Old/New Testament
Locusts Destroy the Crops
1 The Lord spoke his word to Joel son of Pethuel:
2 Elders, listen to this message.
Listen to me, all you people who live in the land.
Nothing like this has ever happened during your lifetime.
Nothing like this has ever happened during your fathers’ lifetimes.
3 Tell your children about these things.
And let your children tell their children.
And let your grandchildren tell their children.
4 What the cutting locusts have not eaten,
the swarming locusts have eaten.
And what the swarming locusts have left,
the hopping locusts have eaten.
And what the hopping locusts have left,
the destroying locusts[a] have eaten.
5 Drunks, wake up and cry!
All of you people who drink wine, cry!
Cry because your sweet wine
has been taken away from you.
6 A powerful nation has come into my land.
It has too many soldiers to count.
It has teeth like a lion.
And it has fangs like a female lion.
7 That army has eaten my grapevines.
It has destroyed my fig trees.
It has eaten the bark off my trees
and left the branches white.
8 Cry as a young woman cries
when the man she was going to marry is killed.
9 There will be no more grain or drink offerings
to offer in the Temple of the Lord.
Because of this, the priests,
the servants of the Lord, cry.
10 The fields are ruined.
Even the ground is dried up.
The grain is destroyed.
The new wine is dried up.
And the olive oil runs out.
11 Be sad, farmers.
Cry loudly, you who grow grapes.
Cry for the wheat and the barley.
Cry because the harvest in the field is lost.
12 The vines have become dry.
And the fig trees are dying.
The pomegranate trees, the date palm trees and the apple trees have dried up.
All the trees in the field have died.
And the happiness of the people has died, too.
13 Priests, put on your rough cloth and cry to show your sadness.
Servants of the altar, cry out loud.
Servants of my God,
sleep in your rough cloth to show your sadness.
Cry because there will be no more grain or drink offerings
to offer in the Temple of your God.
14 Call the people together.
Tell them there will be a time to give up food.
Bring together the elders
and everyone who lives in the land.
Bring them to the Temple of the Lord your God.
And cry out to the Lord.
15 This will be a terrible day!
The Lord’s day of judging is near.
At that time punishment will come
like an attack from God All-Powerful.
16 Our food is taken away
while we watch.
Joy and happiness are gone
from the Temple of our God.
17 We planted seeds,
but they lie dry and dead in the dirt.
Our barns are empty and falling down.
The storerooms for grain have been broken down.
This is because the grain has dried up.
18 The animals are hungry and groaning!
The herds of cattle wander around confused.
They have no grass to eat.
Even the flocks of sheep suffer.
19 Lord, I am calling to you for help.
Fire has burned up the open pastures.
Flames have burned all the trees in the field.
20 Wild animals also need your help.
The water in the streams has dried up.
Fire has burned up the open pastures.
The Coming Day of Judgment
2 Blow the trumpet in Jerusalem.
Shout a warning on my holy mountain.
Let all the people who live in the land shake with fear.
The Lord’s day of judging is coming.
The Lord’s day of judging is near.
2 It will be a dark, gloomy day.
It will be a cloudy and black day.
Like the light at sunrise,
the great and powerful army will spread over the mountains.
There has never been anything like it before.
And there will never be anything like it again.
3 The army destroys the land
like a burning fire.
The land in front of them is like the garden of Eden.
The land behind them is like an empty desert.
Nothing will escape them.
4 They look like horses.
They run like war horses.
5 Listen to them!
It is like the noise of chariots
rumbling over the mountains.
It is like the noise of crackling flames
burning dry stalks.
They are like a powerful army lined up for battle.
6 Before this army, nations shake with fear.
Their faces become pale.
7 The army charges ahead like soldiers.
They climb over the walls like warriors.
They all march straight ahead.
They do not move off their path.
8 They do not run into each other.
Each one walks in line.
They charge through all efforts to stop them
and stay in line.
