Joel 2 – Revised Standard Version

November 20 (Year Six)

Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
    for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near,
a day of darkness and gloom,
    a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
    a great and powerful people;
their like has never been from of old,
    nor will be again after them
    through the years of all generations.

Fire devours before them,
    and behind them a flame burns.
The land is like the garden of Eden before them,
    but after them a desolate wilderness,
    and nothing escapes them.

Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,
    and like war horses they run.
As with the rumbling of chariots,
    they leap on the tops of the mountains,
like the crackling of a flame of fire
    devouring the stubble,
like a powerful army
    drawn up for battle.

Before them peoples are in anguish,
    all faces grow pale.
Like warriors they charge,
    like soldiers they scale the wall.
They march each on his way,
    they do not swerve from their paths.
They do not jostle one another,
    each marches in his path;
they burst through the weapons
    and are not halted.
They leap upon the city,
    they run upon the walls;
they climb up into the houses,
    they enter through the windows like a thief.

The earth quakes before them,
    the heavens tremble.
The sun and the moon are darkened,
    and the stars withdraw their shining.
The Lord utters his voice
    before his army,
for his host is exceedingly great;
    he that executes his word is powerful.
For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible;
    who can endure it?

“Yet even now,” says the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
    and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord, your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
    and repents of evil.
Who knows whether he will not turn and repent,
    and leave a blessing behind him,
a cereal offering and a drink offering
    for the Lord, your God?

Blow the trumpet in Zion;
    sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
    gather the people.
Sanctify the congregation;
    assemble the elders;
gather the children,
    even nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
    and the bride her chamber.

Between the vestibule and the altar
    let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep
and say, “Spare thy people, O Lord,
    and make not thy heritage a reproach,
    a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
    ‘Where is their God?’”

Then the Lord became jealous for his land,
    and had pity on his people.
The Lord answered and said to his people,
“Behold, I am sending to you
    grain, wine, and oil,
    and you will be satisfied;
and I will no more make you
    a reproach among the nations.

“I will remove the northerner far from you,
    and drive him into a parched and desolate land,
his front into the eastern sea,
    and his rear into the western sea;
the stench and foul smell of him will rise,
    for he has done great things.

“Fear not, O land;
    be glad and rejoice,
    for the Lord has done great things!
Fear not, you beasts of the field,
    for the pastures of the wilderness are green;
the tree bears its fruit,
    the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

“Be glad, O sons of Zion,
    and rejoice in the Lord, your God;
for he has given the early rain for your vindication,
    he has poured down for you abundant rain,
    the early and the latter rain, as before.

“The threshing floors shall be full of grain,
    the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
I will restore to you the years
    which the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
    my great army, which I sent among you.

“You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
    and praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has dealt wondrously with you.
And my people shall never again be put to shame.
You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,
    and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is none else.
And my people shall never again
    be put to shame.

“And it shall come to pass afterward,
    that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
    your old men shall dream dreams,
    and your young men shall see visions.
Even upon the menservants and maidservants
    in those days, I will pour out my spirit.

“And I will give portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

Yesterday’s Reading

The 6 Year Plan

Tomorrow’s Reading

Joel 3 – New Living Translation

November 20 (Year Six)

“At the time of those events,” says the Lord,
    “when I restore the prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will gather the armies of the world
    into the valley of Jehoshaphat.
There I will judge them
    for harming my people, my special possession,
for scattering my people among the nations,
    and for dividing up my land.
They threw dice to decide which of my people
    would be their slaves.
They traded boys to obtain prostitutes
    and sold girls for enough wine to get drunk.

“What do you have against me, Tyre and Sidon and you cities of Philistia? Are you trying to take revenge on me? If you are, then watch out! I will strike swiftly and pay you back for everything you have done. You have taken my silver and gold and all my precious treasures, and have carried them off to your pagan temples. You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, so they could take them far from their homeland.

“But I will bring them back from all the places to which you sold them, and I will pay you back for everything you have done. I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the people of Arabia, a nation far away. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Say to the nations far and wide:
    “Get ready for war!
Call out your best warriors.
    Let all your fighting men advance for the attack.
Hammer your plowshares into swords
    and your pruning hooks into spears.
    Train even your weaklings to be warriors.
Come quickly, all you nations everywhere.
    Gather together in the valley.”

