THE BOOK OF JOEL

CHAPTER 1

THE word of Yahowah that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

2 Hear this, You old men, and give ear, all You inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

3 Tell You your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

4 That which the palmerworm has left has the locust eaten; and that which the locust has left has the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm has left has the caterpiller eaten.

5 Awake, You drunkards, and weep; and howl, all You drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

6 For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the cheek teeth of a great lion.

7 He has laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he has made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

9 The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of Yahowah; the priests, Yahowah’s ministers, mourn.

10 The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

11 Be You ashamed, O You husbandmen; howl, O You vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.

12 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.

13 Gird yourselves, and lament, You priests: howl, You ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, You ministers of my Elohim: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your Elohim.

14 Sanctify You a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of Yahowah your Elohim, and cry unto Yahowah,

15 Alas for the day! for the day of Yahowah is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty will it come.

16 Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our Elohim?

17 The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.

18 How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

19 O Yahowah, to you will I cry: for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.

20 The beasts of the field cry also unto you: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

CHAPTER 2

BLOW You the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of Yahowah cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

2 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 has not been ever the like, neither will be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

3 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 will escape them.

4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so will they run.

5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains will they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

6 Before their face the people will be much pained: all faces will gather blackness.

7 They will run like mighty men; they will climb the wall like men of war; and they will march every one on his ways, and they will not break their ranks:

8 Neither will one thrust another; they will walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they will not be wounded.

9 They will run to and fro in the city; they will run upon the wall, they will climb up upon the houses; they will enter in at the windows like a thief.

10 The earth will quake before them; the heavens will tremble: the sun and the moon will be dark, and the stars will withdraw their shining:

11 And Yahowah will utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of Yahowah is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

12 Therefore also now, says Yahowah, turn You even 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 unto Yahowah your Elohim: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto Yahowah your Elohim?

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:

16 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.

17 Let the priests, the ministers of Yahowah, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Your people, O Yahowah, and give not yours heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their Elohim?

18 Then will Yahowah be jealous for his land, and pity his people.

19 Yea, Yahowah will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and You will be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen:

20 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 will come up, and his ill savour will come up, because he has done great things.

21 Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for Yahowah will do great things.

22 Be not afraid, You 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.

23 Be glad then, You children of Zion, and rejoice in Yahowah your Elohim: for he has 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.

24 And the floors will be full of wheat, and the fats will overflow with wine and oil.

25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

26 And You will eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of Yahowah your Elohim, that has dealt wondrously with you: and my people will never be ashamed.

27 And You will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Yahowah your Elohim, and none else: and my people will never be ashamed.

28 And it will come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will 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 shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

31 The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of Yahowah come.

32 And it will come to pass, that whosoever will call on the name of Yahowah will be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem will be deliverance, as Yahowah has said, and in the remnant whom Yahowah will call.

CHAPTER 3

FOR, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I will bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

2 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.

3 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.

4 Yea, and what have You to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will You render me a recompence? and if You recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;

5 Because You have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:

6 The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have You sold unto the Grecians, that You might remove them far from their border.

7 Behold, I will raise them out of the place where You have sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head:

8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for Yahowah has spoken it.

9 Proclaim You this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake 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 Assemble yourselves, and come, all You heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause Your mighty ones to come down, O Yahowah.

12 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.

13 Put You 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.

14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of Yahowah is near in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and the moon will be darkened, and the stars will withdraw their shining.

16 Yahowah also will roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will shake: but Yahowah will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

17 So will You know that I am Yahowah your Elohim dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then will Jerusalem be holy, and there will no strangers pass through her any more.

18 And it will come to pass in that day, that the mountains will drop down new wine, and the hills will flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah will flow with waters, and a fountain will come forth of the house of Yahowah, and will water the valley of Shittim.

19 Egypt will be a desolation, and Edom will be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

20 But Judah will dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

21 For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for Yahowah dwelleth in Zion.