among the heathen:
But I will remove far off from you the
northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate,
with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the
utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall
come up, because he hath done great things.
Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for
the LORD will do great things.
Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for
the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her
fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.
Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and
rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain
moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the
former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.
And the floors shall be full of wheat, and
the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
And I will restore to you the years that the
locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the
palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.
And ye shall eat in plenty, and be
satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath
dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be
ashamed.
And ye shall know that I am in the midst of
Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my
people shall never be ashamed.
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:
And also upon the servants and upon the
handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
And I will shew wonders in the heavens and
in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and
the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD
come.
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever
shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount
Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said,
and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
For, behold, in those days, and in that time,
when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will also gather all nations, and will
bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with
them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have
scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
And they have cast lots for my people; and
have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they
might drink.
Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre,
and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a
recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I
return your recompence upon your own head;
Because ye have taken my silver and my gold,
and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:
The children also of Judah and the children
of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove
them far from their border.
Behold, I will raise them out of the place
whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence upon
your own head:
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 people far off: for the LORD hath spoken it.
Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare
war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let
them come up:
Beat your plowshares into swords and your
pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye
heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause
thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.
Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to
the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the
heathen round about.
Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is
ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow;
for their wickedness is great.
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of
decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of
decision.
The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and
the stars shall withdraw their shining.
The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and
utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall
shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the
strength of the children of Israel.
So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God
dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy,
and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.
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 rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and
a fountain shall come forth out of the house of the LORD, and shall
water the valley of Shittim.
Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall
be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of
Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
But Judah shall dwell for ever, and
Jerusalem from generation to generation.
For I will cleanse their blood that I have
not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.