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Joel New Living Translation (NLT)

Chapter 1
¹ The LORD gave this message to Joel son of Pethuel.


Mourning over the Locust Plague

²Hear this, you leaders of the people! Everyone listen! In all your history, has anything like this ever happened before? ³Tell your children about it in the years to come. Pass the awful story down from generation to generation. ⁴After the cutting locusts finished eating the crops, the swarming locusts took what was left! After them came the hopping locusts, and then the stripping locusts, too!
⁵Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! All the grapes are ruined, and all your new wine is gone! ⁶A vast army of locusts has invaded my land. It is a terrible army, too numerous to count! Its teeth are as sharp as the teeth of lions! ⁷They have destroyed my grapevines and fig trees, stripping their bark and leaving the branches white and bare.
⁸Weep with sorrow, as a virgin weeps when her fiance has died. ⁹There is no grain or wine to offer at the Temple of the LORD. The priests are mourning because there are no offerings. Listen to the weeping of these ministers of the LORD! ¹⁰The fields are ruined and empty of crops. The grain, the wine, and the olive oil are gone.
¹¹Despair, all you farmers! Wail, all you vine growers! Weep, because the wheat and barley--yes, all the field crops--are ruined. ¹²The grapevines and the fig trees have all withered. The pomegranate trees, palm trees, and apple trees--yes, all the fruit trees--have dried up. All joy has dried up with them.
¹³Dress yourselves in sackcloth, you priests! Wail, you who serve before the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God! There is no grain or wine to offer at the Temple of your God. ¹⁴Announce a time of fasting; call the people together for a solemn meeting. Bring the leaders and all the people into the Temple of the LORD your God, and cry out to him there. ¹⁵The day of the LORD is on the way, the day when destruction comes from the Almighty. How terrible that day will be!
¹⁶We watch as our food disappears before our very eyes. There are no joyful celebrations in the house of our God. ¹⁷The seeds die in the parched ground, and the grain crops fail. The barns and granaries stand empty and abandoned. ¹⁸How the animals moan with hunger! The cattle wander about confused because there is no pasture for them. The sheep bleat in misery.
¹⁹LORD, help us! The fire has consumed the pastures and burned up all the trees. ²⁰Even the wild animals cry out to you because they have no water to drink. The streams have dried up, and fire has consumed the pastures.


Chapter 2


Locusts Invade like an Army

¹Blow the trumpet in Jerusalem! Sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let everyone tremble in fear because the day of the LORD is upon us. ²It is a day of darkness and gloom, a day of thick clouds and deep blackness. Suddenly, like dawn spreading across the mountains, a mighty army appears! How great and powerful they are! The likes of them have not been seen before and never will be seen again.
³Fire burns in front of them and follows them in every direction! Ahead of them the land lies as fair as the Garden of Eden in all its beauty. Behind them is nothing but desolation; not one thing escapes. ⁴They look like tiny horses, and they run as fast. ⁵Look at them as they leap along the mountaintops! Listen to the noise they make--like the rumbling of chariots, like the roar of a fire sweeping across a field, or like a mighty army moving into battle.
⁶Fear grips all the people; every face grows pale with fright. ⁷The attackers march like warriors and scale city walls like trained soldiers. Straight forward they march, never breaking rank. ⁸They never jostle each other; each moves in exactly the right place. They lunge through the gaps, and no weapon can stop them. ⁹They swarm over the city and run along its walls. They enter all the houses, climbing like thieves through the windows.
¹⁰The earth quakes as they advance, and the heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars no longer shine. ¹¹The LORD leads them with a shout! This is his mighty army, and they follow his orders. The day of the LORD is an awesome, terrible thing. Who can endure it?


A Call to Repentance

¹²That is why the LORD says, "Turn to me now, while there is time! Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. ¹³Don't tear your clothing in your grief; instead, tear your hearts." Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful. He is not easily angered. He is filled with kindness and is eager not to punish you. ¹⁴Who knows? Perhaps even yet he will give you a reprieve, sending you a blessing instead of this terrible curse. Perhaps he will give you so much that you will be able to offer grain and wine to the LORD your God as before!
¹⁵Blow the trumpet in Jerusalem! Announce a time of fasting; call the people together for a solemn meeting. ¹⁶Bring everyone--the elders, the children, and even the babies. Call the bridegroom from his quarters and the bride from her private room. ¹⁷The priests, who minister in the LORD's presence, will stand between the people and the altar, weeping. Let them pray, "Spare your people, LORD! They belong to you, so don't let them become an object of mockery. Don't let their name become a proverb of unbelieving foreigners who say, `Where is the God of Israel? He must be helpless!' "


