THE PROPHECY OF JOEL
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
2:14. Who knoweth but he will return, and forgive, and leave a blessing behind him, sacrifice and libation to the Lord your God?
2:15. Blow the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly,
2:16. Gather together the people, sanctify the church, assemble the ancients, gather together the little ones, and them that suck at the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth from his bed, and the bride out of her bridal chamber.
2:17. Between the porch and the altar the priests, the Lord's ministers, shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, spare thy people: and give not thy inheritane to reproach, that the heathens should rule over them. Why should they say among the nations: Where is their God?
2:18. The Lord hath been zealons for his land, and hath spared his people.
2:19 And the Lord answered, and said to his people: Behold I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and you shall be filled with them: and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.
2:20. And I will remove far off from you the northern enemy: and I will drive him into a land unpassable, and desert, with his face towards the east sea, and his hinder part towards the utmost sea: and his stench shall ascend, and his rottenness shall go up, because he hath done proudly.
The northern enemy... Some understand this of Holofernes and his army: others, of the locusts.
2:21. Fear not, O land, be glad, and rejoice: for the Lord hath done great things.
2:22. Fear not, ye beasts of the fields: for the beautiful places of the wilderness are sprung, for the tree hath brought forth its fruit, the fig tree, and the vine have yielded their strength.
2:23. And you, O children of Sion, rejoice, and be joyful in the Lord your God: because he hath given you a teacher of justice, and he will make the early and the latter rain to come down to you as in the beginning.
2:24. And the floors shall be filled with wheat, and the presses shall overfiow with wine, and oil.
2:25. And I will restore to you the years which the locust, and the bruchus, and the mildew, and the palmerworm hath eaten; my great host which I sent upon you.
2:26. And you shall eat in plenty, and shall be filled and you shall praise the name of the Lord your God; who hath done wonders with you, and my people shall not be confounded for ever.
2:27. And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: and I am the Lord yonr God, and there is none besides: and my people shall not be confounded forever.
2:28. And it shall come to pass after this, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy: your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
2:29. Moreover, upon my servants and handmaids in those days I will pour forth my spirit.
2:30. And I will shew wonders in heaven; and in earth, blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke.
2:31. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood: before the great and dreadful day of the Lord doth come.
2:32. And it shall come to pass, that every one that shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved: for in Mount Sion, and in Jerusalem shall be salvation, as the Lord hath said, and in the residue whom the Lord shall call.
Joel Chapter 3
3:1. For behold in those days, and in that time when I shall bring back the captivity of Juda, and Jerusalem:
3:2. I will gather together all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat: and I will plead with them there for my people, and for my inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and have parted my land.
3:3. And they have cast lots upon my people: and the boy they have put in the stews, and the girl they have sold for wine, that they might drink.
3:4. But what have you to do with me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and all the coast of the Philistines? will you revenge yourselves on me? and if you revenge yourselves on me, I will very soon return you a recompense upon your own head.
3:5. For you have taken away my silver, and my gold: and my desirable, and most beantiful things you have carried into your temples.
3:6. And the children of Juda, and the children of Jerusalem, you have sold to the children of the Greeks, that you might remove them far off from their own country.
3:7. Behold, I will raise them up out of the place wherein you have sold them: and I will return your recompense upon your own heads.
3:8. And I will sell yonr sons, and your daughters, by the hands of the children of Juda, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far off, for the Lord hath spoken it.
3:9. Proclaim ye this among the nations: Prepare war, raise up the strong: let them come, let all the men of war come up.
3:10. Cut your ploughshares into swords, and your spades into spears. Let the weak say: I am strong.
3:11. Break forth, and come, all ye nations from round about, and gather yourselves together: there will the Lord cause all thy strong ones to fall down.
3:12. Let them arise, and let the nations come up into the valley of Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all nations round about.
3:13. Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe: come and go down, for the press is full, the fats run over: for their wickedness is multiplied.
3:14. Nations, nations in the valley of destruction: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of destruction.
3:15. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining.
3:16. And the Lord shall roar out of Sion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem: and the heavens and the earth shall be moved, and the Lord shall be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
3:17. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Sion, my holy monntain: and Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall pass through it no more.
3:18. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk: and waters shall flow through all the rivers of Juda: and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns.
A fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, etc... Viz., the fountain of grace in the church militant, and of glory in the church triumphant: which shall water the torrent or valley of thorns, that is, the souls that before, like barren ground brought forth nothing but thorns; or that were afflicted with the thorns of crosses and tribulations.