Bible (Douay-Rheims, Challoner)/Joel

For other versions of this work, see Joel (Bible).

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The Prophecy of Joel

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3475998The Prophecy of Joel — The Douay-Rheims Bible

Chapter 1

¹ The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Phatuel.

² Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land: did this ever happen in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

³ Tell ye of this to your children, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.

⁴ That which the palmerworm hath left, the locust hath eaten: and that which the locust hath left, the bruchus hath eaten: and that which the bruchus hath left, the mildew hath destroyed.

⁵ Awake, ye that are drunk, and weep, and mourn all ye that take delight in drinking sweet wine: for it is cut off from your mouth.

⁶ For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number: his teeth are like the teeth of a lion: and his cheek teeth as of a lion’s whelp.

⁷ He hath laid my vineyard waste, and hath pilled off the bark of my fig tree: he hath stripped it bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

⁸ Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

⁹ Sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of the Lord: the priests, the Lord’s ministers, have mourned:

¹⁰ The country is destroyed, the ground hath mourned: for the corn is wasted, the wine is confounded, the oil hath languished.

¹¹ The husbandmen are ashamed, the vinedressers have howled for the wheat, and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished.

¹² The vineyard is confounded, and the fig tree hath languished: the pomegranate tree, and the palm tree, and the apple tree, and all the trees of the field are withered: because joy is withdrawn from the children of men.

¹³ Gird yourselves, and lament, O ye priests, howl, ye ministers of the altars: go in, lie in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: because sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of your God.

¹⁴ Sanctify ye a fast, call an assembly; gather together the ancients, all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God: and cry ye to the Lord:

¹⁵ Ah, ah, ah, for the day: because the day of the Lord is at hand, and it shall come like destruction from the mighty.

¹⁶ Is not your food cut off before your eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

¹⁷ The beasts have rotted in their dung, the barns are destroyed, the storehouses are broken down: because the corn is confounded.

¹⁸ Why did the beast groan, why did the herds of cattle low? because there is no pasture for them: yea, and the flocks of sheep are perished.

¹⁹ To thee, O Lord, will I cry: because fire hath devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness, and the flame hath burnt all the trees of the country.

²⁰ Yea and the beasts of the field have looked up to thee, as a garden bed that thirsteth after rain, for the springs of waters are dried up, and fire hath devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness.

Chapter 2

¹ Blow ye the trumpet in Sion, sound an alarm in my holy mountain, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: because the day of the Lord cometh, because it is nigh at hand,

² A day of darkness, and of gloominess, a day of clouds and whirlwinds: a numerous and strong people as the morning spread upon the mountains: the like to it hath not been from the beginning, nor shall be after it even to the years of generation and generation.

³ Before the face thereof a devouring fire, and behind it a burning flame: the land is like a garden of pleasure before it, and behind it a desolate wilderness, neither is there any one that can escape it.

⁴ The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and they shall run like horsemen.

⁵ They shall leap like the noise of chariots upon the tops of mountains, like the noise of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, as a strong people prepared to battle.

⁶ At their presence the people shall be in grievous pains: all faces shall be made like a kettle.

⁷ They shall run like valiant men: like men of war they shall scale the wall: the men shall march every one on his way, and they shall not turn aside from their ranks.

⁸ No one shall press upon his brother: they shall walk every one in his path: yea, and they shall fall through the windows, and shall take no harm.

⁹ They shall enter into the city: they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up the houses, they shall come in at the windows as a thief.

¹⁰ At their presence the earth hath trembled, the heavens are moved: the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining.

¹¹ And the Lord hath uttered his voice before the face of his army: for his armies are exceeding great, for they are strong and execute his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible: and who can stand it?

¹² Now therefore saith the Lord: Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning.

¹³ And rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy, and ready to repent of the evil.

¹⁴ Who knoweth but he will return, and forgive, and leave a blessing behind him, sacrifice and libation to the Lord your God?

¹⁵ Blow the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly,

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 bride chamber.

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 inheritance to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them. Why should they say among the nations: Where is their God?

¹⁸ The Lord hath been zealous for his land, and hath spared his people.

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.

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.

²¹ Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice: for the Lord hath done great things.

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.

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.

²⁴ And the floors shall be filled with wheat, and the presses shall overflow with wine and oil.

²⁵ And I will restore to you the ears which the locust, and the bruchus, and the mildew, and the palmerworm have eaten; my great host which I sent upon you.

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.

²⁷ And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: and I am the Lord your God, and there is none besides: and my people shall not be confounded for ever.

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.

²⁹ Moreover upon my servants and handmaids in those days I will pour forth my spirit.

³⁰ And I will shew wonders in heaven; and in earth, blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke.

³¹ The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood: before the great and dreadful day of the Lord doth come.

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.

Chapter 3

¹ For behold in those days, and in that time when I shall bring back the captivity of Juda and Jerusalem:

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 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.

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.

⁵ For you have taken away my silver and my gold: and my desirable and most beautiful things you have carried into your temples.

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.

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.

⁸ And I will sell your 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.

⁹ Proclaim ye this among the nations: prepare war, rouse up the strong: let them come, let all the men of war come up.

¹⁰ Cut your ploughshares into swords, and your spades into spears. Let the weak say: I am strong.

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.

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.

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.

¹⁴ Nations, nations in the valley of destruction: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of destruction.

¹⁵ The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining.

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.

¹⁷ And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Sion my holy mountain: and Jerusalem shall be holy and strangers shall pass through it no more.

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.

¹⁹ Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom a wilderness destroyed: because they have done unjustly against the children of Juda, and have shed innocent blood in their land.

²⁰ And Judea shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem to generation and generation.

²¹ And I will cleanse their blood which I had not cleansed: and the Lord will dwell in Sion.

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New Testament