Joel 2: The Army of Locusts

Joel 2

¹ Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of Yahweh comes, for it is close at hand:

² A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn spreading on the mountains, a great and strong people; there has never been the like, neither will there be any more after them, even to the years of many generations.

³ A fire devours before them, and behind them, a flame burns. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them, a desolate wilderness. Yes, and no one has escaped them.

⁴ Their appearance is as the appearance of horses, and they run as horsemen.

⁵ Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains, they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, like a strong people set in battle array.

⁶ At their presence the peoples are in anguish. All faces have grown pale.

⁷ They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like warriors. They each march in his line, and they don’t swerve off course.

⁸ One doesn’t jostle another. They each march in their own path. They burst through the defenses and don’t break ranks.

⁹ They rush on the city. They run on the wall. They climb up into the houses. They enter in at the windows like thieves.

¹⁰ The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

¹¹ Yahweh thunders his voice before his army, for his forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome, and who can endure it?

¹² “Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”

¹³ Tear your heart and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.

¹⁴ Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to Yahweh, your God.

¹⁵ Blow the trumpet in Zion! Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly.

¹⁶ Gather the people. Sanctify the assembly. Assemble the elders. Gather the children, and those who nurse from breasts. Let the bridegroom go out of his room, and the bride out of her chamber.

¹⁷ Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, “Spare your people, Yahweh, and don’t give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ”

¹⁸ Then Yahweh was jealous for his land, and had pity on his people.

¹⁹ Yahweh answered his people, “Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with them; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.

²⁰ But I will remove the northern army far away from you, and will drive it into a barren and desolate land, its front into the eastern sea, and its back into the western sea; and its stench will come up, and its bad smell will rise.” Surely he has done great things.

²¹ Land, don’t be afraid. Be glad and rejoice, for Yahweh has done great things.

²² Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.

²³ “Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in Yahweh, your God; for he gives you the early rain in just measure, and he causes the rain to come down for you, the early rain and the latter rain, as before.

²⁴ The threshing floors will be full of wheat, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

²⁵ I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the great locust, the grasshopper, and the caterpillar, my great army, which I sent among you.

²⁶ You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied, and will praise the name of Yahweh, your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; and my people will never again be disappointed.

²⁷ You will know that I am among Israel, and that I am Yahweh, your God, and there is no one else; and my people will never again be disappointed.

²⁸ “It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions.

²⁹ And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days, I will pour out my Spirit.

³⁰ I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke.

³¹ The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.

³² It will happen that whoever will call on Yahweh’s name shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls.