God's First Truth: Tyndale/Rogers

The Book of Joell the Prophet

The First Chapter

This is the word of the Lord, that came to Joel the son of Phatuel: Hear O' ye elders: ponder this well, all ye that dwell in the land: if ever there happened such a thing in your days, or in the days of your fathers. Tell your childern of it , and let them show it to their children, and so they to certify their posterity thereof. Look what the caterpillar hath left, that hath the grasshopper eaten up: what the grasshopper left, that hath the locust eaten up: and what the locust hath left, that hath the blasting consumed. Wake up ye drunkards, and weep: mourn all ye wine sippers because of your sweet wine, for it shall be taken away from your mouth. Yee a mighty and an innumerable people shall come up into my land: these have teeth like the teeth of Lyons, and chaftbones like the lioness. They shall make my vineyard waste, they shall pull off the bark of my fig trees, strip them bare, cast them away, and make the branches white.

Make thy moan as a virgin doth that gird herself with sack, because of her bride groom. For the meat and drink offering shall be taken away from the house of the Lord: and the priests the Lords ministers shall mourn. The field shall be waste, the land shall be in a miserable cause: for the corn shall be destroyed, the sweet wine shall come to confusion, and he oil utterly desolate. The husband men and the wine gardeners shall look pitifully and make lamentation, for the wheat, wine and barley, and because the harvest upon the field is so clean destroyed. The grape gathers shall make great moan, when the vineyard and the fig trees be so utterly wasted. Yee all the pomegranates, palm trees, apple trees, and the other trees of the field shall waste away. Thus the merry cheer of the childern of men shall come to confusion.

Gird you , and make your moan, O' ye priests: mourn ye ministers of the alter: go your way in, and sleep in sack cloth, O' ye officers of my God: for the meat and drink offering shall be taken away from the house of your God. Proclaim a fasting, call the congregation, gather the elders and all the inhabitors of the land together in to the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord: alas, alas for this day. And why? the day of the Lord is at hand, and cometh as a destroyer from the Almighty. Shall not the meats be taken away before our eyes, the mirth also and joy from the house of our God? The seed shall perish in the ground, the gardens shall be laid waste, the floors shall be broken down, for the corn shall be destroyed. O' what a fighting make the cattle? the bullocks are very evil liking, because they have no pasture: and the sheep are famished away.

O' Lord, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath consumed the goodly pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burnt up all the trees of the field. Yee the wild beasts cry also unto thee, for the water rivers are dried up, and the fire hath consumed the pastures of the wilderness.

The Second Chapter

Blow out the trumpet in Sion, and cry upon my holy hill, that all such as dwell in the land, may tremble at it: for the day of the Lord cometh, and is hard at hand: a dark day, a cloudy day, yee and a stormy day, like as the morning spreadeth out upon the hills: Namely, a great and mighty people: such as have not been since the beginning, neither shall be after them for evermore. Before him shall be a consuming fire, and behind him a burning flame. The land shall be as a garden of pleasure before him, but behind him shall be a very waste wilderness, and there is no man, that shall escape him. They are to look upon like *barded horses, and run like horse men. They skipped up upon the hills, as it were the sound of chariots: as the flame of fire that consumeth the straw, and as a mighty people ready to the battle.

barded *armored and ornamented

The folk shall be afraid of him, all faces shall be as black as the pot. These shall run like giants, and leap over the walls like men of war. Every man in his going will keep his array, and not go out of his Path. There shall not one drive another, but each shall keep his own way. They shall break in at the windows, and not be hurt: They shall come in to the city, and run upon the walls: They shall climb up upon the houses, and slip in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before him, yee the heavens shall be moved: The Sun and Moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shine. The Lord shall show his voice before his host, for his host is great, strong and mighty to fulfill his commandment. This is that great and marvelous fearful day of the Lord: And who is able to abide it.

Now therefore sayeth the Lord: Turn you unto me with all your hearts, with fasting, weeping and mourning, rent your hearts, and not your clothes. Turn you unto the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, long suffering and of great compassion: and ready to pardon wickedness. Then ( no doubt ) he also shall turn, and forgive: and after his chastening, he shall let your increase remain, for meat and drink offerings unto the Lord your God: Blow out with the trumpet in Sion, proclaim a fasting, call the congregation, and gather the people together: warn the congregation, gather the elders, bring the children and sucklings together. Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests serve the Lord between the porch and the alter, weeping and saying: be favorable O' Lord, be favorable unto thy people: let not thy heritage be brought to such confusion, lest the Heathen be Lords thereof. Wherefore should they say among the Heathen: where is now their God?

