Joel 1:2-7
English Standard Version
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.
4 What (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.
5 Awake, 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.
6 For (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.
7 It 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.
Joel 1:13-15
English Standard Version
A Call to Repentance
13 (A)Put on sackcloth and lament, (B)O priests;
(C)wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, (D)pass the night in sackcloth,
(E)O ministers of my God!
(F)Because grain offering and drink offering
are withheld from the house of your God.
14 (G)Consecrate a fast;
(H)call a solemn assembly.
Gather (I)the elders
and (J)all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.
15 Alas for the day!
(K)For the day of the Lord is near,
and as destruction from the Almighty[a] it comes.
Footnotes
- Joel 1:15 Destruction sounds like the Hebrew for Almighty
Joel 2:1-11
English Standard Version
The Day of the Lord
2 (A)Blow a trumpet in (B)Zion;
sound an alarm on (C)my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for (D)the day of the Lord is coming; it is near,
2 (E)a day of darkness and gloom,
(F)a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
(G)a great and powerful people;
(H)their like has never been before,
nor will be again after them
through the years of all generations.
3 (I)Fire devours before them,
and behind them a flame burns.
The land is like (J)the garden of Eden before them,
but (K)behind them a desolate wilderness,
and nothing escapes them.
4 (L)Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,
and like war horses they run.
5 (M)As with the rumbling of chariots,
they leap on the tops of the mountains,
like the crackling of (N)a flame of fire
devouring the stubble,
(O)like a powerful army
drawn up for battle.
6 Before them peoples are in anguish;
(P)all faces grow pale.
7 Like warriors they charge;
like soldiers they scale the wall.
They march each on his way;
they do not swerve from their paths.
8 They do not jostle one another;
(Q)each marches in his path;
they burst through the weapons
and are not halted.
9 (R)They leap upon the city,
they run upon the walls,
(S)they climb up into the houses,
(T)they enter through the windows (U)like a thief.
10 (V)The earth quakes before them;
the heavens tremble.
(W)The sun and the moon are darkened,
and the stars withdraw their shining.
11 (X)The Lord utters his voice
before (Y)his army,
for his camp is exceedingly great;
(Z)he who executes his word is powerful.
(AA)For the day of the Lord is (AB)great and very awesome;
(AC)who can endure it?
Joel 2:12-16
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?
15 (J)Blow the trumpet in Zion;
(K)consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
16 gather the people.
(L)Consecrate the congregation;
assemble the elders;
(M)gather the children,
even nursing infants.
(N)Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her chamber.
Joel 2:28-32
English Standard Version
The Lord Will Pour Out His Spirit
28 [a] (A)“And it shall come to pass afterward,
that (B)I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
(C)your sons and (D)your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
29 (E)Even on the male and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
30 “And I will show (F)wonders in the heavens and (G)on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 (H)The sun shall be turned to darkness, (I)and the moon to blood, (J)before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 32 And it shall come to pass that (K)everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (L)For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among (M)the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Joel 2:28 Ch 3:1 in Hebrew
Joel 3:16
English Standard Version
16 (A)The Lord roars from Zion,
and (B)utters his voice from Jerusalem,
(C)and the heavens and the earth quake.
But the Lord is (D)a refuge to his people,
a stronghold to the people of Israel.
Joel 3:17-20
English Standard Version
The Glorious Future of Judah
17 (A)“So you shall know that I am the Lord your God,
(B)who dwells in Zion, (C)my holy mountain.
And Jerusalem shall be holy,
and (D)strangers shall never again pass through it.
18 “And in that day
(E)the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and the hills shall flow with milk,
and (F)all the streambeds of Judah
shall flow with water;
(G)and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord
and water the Valley of (H)Shittim.
19 (I)“Egypt shall become a desolation
and (J)Edom a desolate wilderness,
(K)for the violence done to the people of Judah,
because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
20 (L)But Judah shall be inhabited forever,
and Jerusalem to all generations.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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