Joel 2

Let the horn be sounded in Zion, and a war-cry in my holy mountain; let all the people of the land be troubled: for the day of the Lord is coming;

For a day of dark and deep shade is near, a day of cloud and black night: like a black cloud a great and strong people is covering the mountains; there has never been any like them and will not be after them again, from generation to 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.

Their form is like the form of horses, and they are running like war-horses.

Like the sound of war-carriages they go jumping on the tops of the mountains; like the noise of a flame of fire burning up the grain-stems, like a strong people lined up for the fight.

At their coming the people are bent with pain: all faces become red together.

They are running like strong men, they go over the wall like men of war; every man goes straight on his way, their lines are not broken.

No one is pushing against another; everyone goes straight on his way: bursting through the sword points, their order is not broken.

They make a rush on the town, running on the wall; they go up into the houses and in through the windows like a thief.

The earth is troubled before them and the heavens are shaking: the sun and the moon have become dark, and the stars keep back their shining:

And the Lord is thundering before his forces; for very great is his army; for he is strong who gives effect to his word: for the day of the Lord is great and greatly to be feared, and who has strength against it?

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

Let your hearts be broken, and not your clothing, and come back to the Lord your God: for he is full of grace and pity, slow to be angry and great in mercy, ready to be turned from his purpose of punishment.

May it not be that he will again let his purpose be changed and let a blessing come after him, even a meal offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?

Let a horn be sounded in Zion, let a time be fixed for going without food, have a holy meeting:

Get the people together, make the mass of the people holy, send for the old men, get together the children and babies at the breast: let the newly married man come out of his room and the bride from her tent.

Let the priests, the servants of the Lord, be weeping between the covered way and the altar, and let them say, Have mercy on your people, O Lord, do not give up your heritage to shame, so that the nations become their rulers: why let them say among the peoples, Where is their God?

Then the Lord had a care for the honour of his land and had pity on his people.

And the Lord made answer and said to his people, See, I will send you grain and wine and oil in full measure: and I will no longer let you be shamed among the nations:

I will send the one from the north far away from you, driving him into a dry and waste land, with his front to the sea of the east and his back to the sea of the west, and the smell of him will go up, even his evil smell will go up.

Have no fear, O land; be glad with great joy; for the Lord has done great things.

Have no fear, you beasts of the field, for the grass-lands of the waste are becoming green, for the trees are producing fruit, the fig-tree and the vine give out their strength.

Be glad, then, you children of Zion, and have joy in the Lord your God: for he gives you food in full measure, making the rain come down for you, the early and the late rain as at the first.

And the floors will be full of grain, and the crushing-places overflowing with wine and oil.

I will give back to you the years which were food for the locust, the plant-worm, the field-fly, and the worm, my great army which I sent among you.

You will have food in full measure, and give praise to the name of the Lord your God, who has done wonders for you:

And you will be certain that I am in Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and there is no other: and my people will never be shamed.

And after that, it will come about, says the Lord, that I will send my spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will be prophets, your old men will have dreams, your young men will see visions:

And on the servants and the servant-girls in those days I will send my spirit.

And I will let wonders be seen in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke.

The sun will be made dark and the moon turned to blood, before the great day of the Lord comes, a day to be feared.

And it will be that whoever makes his prayer to the name of the Lord will be kept safe: for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem some will be kept safe, as the Lord has said, and will be among the small band marked out by the Lord.

Joel 2

God's punishments

Words urging fasting and prayer; blessings promised

A promise of the Holy Spirit, and of future mercies