Then shall the Lord be jealous over his land, and spare his people: yee the Lord shall answer, and say unto his people: Behold, I will send you corn, wine, and oil, so that ye shall have plenty of them: And I will nomore give you over to be a reproof among the Heathen. Again as for him of the North, I shall drive him far from you: and shoot him out in to a dry and waste land, his face toward the east sea, and his hinder parts toward the upmost sea. The stink of him shall go up, and his filthy corruption shall fall upon himself, because he hath dealt so proudly. Fear not

( O' land ) but be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things. Be not ye afraid

neither ( O' ye beasts of the field ) for the pastures shall be green and the trees shall bear their fruit: the fig trees and vineyards shall give their increase.

Be glad then ( O' ye children of Sion ) and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he hath given you a teacher of righteousness: and he it is that shall send you down showers of rain, early and late in the first month: so that the gardeners shall be full of corn, and the priests plenteous in wine and oil. And as for the years that the grasshopper, locust, blasting, and caterpillar ( my great host, which I sent among you) have eaten up, I shall restore them to you again: so that ye shall have enough to eat, and be satisfied: and praise the name of the Lord your God, that so marvelously hath dealt with you.

And my people shall never be confounded anymore. Ye shall well know, that I am in the midst of Israel, and that Iam your God: yee and that there is none other, and my people shall no more be brought to confusion.

After this, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and daughters shall prophesy: your old men shall dream dreams , and your young men shall see visions in those days I will pour out my spirit upon servants and maidens. I will show wonders in the heavens above, and tokens in the earth beneath: blood and fire, and the vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon into blood: before the great and notable day of the Lord come. And the time shall come: that whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. For upon the mount Sion and at Jerusalem, there shall be a salvation, like as the Lord hath promised: yee and among the other remnant, whom the Lord shall call.

The Third Chapter

For take heed: in those days and at the same time, when I turn again the captivity of Juda and Jerusalem: I shall gather all people together, and bring them in the valley of Josaphat: and there will I reason with them: because of my people and heritage of Israel: whom they have scattered about in the nations, and parted my land: yee they have cast lots for my people, the young men have they set in the bordel house, and sold the damsels for wine, that they might have to drink. Thou Tirus and Sidon and all the borders of the Philistines: what have yee to do with me? Will ye defy me? well, if ye will needs defy me, I shall recompense you, even upon your head, and that right shortly: for ye have taken away my silver and gold, my fair and goodly jewels, and brought them on to your gods houses. The children also of Juda and Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Greeks, that ye might bring them far from the borders of their own countries.

Behold therefore, I will raise them out of the place, where ye have sold them, and will reward you even upon your head. Y our your sons and your daughters will I sell through the hands of the children of Juda, and so they shall give them forth to sell, unto them of Saba, a people of a far country: for the Lord himself has said it. Cry out these things among the Gentiles, proclaim war, wake up the giants, let them draw nye, let them come up all the lusty warriors of them. Make you swords of your plowshares, and spears of your sickles and scythes. Let the meek man say: Iam strong. Muster you, and come, all ye Heathen round about: gather you together, there shall the Lord lay all thy giants to the ground. Let the people arise, get them to the valley of Josaphat: for there will I sit, and judge all the Heathen round about. Lay to your scythes, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down: the wine press is full, yee the wine press run over, for their wickedness is waxen great.

In the valley appointed, there shall be many, many people: for the day of the Lord is nye in the valley appointed. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their light. The Lord shall roar out of Sion, a cry out of Jerusalem, that the Heavens and earth shall quake withal. But the Lord shall be a defense to his own people, and an refuge for the children of Israel. Thus ye shall know, that I the Lord your God dwell upon my holy mount Sion. Then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers go through her any more. Then shall the mountains drop sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk. All the rivers of Juda shall have water enough, and out of the Lords house, there shall flow a spring, to water the broke of Sitim: but Egypt shall be laid waste, and Edom shall be desolate: because they have dealt so cruelly with the children of Juda, and shed innocent blood in their land. Again, Juda shall be inhabited for evermore, and Jerusalem from generation to generation: for I will not leave their blood unavenged. And the Lord shall dwell in Sion.

The end of the prophesy of Joel.