Joel--three:
Seeker Overlay ON
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The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel .
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Hear this ,
you elders ,
And give ear ,
all you inhabitants of the land !
Has anything like this happened in your days ,
Or even in the days of your fathers ?
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Tell your children about it ,
Let your children tell their children ,
And their children another generation .
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What the chewing locust left ,
the swarming locust has eaten ;
What the swarming locust left ,
the crawling locust has eaten ;
And what the crawling locust left ,
the consuming locust has eaten .
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Awake ,
you drunkards ,
and weep ;
And wail ,
all you drinkers of wine ,
Because of the new wine ,
For it has been cut off from your mouth .
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For a nation has come up against My land ,
Strong ,
and without number ;
His teeth are the teeth of a lion ,
And he has the fangs of a fierce lion .
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He has laid waste My vine ,
And ruined My fig tree ;
He has stripped it bare and thrown it away ;
Its branches are made white .
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Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth For the husband of her youth .
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The grain offering and the drink offering Have been cut off from the house of the LORD ;
The priests mourn ,
who minister to the LORD .
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The field is wasted ,
The land mourns ;
For the grain is ruined ,
The new wine is dried up ,
The oil fails .
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Be ashamed ,
you farmers ,
Wail ,
you vinedressers ,
For the wheat and the barley ;
Because the harvest of the field has perished .
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The vine has dried up ,
And the fig tree has withered ;
The pomegranate tree ,
The palm tree also ,
And the apple tree --
All the trees of the field are withered ;
Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men .
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Gird yourselves and lament ,
you priests ;
Wail ,
you who minister before the altar ;
Come ,
lie all night in sackcloth ,
You who minister to my God ;
For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God .
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Consecrate a fast ,
Call a sacred assembly ;
Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land Into the house of the LORD your God ,
And cry out to the LORD .
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Alas for the day !
For the day of the LORD is at hand ;
It shall come as destruction from the Almighty .
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Is not the food cut off before our eyes ,
Joy and gladness from the house of our God ?
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The seed shrivels under the clods ,
Storehouses are in shambles ;
Barns are broken down ,
For the grain has withered .
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How the animals groan !
The herds of cattle are restless ,
Because they have no pasture ;
Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment .
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O LORD ,
to You I cry out ;
For fire has devoured the open pastures ,
And a flame has burned all the trees of the field .
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The beasts of the field also cry out to You ,
For the water brooks are dried up ,
And fire has devoured the open pastures .
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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 the LORD is coming ,
For it is at hand :
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A day of darkness and gloominess ,
A day of clouds and thick darkness ,
Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains .
A people come ,
great and strong ,
The like of whom has never been ;
Nor will there ever be any such after them ,
Even for many successive generations .
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A fire devours before them ,
And behind them a flame burns ;
The land is like the Garden of Eden before them ,
And behind them a desolate wilderness ;
Surely nothing shall escape them .
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Their appearance is like the appearance of horses ;
And like swift steeds ,
so they run .
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With a noise like chariots Over mountaintops they leap ,
Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble ,
Like a strong people set in battle array .
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Before them the people writhe in pain ;
All faces are drained of color .
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They run like mighty men ,
They climb the wall like men of war ;
Every one marches in formation ,
And they do not break ranks .
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They do not push one another ;
Every one marches in his own column .
Though they lunge between the weapons ,
They are not cut down .
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They run to and fro in the city ,
They run on the wall ;
They climb into the houses ,
They enter at the windows like a thief .
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The earth quakes before them ,
The heavens tremble ;
The sun and moon grow dark ,
And the stars diminish their brightness .
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The LORD gives voice before His army ,
For His camp is very great ;
For strong is the One who executes His word .
For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible ;
Who can endure it ?
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Now ,
therefore ,"
says the LORD , "
Turn to Me with all your heart ,
With fasting ,
with weeping ,
and with mourning ."
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So rend your heart ,
and not your garments ;
Return to the LORD your God ,
For He is gracious and merciful ,
Slow to anger ,
and of great kindness ;
And He relents from doing harm .
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Who knows if He will turn and relent ,
And leave a blessing behind Him --
A grain offering and a drink offering For the LORD your God ?
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Blow the trumpet in Zion ,
Consecrate a fast ,
Call a sacred assembly ;
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Gather the people ,
Sanctify the congregation ,
Assemble the elders ,
Gather the children and nursing babes ;
Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber ,
And the bride from her dressing room .
