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1:1The Word of Yahweh that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
1:2Hear this, you elders,
And listen, all you inhabitants of
the land.
Has this ever happened in your days,
Or in the days of your fathers?
1:3Tell your children about it,
And have your children tell their
children,
And their children, another
generation.
1:4What the swarming locust has left,
the great locust has eaten.
What the great locust has left, the
grasshopper has eaten.
What the grasshopper has left, the
caterpillar has eaten.
1:5Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
Wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of the sweet wine;
For it is cut off from your mouth.
1:6For a nation has come up on my
land, strong, and without number.
His teeth are the teeth of a lion,
And he has the fangs of a lioness.
1:7He has laid my vine waste,
And stripped my fig tree.
He has stripped its bark, and thrown
it away.
Its branches are made white.
1:8Mourn like a virgin dressed in
sackcloth for the husband of her youth!
1:9The meal
offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh's house.
The priests, Yahweh's ministers,
mourn.
1:10The field is laid waste.
The land mourns, for the grain is
destroyed,
The new wine has dried up,
And the oil languishes.
1:11Be confounded, you farmers!
Wail, you vineyard keepers;
For the wheat and for the barley;
For the harvest of the field has
perished.
1:12The vine has dried up, and the
fig tree withered;
the pomegranate tree, the palm tree
also, and the apple tree,
Even all of the trees of the field
are withered;
For joy has withered away from the
sons of men.
1:13Put on sackcloth and mourn, you
priests!
Wail, you ministers of the altar.
Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God,
For the meal offering and the drink
offering are withheld from your God's house.
1:14Sanctify a fast.
Call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders,
And all the inhabitants of the land,
to the house of Yahweh, your God,
And cry to Yahweh.
1:15Alas for the day!
For the day of Yahweh is at hand,
And it will come as destruction from
the Almighty.
1:16Isn't the food cut off before our
eyes;
Joy and gladness from the house of
our God?
1:17The seeds rot under their clods.
The granaries are laid desolate.
The barns are broken down, for the
grain has withered.
1:18How the animals groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed,
because they have no pasture.
Yes, the flocks of sheep are made
desolate.
1:19Yahweh, I cry to you,
For the fire has devoured the
pastures of the wilderness,
And the flame has burned all the
trees of the field.
1:20Yes, the animals of the field
pant to you,
For the water brooks have dried up,
And the fire has devoured the
pastures of the wilderness.
2:1Blow 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 Yahweh comes,
For it is close at hand:
2:2A day of darkness and gloominess,
A day of clouds and thick darkness.
As the dawn spreading on the mountains,
A great and strong people;
There has never been the like,
Neither will there be any more after
them,
Even to the years of many generations.
2:3A 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 no one has escaped them.
2:4The appearance of them is as the
appearance of horses,
And as horsemen, so do they run.
2:5Like 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.
2:6At their presence the peoples are
in anguish.
All faces have grown pale.
2:7They run like mighty men.
They climb the wall like warriors.
They each march in his line, and they
don't swerve off course.
2:8Neither does one jostle another;
They march everyone in his path,
And they burst through the defenses,
And don't break ranks.
2:9They rush on the city.
They run on the wall.
They climb up into the houses.
They enter in at the windows like
thieves.
2:10The earth quakes before them.
The heavens tremble.
The sun and the moon are darkened,
And the stars withdraw their shining.
2:11Yahweh thunders his voice before
his army;
For his forces are very great;
For he is strong who obeys his
command;
For the day of Yahweh is great and
very awesome,
And who can endure it?
2:12"Yet even now," says
Yahweh, "turn to me with all your heart,
And with fasting, and with weeping,
and with mourning."
2:13Tear your heart, and not your
garments,
And turn to Yahweh, your God;
For he is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and abundant in loving
kindness,
And relents from sending calamity.
2:14Who knows? He may turn and relent,
And leave a blessing behind him,
Even a meal offering and a drink
offering to Yahweh, your God.
2:15Blow the trumpet in Zion!
Sanctify a fast.
Call a solemn assembly.
2:16Gather the people.
Sanctify the assembly.
Assemble the elders.
Gather the children, and those who
suck the breasts.
Let the bridegroom go forth from his room,
And the bride out of her chamber.
2:17Let the priests, the ministers of
Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar,
And let them say, "Spare your
people, Yahweh,
And don't give your heritage to
reproach,
That the nations should rule over
them.
Why should they say among the peoples,
'Where is their God?'" 2:18Then Yahweh was jealous for his
land,
And had pity on his people. 2:19Yahweh answered his people,
"Behold, I will send you grain,
new wine, and oil,
And you will be satisfied with them;
And I will no more make you a
reproach among the nations.
