The Bible, King James version, Book 29: Joel — Themes and Context

This eBook was produced by David Widger with the help of Derek Andrew's text from January 1992 and the work of Bryan Taylor in November 2002.

29:001:001 The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

29:001:002 Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

29:001:003 Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

29:001:004 That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.

29:001:005 Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

29:001:006 For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.

29:001:007 He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

29:001:008 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

29:001:009 The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD's ministers, mourn.

29:001:010 The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

29:001:011 Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.

29:001:012 The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

29:001:013 Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

29:001:014 Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,

29:001:015 Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

29:001:016 Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

29:001:017 The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.

29:001:018 How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

29:001:019 O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.

29:001:020 The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

29:002:001 Blow ye 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 cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

29:002:002 A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

29:002:003 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.

29:002:004 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.

29:002:005 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

29:002:006 Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.

29:002:007 They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:

29:002:008 Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.