And now, O Lord, call out your warriors!

“Let the nations be called to arms.
    Let them march to the valley of Jehoshaphat.
There I, the Lord, will sit
    to pronounce judgment on them all.
Swing the sickle,
    for the harvest is ripe.
Come, tread the grapes,
    for the winepress is full.
The storage vats are overflowing
    with the wickedness of these people.”

Thousands upon thousands are waiting in the valley of decision.
    There the day of the Lord will soon arrive.
The sun and moon will grow dark,
    and the stars will no longer shine.
The Lord’s voice will roar from Zion
    and thunder from Jerusalem,
    and the heavens and the earth will shake.
But the Lord will be a refuge for his people,
    a strong fortress for the people of Israel.

“Then you will know that I, the Lord your God,
    live in Zion, my holy mountain.
Jerusalem will be holy forever,
    and foreign armies will never conquer her again.
In that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine,
    and the hills will flow with milk.
Water will fill the streambeds of Judah,
    and a fountain will burst forth from the Lord’s Temple,
    watering the arid valley of acacias.
But Egypt will become a wasteland
    and Edom will become a wilderness,
because they attacked the people of Judah
    and killed innocent people in their land.

“But Judah will be filled with people forever,
    and Jerusalem will endure through all generations.
I will pardon my people’s crimes,
    which I have not yet pardoned;
and I, the Lord, will make my home
    in Jerusalem with my people.”

Yesterday’s Reading

The 6 Year Plan

Tomorrow’s Reading

Joel 3 – English Standard Version

November 21 (Year Six)

3 “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, ²I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, ³and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.

⁴“What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily. ⁵For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples. ⁶You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. ⁷Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head. ⁸I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.”

⁹Proclaim this among the nations:
Consecrate for war;
    stir up the mighty men.
Let all the men of war draw near;
    let them come up.
¹⁰Beat your plowshares into swords,
    and your pruning hooks into spears;
    let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”

¹¹Hasten and come,
    all you surrounding nations,
    and gather yourselves there.
Bring down your warriors, O Lord.
¹²Let the nations stir themselves up
    and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
for there I will sit to judge
    all the surrounding nations.

¹³Put in the sickle,
    for the harvest is ripe.
Go in, tread,
    for the winepress is full.
The vats overflow,
    for their evil is great.

¹⁴Multitudes, multitudes,
    in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near
    in the valley of decision.
¹⁵The sun and the moon are darkened,
    and the stars withdraw their shining.

¹⁶The Lord roars from Zion,
    and utters his voice from Jerusalem,
    and the heavens and the earth quake.
But the Lord is a refuge to his people,
    a stronghold to the people of Israel.

¹⁷“So you shall know that I am the Lord your God,
who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain.
And Jerusalem shall be holy,
and strangers shall never again pass through it.

¹⁸“And in that day
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
    and the hills shall flow with milk,
and all the streambeds of Judah
    shall flow with water;
and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord
    and water the Valley of Shittim.

¹⁹“Egypt shall become a desolation
    and Edom a desolate wilderness,
for the violence done to the people of Judah,
    because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
²⁰But Judah shall be inhabited forever,
    and Jerusalem to all generations.
²¹I will avenge their blood,
    blood I have not avenged,
    for the Lord dwells in Zion.”

Yesterday’s Reading

The 6 Year Plan

Tomorrow’s Reading

Joel 2

To Continue Reading in
Joel

English Standard Version

Amos 1

Joel 2 – English Standard Version

November 19 (Year Six)

2 Blow a trumpet in Zion;
    sound an alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
    for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near,
²a day of darkness and gloom,
    a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
    a great and powerful people;
their like has never been before,
    nor will be again after them
    through the years of all generations.

³Fire devours before them,
    and behind them a flame burns.
The land is like the garden of Eden before them,
    but behind them a desolate wilderness,
    and nothing escapes them.

⁴Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,
    and like war horses they run.
⁵As with the rumbling of chariots,
    they leap on the tops of the mountains,
like the crackling of a flame of fire
    devouring the stubble,
like a powerful army
    drawn up for battle.

