The Holy Bible, containing the Old & New Testament & the Apocrypha/Volume 2/Joel
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JOEL
The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
- HEAR this, ye old men,
- And give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.
- Hath this been in your days,
- Or even in the days of your fathers?
- Tell ye your children of it,
- And let your children tell their children,
- And their children another generation.
- That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten;
- And that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten;
- And that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
- Awake, ye drunkards, and weep;
- And howl, all ye drinkers of wine,
- Because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
- For a nation is come up upon my land,
- Strong, and without number,
- Whose teeth are the teeth of a lion,
- And he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.
- He hath laid my vine waste,
- And barked my fig tree:
- He hath made it clean bare, and cast it away;
- The branches thereof are made white.
- Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
- The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord;
- The priests, the Lord's ministers, mourn.
- The field is wasted, the land mourneth;
- For the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
- Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers,
- For the wheat and for the barley;
- Because the harvest of the field is perished.
- The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth;
- The pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree,
- Even all the trees of the field, are withered:
- Because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
- Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests:
- Howl, ye ministers of the altar:
- Come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God:
- For the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
- Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly,
- Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land
- Into the house of the Lord your God,
- And cry unto the Lord,
- Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand,
- And as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
- Is not the meat cut off before our eyes,
- Yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
- The seed is rotten under their clods,
- The garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down;
- For the corn is withered.
- How do the beasts groan!
- The herds of cattle are perplexed,
- Because they have no pasture;
- Yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
- O Lord, to thee will I cry:
- For the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness,
- And the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.
- The beasts of the field cry also unto thee:
- For the rivers of waters are dried up,
- And the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
- Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain:
- Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble:
- For the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;
- A day of darkness and of gloominess,
- A day of clouds and of thick darkness,
- As the morning spread upon the mountains:
- A great people and a strong;
- There hath not been ever the like,
- Neither shall be any more after it,
- Even to the years of many generations.
- A fire devoureth before them;
- And behind them a flame burneth:
- The land is as the garden of Eden before them,
- And behind them a desolate wilderness;
- Yea, and nothing shall escape them.
- The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses;
- And as horsemen, so shall they run.
- Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap,
- Like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble,
- As a strong people set in battle array.
- Before their face the people shall be much pained:
- All faces shall gather blackness.
- They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war;
- And they shall march every one on his ways,
- And they shall not break their ranks:
- Neither shall one thrust another;
- They shall walk every one in his path:
- And when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.
- They shall run to and fro in the city;
- They shall run upon the wall,
- They shall climb up upon the houses;
- They shall enter in at the windows like a thief.
- The earth shall quake before them;
- The heavens shall tremble:
- The sun and the moon shall be dark,
- And the stars shall withdraw their shining:
- And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army:
- For his camp is very great:
- For he is strong that executeth his word:
- For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible;
- And who can abide it?
- Therefore also now, saith the Lord,
- Turn ye even to me with all your heart,
- And with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
- And rend your heart, and not your garments,
- And turn unto the Lord your God:
- For he is gracious and merciful,
- Slow to anger, and of great kindness,
- And repenteth him of the evil.
- Who knoweth if he will return and repent,
- And leave a blessing behind him;
- Even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?
- Blow the trumpet in Zion,
- Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:
- Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders,
- Gather the children, and those that suck the breasts:
- Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.
- Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar,
- And let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord,
- And give not thine heritage to reproach,
- That the heathen should rule over them:
- Wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?
- Then will the Lord be jealous for his land,
- And pity his people.
- Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people,
- Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil,
- And ye shall be satisfied therewith:
- And I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen:
- But I will remove far off from you the northern army,
- And will drive him into a land barren and desolate,
- With his face toward the east sea,
- And his hinder part toward the utmost sea,
- And his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up,
- Because he hath done great things.
- Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice:
- For the Lord will do great things.
- Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field:
- For the pastures of the wilderness do spring,
- For the tree beareth her fruit,
- The fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.
- Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God:
- For he hath given you the former rain moderately,
- And he will cause to come down for you the rain,
- The former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.
- And the floors shall be full of wheat,
- And the fats shall overflow with wine and oil.
- And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten,
- The cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm,
- My great army which I sent among you.
- And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied,
- And praise the name of the Lord your God,
- That hath dealt wondrously with you:
- And my people shall never be ashamed.
- And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,
- And that I am the Lord your God, and none else:
- And my people shall never be ashamed.
- And it shall come to pass afterward,
- That I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh;
- And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
- Your old men shall dream dreams,
- Your young men shall see visions:
- And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids
- In those days will I pour out my spirit.
- And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth,
- Blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
- The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood,
- Before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.
- And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered:
- For in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance,
- As the Lord hath said,
- And in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.
- For, behold, in those days, and in that time,
- When I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
- I will also gather all nations,
- And will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat,
- And will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel,
- Whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
- And they have cast lots for my people:
- And have given a boy for an harlot,
- And sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.
- Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon,
- And all the coasts of Palestine?
- Will ye render me a recompence?
- And if ye recompense me,
- Swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;
- Because ye have taken my silver and my gold,
- And have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:
- The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians,
- That ye might remove them far from their border.
- Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them,
- And will return your recompence upon your own head:
- And I will sell your sons and your daughters
- Into the hand of the children of Judah,
- And they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off:
- For the Lord hath spoken it.
- Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles;
- Prepare war, wake up the mighty men,
- Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
- Beat your plowshares into swords,
- And your pruninghooks into spears:
- Let the weak say, I am strong.
- Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen,
- And gather yourselves together round about:
- Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord.
- Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat:
- For there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
- Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe:
- Come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow;
- For their wickedness is great.
- Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision:
- For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
- The sun and the moon shall be darkened,
- And the stars shall withdraw their shining.
- The Lord also shall roar out of Zion,
- And utter his voice from Jerusalem;
- And the heavens and the earth shall shake:
- But the Lord will be the hope of his people,
- And the strength of the children of Israel.
- So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God
- Dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain:
- Then shall Jerusalem be holy,
- And there shall no strangers pass through her any more.
- And it shall come to pass in that day,
- That the mountains shall drop down new wine,
- And the hills shall flow with milk,
- And all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters,
- And a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord,
- And shall water the valley of Shittim.
- Egypt shall be a desolation,
- And Edom shall be a desolate wilderness,
- For the violence against the children of Judah,
- Because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
- But Judah shall dwell for ever,
- And Jerusalem from generation to generation.
- For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed:
- For the Lord dwelleth in Zion.