Joel 1:1-2:25

New American Standard Bible

The Devastation by Locusts

1 The ^(A)word of the Lord that came to ^(B)Joel, the son of Pethuel:

²^(C)Hear this, you ^(D)elders,
And listen, all inhabitants of the land.
^(E)Has anything like this happened in your days,
Or in your fathers’ days?
³^(F)Tell your sons about it,
And have your sons tell their sons,
And their sons the next generation.

⁴What the ^(G)gnawing locust has left, the ^[a]swarming locust has eaten;
And what the ^(H)swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten;
And what the creeping locust has left, the ^(I)stripping locust has eaten.
⁵Awake, ^(J)you heavy drinkers, and weep;
And wail, all you wine drinkers,
Because of the sweet wine,
For it has been ^(K)eliminated from your mouth.
⁶For a ^(L)nation has ^[b]invaded my land,
Mighty and without number;
^(M)Its teeth are the teeth of a lion,
And it has the jaws of a lioness.
⁷It has ^(N)made my vine a waste
And my fig tree a stump.
It has stripped them bare and hurled them away;
Their branches have become white.

⁸^(O)Wail like a virgin ^(P)clothed with sackcloth
For the groom of her youth.
⁹The ^(Q)grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off
From the house of the Lord.
The ^(R)priests mourn,
The ministers of the Lord.
¹⁰The field is ^(S)ruined,
^(T)The land mourns;
For the grain is ruined,
The new wine has dried up,
Fresh oil has ^[c]failed.
¹¹^(U)Be ashamed, you farm workers,
Wail, you vinedressers,
For the wheat and the barley;
Because the ^(V)harvest of the field is destroyed.
¹²The ^(W)vine has dried up
And the fig tree has withered;
The ^(X)pomegranate, the ^(Y)palm also, and the ^(Z)apple tree,
All the trees of the field have dried up.
Indeed, ^(AA)joy has dried up
From the sons of mankind.

¹³^(AB)Put on sackcloth
And mourn, you priests;
^(AC)Wail, you ministers of the altar!
Come, ^(AD)spend the night in sackcloth,
You ministers of my God,
For the grain offering and the drink offering
Have been withheld from the house of your God.

Starvation and Drought

¹⁴^(AE)Consecrate a fast,
Proclaim a ^(AF)solemn assembly;
Gather the elders
And all the inhabitants of the land
To the house of the Lord your God,
And ^(AG)cry out to the Lord.
¹⁵^(AH)Woe for the day!
For the ^(AI)day of the Lord is near,
And it will come as ^(AJ)destruction from the ^[d]Almighty.
¹⁶Has ^(AK)food not been cut off before our eyes, and
Joy and ^(AL)rejoicing from the house of our God?
¹⁷The ^[e]^(AM)seeds have dried up under their shovels;
The storehouses have become desolate,
The grain silos are ruined,
Because the grain has dried up.
¹⁸How ^(AN)the animals have groaned!
The herds of cattle have wandered aimlessly
Because there is no pasture for them;
Even the flocks of sheep have ^[f]suffered.
¹⁹^(AO)To You, Lord, I cry out;
For ^(AP)fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness,
And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.
²⁰Even the animals of the field ^[g]^(AQ)pant for You;
For the ^(AR)stream beds of water are dried up,
And fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

