It’s Not Too Late

The Book of Joel

Excerpts from Joel 1-3

1:2 Hear this, O elders;

    give ear, all inhabitants of the land!

Has such a thing happened in your days

    or in the days of your ancestors?

3 Tell your children of it,

    and let your children tell their children,

    and their children another generation.

4 What 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.

5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep…

—

1:10 The fields are devastated,

    the ground mourns,

for the grain is destroyed,

    the wine dries up,

    the oil fails.

11 Be dismayed, you farmers;

    wail, you vinedressers,

over the wheat and the barley,

    for the crops of the field are ruined.

12 The vine withers;

    the fig tree droops.

Pomegranate, palm, and apple—

    all the trees of the field are dried up;

surely, joy withers away

    among the people.

—

1:13 Put on sackcloth and lament, you priests;

    wail, you ministers of the altar.

Come, pass the night in sackcloth,

    you ministers of my God!

Grain offering and drink offering

    are withheld from the house of your God.

14 Consecrate 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.

—

1:19 To you, O Lord, I cry,

for fire has devoured

    the pastures of the wilderness,

and flames have burned

    all the trees of the field.

20 Even the wild animals cry to you

    because the watercourses are dried up,

and fire has devoured

    the pastures of the wilderness.

—

1:15 Alas for the day!

For the day of the Lord is near,

    and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

—
2:1 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—

2 a day of darkness and gloom,

    a day of clouds and thick darkness!

—

2:11b Truly the day of the Lord is great,

    terrible indeed—who can endure it?

12 Yet even now, says the Lord,

    return to me with all your heart,

with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

13     rend your hearts and not your clothing.

Return to the Lord your God,

    for he is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love,

    and relenting from punishment.

14a  Who knows whether he will not turn and relent

    and leave a blessing behind him…

—
2:18 Then the Lord became jealous for his land

    and had pity on his people.

19 In response to his people the Lord said:

“I am sending you

    grain, wine, and oil,

    and you will be satisfied;

and I will no more make you

    a mockery among the nations.

—

2:21 Do not fear, O soil;

    be glad and rejoice,

    for the Lord has done great things!

22 Do not fear, you animals 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 O children of Zion, be glad,

    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 later rain, as before.

—

2:24 The threshing floors shall be full of grain;

    the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

25 I will repay you for the years

    that the swarming locust has eaten,

the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,

    my great army that I sent against 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.

—

2:28 Then afterward

    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.

—

29 Even on the male and female slaves,

    in those days I will pour out my spirit.

30 I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. 32 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved…

—

3:14 Multitudes, multitudes,

    in the valley of decision!

For the day of the Lord is near

    in the valley of decision.