Joel 1:2

A Locust Plague Foreshadows the Day of the Lord

1:2 Listen to this, you elders;

pay attention, all inhabitants of the land.

Has anything like this ever happened in your whole life

or in the lifetime of your ancestors?

Joel 1:9

1:9 No one brings grain offerings or drink offerings

to the temple of the Lord anymore.

So the priests, those who serve the Lord, are in mourning.

Joel 3:14

3:14 Crowds, great crowds are in the valley of decision,

for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision!

Joel 1:13

1:13 Get dressed and lament, you priests!

Wail, you who minister at the altar!

Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God,

because no one brings grain offerings or drink offerings

to the temple of your God anymore.

Joel 3:20

3:20 But Judah will reside securely forever,

and Jerusalem will be secure from one generation to the next.

Joel 2:23

2:23 Citizens of Zion, rejoice!

Be glad because of what the Lord your God has done!

For he has given to you the early rains as vindication.

He has sent to you the rains –

both the early and the late rains as formerly.

Joel 1:16

1:16 Our food has been cut off right before our eyes!

There is no longer any joy or gladness in the temple of our God!

Joel 2:8

2:8 They do not jostle one another;

each of them marches straight ahead.

They burst through the city defenses

and do not break ranks.

Joel 3:10-11

3:10 Beat your plowshares into swords,

and your pruning hooks into spears!

Let the weak say, ‘I too am a warrior!’

3:11 Lend your aid and come,

all you surrounding nations,

and gather yourselves to that place.”

Bring down, O Lord, your warriors!

Joel 3:21

3:21 I will avenge their blood which I had not previously acquitted.

It is the Lord who dwells in Zion!

Joel 2:17

2:17 Let the priests, those who serve the Lord, weep

from the vestibule all the way back to the altar.

Let them say, “Have pity, O Lord, on your people;

please do not turn over your inheritance to be mocked,

to become a proverb among the nations.

Why should it be said among the peoples,

“Where is their God?”

Joel 1:19

1:19 To you, O Lord, I call out for help,

for fire has burned up the grassy pastures,

flames have razed all the trees in the fields.

Joel 1:12

1:12 The vine has dried up;

the fig tree languishes –

the pomegranate, date, and apple as well.

In fact, all the trees of the field have dried up.

Indeed, the joy of the people has dried up!

Joel 1:14

1:14 Announce a holy fast;

proclaim a sacred assembly.

Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land

to the temple of the Lord your God,

and cry out to the Lord.

Joel 2:1

The Locusts’ Devastation

2:1 Blow the trumpet in Zion;

sound the alarm signal on my holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land shake with fear,

for the day of the Lord is about to come.

Indeed, it is near!

Joel 2:5

2:5 They sound like chariots rumbling over mountain tops,

like the crackling of blazing fire consuming stubble,

like the noise of a mighty army being drawn up for battle.

Joel 2:14

2:14 Who knows?

Perhaps he will be compassionate and grant a reprieve,

and leave blessing in his wake –

a meal offering and a drink offering for you to offer to the Lord your God!

Joel 2:25

2:25 I will make up for the years

that the ‘arbeh-locust consumed your crops –

the yeleq-locust, the hasil-locust, and the gazam-locust –

my great army that I sent against you.

Joel 3:16

3:16 The Lord roars from Zion;

from Jerusalem his voice bellows out.

The heavens and the earth shake.

But the Lord is a refuge for his people;

he is a stronghold for the citizens of Israel.