Joel 1

English Standard Version

1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

An Invasion of Locusts

²^(A)Hear this, ^(B)you elders;
    give ear, ^(C)all inhabitants of the land!
^(D)Has such a thing happened in your days,
    or in the days of your fathers?
³^(E)Tell your children of it,
    and let your children tell their children,
    and their children to another generation.

⁴What ^(F)the cutting locust left,
    ^(G)the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
    ^(H)the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
    ^(I)the destroying locust has eaten.

⁵Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
    and ^(J)wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of ^(K)the sweet wine,
    for it is cut off from your mouth.
⁶For ^(L)a nation has come up against my land,
    ^(M)powerful and beyond number;
^(N)its teeth are lions' teeth,
    and it has the fangs of a lioness.
⁷It has laid waste my vine
    and splintered my ^(O)fig tree;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
    their branches are made white.

⁸Lament like a virgin^[a] ^(P)wearing sackcloth
    for the bridegroom of her youth.
⁹^(Q)The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
    from the house of the Lord.
^(R)The priests mourn,
    ^(S)the ministers of the Lord.
¹⁰The fields are destroyed,
    ^(T)the ground mourns,
because ^(U)the grain is destroyed,
    ^(V)the wine dries up,
    the oil languishes.

¹¹^(W)Be ashamed,^[b] O tillers of the soil;
    wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley,
    ^(X)because the harvest of the field has perished.
¹²The vine dries up;
    ^(Y)the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
    all the trees of the field are dried up,
and ^(Z)gladness dries up
    from the children of man.

A Call to Repentance

¹³^(AA)Put on sackcloth and lament, ^(AB)O priests;
    ^(AC)wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, ^(AD)pass the night in sackcloth,
    ^(AE)O ministers of my God!
^(AF)Because grain offering and drink offering
    are withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁴^(AG)Consecrate a fast;
    ^(AH)call a solemn assembly.
Gather ^(AI)the elders
    and ^(AJ)all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
    and cry out to the Lord.

¹⁵Alas for the day!
^(AK)For the day of the Lord is near,
    and as destruction from the Almighty^[c] it comes.
¹⁶Is not the food cut off
    before our eyes,
^(AL)joy and gladness
    from the house of our God?

¹⁷^(AM)The seed shrivels under the clods;^[d]
    the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
    because ^(AN)the grain has dried up.
¹⁸How ^(AO)the beasts groan!
    The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
    even the flocks of sheep suffer.^[e]

¹⁹To you, ^(AP)O Lord, I call.
^(AQ)For fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness,
^(AR)and flame has burned
    all the trees of the field.
²⁰Even the beasts of the field ^(AS)pant for you
    because the water brooks are dried up,
^(AT)and fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness.

Footnotes

Joel 1:8 Or young woman
Joel 1:11 The Hebrew words for dry up and be ashamed in verses 10–12, 17 sound alike
Joel 1:15 Destruction sounds like the Hebrew for Almighty
Joel 1:17 The meaning of the Hebrew line is uncertain
Joel 1:18 Or are made desolate

Joel 2:12-14

English Standard Version

Return to the Lord

¹²“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
    ^(A)“return to me with all your heart,
^(B)with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
¹³    and ^(C)rend your hearts and not ^(D)your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
    ^(E)for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
    ^(F)and he relents over disaster.
¹⁴^(G)Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
    and ^(H)leave a blessing behind him,
^(I)a grain offering and a drink offering
    for the Lord your God?

Read full chapter

Joel 2:23-29

English Standard Version

²³^(A)“Be glad, O children of Zion,
    and ^(B)rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given ^(C)the early rain for your vindication;
    he has poured down for you abundant rain,
    ^(D)the early and ^(E)the latter rain, as before.

²⁴“The threshing floors shall be full of grain;
    the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
²⁵I will restore^[a] to you the years
    that ^(F)the swarming locust has eaten,
^(G)the hopper, ^(H)the destroyer, and ^(I)the cutter,
    ^(J)my great army, which I sent among you.

²⁶^(K)“You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
    and praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has dealt wondrously with you.
And my people ^(L)shall never again be put to shame.
²⁷^(M)You shall know that I am ^(N)in the midst of Israel,
    and that ^(O)I am the Lord your God ^(P)and there is none else.
And my people ^(Q)shall never again be put to shame.

The Lord Will Pour Out His Spirit

²⁸^[b] ^(R)“And it shall come to pass afterward,
    that ^(S)I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
^(T)your sons and ^(U)your daughters shall prophesy,
    your old men shall dream dreams,
    and your young men shall see visions.
²⁹^(V)Even on the male and female servants
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit.