1 *The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

2  aHear this, bye old men,

And give ear, ball ye inhabitants of the land.

bbHath this been in your days,

Or even in the days of your fathers?

3  cTell ye your children of it,

And let your children tell their children,

And their children another generation.

4  †That which dthe palmerworm hath left hath ethe locust eaten;

And that which ethe locust hath left hath fthe cankerworm eaten;

And that which fthe cankerworm hath left hath gthe caterpiller eaten.

5  Awake, ye drunkards, and weep;

And hhowl, all ye drinkers of wine,

Because of ithe new wine; kfor it is cut off from your mouth.

6  For la nation is come up upon my land,

lStrong, and without number,

mWhose teeth are the teeth of a lion,

And he hath nthe cheek teeth of a ogreat lion.

7  He hath laid my vine waste,

And †pbarked my fig tree:

He hath made it clean bare, and cast it away;

qThe branches thereof are made white.

8  Lament like a virgin rgirded with sackcloth for sthe husband of her youth.

9  tThe meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord;

uThe priests, uthe Lord’s ministers, mourn.

10  The field is wasted, vthe land mourneth;

For wthe corn is wasted: wxthe new wine is ||ydried up, wthe oil yylanguisheth.

11  zBe 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 ydried up, and pthe fig tree languisheth;

The pomegranate tree, athe palm tree also, and bthe apple tree,

Even all the trees of the field, are withered:

Because cjoy is ywithered away from the sons of men.

13  deGird yourselves, and dlament, ye priests:

dHowl, ye ministers of the altar:

Come, lie all night ein sackcloth, fye ministers of my God:

For fthe meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

14  gSanctify ye a fast, gcall a ||solemn assembly,

gGather hthe elders and hall the inhabitants of the land

Into the house of the Lord your God,

And cry unto the Lord,

15  Alas for the day! ifor the day of the Lord is at hand,

And as a jdestruction from kthe Almighty shall it come.

16  fIs not the meat cut off before our eyes,

Yea, ljoy and gladness ffrom the house of our God?

17  llThe †seed is rotten under their clods,

The garners are laid desolate, mthe barns are broken down;

For the corn is ywithered.

18  nHow do the beasts groan!

The herds of cattle nnare perplexed,

Because they have no pasture;

Yea, the flocks of sheep oare made desolate.

19  O Lord, pto thee will I cry:

For qthe fire hath devoured rthe ||pastures of the wilderness,

And sthe flame hath burned all the trees of the field.

20  nThe beasts of the field tcry also unto thee:

For uthe rivers of waters vare dried up,

And qthe fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

2 aBlow ye the ||trumpet bin Zion, and asound an alarm in bmy holy mountain:

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble:

cFor the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

2  cdeA day of darkness and deof gloominess,

dfA day of clouds and dfof thick darkness,

As gthe morning spread upon the mountains:

hA great people and a strong;

iThere hath not been ever the like,

Neither shall be any more after it,

Even to the years †of many generations.

3  jA fire devoureth before them;

And behind them ja flame burneth:

The land is as kthe garden of Eden before them,

And kkbehind them la desolate wilderness;

Yea, and llnothing shall escape them.

4  mThe appearance of them is as the appearance of horses;

And as horsemen, so shall they run.

5  nLike the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they nnleap,

Like the noise of a flame of ofire that devoureth the stubble,

hAs a strong people set in battle array.

6  Before their face the people shall be much pained:

pAll faces qshall 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 rthrust another;

They shall walk every one in his path:

And when they fall upon the ||sword, they shall not sbe wounded.

9  tThey shall urun to and fro in the city;

They shall urun upon the wall,

They shall climb up upon the houses;

vThey shall enter in at the windows vvlike a thief.

10  wThe earth shall quake before them;

wThe heavens shall tremble:

xyThe sun and the moon shall be dark,

xAnd the stars shall withdraw their shining:

11  And xxthe Lord shall utter his voice before yhis army:

For hhis zcamp is very great:

aFor he is strong that executeth his word:

For bcthe day of the Lord is great and very cterrible;

And dwho can abide it?

12  Therefore also now, saith the Lord,

eTurn ye even to me with all your heart,

And fwith fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:

13  And grend your heart, and not hyour garments,

And eturn unto the Lord your God:

For ijhe is gracious and ijmerciful,

ijSlow to anger, and ijkof great kindness,

And irepenteth him of the evil.

14  lWho knoweth if he will return and repent,

And leave ma blessing behind him;

Even na meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?

15  oBlow the trumpet in Zion,

pSanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:

16  Gather the people, qsanctify the congregation, assemble the elders,

rGather the children, and those that suck the breasts:

sLet the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her tcloset.

