The Prophecy of Joel, Chapter 1

1   The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Phatuel.
2   Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of
    the land: did this ever happen in your days, or in the
    days of your fathers?
3   Tell ye of this to your children, and let your children
    tell their children, and their children to another
    generation.
4   That which the palmerworm hath left, the locust hath
    eaten: and that which the locust hath left, the bruchus
    hath eaten: and that which the bruchus hath left, the
    mildew hath destroyed.
5   Awake, ye that are drunk, and weep, and mourn all ye that
    take delight in drinking sweet wine: for it is cut off
    from your mouth.
6   For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without
    number: his teeth are like the teeth of a lion: and his
    cheek teeth as of a lion's whelp.
7   He hath laid my vineyard waste, and hath pilled off the
    bark of my fig tree: he hath stripped it 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   Sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of the
    Lord: the priests, the Lord's ministers, have mourned:
10  The country is destroyed, the ground hath mourned: for the
    corn is wasted, the wine is confounded, the oil hath
    languished.
11  The husbandmen are ashamed, the vinedressers have howled
    for the wheat, and for the barley, because the harvest of
    the field is perished.
12  The vineyard is confounded, and the fig tree hath
    languished: the pomegranate tree, and the palm tree, and
    the apple tree, and all the trees of the field are
    withered: because joy is withdrawn from the children of
    men.
13  Gird yourselves, and lament, O ye priests, howl, ye
    ministers of the altars: go in, lie in sackcloth, ye
    ministers of my God: because sacrifice and libation is cut
    off from the house of your God.
14  Sanctify ye a fast, call an assembly; gather together the
    ancients, all the inhabitants of the land into the house
    of your God: and cry ye to the Lord:
15  Ah, ah, ah, for the day: because the day of the Lord is at
    hand, and it shall come like destruction from the mighty.
16  Is not your food cut off before your eyes, joy and
    gladness from the house of our God?
17  The beasts have rotted in their dung, the barns are
    destroyed, the storehouses are broken down: because the
    corn is confounded.
18  Why did the beast groan, why did the herds of cattle low?
    because there is no pasture for them: yea, and the flocks
    of sheep are perished.
19  To thee, 0
    Lord, will I cry: because fire hath devoured the beautiful
    places of the wilderness, and the flame hath burnt all the
    trees of the country.
20  Yea and the beasts of the field have looked up to thee, as
    a garden bed that thirsteth after rain, for the springs of
    waters are dried up, and fire hath devoured the beautiful
    places of the wilderness.
 

              The Prophecy of Joel, Chapter 2

1   Blow ye the trumpet in Sion, sound an alarm in my holy
    mountain, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble:
    because the day of the Lord cometh, because it is nigh at
    hand,
2   A day of darkness, and of gloominess, a day of clouds and
    whirlwinds: a numerous and strong people as the morning
    spread upon the mountains: the like to it hath not been
    from the beginning, nor shall be after it even to the
    years of generation and generation.
3   Before the face thereof a devouring fire, and behind it a
    burning flame: the land is like a garden of pleasure
    before it, and behind it a desolate wilderness, neither is
    there any one that can escape it.
4   The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and
    they shall run like horsemen.
5   They shall leap like the noise of chariots upon the tops
    of mountains, like the noise of a flame of fire devouring
    the stubble, as a strong people prepared to battle.
6   At their presence the people shall be in grievous pains:
    all faces shall be made like a kettle.
7   They shall run like valiant men: like men of war they
    shall scale the wall: the men shall march every one on his
    way, and they shall not turn aside from their ranks.
8   No one shall press upon his brother: they shall walk every
    one in his path: yea, and they shall fall through the
    windows, and shall take no harm.
9   They shall enter into the city: they shall run upon the
    wall, they shall climb up the houses, they shall come in
    at the windows as a thief.
10  At their presence the earth hath trembled, the heavens are
    moved: the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars have
    withdrawn their shining.
11  And the Lord hath uttered his voice before the face of his
    army: for his armies are exceeding great, for they are
    strong and execute his word: for the day of the Lord is
    great and very terrible: and who can stand it?
12  Now therefore saith the Lord: Be converted to me with all
    your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning.
13  And rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to
    the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful,
    patient and rich in mercy, and ready to repent of the
    evil.
14  Who knoweth but he will return, and forgive, and leave a
    blessing behind him, sacrifice and libation to the Lord
    your God?
15  Blow the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn
    assembly,
16  Gather together the people, sanctify the church, assemble
    the ancients, gather together the little ones, and them
    that suck at the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth from
    his bed, and the bride out of her bride chamber.
17  Between the porch and the altar the priests the Lord's
    ministers shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, spare
    thy people: and give not thy inheritance to reproach, that
    the heathen should rule over them. Why should they say
    among the nations: Where is their God?
18  The Lord hath been zealous for his land, and hath spared
    his people.
19  And the Lord answered and said to his people: Behold I
    will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and you shall be
    filled with them: and I will no more make you a reproach
    among the nations.
20  And I will remove far off from you the northern enemy: and
    I will drive him into a land unpassable, and desert, with
    his face towards the east sea, and his hinder part towards
    the utmost sea: and his stench shall ascend, and his
    rottenness shall go up, because he hath done proudly.
21  Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice: for the Lord hath
    done great things.
22  Fear not, ye beasts of the fields: for the beautiful
    places of the wilderness are sprung, for the tree hath
    brought forth its fruit, the fig tree, and the vine have
    yielded their strength.
23  And you, O children of Sion, rejoice, and be joyful in the
    Lord your God: because he hath given you a teacher of
    justice, and he will make the early and the latter rain to
    come down to you as in the beginning.
24  And the floors shall be filled with wheat, and the presses
    shall overflow with wine and oil.
25  And I will restore to you the ears which the locust, and
    the bruchus, and the mildew, and the palmerworm have
    eaten; my great host which I sent upon you.
26  And you shall eat in plenty, and shall be filled: and you
    shall praise the name of the Lord your God, who hath done
    wonders with you, and my people shall not be confounded
    for ever.
27  And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: and
    I am the Lord your God, and there is none besides: and my
    people shall not be confounded for ever.
28  And it shall come to pass after this, that I will pour out
    my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters
    shall prophesy: your old men shall dream dreams, and your
    young men shall see visions.
29  Moreover upon my servants and handmaids in those days I
    will pour forth my spirit.
30  And I will shew wonders in heaven; and in earth, blood,
    and fire, and vapour of smoke.
31  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into
    blood: before the great and dreadful day of the Lord doth
    come.
32  And it shall come to pass, that every one that shall call
    upon the name of the Lord shall be saved: for in mount
    Sion, and in Jerusalem shall be salvation, as the Lord
    hath said, and in the residue whom the Lord shall call.
 