The Terrible Visitation

2 ^(AS)Blow a trumpet in Zion,
And sound an alarm on My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
For the ^(AT)day of the Lord is coming;
Indeed, it is near,
²A day of ^(AU)darkness and gloom,
A day of clouds and thick darkness.
As dawn is spread over the mountains,
So there is a ^(AV)great and mighty people;
There has ^(AW)never been anything like it,
Nor will there be again after it
To the years of many generations.
³A ^(AX)fire consumes before them,
And behind them a flame devours.
The land is ^(AY)like the Garden of Eden before them,
But a ^(AZ)desolate wilderness behind them,
And nothing at all escapes them.
⁴Their ^(BA)appearance is like the appearance of horses;
And like war horses, so they run.
⁵^[h]With a ^(BB)noise as of chariots
They leap about on the tops of the mountains,
Like the ^[i]crackling of a ^(BC)flame of fire consuming the stubble,
Like a mighty people drawn up for battle.
⁶Before them the people are in ^(BD)anguish;
All ^(BE)faces ^[j]turn pale.
⁷They run like warriors,
They climb the wall like soldiers;
And each of them ^(BF)marches ^[k]in line,
Nor do they lose their way.
⁸They do not crowd each other,
Every warrior of them marches in his path;
When they ^[l]burst through the ^[m]defenses,
They do not break ranks.
⁹They storm the city,
They run on the wall;
They climb into the ^(BG)houses,
They ^(BH)enter through the windows like a thief.
¹⁰Before them the earth ^(BI)quakes,
The heavens tremble,
The ^(BJ)sun and the moon become dark,
And the stars lose their brightness.
¹¹The Lord ^(BK)utters His voice before ^(BL)His army;
His camp is indeed very great,
For ^(BM)mighty is one who carries out His word.
The ^(BN)day of the Lord is indeed great and very awesome,
And ^(BO)who can endure it?
¹²“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“^(BP)Return to Me with all your heart,
And with ^(BQ)fasting, weeping, and mourning;
¹³And ^(BR)tear your heart and not merely ^(BS)your garments.”
Now return to the Lord your God,
For He is ^(BT)gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger, abounding in mercy
And ^(BU)relenting of catastrophe.
¹⁴Who knows, ^(BV)He might turn and relent,
And leave a ^(BW)blessing behind Him,
Resulting in ^(BX)a grain offering and a drink offering
For the Lord your God.
¹⁵^(BY)Blow a trumpet in Zion,
^(BZ)Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly,
¹⁶Gather the people, ^(CA)sanctify the congregation,
Assemble the elders,
Gather the children and the nursing infants.
Have the ^(CB)groom come out of his room
And the bride out of her bridal chamber.
¹⁷Let the priests, the Lord’s ministers,
Weep ^(CC)between the porch and the altar,
And let them say, “^[n]^(CD)Spare Your people, Lord,
And do not make Your inheritance a ^(CE)disgrace,
With the nations jeering at them.
Why should those among the peoples say,
‘^(CF)Where is their God?’”

Deliverance Promised

¹⁸Then the Lord ^[o]will be ^(CG)zealous for His land,
And ^[p]will have ^(CH)compassion for His people.
¹⁹The Lord ^[q]will answer and say to His people,
“Behold, I am going to ^(CI)send you grain, new wine, and oil,
And you will be satisfied in full with ^[r]them;
And I will ^(CJ)never again make you a disgrace among the nations.
²⁰But I will remove the ^(CK)northern army far from you,
And I will drive it into a dry and desolate land,
Its advance guard into the ^(CL)eastern sea,
And its rear guard into the ^(CM)western sea.
And its ^(CN)stench will ascend and its odor of decay will come up,
Because it has done great things.”

²¹^(CO)Do not fear, land; shout for joy and rejoice,
For the Lord has done ^(CP)great things.
²²Do not fear, animals of the field,
For the ^(CQ)pastures of the wilderness have turned green,
For the tree has produced its fruit,
The fig tree and the vine have yielded ^[s]in full.
²³So shout for joy, you ^(CR)sons of Zion,
And ^(CS)rejoice in the Lord your God;
For He has ^(CT)given you ^[t]the early rain for your vindication.
And He has brought down for you the rain,
The ^[u]early and ^[v]^(CU)latter rain ^[w]as before.
²⁴The threshing floors will be full of grain,
And the vats will ^(CV)overflow with the new wine and oil.
²⁵“Then I will compensate you for the years
That the ^[x]swarming ^(CW)locust has eaten,
The creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust—
My great army which I sent among you.