9 They run into the city.
They run along the tops of the walls.
They climb into the houses.
They enter through windows like a thief.
10 Before them, earth and sky shake.
The sun and the moon become dark,
and the stars stop shining.
11 The Lord calls out orders loudly
as he leads his army.
That army obeys his commands.
It is very large and powerful.
The Lord’s day of judging
is an overwhelming and terrible day.
No one can stand up against it.
Change Your Hearts
12 The Lord says, “Now, come back to me with all your heart.
Go without food, and cry and be sad.”
13 Tearing your clothes is not enough to show you are sad.
Let your heart be broken.
Come back to the Lord your God.
He is kind and shows mercy.
He doesn’t become angry quickly.
He has great love.
He would rather forgive than punish.
14 Who knows? Maybe the Lord will change his mind
and leave behind a blessing for you.
Then you may give grain and drink offerings
to the Lord your God.
15 Blow the trumpet in Jerusalem.
Call for a special time of going without food.
Call for a special meeting.
16 Bring the people together.
Make the meeting holy for the Lord.
Bring together the elders.
Bring together the children,
even babies that still feed at their mothers’ breasts.
The bridegroom should come from his room.
The bride should come from her bedroom.
17 The priests, the Lord’s servants, should cry.
They should cry between the altar and entrance to the Temple.
They should say, “Lord, have mercy on your people.
Don’t let them be put to shame.
Don’t let other nations make fun of them.
Don’t let people in other nations ask,
‘Where is their God?’”
The Lord Restores the Land
18 Then the Lord became concerned about his land.
He felt sorry for his people.
19 The Lord said to them:
“I will send you grain, wine and olive oil.
You will have plenty.
No more will I shame you
among the nations.
20 I will force the army from the north to leave your land.
I will force them into a dry, empty land.
Their soldiers in front will be forced into the Dead Sea.
And those in the rear will be forced into the Mediterranean Sea.
Their bodies will rot and stink
because they did horrible things.”
21 But, land, don’t be afraid.
Be happy and full of joy
because the Lord has begun to do wonderful things.
22 Wild animals, don’t be afraid.
The open pastures will grow grass.
The trees will grow fruit.
The fig trees and the vines will grow much fruit.
23 So be happy, people of Jerusalem.
Be joyful in the Lord your God.
He will do what is right
and will give you rain.
He will send the early rain
and the late rain for you, as before.
24 And the threshing floors will be full of wheat.
And the barrels will overflow with wine and olive oil.
The Lord Speaks
25 “I sent my great army against you.
Those swarming locusts and the hopping locusts,
the destroying locusts and the cutting locusts[b] ate your crops.
But I will pay you back
for those years of trouble.
26 Then you will have plenty to eat.
You will be full.
You will praise the name of the Lord your God.
He has done miracles for you.
My people will never again be shamed.
27 Then you will know that I am among the people of Israel.
You will know that I am the Lord your God.
There is no other God.
My people will never be shamed again.
28 “After this,
I will give my Spirit freely to all kinds of people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your old men will dream dreams.
Your young men will see visions.
29 At that time I will give my Spirit
even to servants, both men and women.
30 I will show miracles
in the sky and on the earth:
blood, fire and thick smoke.
31 The sun will become dark.
The moon will become red as blood.
And then the Lord’s overwhelming and terrible day of judging will come.
32 Then anyone who asks the Lord for help
will be saved.
Even on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
there will be people who will be saved.
This will happen just as the Lord has said.
Those left alive after the day of punishment
are the people whom the Lord called.
Punishment for Judah’s Enemies
3 “In those days and at that time,
I will give Judah and Jerusalem back their riches.
2 I will also gather all the nations together.
I will bring them down into the Valley Where the Lord Judges.
And there I will judge them.
Those nations scattered my own people, Israel.
They forced my people to live in other nations.
They divided up my land.
3 They threw lots for my people.
They traded boys for prostitutes.
And they sold girls to buy wine to drink.