⁶Before them peoples are in anguish;
    all faces grow pale.
⁷Like warriors they charge;
    like soldiers they scale the wall.
They march each on his way;
    they do not swerve from their paths.
⁸They do not jostle one another;
    each marches in his path;
they burst through the weapons
    and are not halted.
⁹They leap upon the city,
    they run upon the walls,
they climb up into the houses,
    they enter through the windows like a thief.

¹⁰The earth quakes before them;
    the heavens tremble.
The sun and the moon are darkened,
    and the stars withdraw their shining.
¹¹The Lord utters his voice
    before his army,
for his camp is exceedingly great;
    he who executes his word is powerful.
For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome;
    who can endure it?

¹²“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
¹³    and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
    and he relents over disaster.
¹⁴Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
    and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering
    for the Lord your God?

¹⁵Blow the trumpet in Zion;
    consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
¹⁶    gather the people.
Consecrate the congregation;
    assemble the elders;
gather the children,
    even nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
    and the bride her chamber.

¹⁷Between the vestibule and the altar
    let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep
and say, “Spare your people, O Lord,
    and make not your heritage a reproach,
    a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
    ‘Where is their God?’”

¹⁸Then the Lord became jealous for his land
    and had pity on his people.
¹⁹The Lord answered and said to his people,
“Behold, I am sending to you
    grain, wine, and oil,
    and you will be satisfied;
and I will no more make you
    a reproach among the nations.

²⁰“I will remove the northerner far from you,
    and drive him into a parched and desolate land,
his vanguard into the eastern sea,
    and his rear guard into the western sea;
the stench and foul smell of him will rise,
    for he has done great things.

²¹“Fear not, O land;
    be glad and rejoice,
    for the Lord has done great things!
²²Fear not, you beasts of the field,
    for the pastures of the wilderness are green;
the tree bears its fruit;
    the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

²³“Be glad, O children of Zion,
    and rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given the early rain for your vindication;
    he has poured down for you abundant rain,
    the early and the latter rain, as before.

²⁴“The threshing floors shall be full of grain;
    the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
²⁵I will restore to you the years
    that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
    my great army, which I sent among you.

²⁶“You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
    and praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has dealt wondrously with you.
And my people shall never again be put to shame.
²⁷You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,
    and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else.
And my people shall never again be put to shame.

²⁸“And it shall come to pass afterward,
    that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
    your old men shall dream dreams,
    and your young men shall see visions.
²⁹Even on the male and female servants
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

³⁰“And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. ³¹The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. ³²And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

Yesterday’s Reading

The 6 Year Plan

Tomorrow’s Reading

Joel 1

To Continue Reading in
Joel

English Standard Version

Joel 3

Joel 1 – English Standard Version

November 17 (Year Six)

1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

²Hear this, you elders;
    give ear, all inhabitants of the land!
Has such a thing happened in your days,
    or in the days of your fathers?
³Tell your children of it,
    and let your children tell their children,
    and their children to another generation.

⁴What the cutting locust left,
    the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
    the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
    the destroying locust has eaten.

⁵Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
    and wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of the sweet wine,
    for it is cut off from your mouth.
⁶For a nation has come up against my land,
    powerful and beyond number;
its teeth are lions’ teeth,
    and it has the fangs of a lioness.
⁷It has laid waste my vine
    and splintered my fig tree;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
    their branches are made white.

⁸Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth
    for the bridegroom of her youth.
⁹The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
    from the house of the Lord.
The priests mourn,
    the ministers of the Lord.
¹⁰The fields are destroyed,
    the ground mourns,
because the grain is destroyed,
    the wine dries up,
    the oil languishes.

¹¹Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil;
    wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley,
    because the harvest of the field has perished.
¹²The vine dries up;
    the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
    all the trees of the field are dried up,
and gladness dries up
    from the children of man.

¹³Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
    wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
    O ministers of my God!
Because grain offering and drink offering
    are withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁴Consecrate a fast;
    call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
    and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
    and cry out to the Lord.