Footnotes

Joel 1:4 Or migratory
Joel 1:6 Lit gone up against
Joel 1:10 Lit dried out
Joel 1:15 Heb Shaddai
Joel 1:17 Or dried figs
Joel 1:18 Lit suffered punishment
Joel 1:20 Or long for
Joel 2:5 Lit Like the noise of chariots
Joel 2:5 Lit sound
Joel 2:6 Or become flushed
Joel 2:7 Lit in his ways
Joel 2:8 Lit fall
Joel 2:8 Lit weapon, prob. javelin
Joel 2:17 Or Look compassionately on
Joel 2:18 Or was zealous
Joel 2:18 Or had compassion
Joel 2:19 Or answered and said
Joel 2:19 Lit it
Joel 2:22 Lit their wealth
Joel 2:23 I.e., autumn; or possibly the teacher for righteousness
Joel 2:23 I.e., autumn
Joel 2:23 I.e., spring
Joel 2:23 As in ancient versions; MT in the first
Joel 2:25 Or migratory

Isaiah 13

New American Standard Bible

Prophecies about Babylon

13 The ^(A)pronouncement concerning ^(B)Babylon which ^(C)Isaiah the son of Amoz saw:

²^(D)Lift up a flag on the ^[a]^(E)bare hill,
Raise your voice to them,
^(F)Wave the hand that they may ^(G)enter the doors of the nobles.
³I have commanded My consecrated ones,
I have also called for My ^(H)warriors
Who boast in My eminence,
To execute My anger.
⁴A ^(I)sound of a roar on the mountains,
Like that of many people!
A sound of an uproar of kingdoms,
Of nations gathered together!
The Lord of armies is mustering the army for battle.
⁵They are coming from a distant country,
From the ^[b]^(J)farthest horizons,
The Lord and the weapons of His ^(K)indignation,
To ^(L)destroy the whole land.

Judgment on the Day of the Lord

⁶Wail, for the ^(M)day of the Lord is near!
It will come as ^(N)destruction from ^[c]the Almighty.
⁷Therefore ^(O)all hands will fall limp,
And every human ^(P)heart will melt.
⁸They will be ^(Q)terrified,
Pains and anguish will take hold of them;
They will ^(R)writhe like a woman in labor,
They will look at one another in astonishment,
Their faces aflame.
⁹Behold, ^(S)the day of the Lord is coming,
Cruel, with fury and burning anger,
To make the land a desolation;
And He will exterminate its sinners from it.
¹⁰For the ^(T)stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not flash their light;
The ^(U)sun will be dark when it rises
And the moon will not shed its light.
¹¹So I will ^(V)punish the world for its evil
And the ^(W)wicked for their wrongdoing;
I will also put an end to the ^(X)audacity of the proud
And humiliate the ^(Y)arrogance of the ^[d]^(Z)tyrants.
¹²I will make mortal man ^(AA)scarcer than pure gold
And mankind than the ^(AB)gold of Ophir.
¹³Therefore I will make the ^(AC)heavens tremble,
And ^(AD)the earth will be shaken from its place
At the fury of the Lord of armies
In ^(AE)the day of His burning anger.
¹⁴And it will be that, like a hunted gazelle,
Or like ^(AF)sheep with no one to gather them,
Each of them will turn to his own people,
And each of them will flee to his own land.
¹⁵Anyone who is found will be ^(AG)thrust through,
And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
¹⁶Their ^(AH)little ones also will be dashed to pieces
Before their eyes;
Their houses will be plundered
And their wives raped.

Babylon Will Fall to the Medes

¹⁷Behold, I am going to ^(AI)stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not value silver or ^(AJ)take pleasure in gold.
¹⁸And their bows will ^[e]mow down the ^(AK)young men,
They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb,
Nor will their ^(AL)eye pity ^[f]children.
¹⁹And ^(AM)Babylon, the ^(AN)beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God ^(AO)overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
²⁰It will ^(AP)never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;
Nor will the ^(AQ)Arab pitch his tent there,
Nor will shepherds allow their flocks to lie down there.
²¹But ^(AR)desert creatures will lie down there,
And their houses will be full of ^[g]owls;
Ostriches also will live there, and ^[h]shaggy goats will frolic there.
²²^[i]Hyenas will howl in their fortified towers
And jackals in their luxurious ^(AS)palaces.
Her fateful time also ^[j]will soon come,
And her days will not be prolonged.