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- JOEL:
-
-
- CHAPTER 1
-
-
- 1. The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
-
- 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?
-
- 3. Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their
- children, and their children another generation.
-
- 4. 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.
-
- 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.
-
- 6. 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.
-
- 7. 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.
-
- 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 the LORD; the priests, the LORD'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 ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye 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, 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.
-
- 14. 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,
-
- 15. Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as
- a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
-
- 16. Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and
- gladness from the house of our God?
-
- 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 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.
-
- 20. 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.
-
-
- CHAPTER 2
-
-
- 1. 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;
-
- 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 hath not been ever the like, neither
- shall 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 shall escape them.
-
- 4. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as
- horsemen, so shall they run.
-
- 5. 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.
-
- 6. Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces
- shall gather blackness.
-
- 7. 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:
-
- 8. 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.
-
- 9. 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.
-
- 10. 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:
-
- 11. 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?
-
- 12. Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye 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
- the LORD your God: 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 the LORD your God?
-
- 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 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?
-
- 18. Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his
- people.
-
- 19. 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:
-
- 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 shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up,
- because he hath done great things.
-
- 21. Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do
- great things.
-
- 22. 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.
-
- 23. 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.
-
- 24. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall
- overflow with wine and oil.
-
- 25. 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.
-
- 26. 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.
-
- 27. 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.
-
- 28. 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:
-
- 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 shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into
- blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come.
-
- 32. 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.
-
-
- CHAPTER 3
-
-
- 1. For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall
- 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 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;
-
- 5. Because ye 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
- ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from
- their border.
-
- 7. Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye 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 shall sell them to the Sabeans, to
- a people far off: for the LORD hath spoken it.
-
- 9. 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:
-
- 10. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruninghooks into
- spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
-
- 11. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather
- yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to
- come down, O LORD.
-
- 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 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.
-
- 14. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the
- day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
-
- 15. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall
- withdraw their shining.
-
- 16. 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.
-
- 17. 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.
-
- 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 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.
-
- 19. 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.
-
- 20. But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from
- generation to generation.
-
- 21. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for
- the LORD dwelleth in Zion.
-