Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
God’s Abundant Favor to Earth and Man.
For the choir director. A Psalm of David. A Song.
65 There will be silence [a]before You, and praise in Zion, O God,
And to You the (A)vow will be performed.
2 O You who hear prayer,
To You (B)all [b]men come.
3 [c](C)Iniquities prevail against me;
As for our transgressions, You [d](D)forgive them.
4 How (E)blessed is the one whom You (F)choose and bring near to You
To dwell in Your courts.
We will be (G)satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
Your holy temple.
5 By (H)awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O (I)God of our salvation,
You who are the trust of all the (J)ends of the earth and of the farthest [e](K)sea;
6 Who (L)establishes the mountains by His strength,
Being (M)girded with might;
7 Who (N)stills the roaring of the seas,
The roaring of their waves,
And the (O)tumult of the peoples.
8 They who dwell in the (P)ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs;
You make the [f]dawn and the sunset shout for joy.
9 You visit the earth and (Q)cause it to overflow;
You greatly (R)enrich it;
The [g](S)stream of God is full of water;
You prepare their (T)grain, for thus You prepare [h]the earth.
10 You water its furrows abundantly,
You [i]settle its ridges,
You soften it (U)with showers,
You bless its growth.
11 You have crowned the year [j]with Your [k](V)bounty,
And Your [l]paths (W)drip with fatness.
12 (X)The pastures of the wilderness drip,
And the (Y)hills gird themselves with rejoicing.
13 The meadows are (Z)clothed with flocks
And the valleys are (AA)covered with grain;
They (AB)shout for joy, yes, they sing.
The Devastation of Locusts
1 The (A)word of the Lord that came to (B)Joel, the son of Pethuel:
2 (C)Hear this, O (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 let your sons tell their sons,
And their sons the next generation.
4 What the (G)gnawing locust has left, the 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.
5 Awake, (J)drunkards, and weep;
And wail, all you wine drinkers,
On account of the sweet wine
That is (K)cut off from your mouth.
6 For a (L)nation has [a]invaded my land,
Mighty and without number;
(M)Its teeth are the teeth of a lion,
And it has the fangs of a lioness.
7 It has (N)made my vine a waste
And my fig tree [b]splinters.
It has stripped them bare and cast them away;
Their branches have become white.
8 (O)Wail like a virgin (P)girded with sackcloth
For the bridegroom of her youth.
9 The (Q)grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
From the house of the Lord.
The (R)priests mourn,
The ministers of the Lord.
10 The field is (S)ruined,
(T)The land mourns;
For the grain is ruined,
The new wine dries up,
Fresh oil [c]fails.
11 [d](U)Be ashamed, O farmers,
Wail, O vinedressers,
For the wheat and the barley;
Because the (V)harvest of the field is destroyed.
12 The (W)vine dries up
And the fig tree [e]fails;
The (X)pomegranate, the (Y)palm also, and the [f](Z)apple tree,
All the trees of the field dry up.
Indeed, (AA)rejoicing dries up
From the sons of men.
13 (AB)Gird yourselves with sackcloth
And lament, O priests;
(AC)Wail, O ministers of the altar!
Come, (AD)spend the night in sackcloth
O ministers of my God,
For the grain offering and the drink offering
Are 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)Alas for the day!
For the (AI)day of the Lord is near,
And it will come as (AJ)destruction from the [g]Almighty.
16 Has not (AK)food been cut off before our eyes,
Gladness and (AL)joy from the house of our God?
17 The [h](AM)seeds shrivel under their [i]clods;
The storehouses are desolate,
The barns are torn down,
For the grain is dried up.
18 How (AN)the beasts groan!
The herds of cattle wander aimlessly
Because there is no pasture for them;
Even the flocks of sheep [j]suffer.
19 (AO)To You, O Lord, I cry;
For (AP)fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness
And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.
20 Even the beasts of the field [k](AQ)pant for You;
For the (AR)water brooks are dried up
And fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
“Difficult Times Will Come”
3 But realize this, that (A)in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be (B)lovers of self, (C)lovers of money, (D)boastful, (E)arrogant, (F)revilers, (G)disobedient to parents, (H)ungrateful, (I)unholy, 3 (J)unloving, irreconcilable, (K)malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, [a](L)haters of good, 4 (M)treacherous, (N)reckless, (O)conceited, (P)lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of [b](Q)godliness, although they have (R)denied its power; (S)Avoid such men as these. 6 For among them are those who [c](T)enter into households and captivate [d](U)weak women weighed down with sins, led on by (V)various impulses, 7 always learning and never able to (W)come to the [e]knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as (X)Jannes and Jambres (Y)opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, (Z)men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. 9 But they will not make further progress; for their (AA)folly will be obvious to all, just (AB)as [f]Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.