¹⁵Alas for the day!
For the day of the Lord is near,
    and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
¹⁶Is not the food cut off
    before our eyes,
joy and gladness
    from the house of our God?

¹⁷The seed shrivels under the clods;
    the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
    because the grain has dried up.
¹⁸How the beasts groan!
    The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
    even the flocks of sheep suffer.

¹⁹To you, O Lord, I call.
For fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness,
and flame has burned
    all the trees of the field.
²⁰Even the beasts of the field pant for you
    because the water brooks are dried up,
and fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness.

Yesterday’s Reading

The 6 Year Plan

Tomorrow’s Reading

Hosea 14

To Continue Reading in
Joel

English Standard Version

Joel 2

Joel 1 – The Voice

November 18 (Year Six)

This is the word of the Eternal One that came to Joel, Pethuel’s son:

Hear this, elders and leaders.
    All who live in the land should pay close attention.
Has anything like this ever happened?
    No, not in your lifetimes or your fathers’.
So be sure to tell this story to your sons and daughters.
    Your sons should tell their sons and so on, for generations.

We have been invaded!
What the cutting locusts left,
    the swarming locusts consumed;
What the swarming locusts left,
    the creeping locusts consumed;
What the creeping locusts left,
    the stripping locusts finished off.

These four locusts are probably not different species of insect. Joel is describing four different locust invasions and how each ravages the land.

All you drunks, get up and cry!
Weep and wail, all of you wine drinkers.
Your sweet wine
has been snatched from your mouths.

Eternal One: For a people invaded My land.
        Their army is strong; their numbers cannot be counted.
    They attack with teeth as sharp as a lion’s;
        they bare their fangs like a lioness.
    My vines are ruined.
        My fig trees are reduced to stumps now.
    These enemy insects have stripped off the bark and tossed My trees aside like refuse.
        The branches lie bare, broken and white.

Wail like a bride dressed in sackcloth instead of her gown, as a virgin
    mourning the death of the groom she’d long been betrothed to.
Those who serve the Eternal One,
    His priests, are in mourning too—
Because no one is able to bring grain or wine to offer
    in the Eternal’s temple.

The priests are mourning because they have no offerings to make, but they are more concerned for themselves because without these offerings the priests lose their main source of food.

The fields lie desolate.
The earth herself mourns the loss,
For her golden grain is ruined.
The fruits of her vines have withered.
Her gift of oil has dried up.

Wilt in shame, you farmers. Wail with screams, you vinedressers.
    Grieve for the wheat and the barley;
Grieve, for the crops in the field are ruined.
The grapevines have withered and died.
    The fig trees have dried up.
The pomegranate, the date-palm, the apple tree—
    indeed all the trees of the field—have dried up.
Joy has withered on the branches of the people and turned to shame.

You priests, throw off your fine robes. Dress in sackcloth and grieve.
    Wail, you servants at the altar.
Come into the temple and spend all night in your sackcloth,
    you ministers of my God,
Because no one brings grain and wine
    to offer at your God’s house these days.
So consecrate a holy fast; call everyone together.
    Gather all the elders and leaders and the rest who live in the land.
Call everyone to the temple of your God, the Eternal.
    Then cry out to Him with all your heart.

But look! It is coming!
The day of the Eternal One is near.
Destruction, not salvation,
will be the sentence from the Highest God.
Hasn’t all our food been destroyed right before our eyes?
Haven’t joyful celebrations ceased in God’s house?

The seeds the farmers planted have shriveled beneath the ground;
    all the storehouses are empty; their supplies are gone.
The barns are breaking down
    because there is no more grain to fill them.
Now even the beasts groan!
    Herds of cattle wander, confused and agitated,
For they have no more pasture to feed in.
    Flocks of sheep suffer this ordeal too.

I cry out to you, O Eternal One,
    along with everyone else.
For the fire of Your wrath has consumed
    the open pastures,
And flames have scorched
    all the trees in the field.
Even the wild beasts call to You:
    they are dying of thirst—the streams have dried up;
They are dying of hunger—the fire of Your wrath has consumed open pastures.

Yesterday’s Reading

The 6 Year Plan

Tomorrow’s Reading

Joel 1 – English Standard Version