Joel 1

New King James Version

The Locust Plague in Judah

1 The word of the Lord that came to ^(A)Joel the son of Pethuel.

The Land Laid Waste^(B)

²Hear this, you elders,
And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land!
^(C)Has anything like this happened in your days,
Or even in the days of your fathers?
³^(D)Tell your children about it,
Let your children tell their children,
And their children another generation.

⁴^(E)What the chewing ^[a]locust left, the ^(F)swarming locust has eaten;
What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten;
And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.

⁵Awake, you ^(G)drunkards, and weep;
And wail, all you drinkers of wine,
Because of the new wine,
^(H)For it has been cut off from your mouth.
⁶For ^(I)a nation has come up against My land,
Strong, and without number;
^(J)His teeth are the teeth of a lion,
And he has the fangs of a ^[b]fierce lion.
⁷He has ^(K)laid waste My vine,
And ^[c]ruined My fig tree;
He has stripped it bare and thrown it away;
Its branches are made white.

⁸^(L)Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth
For ^(M)the husband of her youth.
⁹^(N)The grain offering and the drink offering
Have been cut off from the house of the Lord;
The priests ^(O)mourn, who minister to the Lord.
¹⁰The field is wasted,
^(P)The land mourns;
For the grain is ruined,
^(Q)The new wine is dried up,
The oil fails.

¹¹^(R)Be ashamed, you farmers,
Wail, you vinedressers,
For the wheat and the barley;
Because the harvest of the field has perished.
¹²^(S)The vine has dried up,
And the fig tree has withered;
The pomegranate tree,
The palm tree also,
And the apple tree—
All the trees of the field are withered;
Surely ^(T)joy has withered away from the sons of men.

Mourning for the Land

¹³^(U)Gird yourselves and lament, you priests;
Wail, you who minister before the altar;
Come, lie all night in sackcloth,
You who minister to my God;
For the grain offering and the drink offering
Are withheld from the house of your God.
¹⁴^(V)Consecrate a fast,
Call ^(W)a sacred assembly;
Gather the elders
And ^(X)all the inhabitants of the land
Into the house of the Lord your God,
And cry out to the Lord.

¹⁵^(Y)Alas for the day!
For ^(Z)the day of the Lord is at hand;
It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
¹⁶Is not the food ^(AA)cut off before our eyes,
^(AB)Joy and gladness from the house of our God?
¹⁷The seed shrivels under the clods,
Storehouses are in shambles;
Barns are broken down,
For the grain has withered.
¹⁸How ^(AC)the animals groan!
The herds of cattle are restless,
Because they have no pasture;
Even the flocks of sheep ^[d]suffer punishment.

¹⁹O Lord, ^(AD)to You I cry out;
For ^(AE)fire has devoured the ^[e]open pastures,
And a flame has burned all the trees of the field.
²⁰The beasts of the field also ^(AF)cry out to You,
For ^(AG)the water brooks are dried up,
And fire has devoured the ^[f]open pastures.

Footnotes

Joel 1:4 Exact identity of these locusts unknown
Joel 1:6 Or lioness
Joel 1:7 Or splintered
Joel 1:18 LXX, Vg. are made desolate
Joel 1:19 Lit. pastures of the wilderness
Joel 1:20 Lit. pastures of the wilderness

Joel 2

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?’ ”

The Land Refreshed^(AI)

¹⁸Then the Lord will ^(AJ)be zealous for His land,
And pity His people.
¹⁹The Lord will answer and say to His people,
“Behold, I will send you ^(AK)grain and new wine and oil,
And you will be satisfied by them;
I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.

²⁰“But ^(AL)I will remove far from you ^(AM)the northern army,
And will drive him away into a barren and desolate land,
With his face toward the eastern sea
And his back ^(AN)toward the western sea;
His stench will come up,
And his foul odor will rise,
Because he has done ^[h]monstrous things.”

²¹Fear not, O land;
Be glad and rejoice,
For the Lord has done ^[i]marvelous things!
²²Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field;
For ^(AO)the open pastures are springing up,
And the tree bears its fruit;
The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.
²³Be glad then, you children of Zion,
And ^(AP)rejoice in the Lord your God;
For He has given you the ^[j]former rain faithfully,
And He ^(AQ)will cause the rain to come down for you—
The former rain,
And the latter rain in the first month.
²⁴The threshing floors shall be full of wheat,
And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.

²⁵“So I will restore to you the years ^(AR)that the swarming ^[k]locust has eaten,
The crawling locust,
The consuming locust,
And the chewing locust,
My great army which I sent among you.
²⁶You shall ^(AS)eat in plenty and be satisfied,
And praise the name of the Lord your God,
Who has dealt wondrously with you;
And My people shall never be put to ^(AT)shame.
²⁷Then you shall know that I am ^(AU)in the midst of Israel:
^(AV)I am the Lord your God
And there is no other.
My people shall never be put to shame.

God’s Spirit Poured Out

²⁸“And^(AW) it shall come to pass afterward
That ^(AX)I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
^(AY)Your sons and your ^(AZ)daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.
²⁹And also on My ^(BA)menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

³⁰“And ^(BB)I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:
Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
³¹^(BC)The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
^(BD)Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
³²And it shall come to pass
That ^(BE)whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be ^[l]saved.
For ^(BF)in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be ^[m]deliverance,
As the Lord has said,
Among ^(BG)the remnant whom the Lord calls.