This message from the LORD came to Pethuel's son Joel.

Pass it on to your children, and from your children to their children, and from their children to the following generation.

Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine: for it is cut off from your mouth.

The oblation and the drink-offering are cut off from the house of Jehovah; the priests, Jehovah's ministers, mourn.

The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth; the pomegranate-tree, the palm also and the apple-tree; all the trees of the field are withered, yea, joy is withered away from the children of men.

Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests; howl, ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the oblation and the drink-offering are withholden from the house of your God.

Alas for the day! for the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

What sounds of pain come from the beasts! the herds of cattle are at a loss because there is no grass for them; even the flocks of sheep are no longer to be seen.

A day of darkness and thick darkness, A day of cloud and thick darkness, As darkness spread on the mountains, A people numerous and mighty, Like it there hath not been from of old, And after it there is not again -- till the years of generation and generation.

Before them fire sends destruction, and after them flame is burning: the land is like the garden of Eden before them, and after them an unpeopled waste; truly, nothing has been kept safe from them.

They leap like the rumbling of chariots echoing from mountain tops, like the roar of wild fire that devours the chaff, as an army firmly established in battle array.

From its face pained are peoples, All faces have gathered paleness.

They run like mighty warriors, they scale the wall like men of war; each goes on its own way, and they do not swerve [from] their paths.

In the city they run to and fro, On the wall they run, Into houses they go up by the windows, They go in as a thief.

But even now, says the Lord, come back to me with all your heart, keeping from food, with weeping and with sorrow:

And tear your hearts, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and relents from sending calamity.

gather the people, hallow the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride from her closet.

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?"

And I will remove far off from you him that cometh from the north, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, his face toward the eastern sea, and his rear toward the hinder sea; and his stench shall come up, and his ill odour shall come up, for he hath exalted himself to do great things.

and the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the children of the Greeks, that ye might remove them far from their border.

See, I will have them moved from the place where you have sent them, and will let what you have done come back on your head;

Hurry and come, all the nations, from all around, and gather [yourselves] there. Bring down your mighty warriors, O Yahweh!

Let the nations be roused and let them come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations from all around.

And Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: and Jehovah will be a shelter for his people, and the refuge of the children of Israel.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the water-courses of Judah shall flow with waters; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of Jehovah, and shall water the valley of Shittim.

Egypt shall be a ruin, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, from violence done to the sons of Judah, whose innocent blood they poured out in their land.

But Judah shall abide for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

And I will purge them from the blood from which I had not purged them: for Jehovah dwelleth in Zion.