2:20But I will remove the northern
army far away from you,
And will drive it into a barren and
desolate land,
Its front into the eastern sea,
And its back into the western sea;
And its stench will come up,
And its bad smell will rise."
Surely he has done great things.
2:21Land, don't be afraid.
Be glad and rejoice, for Yahweh has
done great things.
2:22Don't be afraid, you animals of
the field;
For the pastures of the wilderness
spring up,
For the tree bears its fruit.
The fig tree and the vine yield their
strength.
2:23"Be glad then, you children
of Zion,
And rejoice in Yahweh, your God;
For he gives you the former rain in
just measure,
And he causes the rain to come down
for you,
The former rain and the latter rain,
As before.
2:24The threshing floors will be full
of wheat,
And the vats will overflow with new
wine and oil.
2:25I will restore to you the years
that the swarming locust has eaten,
The great locust, the grasshopper,
and the caterpillar,
My great army, which I sent among you.
2:26You will have plenty to eat, and
be satisfied,
And will praise the name of Yahweh,
your God,
Who has dealt wondrously with you;
And my people will never again be
disappointed.
2:27You will know that I am in the
midst of Israel,
And that I am Yahweh, your God, and
there is no one else;
And my people will never again be
disappointed.
2:28"It will happen afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
And your sons and your daughters will
prophesy.
Your old men will dream dreams.
Your young men will see visions.
2:29And also on the servants and on
the handmaids in those days,
I will pour out my Spirit. 2:30I will show wonders in the
heavens and in the earth:
Blood, fire, and pillars of smoke.
2:31The sun will be turned into
darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the great and terrible day of
Yahweh comes.
2:32It will happen that whoever will
call on the name of Yahweh shall be saved;
For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
there will be those who escape,
As Yahweh has said,
And among the remnant, those whom
Yahweh calls.
3:1"For, behold, in those days,
And in that time,
When I restore the fortunes of Judah
and Jerusalem,
3:2I will gather all nations,
And will bring them down into the
valley of Jehoshaphat;
And I will execute judgment on them
there for my people,
And for my heritage, Israel, whom
they have scattered among the nations.
They have divided my land,
3:3And have
cast lots for my people,
And have given a boy for a prostitute,
And sold a girl for wine, that they
may drink.
3:4"Yes, and what are you to me,
Tyre, and Sidon,
And all the regions of Philistia?
Will you repay me?
And if you repay me,
I will swiftly and speedily return
your repayment on your own head.
3:5Because you have taken my silver
and my gold,
And have carried my finest treasures
into your temples,
3:6And have
sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of
the Greeks,
That you may remove them far from
their border.
3:7Behold, I will stir them up out of
the place where you have sold them,
And will return your repayment on
your own head;
3:8And I will sell your sons and your
daughters into the hands of the children of Judah,
And they will sell them to the men of
Sheba,
To a faraway nation,
For Yahweh has spoken it."
3:9Proclaim this among the nations:
Prepare war.
Stir up the mighty men.
Let all the warriors draw near.
Let them come up. 3:10Beat your plowshares into swords,
And your pruning hooks into spears.
Let the weak say, "I am
strong."
3:11Hurry and come, all you
surrounding nations,
And gather yourselves together."
Cause your mighty ones to come down there, Yahweh.
3:12"Let the nations arouse
themselves,
And come up to the valley of
Jehoshaphat;
For there will I sit to judge all the
surrounding nations.
3:13Put in the sickle;
For the harvest is ripe.
Come, tread, for the winepress is
full,
The vats overflow, for their
wickedness is great."
3:14Multitudes, multitudes in the
valley of decision!
For the day of Yahweh is near, in the
valley of decision.
3:15The sun and the moon are darkened,
And the stars withdraw their
shining."
3:16Yahweh will roar from Zion,
And thunder from Jerusalem;
And the heavens and the earth will
shake;
But Yahweh will be a refuge to his
people,
And a stronghold to the children of
Israel.
3:17"So you will know that I am
Yahweh, your God,
Dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain.
Then Jerusalem will be holy,
And no strangers will pass through
her any more.
3:18It will happen in that day,
That the mountains will drop down
sweet wine,
The hills will flow with milk,
All the brooks of Judah will flow
with waters;
And a fountain will come forth from
the house of Yahweh,
And will water the valley of Shittim.
3:19Egypt will be a desolation,
And Edom will be a desolate
wilderness,
For the violence done to the children
of Judah,
Because they have shed innocent blood
in their land.
3:20But Judah will be inhabited
forever,
And Jerusalem from generation to
generation.
3:21I will cleanse their blood,
That I have not cleansed:
For Yahweh dwells in Zion."
© 2007 Anand Gholap, All Rights Reserved