Chapter 1
1 The word of the Lord, which was addressed to Joel, son of Phatuel.
2 Listen to this, old men; give ear, YOU all inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell it to your children, and your children to their children, and their children to another generation.
4 What the locust left, the grasshopper devoured; what the grasshopper left, the locust devoured; what the locust left, the swarm devoured.
5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; YOU All you wine drinkers, lament because of the new wine, for it is taken out of your mouths.
6 For a people has come up against my land, powerful and without number; their teeth are the teeth of lions, and they have the jaws of a lioness.
7 He has devastated my vineyard, and broken my fig tree in pieces; he has stripped them completely and cut them down; the branches have turned completely white.
8 Grieve like a virgin clothed in sackcloth, for cry her husband from her youth.
9 Offerings and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of Yahweh; the priests, ministers of Yahweh, are in mourning!
10 The fields are ravaged, the ground mourns; for the grain is destroyed, the new wine is in confusion, the oil languishes.
11 Be ashamed, farmers, and wail, vinedressers, because of the wheat and barley; for the harvest of the fields is destroyed.
12 The vine is in confusion, and the fig trees languish; the pomegranate, and also the palm and the apple tree, all the trees of the field are withered; joy has removed confused, far children of men.
13 Priests, gird yourselves and raise your voices in lamentation; wail, ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night dressed from the sack, ministers of my God; for the offering and the drink offering are withheld far from the house of your God.
14 Declare a fast, call a council, and gather the elders and all who live in the land into the house of the Lord your God,
15 and cry out to Yahweh: »Ah! What a day!…«
For the day of Yahweh is near! It comes like destruction from the Almighty!
16 Has not the food been taken away before our very eyes, as well as joy and the joy of the house of our God?
17 The seeds have dried up under their clods; the granaries are empty, the stores are falling into ruin, because the wheat is in confusion.
18 How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are dismayed, because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep suffer.
19 I cry out to you, Yahweh; for the fire has devoured the pastures of the desert, the flame has burned all the trees of the fields.
20 Even the wild beasts bellow after you, because the streams of water have dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the desert.
Chapter 2
1 Blow the horn in Zion, and sound the trumpet on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is near!
2 A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like the dawn spreading over the mountains, a people come, numerous and strong, such as there have never been since the beginning, and such as there will not be after him, until the years of the most distant ages.
3 Before him fire devours, and behind him flame burns. The land is like the Garden of Eden before him, and behind him a desolate wilderness; nothing escapes him.
4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and they run like riders.
5 We hear like the sound of tanks, leaping over the mountain peaks! It is like the sound of a flame of fire, which devours the stubble; it is like a robust people, drawn up in battle array.
6 Before him the peoples tremble with fear, all faces turn pale.
7 They run like heroes; they scale the wall like warriors; they each walk in their own paths, they do not confuse their ways.
8 They do not push one another, each goes on his own way; they rush through the darts, and they do not break their ranks.
9 They spread throughout the city, they run along the wall, they climb into the houses; they enter through the windows, like a thief.
10 Before him the earth trembles, the heavens quake, the sun and moon grow dark, the stars lose their brightness.
11 The Lord raises his voice at the head of his army; for his camp is immense, for mighty is the one who executes his word. For the day of the Lord is great and very dreadful; and who can endure it?
12 But even now – declares the Lord – return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with tears and with mourning.
13 Rend your hearts, and not your garments, and return to the Lord your God, for he is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he grieves over evil. that he sends.
14 Who knows if he will not turn back and repent, and leave behind him a blessing, an offering and a drink offering for Yahweh our God?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, proclaim a fast, call a meeting.
16 Assemble the people, proclaim a holy convocation, gather the elders, assemble the children and infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his chamber, and the bride her pavilion.
17 Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the portico and the altar, and say: »Lord, spare your people, and do not make your inheritance a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, «Where is their God?’”
18 Yahweh was moved with jealousy for his land, and he had compassion on his people.
19 Yahweh answered and said to his people: Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with them; and I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.
20 He who come from the north, I will drive it far from you, and I will drive it into a dry and desolate land, the vanguard toward the eastern sea, the rearguard toward the western sea; a foul stench will arise from it, and its stench will ascend, for it has done great things!
21 O land, do not be afraid, but be glad and rejoice; for the Lord has done great things!
22 Do not be afraid, beasts of the field, for the pastures of the desert have turned green again, for the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.
23 And YOU, Children of Zion, rejoice and be glad in the Lord your God, for he has given you the teacher of the Lord. teach you justice, and he sends down for you the showers, the autumn rains and the spring rains, as formerly.
24 Your threshing floors will be filled with wheat, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
25 I will compensate you for the years that the locust, the locust, the locust, and the grasshopper, my great army, which I sent against you, have eaten.
26 You will eat abundantly and be satisfied, and you will praise the name of Yahweh your God, who has done marvelous things for you; and my people will never again be put to shame.
27 And you will know that I am in the midst of Israel! I am Yahweh, your God, and there is no other, and my people will never again be put to shame!
Chapter 3
1 And after this, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
2 Even on the male and female servants, in those days I will pour out my spirit.
3 I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.
4 The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.
5 And whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem there will be a gathering of the saved, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors whom the Lord calls!
Chapter 4
1 For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will gather all the nations, and I will bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and there I will enter into judgment with them concerning my people and my heritage of Israel, whom they scattered among the nations, and my land, which they divided up.
3 Because They cast lots on my people, they gave the young boy for a prostitute, and they sold the young girl for wine, and they drank.
4 And YOU Also, what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon, and all the districts of Philistia? Would you seek revenge from me? If you provoke me, I will quickly, swiftly make your provocation fall back on your own head;
5 YOU who have taken my silver and my gold, and who have carried off my most precious jewels into your temples;
6 YOU who sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of Javan, so that they would be driven far from their land!
7 Behold, I will raise them up from the place where you sold them, and I will bring your provocation back upon your own head.
8 I will sell your sons and daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, who will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant people; for Yahweh has spoken.
9 Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Raise up the valiant! Let all the fighting men approach, let them come up!
10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, »I am brave!«
11 Hurry and come, YOU All you surrounding nations, gather together! There, Yahweh, bring down your brave men!
12 Let the nations arise and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat! For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.
13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come, tread, for the winepress is full; the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.
14 Crowds, crowds in the valley of decision!
15 The sun and moon grew dark, and the stars lost their brightness.
16 From Zion the Lord will roar, from Jerusalem he will utter his voice; the heavens and the earth will tremble. But the Lord will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the children of Israel.
17 And you will know that I am Yahweh, your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain; Jerusalem will be a sanctuary, and foreigners will no longer pass through it.
18 On that day the mountains will drip with new wine, the hills with milk, and all the streams of Judah will run with water. A spring will flow from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Acacias.
19 Egypt will become a desolate land, Edom a desolate desert, because of the violence committed against the children of Judah, because they shed innocent blood in their land.
20 But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
21 And I will wash away their blood, which I have not yet washed away. And the Lord will dwell in Zion.