The LORDs Promise of Restoration

¹⁸Then the LORD will pity his people and be indignant for the honor of his land! ¹⁹He will reply, "Look! I am sending you grain and wine and olive oil, enough to satisfy your needs. You will no longer be an object of mockery among the surrounding nations. ²⁰I will remove these armies from the north and send them far away. I will drive them back into the parched wastelands, where they will die. Those in the rear will go into the Dead Sea; those at the front will go into the Mediterranean. The stench of their rotting bodies will rise over the land."
Surely the LORD has done great things! ²¹Don't be afraid, my people! Be glad now and rejoice because the LORD has done great things. ²²Don't be afraid, you animals of the field! The pastures will soon be green. The trees will again be filled with luscious fruit; fig trees and grapevines will flourish once more. ²³Rejoice, you people of Jerusalem! Rejoice in the LORD your God! For the rains he sends are an expression of his grace. Once more the autumn rains will come, as well as the rains of spring. ²⁴The threshing floors will again be piled high with grain, and the presses will overflow with wine and olive oil.
²⁵The LORD says, "I will give you back what you lost to the stripping locusts, the cutting locusts, the swarming locusts, and the hopping locusts. It was I who sent this great destroying army against you. ²⁶Once again you will have all the food you want, and you will praise the LORD your God, who does these miracles for you. Never again will my people be disgraced like this. ²⁷Then you will know that I am here among my people of Israel and that I alone am the LORD your God. My people will never again be disgraced like this.


The LORDs Promise of His Spirit

²⁸"Then after I have poured out my rains again, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. ²⁹In those days, I will pour out my Spirit even on servants, men and women alike.
³⁰"I will cause wonders in the heavens and on the earth--blood and fire and pillars of smoke. ³¹The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon will turn bloodred before that great and terrible day of the LORD arrives. ³²And anyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved. There will be people on Mount Zion in Jerusalem who escape, just as the LORD has said. These will be among the survivors whom the LORD has called.


Chapter 3


Judgment against Enemy Nations

¹"At that time, when I restore the prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem," says the LORD, ²"I will gather the armies of the world into the valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will judge them for harming my people, for scattering my inheritance among the nations, and for dividing up my land. ³They cast lots to decide which of my people would be their slaves. They traded young boys for prostitutes and little girls for enough wine to get drunk.
⁴"What do you have against me, Tyre and Sidon and you cities of Philistia? Are you trying to take revenge on me? If you are, then watch out! I will strike swiftly and pay you back for everything you have done. ⁵You have taken my silver and gold and all my precious treasures, and you have carried them off to your pagan temples. ⁶You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, who took them far from their homeland. ⁷But I will bring them back again from all these places to which you sold them, and I will pay you back for all you have done. ⁸I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the peoples of Arabia, a nation far away. I, the LORD, have spoken!"
⁹Say to the nations far and wide: "Get ready for war! Call out your best warriors! Let all your fighting men advance for the attack! ¹⁰Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Train even your weaklings to be warriors. ¹¹Come quickly, all you nations everywhere! Gather together in the valley."
And now, O LORD, call out your warriors!
¹²"Let the nations be called to arms. Let them march to the valley of Jehoshaphat. There I, the LORD, will sit to pronounce judgment on them all. ¹³Now let the sickle do its work, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread the winepress because it is full. The storage vats are overflowing with the wickedness of these people."
¹⁴Thousands upon thousands are waiting in the valley of decision. It is there that the day of the LORD will soon arrive. ¹⁵The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will no longer shine. ¹⁶The LORD's voice will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem, and the earth and heavens will begin to shake. But to his people of Israel, the LORD will be a welcoming refuge and a strong fortress.


Blessings for Gods People

¹⁷"Then you will know that I, the LORD your God, live in Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy forever, and foreign armies will never conquer her again. ¹⁸In that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk. Water will fill the dry streambeds of Judah, and a fountain will burst forth from the LORD's Temple, watering the arid valley of acacias. ¹⁹Egypt will become a wasteland and Edom a wilderness, because they attacked Judah and killed her innocent people.
²⁰"But Judah will remain forever, and Jerusalem will endure through all future generations. ²¹I will pardon my people's crimes, which I have not yet pardoned; and I, the LORD, will make my home in Jerusalem with my people."