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

Tell your children of it, and let them show it to their children, and so they - to certify their posterity thereof.

For a nation has invaded our land. There are so many of them they are too numerous to count. Their teeth are like those of a lion; they tear apart their prey like a lioness.

It has made My vine (My people) a waste and object of horror,
And splintered and broken My fig tree.
It has stripped them completely bare and thrown them away;
Their branches have become white.

"Grieve like a virgin, who, dressed in her mourner's clothes, cries out in memory of the man she was going to marry.

The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD'S ministers, mourn.

The husbandmen and the wine gardeners shall look piteously, and make lamentation for the wheat, wine and barley; and because the harvest upon the field is so clean destroyed.

The vine dries up
And the fig tree fails;
The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree,
All the trees of the field dry up,
Indeed, joy dries up and withdraws
From the sons of men.

Clothe yourselves with sackcloth
And lament (cry out in grief), O priests;
Wail, O ministers of the altar!
Come, spend the night in sackcloth [and pray without ceasing],
O ministers of my God,
For the grain offering and the drink offering
Are withheld from the house of your God.

"Sound the ram's horn in Zion! Sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Tremble, all of you inhabitants of the land, because the Day of the LORD is coming. Oh, how near it is!

A day of darkness and gloom,
A day of clouds and of thick [dark] mist,
Like the dawn spread over the mountains;
There is a [pagan, hostile] people numerous and mighty,
The like of which has never been before
Nor will be again afterward
Even for years of many generations.

The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.

People writhe in fear when they see them. All of their faces turn pale with fright.

The Lord utters His voice before His army,
For His camp is very great,
Because strong and powerful is he who [obediently] carries out His word.
For the day of the Lord is indeed great and very terrible [causing dread];
Who can endure it?

Even now—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
turn to Me with all your heart,
with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

Who knows? He may turn and relent
and leave a blessing behind Him,
so you can offer grain and wine
to the Lord your God.

"Sound the ram's horn in Zion! Dedicate a fast and call for a solemn assembly!

Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?

And the LORD envied for his land's sake and had compassion on his people.

Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen:

But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.

And so be glad, children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, because he has given you the right amount of early rain, and he will cause the rain to fall for you, both the early rain and the later rain as before.

So shall the threshing-floors, be filled, with corn, - and the vats, overflow, with new wine and oil.

And ye shall eat and eat, and be satisfied, and shall praise the name of Yahweh your God, who hath dealt with you wondrously, - so shall my people, not be abashed, unto times age-abiding.

So shall ye know that, in the midst of Israel, I am, and that, I, Yahweh, am your God, and none else, - and my people, shall not be abashed, unto times age-abiding.

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

It will so happen that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who survive, just as the Lord has promised; the remnant will be those whom the Lord will call.

They cast lots for my people they sold a young boy in exchange for a prostitute, and a girl for wine, so they could drink."

"Furthermore, what have you to do with me, Tyre, Sidon, and all the sea coasts of Philistia? Are you taking revenge on me? If you are taking revenge on me, I'll send it back on you swiftly and promptly,

and sold Judah's and Jerusalem's descendants to the Greeks, so you can remove them far from their homeland!

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;

Your sons and your daughters will I sell through the hands of the children of Judah, and so they shall give them forth to sell, unto them of Sheba, a people of a far country: for the LORD himself hath said it.

Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

In that day
the mountains will drip with sweet wine,
and the hills will flow with milk.
All the streams of Judah will flow with water,
and a spring will issue from the Lord’s house,
watering the Valley of Acacias.