ACV - Joel

Chapter 1

1:1  The word of Jehovah that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

1:2  Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Has this been in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

1:3  Tell ye your sons of it, and let your sons tell their sons, and their sons another generation.

1:4  That which the palmer-worm has left the locust has eaten, and that which the locust has left the canker-worm has eaten, and that which the canker-worm has left the caterpillar has eaten.

1:5  Awake, ye drunkards, and weep, and wail, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.

1:6  For a nation has come up upon my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the jaw-teeth of a lioness.

1:7  He has laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree. He has made it clean bare, and cast it away. The branches of it are made white.

1:8  Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

1:9  The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of Jehovah. The priests, Jehovah's ministers, mourn.

1:10  The field is laid waste; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil languishes.

1:11  Be confounded, O ye husbandmen. Wail, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley, for the harvest of the field is perished.

1:12  The vine is withered, and the fig tree languishes. The pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field are withered. For joy has withered away from the sons of men.

1:13  Gird yourselves with sackcloth, and lament, ye priests. Wail, ye ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God. For the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

1:14  Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the old men and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of Jehovah your God, and cry to Jehovah.

1:15  Alas for the day! For the day of Jehovah is at hand, and it shall come as destruction from the Almighty.

1:16  Is not the food cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

1:17  The seeds rot under their clods. The garners are laid desolate. The barns are broken down. For the grain is withered.

1:18  How do the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because they have no pasture, yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

1:19  O Jehovah, to thee do I cry. For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.

1:20  Yea, the beasts of the field pant to thee, for the water brooks are dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Chapter 2

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 Jehovah comes, for it is near at hand,

2:2  a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, as the dawn spreads upon the mountains, a great people and a strong, there has not ever been the like, nor shall be any more after them, even to the years of many generations.

2:3  A 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. Yea, and none has escaped them.

2:4  The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and as horsemen, so do they run.

2:5  They leap like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

2:6  At their presence the peoples are in anguish; all faces have grown pale.

2:7  They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like men of war, and they march each one on his ways. And they do not break their ranks.

2:8  Neither does one push another. They march each one in his path, and they burst through the weapons, and do not break off.

2:9  They leap upon the city. They run upon the wall. They climb up into the houses. They enter in at the windows like a thief.

2:10  The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

2:11  And Jehovah utters his voice before his army, for his camp is very great. For he is strong who executes his word. For the day of Jehovah is great and very fearful, and who can abide it?

2:12  Yet even now, says Jehovah, turn ye to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.

2:13  And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Jehovah your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents of the evil.

2:14  Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to Jehovah your God?

2:15  Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly.

2:16  Gather the people. Sanctify the assembly. Assemble the old men. Gather the sons, and those who suck the breasts. Let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.

2:17  Let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Jehovah, and do not give thy heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, Where is their God?

2:18  Then Jehovah was jealous for his land, and had pity on his people.

2:19  And Jehovah answered and said to his people, Behold, I will send you grain, and new wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith. And I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.

2:20  But I will remove the northern army far off from you, and will drive it into a land barren and desolate, its forepart into the eastern sea, and its rear part into the western sea. And its stench shall come up, and its foul odor shall come up, because it has done great things.

2:21  Fear not, O land. Be glad and rejoice, for Jehovah has done great things.

2:22  Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness spring, for the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and the vine yield their strength.

2:23  Be glad then, ye sons of Zion, and rejoice in Jehovah 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, in the first month.

2:24  And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.

2:25  And I will restore to you the years that the locust, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm has eaten-my great army which I sent among you.

2:26  And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied. And shall praise the name of Jehovah your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never be put to shame.

2:27  And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Jehovah your God, and there is none else. And my people shall never be put to shame.

2:28  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.

2:29  And also I will pour out my Spirit upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days.

2:30  And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

2:31  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and wonderful day of Jehovah comes.

2:32  And it shall come to pass, that whoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be saved. For in mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as Jehovah has said, and among the remnant those whom Jehovah calls.

Chapter 3

3:1  For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

3:2  I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will execute judgment upon them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations. And they have parted my land,

3:3  and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.

3:4  Yea, and what are ye to me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Will ye render me a recompense? And if ye recompense me, I will return your recompense swiftly and speedily upon your own head.

3:5  Inasmuch as ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly precious things,

3:6  and have sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem to the sons of the Grecians, that ye may remove them far from their border,

3:7  behold, I will stir them up out of the place where ye have sold them, and will return your recompense upon your own head.

3:8  And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they shall sell them to the men of Sheba, to a nation far off. For Jehovah has spoken it.

3:9  Proclaim ye this among the nations: Prepare war. Stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near. Let them come up.

3:10  Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am strong.

3:11  Hasten ye, and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together. Cause thy mighty ones to come down there, O Jehovah.

3:12  Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations round about.

3:13  Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread ye, for the winepress is full, the vats overflow. For their wickedness is great.

3:14  Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision.

3:15  The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

3:16  And Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake. But Jehovah will be a refuge to his people, and a stronghold to the sons of Israel.

3:17  So ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God, dwelling in Zion my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy, and no strangers shall pass through her any more.

3:18  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall flow with waters. And a fountain shall come forth from the house of Jehovah, and shall water the valley of Shittim.

3:19  Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the sons of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

3:20  But Judah shall abide forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

3:21  And I will cleanse their blood, that I have not cleansed. For Jehovah dwells in Zion.