17  Let uthe priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep vbetween wthe porch and xthe altar,

And let them say, ySpare thy people, O Lord,

And give not thine heritage to reproach,

That the heathen should ||rule over them:

zWherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?

18  Then will the Lord abe jealous for his land,

And bpity his people.

19  Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people,

Behold, I will send you cdcorn, and cwine, and coil,

And ye shall be satisfied therewith:

And I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen:

20  But ddI will remove far off from you ethe northern army,

And will drive him into a land barren and desolate,

With his face toward fthe east sea,

And his hinder part toward gthe utmost sea,

And hhis 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  iBe not afraid, ye beasts of the field:

For kthe pastures of the wilderness do spring,

For lthe tree beareth her fruit,

lThe fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.

23  mBe glad then, ye children of Zion, and mrejoice in the Lord your God:

For he hath given you ||othe former rain †moderately,

And phe will cause to come down for you the rain,

oThe former rain, and qthe latter rain in the first month.

24  And the floors shall be full of cwheat,

And rthe fats shall overflow with cwine and coil.

25  And I will restore to you the years that sthe locust hath eaten,

sThe cankerworm, and sthe caterpiller, and sthe palmerworm,

tMy great army which I sent among you.

26  And cuye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied,

And praise the name of the Lord your God,

That hath dealt wondrously with you:

And vmy people shall never be ashamed.

27  wAnd ye shall know that I am xin the midst of Israel,

And that yI am the Lord your God, and none else:

And vmy people shall never be ashamed.

28  zAnd it shall come to pass afterward,

That aI will pour out my spirit upon all flesh;

And bcyour sons and cdyour daughters shall prophesy,

cYour old men shall dream edreams,

cYour young men shall see fvisions:

29  cAnd also upon gthe servants and upon the handmaids

In those days will I pour out my spirit.

30  And hI will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth,

Blood, and fire, and ipillars of smoke.

31  kThe sun shall be turned into darkness, and klthe moon into blood,

mBefore nthe great and mnthe terrible day of the Lord come.

32  And it shall come to pass, that owhosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered:

For pqin mount Zion and in Jerusalem prshall be deliverance,

As the Lord hath said,

And in sthe remnant whom the Lord shall call.

3 For, behold, ain those days, and in that time,

aWhen I shall bbring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

2  cI will also gather all nations,

And will bring them down dinto the valley of Jehoshaphat,

And ewill plead with them there for my people and for fmy heritage Israel,

Whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

3  And gthey 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, hiO Tyre, and iZidon,

And all jthe coasts of ikPalestine?

Will ye render me a recompence?

And if ye recompense me,

lSwiftly and speedily mwill I return your recompence upon your own head;

5  Because nye have taken my silver and my gold,

And have carried into your temples my goodly †pleasant things:

6  nThe children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem ohave ye sold unto †pthe 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 mwill return your recompence upon your own head:

8  And qI will sell your sons and your daughters

Into the hand of the children of Judah,

And they shall sell them to rsthe Sabeans, to a people sfar 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  tBeat your plowshares into swords,

And tyour ||pruninghooks into spears:

uLet the weak say, I am strong.

11  vcAssemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen,

And cvgather yourselves together round about:

Thither ||cause wthy mighty ones to come down, O Lord.

12  Let the heathen be wakened, and come up dto the valley of Jehoshaphat:

For there will I sit xto judge all the heathen round about.

13  yPut ye in zthe sickle, yfor athe harvest is ripe:

Come, get you down; for bthe press is full, cthe fats overflow;

For their wickedness is great.

14  dMultitudes, multitudes ein the valley of ||gdecision:

For hthe day of the Lord is near ein the valley of decision.

15  iThe sun and the moon shall be darkened,

iAnd the stars shall withdraw their shining.

16  jThe Lord also shall roar out of Zion,

jAnd kutter his voice from Jerusalem;

And ithe heavens and the earth shall shake:

But the Lord will be the †hope of his people,

And lthe strength of the children of Israel.

17  mSo shall ye know that I am the Lord your God

nDwelling oin Zion, opmy holy mountain:

Then shall Jerusalem be †holy,

And there shall qno strangers pass through her any more.

18  And it shall come to pass rin that day,

That stthe mountains shall drop down unew wine,

And tthe hills shall †flow with milk,

And vall the rivers of Judah shall †flow with waters,

And wa fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord,

And shall water the valley of xShittim.

19  yEgypt shall be a desolation,

And zEdom shall be aa desolate wilderness,

For bthe violence against the children of Judah,

Because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

20  But Judah shall ||dwell cfor ever,

And Jerusalem from generation to generation.

21  For dI will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed:

||For ethe Lord dwelleth in Zion.