4 “Tyre and Sidon and all of you regions of Philistia! What do you have against me? Are you punishing me for something I did? Or are you doing something to hurt me? Then I will quickly do to you what you have done to me. 5 You took my silver and gold. You took my precious treasures and put them in your temples. 6 You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks. That way you could send them far from their land.
7 “You sent my people to that faraway place. But I will bring them back. And I will do to you what you have done to them. 8 I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah. Then they will sell them to the Sabean people far away.” The Lord said this.
God Judges the Nations
9 Announce this among the nations:
Prepare for war!
Wake up the soldiers!
Let all the men of war come near and attack.
10 Make your plows into swords.
Make spears from your hooks for trimming trees.
Let the weak say,
“I am strong.”
11 All of you nations, hurry.
Come together in that place.
Lord, send your strong soldiers
to gather the nations.
12 “Wake up, nations.
Come to the Valley Where the Lord Judges.
There I will sit to judge
all the nations on every side.
13 Cut them down like grain
because the harvest is ripe with sin.
Come, walk on them as you would walk on grapes,
because the winepress is full.
The barrels are full of their sins and spilling over.
These people are so evil!”
14 There are many people
in the Valley of Decision.[c]
The Lord’s day of judging is near
in the Valley of Decision.
15 The sun and the moon will become dark.
The stars will stop shining.
16 The Lord will roar like a lion from Jerusalem.
His loud voice will sound like a growl from Jerusalem.
And the sky and the earth will shake.
But the Lord will be a safe place for his people.
He will be a strong place of safety for the people of Israel.
17 “Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.
I stay in my holy Mount Zion.
Jerusalem will become holy.
Strangers will never take over that city again.
A New Life Promised for Judah
18 “On that day the mountains will be covered with grapes for sweet wine.
The hills will be covered with cows to give milk.
And water will flow through all the ravines of Judah.
A fountain will flow from the Temple of the Lord.
It will give water to the valley of acacia trees.
19 But Egypt will become empty.
And Edom will become an empty desert.
This is because they were cruel to the people of Judah.
They killed innocent people in the land of Judah.
20 But there will always be people living in Judah.
And people will live in Jerusalem from now on.
21 Egypt and Edom killed my people.
So I will definitely punish them.”
The Lord lives in Jerusalem!
5 Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the One sitting on the throne. The scroll had writing on both sides. It was kept closed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a powerful angel. He called in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” 3 But there was no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth who could open the scroll or look inside it. 4 I cried and cried because there was no one who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. 5 But one of the elders said to me, “Do not cry! The Lion[a] from the tribe of Judah has won the victory. He is David’s descendant. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
6 Then I saw a Lamb standing in the center of the throne with the four living things around it. The elders were also around the Lamb. The Lamb looked as if he had been killed. He had seven horns and seven eyes. These are the seven spirits of God that were sent into all the world. 7 The Lamb came and took the scroll from the right hand of the One sitting on the throne. 8 After he took the scroll, the four living things and the 24 elders bowed down before the Lamb. Each one of them had a harp. Also, they were holding golden bowls full of incense. These bowls of incense are the prayers of God’s holy people. 9 And they all sang a new song to the Lamb:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were killed;
and with the blood of your death you bought men for God
from every tribe, language, people, and nation.
10 You made them to be a kingdom of priests for our God.
And they will rule on the earth.”
11 Then I looked, and I heard the voices of many angels. The angels were around the throne, the four living things, and the elders. There were thousands and thousands of angels—there were 10,000 times 10,000. 12 The angels said in a loud voice:
“The Lamb who was killed is worthy
to receive power, wealth, wisdom and strength,
honor, glory, and praise!”
13 Then I heard every living thing in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. I heard every thing in all these places, saying:
“All praise and honor and glory and power
forever and ever
to the One who sits on the throne
and to the Lamb!”
14 The four living things said, “Amen!” And the elders bowed down and worshiped.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.