1:1 The Word of Yehovah that was to Yoel, the son of Pethuel:
1:2 Hear this, you old men, and give ear, all you people of the land. Has this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
1:3 Tell your sons about it, and your sons to their sons, and their sons to another generation.
1:4 What was left by the cutter, the swarming locust ate; and that left of the swarming locust, the locust larvae ate; and that left of the locust larvae, the stripping locust ate.
1:5 Awake, drunkards, and weep. And wail, all wine drinkers, over the grape must, for it is cut off from your mouth.
1:6 For a nation has come up on my land, strong and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the jaw teeth of a lioness.
1:7 There My vine is desolation, and it has splintered My fig tree1. He has stripped it, and thrown it down; its branches grow white.
1:8 Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth over the husband of her youth.
1:9 The food offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of Yehovah; the priests, the ministers of Yehovah, mourn.
1:10 The field is wasted; the land mourns, for the grain is wasted. The new wine is dried up, the oil tree droops.
1:11 Be withered, farmers, howl, vine-dressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field has perished.
1:12 The vine is dried up and the fig tree droops, the pomegranate, and the palm tree, and the apple tree; all the trees of the field are dried up, because joy has dried up from the sons of men.
1:13 Gird up and lament, priests. Howl, ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, ministers of my Elohim. For the food offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your Elohim.
1:14 Set apart a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the elders, all those living in the land, into the house of Yehovah your Elohim, and cry to Yehovah.
1:15 Alas for the day! For the day of Yehovah2 is at hand. And it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
1:16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our Elohim?
1:17 The seed shrivels under their clods; the storage bins are laid waste, the granaries are broken down, for the grain has dried up.
1:18 How the beasts groan! The herds of livestock are vexed, for there is no pasture for them. Even the flocks of sheep are perishing.
1:19 O Yehovah, to You I will cry, for the fire has burned up the pastures of the wilderness, and has consumed all the trees of the field.
1:20 The beasts of the field also long for You, for the rivers of water are dried up, and the fire has eaten up the pastures of the wilderness3.
2:1 Blow a ram's horn in Zion, and shout an alarm in My set apart mountain. Let all those living in the land tremble. For the day of Yehovah approaches; it is near. (Zech 14:1, Is 13:6)
2:2 It is a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, as the dawn spread out on the mountains, a great and a strong people. There has never been the like, nor shall there ever be again to the years of generation to generation;
2:3 a fire devours before it, and a flame burns behind it. The land is the Garden of Eden before them and behind them is a desolate wilderness; yea, also there is no escape to them.
2:4 Their appearance is like horses; and as war horses, so they run.
2:5 They shall leap like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains, like the noise of flames of fire that devour the chaff, as a strong people set in order for battle.
2:6 Before their face, the people shall be pained; all faces collect heat.
2:7 They shall run as mighty ones; they shall go up the wall as men of war. And they each go on his way, and they do not change their paths.
2:8 And every man does not press his brother; they each go in his own paths. And if they fall behind their weapon, they shall not be cut off.
2:9 They shall rush on the city; they shall run on the wall; they shall climb up on the houses; they shall enter in by the windows, like a thief.
2:10 The earth shall quake before them, the heavens shall shake. The sun and moon shall grow dark, and the stars shall gather in their light4.
2:11 And Yehovah shall give His voice before His army, for His camp is very great. For he who does His Word is strong. For the day of Yehovah is very great and fearful, and who can endure it?
2:12 Yet even now turn to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with wailing, declares Yehovah.
2:13 Yea, tear your heart, and not your robes; and turn to Yehovah your Elohim. For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and He pities concerning the evil. (Yer 18:7-8, Ex 34:6-7, Deut 4:31)
2:14 Who knows if He will turn and have pity and leave a blessing behind Him, a food offering and a drink offering for Yehovah your Elohim?
2:15 Blow a shofar5 in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly.
2:16 Gather the people, sanctify the house of assembly, gather the elders, gather the children, and those who suck the breasts. Let the bridegroom go out of his room, and the bride out of her bridal chamber6.
2:17 Let the priests, ministers of Yehovah, weep between the porch and the altar; and let them say, Have pity on Your people, O Yehovah, and do not give Your inheritance to shame, for a proverb among those of the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, Where is their Elohim?
