Joel 1:1-2:17

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.

The Day of the Lord

2 ^(AU)Blow a trumpet in ^(AV)Zion;
    sound an alarm on ^(AW)my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
    for ^(AX)the day of the Lord is coming; it is near,
²^(AY)a day of darkness and gloom,
    ^(AZ)a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
    ^(BA)a great and powerful people;
^(BB)their like has never been before,
    nor will be again after them
    through the years of all generations.

³^(BC)Fire devours before them,
    and behind them a flame burns.
The land is like ^(BD)the garden of Eden before them,
    but ^(BE)behind them a desolate wilderness,
    and nothing escapes them.

⁴^(BF)Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,
    and like war horses they run.
⁵^(BG)As with the rumbling of chariots,
    they leap on the tops of the mountains,
like the crackling of ^(BH)a flame of fire
    devouring the stubble,
^(BI)like a powerful army
    drawn up for battle.

⁶Before them peoples are in anguish;
    ^(BJ)all faces grow pale.
⁷Like warriors they charge;
    like soldiers they scale the wall.
They march each on his way;
    they do not swerve from their paths.
⁸They do not jostle one another;
    ^(BK)each marches in his path;
they burst through the weapons
    and are not halted.
⁹^(BL)They leap upon the city,
    they run upon the walls,
^(BM)they climb up into the houses,
    ^(BN)they enter through the windows ^(BO)like a thief.

¹⁰^(BP)The earth quakes before them;
    the heavens tremble.
^(BQ)The sun and the moon are darkened,
    and the stars withdraw their shining.
¹¹^(BR)The Lord utters his voice
    before ^(BS)his army,
for his camp is exceedingly great;
    ^(BT)he who executes his word is powerful.
^(BU)For the day of the Lord is ^(BV)great and very awesome;
    ^(BW)who can endure it?

Return to the Lord

¹²“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
    ^(BX)“return to me with all your heart,
^(BY)with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
¹³    and ^(BZ)rend your hearts and not ^(CA)your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
    ^(CB)for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
    ^(CC)and he relents over disaster.
¹⁴^(CD)Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
    and ^(CE)leave a blessing behind him,
^(CF)a grain offering and a drink offering
    for the Lord your God?

¹⁵^(CG)Blow the trumpet in Zion;
    ^(CH)consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
¹⁶    gather the people.
^(CI)Consecrate the congregation;
    assemble the elders;
^(CJ)gather the children,
    even nursing infants.
^(CK)Let the bridegroom leave his room,
    and the bride her chamber.

¹⁷^(CL)Between the ^(CM)vestibule and the ^(CN)altar
    ^(CO)let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep
and say, “Spare your people, O Lord,
    and make not your heritage a reproach,
    a byword among the nations.^[f]
^(CP)Why should they say among the peoples,
    ‘Where is their God?’”

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 2:17 Or reproach, that the nations should rule over them

2 Peter 2

English Standard Version

False Prophets and Teachers

2 But ^(A)false prophets also arose among the people, ^(B)just as there will be false teachers among you, who will ^(C)secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master ^(D)who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. ²And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth ^(E)will be blasphemed. ³And ^(F)in their greed they will exploit you ^(G)with false words. ^(H)Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

⁴For if God did not spare ^(I)angels when they sinned, but ^(J)cast them into hell^[a] and committed them to chains^[b] of gloomy darkness ^(K)to be kept until the judgment; ⁵if he did not spare the ancient world, but ^(L)preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought ^(M)a flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶if by ^(N)turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, ^(O)making them an example of ^(P)what is going to happen to the ungodly;^[c] ⁷and ^(Q)if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked ⁸(for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, ^(R)he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); ⁹then ^(S)the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,^[d] and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, ¹⁰and especially ^(T)those who indulge^[e] in the lust of defiling passion and ^(U)despise authority.

Bold and willful, they do not tremble ^(V)as they blaspheme the glorious ones, ¹¹^(W)whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. ¹²^(X)But these, like irrational animals, ^(Y)creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, ¹³suffering wrong as ^(Z)the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure ^(AA)to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions,^[f] while ^(AB)they feast with you. ¹⁴They have eyes full of adultery,^[g] ^(AC)insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts ^(AD)trained in greed. ^(AE)Accursed children! ¹⁵Forsaking the right way, ^(AF)they have gone astray. They have followed ^(AG)the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved ^(AH)gain from wrongdoing, ¹⁶but was rebuked for his own transgression; ^(AI)a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.

¹⁷^(AJ)These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. ^(AK)For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. ¹⁸For, ^(AL)speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely ^(AM)escaping from those who live in error. ¹⁹They promise them ^(AN)freedom, ^(AO)but they themselves are slaves^[h] of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. ²⁰For if, ^(AP)after they have escaped the defilements of the world ^(AQ)through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, ^(AR)the last state has become worse for them than the first. ²¹For ^(AS)it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from ^(AT)the holy commandment delivered to them. ²²What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The ^(AU)dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

Footnotes

2 Peter 2:4 Greek Tartarus
2 Peter 2:4 Some manuscripts pits
2 Peter 2:6 Some manuscripts an example to those who were to be ungodly
2 Peter 2:9 Or temptations
2 Peter 2:10 Greek who go after the flesh
2 Peter 2:13 Some manuscripts love feasts
2 Peter 2:14 Or eyes full of an adulteress
2 Peter 2:19 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface

Psalm 136:15-21

English Standard Version

¹⁵but ^(A)overthrew^[a] Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
¹⁶to him who ^(B)led his people through the wilderness,
for his steadfast love endures forever;

¹⁷to him ^(C)who struck down great kings,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
¹⁸and killed mighty kings,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
¹⁹Sihon, king of the Amorites,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
²⁰and Og, king of Bashan,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
²¹and gave their land as a heritage,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;

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Footnotes

Psalm 136:15 Hebrew shook off

Proverbs 29:22-23

English Standard Version

²²^(A)A man of wrath stirs up strife,
and one given to anger causes much transgression.
²³^(B)One's pride will bring him low,
^(C)but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.