Hosea 14 - Joel 1

New King James Version

Israel Restored at Last

14 O Israel, ^(A)return to the Lord your God,
For you have stumbled because of your iniquity;
²Take words with you,
And return to the Lord.
Say to Him,
“Take away all iniquity;
Receive us graciously,
For we will offer the ^(B)sacrifices^[a] of our lips.
³Assyria shall ^(C)not save us,
^(D)We will not ride on horses,
Nor will we say anymore to the work of our hands, ‘You are our gods.’
^(E)For in You the fatherless finds mercy.”

⁴“I will heal their ^(F)backsliding,
I will ^(G)love them freely,
For My anger has turned away from him.
⁵I will be like the ^(H)dew to Israel;
He shall ^[b]grow like the lily,
And ^[c]lengthen his roots like Lebanon.
⁶His branches shall ^[d]spread;
^(I)His beauty shall be like an olive tree,
And ^(J)his fragrance like Lebanon.
⁷^(K)Those who dwell under his shadow shall return;
They shall be revived like grain,
And ^[e]grow like a vine.
Their ^[f]scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

⁸“Ephraim shall say, ‘What have I to do anymore with idols?’
I have heard and observed him.
I am like a green cypress tree;
^(L)Your fruit is found in Me.”

⁹Who is wise?
Let him understand these things.
Who is prudent?
Let him know them.
For ^(M)the ways of the Lord are right;
The righteous walk in them,
But transgressors stumble in them.

The Locust Plague in Judah

1 The word of the Lord that came to ^(N)Joel the son of Pethuel.

The Land Laid Waste^(O)

²Hear this, you elders,
And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land!
^(P)Has anything like this happened in your days,
Or even in the days of your fathers?
³^(Q)Tell your children about it,
Let your children tell their children,
And their children another generation.

⁴^(R)What the chewing ^[g]locust left, the ^(S)swarming locust has eaten;
What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten;
And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.

⁵Awake, you ^(T)drunkards, and weep;
And wail, all you drinkers of wine,
Because of the new wine,
^(U)For it has been cut off from your mouth.
⁶For ^(V)a nation has come up against My land,
Strong, and without number;
^(W)His teeth are the teeth of a lion,
And he has the fangs of a ^[h]fierce lion.
⁷He has ^(X)laid waste My vine,
And ^[i]ruined My fig tree;
He has stripped it bare and thrown it away;
Its branches are made white.

⁸^(Y)Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth
For ^(Z)the husband of her youth.
⁹^(AA)The grain offering and the drink offering
Have been cut off from the house of the Lord;
The priests ^(AB)mourn, who minister to the Lord.
¹⁰The field is wasted,
^(AC)The land mourns;
For the grain is ruined,
^(AD)The new wine is dried up,
The oil fails.

¹¹^(AE)Be ashamed, you farmers,
Wail, you vinedressers,
For the wheat and the barley;
Because the harvest of the field has perished.
¹²^(AF)The vine has dried up,
And the fig tree has withered;
The pomegranate tree,
The palm tree also,
And the apple tree—
All the trees of the field are withered;
Surely ^(AG)joy has withered away from the sons of men.

Mourning for the Land

¹³^(AH)Gird yourselves and lament, you priests;
Wail, you who minister before the altar;
Come, lie all night in sackcloth,
You who minister to my God;
For the grain offering and the drink offering
Are withheld from the house of your God.
¹⁴^(AI)Consecrate a fast,
Call ^(AJ)a sacred assembly;
Gather the elders
And ^(AK)all the inhabitants of the land
Into the house of the Lord your God,
And cry out to the Lord.

¹⁵^(AL)Alas for the day!
For ^(AM)the day of the Lord is at hand;
It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
¹⁶Is not the food ^(AN)cut off before our eyes,
^(AO)Joy and gladness from the house of our God?
¹⁷The seed shrivels under the clods,
Storehouses are in shambles;
Barns are broken down,
For the grain has withered.
¹⁸How ^(AP)the animals groan!
The herds of cattle are restless,
Because they have no pasture;
Even the flocks of sheep ^[j]suffer punishment.

¹⁹O Lord, ^(AQ)to You I cry out;
For ^(AR)fire has devoured the ^[k]open pastures,
And a flame has burned all the trees of the field.
²⁰The beasts of the field also ^(AS)cry out to You,
For ^(AT)the water brooks are dried up,
And fire has devoured the ^[l]open pastures.