              The Prophecy of Joel, Chapter 3

1   For behold in those days, and in that time when I shall
    bring back the captivity of Juda and Jerusalem:
2   I will gather together all nations, and will bring them
    down into the valley of Josaphat: and I will plead with
    them there for my people, and for my inheritance Israel,
    whom they have scattered among the nations, and have
    parted my land.
3   And they have cast lots upon my people: and the boy they
    have put in the stews, and the girl they have sold for
    wine, that they might drink.
4   But what have you to do with me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and
    all the coast of the Philistines? will you revenge
    yourselves on me? and if you revenge yourselves on me, I
    will very soon return you a recompense upon your own head.
5   For you have taken away my silver and my gold: and my
    desirable and most beautiful things you have carried into
    your temples.
6   And the children of Juda, and the children of Jerusalem
    you have sold to the children of the Greeks, that you
    might remove them far off from their own country.
7   Behold, I will raise them up out of the place wherein you
    have sold them: and I will return your recompense upon
    your own heads.
8   And I will sell your sons, and your daughters by the hands
    of the children of Juda, and they shall sell them to the
    Sabeans, a nation far off, for the Lord hath spoken it.
9   Proclaim ye this among the nations: prepare war, rouse up
    the strong: let them come, let all the men of war come up.
10  Cut your ploughshares into swords, and your spades into
    spears. Let the weak say: I am strong.
11  Break forth, and come, all ye nations, from round about,
    and gather yourselves together: there will the Lord cause
    all thy strong ones to fall down.
12  Let them arise, and let the nations come up into the
    valley of Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all
    nations round about.
13  Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe: come and
    go down, for the press is full, the fats run over: for
    their wickedness is multiplied.
14  Nations, nations in the valley of destruction: for the day
    of the Lord is near in the valley of destruction.
15  The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars have
    withdrawn their shining.
16  And the Lord shall roar out of Sion, and utter his voice
    from Jerusalem: and the heavens and the earth shall be
    moved, and the Lord shall be the hope of his people, and
    the strength of the children of Israel.
17  And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling
    in Sion my holy mountain: and Jerusalem shall be holy and
    strangers shall pass through it no more.
18  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains
    shall drop down sweetness, and the hills shall flow with
    milk: and waters shall flow through all the rivers of
    Juda: and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the
    Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns.
19  Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom a wilderness
    destroyed: because they have done unjustly against the
    children of Juda, and have shed innocent blood in their
    land.
20  And Judea shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem to
    generation and generation.
21  And I will cleanse their blood which I had not cleansed:
    and the Lord will dwell in Sion.