2:18 Then Yehovah will be jealous for His land and have pity on His people7.
2:19 Yea, Yehovah will answer and say to His people, Look, I will send you grain, and wine, and oil8, and you shall be satisfied with it. And I will no more make you a disgrace among the nations.
2:20 But I will remove the northern army far from you, and I will drive him into a dry and desolated land with his face toward the eastern sea, and his rear toward the western sea. And his stench shall come up, and his ill odor shall come up, because he was doing great things.
2:21 Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice, for Yehovah is doing great things.
2:22 Fear not, beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness grow green, for the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and the vine give their strength.
2:23 Then be glad, sons of Zion, and rejoice in Yehovah your Elohim. For He has given to you the early rain according to righteousness, and He will cause the rain to come down for you, the early rain and the latter rain in the first new moon.
2:24 And the floors shall be full with grain, and the wine vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
2:25 And I will restore to you the years which the swarming locust has eaten, the locust larvae, and the stripping locust, and the cutting locust, My great army which I sent among you.
2:26 And you shall eat fully and be satisfied; and you shall praise the name of Yehovah your Elohim, who has dealt wondrously with you. And My people shall not be ashamed forever.
2:27 And you shall know that I am in the midst of Yisrael, and that I am Yehovah your Elohim, and there is no other. And My people shall not be ashamed forever.
2:28 And it shall be afterward, I will pour out My ruach on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.
2:29 And also I will pour out My ruach on the slaves and on the slave-girls in those days. (Acts 2:15-21)
2:30 And I will show wonders in heaven, and upon the earth, blood, and fire, and vapors of smoke. (Ex 14:19)
2:31 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of Yehovah. (Is 13:10)
2:32 For it shall be, all who shall call on the name of Yehovah shall be saved. For salvation shall be in Mount Zion, and in Yerushalayim, as Yehovah has said, and among the survivors whom Yehovah shall call9.
3:1 For, look, in those days and in that time, when I bring again the exiles of Yehudah and Yerushalayim10,
3:2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Yehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, for My people and My inheritance, Yisrael, whom they have scattered among the nations; and they divided My land11.
3:3 And they have cast lots for My people. And they have given a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine, and they drank.
3:4 And also, what are you to Me, Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you restoring repayment to Me? And if you are repaying Me, I will swiftly and speedily turn your reward on your own head,
3:5 in that you have taken My silver and My gold and have carried My good treasures to your temples.
3:6 You have also sold the sons of Yehudah and the sons of Yerushalayim to the sons of the Javanites (Greeks), that you might remove them far from their border.
3:7 Look, I am arousing them from the place where you have sold them, and will return your reward on your own head.
3:8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Yehudah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans12, to a nation far off. For Yehovah has spoken it.
3:9 Proclaim this among the nations: Sanctify a war; awaken the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near; let them come up.
3:10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am strong13.
3:11 Gather yourselves and come, all you nations; and gather yourselves together all around. O Yehovah, bring down Your mighty ones.
3:12 Let the nations be awakened and come up to the Valley of Yehoshaphat. For there I will sit to judge all the nations all around.
3:13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down, for the press is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. (Rev 14:15-20)
3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in valley of decision! For the day of Yehovah is near in the valley of decision14.
3:15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall gather in their light. (Yoel 2:10)
3:16 And Yehovah roars from Zion, and He gives His voice from Yerushalayim. And the heavens and the earth quake. But Yehovah is a refuge for His people and a fortress to the sons of Yisrael.
3:17 And you shall know that I am Yehovah your Elohim dwelling in Zion, My set apart mountain. And Yerushalayim shall be a set apart thing, and strangers shall no more pass through her.
3:18 And it shall be in that day, the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streams of Yehudah shall flow with waters. And a fountain shall come forth from the house of Yehovah, and it shall water the Valley of Shittim.
3:19 Mitsrayim shall be a ruin, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, from the violence15 done to the sons of Yehudah, whose innocent blood they poured out in their land.
3:20 But Yehudah will dwell forever, and Yerushalayim to generation and generation.
3:21 And I will cleanse their blood which I did not cleanse. And Yehovah is dwelling in Zion.
(2Chron 7:16)