Joel 2:1-17

New King James Version

The Day of the Lord

2 Blow ^(A)the ^[a]trumpet in Zion,
And ^(B)sound an alarm in My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble;
For ^(C)the day of the Lord is coming,
For it is at hand:
²^(D)A day of darkness and gloominess,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains.
^(E)A people come, great and strong,
^(F)The like of whom has never been;
Nor will there ever be any such after them,
Even for many successive generations.

³A fire devours before them,
And behind them a flame burns;
The land is like ^(G)the Garden of Eden before them,
^(H)And behind them a desolate wilderness;
Surely nothing shall escape them.
⁴^(I)Their appearance is like the appearance of horses;
And like ^[b]swift steeds, so they run.
⁵^(J)With a noise like chariots
Over mountaintops they leap,
Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble,
Like a strong people set in battle array.

⁶Before them the people writhe in pain;
^(K)All faces ^[c]are drained of color.
⁷They run like mighty men,
They climb the wall like men of war;
Every one marches in formation,
And they do not break ^(L)ranks.
⁸They do not push one another;
Every one marches in his own ^[d]column.
Though they lunge between the weapons,
They are not ^[e]cut down.
⁹They run to and fro in the city,
They run on the wall;
They climb into the houses,
They ^(M)enter at the windows ^(N)like a thief.

¹⁰^(O)The earth quakes before them,
The heavens tremble;
^(P)The sun and moon grow dark,
And the stars diminish their brightness.
¹¹^(Q)The Lord gives voice before His army,
For His camp is very great;
^(R)For strong is the One who executes His word.
For the ^(S)day of the Lord is great and very terrible;
^(T)Who can endure it?

A Call to Repentance

¹²“Now, therefore,” says the Lord,
^(U)“Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
¹³So ^(V)rend your heart, and not ^(W)your garments;
Return to the Lord your God,
For He is ^(X)gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm.
¹⁴^(Y)Who knows if He will turn and relent,
And leave ^(Z)a blessing behind Him—
^(AA)A grain offering and a drink offering
For the Lord your God?

¹⁵^(AB)Blow the ^[f]trumpet in Zion,
^(AC)Consecrate a fast,
Call a sacred assembly;
¹⁶Gather the people,
^(AD)Sanctify the congregation,
Assemble the elders,
Gather the children and nursing babes;
^(AE)Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber,
And the bride from her dressing room.
¹⁷Let the priests, who minister to the Lord,
Weep ^(AF)between the porch and the altar;
Let them say, ^(AG)“Spare Your people, O Lord,
And do not give Your heritage to reproach,
That the nations should ^[g]rule over them.
^(AH)Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’ ”

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Footnotes

Joel 2:1 ram’s horn
Joel 2:4 Or horsemen
Joel 2:6 LXX, Tg., Vg. gather blackness
Joel 2:8 Lit. highway
Joel 2:8 Halted by losses
Joel 2:15 ram’s horn
Joel 2:17 Or speak a proverb against them

Romans 11:1-24

New King James Version

Israel’s Rejection Not Total

11 I say then, ^(A)has God cast away His people? ^(B)Certainly not! For ^(C)I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. ²God has not cast away His people whom ^(D)He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, ³^(E)“Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life”? ⁴But what does the divine response say to him? ^(F)“I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” ⁵^(G)Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. ⁶And ^(H)if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. ^[a]But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.

⁷What then? ^(I)Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were ^(J)blinded. ⁸Just as it is written:

^(K)“God has given them a spirit of stupor,
^(L)Eyes that they should not see
And ears that they should not hear,
To this very day.”

⁹And David says:

^(M)“Let their table become a snare and a trap,
A stumbling block and a recompense to them.
¹⁰Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see,
And bow down their back always.”

Israel’s Rejection Not Final

¹¹I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But ^(N)through their ^[b]fall, to provoke them to ^(O)jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. ¹²Now if their ^[c]fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!

¹³For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as ^(P)I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, ¹⁴if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and ^(Q)save some of them. ¹⁵For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be ^(R)but life from the dead?

¹⁶For if ^(S)the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. ¹⁷And if ^(T)some of the branches were broken off, ^(U)and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and ^[d]fatness of the olive tree, ¹⁸^(V)do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

¹⁹You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” ²⁰Well said. Because of ^(W)unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. ²¹For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. ²²Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, ^[e]goodness, ^(X)if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise ^(Y)you also will be cut off. ²³And they also, ^(Z)if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. ²⁴For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?