Bible (World English)/Joel

== Chapter 1 ==
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 livestock 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.
==Chapter 2==
2:1
: 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.
:
==Chapter 3==
3:1
: 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 for 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.”
Category:World English Bible
Category:Bible books
Category:Old Testament
Category:Old Testament books