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Let the priests ,
who minister to the LORD ,
Weep between the porch and the altar ;
Let them say , "
Spare Your people ,
O LORD ,
And do not give Your heritage to reproach ,
That the nations should rule over them .
Why should they say among the peoples , "
Where is their God ?"'
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Then the LORD will be zealous for His land ,
And pity His people .
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The LORD will answer and say to His people , "
Behold ,
I will send you grain and new wine and oil ,
And you will be satisfied by them ;
I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations .
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But I will remove far from you the northern army ,
And will drive him away into a barren and desolate land ,
With his face toward the eastern sea And his back toward the western sea ;
His stench will come up ,
And his foul odor will rise ,
Because he has done monstrous things ."
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Fear not ,
O land ;
Be glad and rejoice ,
For the LORD has done marvelous things !
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Do not be afraid ,
you beasts of the field ;
For the open pastures are springing up ,
And the tree bears its fruit ;
The fig tree and the vine yield their strength .
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Be glad then ,
you children of Zion ,
And rejoice in the LORD your God ;
For He has given you the former rain faithfully ,
And He will cause the rain to come down for you --
The former rain ,
And the latter rain in the first month .
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The threshing floors shall be full of wheat ,
And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil .
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So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten ,
The crawling locust ,
The consuming locust ,
And the chewing locust ,
My great army which I sent among you .
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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 be put to shame .
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Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel :
I am the LORD your God And there is no other .
My people shall never be put to shame .
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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 ,
Your young men shall see visions .
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And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days .
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And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth :
Blood and fire and pillars of smoke .
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The sun shall be turned into darkness ,
And the moon into blood ,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD .
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And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved .
For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance ,
As the LORD has said ,
Among the remnant whom the LORD calls .
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For behold ,
in those days and at that time ,
When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem ,
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I will also gather all nations ,
And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat ;
And I will enter into judgment with them there On account of My people ,
My heritage Israel ,
Whom they have scattered among the nations ;
They have also divided up My land .
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They have cast lots for My people ,
Have given a boy as payment for a harlot ,
And sold a girl for wine ,
that they may drink .
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Indeed ,
what have you to do with Me ,
O Tyre and Sidon ,
and all the coasts of Philistia ?
Will you retaliate against Me ?
But if you retaliate against Me ,
Swiftly and speedily I will return your retaliation upon your own head ;
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Because you have taken My silver and My gold ,
And have carried into your temples My prized possessions .
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Also the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem You have sold to the Greeks ,
That you may remove them far from their borders .
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Behold ,
I will raise them Out of the place to which you have sold them ,
And will return your retaliation upon your own head .
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I 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 people far off ;
For the LORD has spoken ."
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Proclaim this among the nations : "
Prepare for war !
Wake up the mighty men ,
Let all the men of war draw near ,
Let them come up .
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Beat your plowshares into swords And your pruning hooks into spears ;
Let the weak say , "
I am strong ."'
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Assemble and come ,
all you nations ,
And gather together all around .
Cause Your mighty ones to go down there ,
O LORD .
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Let the nations be wakened ,
and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat ;
For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations .
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Put in the sickle ,
for the harvest is ripe .
Come ,
go down ;
For the winepress is full ,
The vats overflow --
For their wickedness is great ."
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Multitudes ,
multitudes in the valley of decision !
For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision .
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The sun and moon will grow dark ,
And the stars will diminish their brightness .
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The LORD also will roar from Zion ,
And utter His voice from Jerusalem ;
The heavens and earth will shake ;
But the LORD will be a shelter for His people ,
And the strength of the children of Israel .
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So you shall know that I am the LORD your God ,
Dwelling in Zion My holy mountain .
Then Jerusalem shall be holy ,
And no aliens shall ever pass through her again ."
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And it will come to pass in that day That the mountains shall drip with new wine ,
The hills shall flow with milk ,
And all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water ;
A fountain shall flow from the house of the LORD And water the Valley of Acacias .
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Egypt shall be a desolation ,
And Edom a desolate wilderness ,
Because of violence against the people of Judah ,
For they have shed innocent blood in their land .
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But Judah shall abide forever ,
And Jerusalem from generation to generation .
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For I will acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed ,
whom I had not acquitted ;
For the LORD dwells in Zion ."
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The words of Amos ,
who was among the sheepbreeders of Tekoa ,
which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah ,
and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash ,
king of Israel ,
two years before the earthquake .
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