Joel 1:5

Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep. The idle soul shall suffer hunger.

Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth;

Daughter of my people, clothe yourself with sackcloth, and wallow in ashes! Mourn, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, for the destroyer will suddenly come on us.

Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to Yahweh, your God.

Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord, says: “Wailing will be in all the wide ways; and they will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’ and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.

Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

“When a man’s relative carries him, even he who burns him, to bring bodies out of the house, and asks him who is in the innermost parts of the house, ‘Is there yet any with you?’ And he says, ‘No;’ then he will say, ‘Hush! Indeed we must not mention Yahweh’s name.’

Mordecai went out of the presence of the king in royal clothing of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a robe of fine linen and purple; and the city of Susa shouted and was glad.

He who loves pleasure will be a poor man. He who loves wine and oil won’t be rich.

For there will be a day of Yahweh of Armies for all that is proud and arrogant, and for all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low:

Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it.

Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there will be no singing, neither joyful noise. Nobody will tread out wine in the presses. I have made the shouting stop.

In the day of your planting, you hedge it in. In the morning, you make your seed blossom, but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are disappointed. They cover their heads.

Therefore the land will mourn, and everyone who dwells in it will waste away, with all living things in her, even the animals of the field and the birds of the sky, yes, the fish of the sea also die.

The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh’s house. The priests, Yahweh’s ministers, mourn.

Yahweh thunders his voice before his army; for his forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome, and who can endure it?

Yahweh answered his people, “Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with them; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.

Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Israel, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals;

In all vineyards there will be wailing; for I will pass through the middle of you,” says Yahweh.

“Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light.

In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were like one of them.

Yet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.

Be silent at the presence of the Lord Yahweh, for the day of Yahweh is at hand. For Yahweh has prepared a sacrifice. He has consecrated his guests.

They said therefore to him, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed.

I say this to move you to shame. Isn’t there even one wise man among you who would be able to decide between his brothers?

Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

You have lived in luxury on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

They shall tell the elders of his city, “This our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard.”

You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.

Yes, you would even cast lots for the fatherless, and make merchandise of your friend.

Don’t love sleep, lest you come to poverty. Open your eyes, and you shall be satisfied with bread.

Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?

There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm.

Therefore Yahweh’s anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them and has struck them. The mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the middle of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out.

They will only bow down under the prisoners, and will fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Howl, gate! Cry, city! You are melted away, Philistia, all of you; for smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.

They have gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. Baldness is on all of their heads. Every beard is cut off.

Tremble, you women who are at ease! Be troubled, you careless ones! Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked, and put sackcloth on your waist.

Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.

I will weep and wail for the mountains, and lament for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are burned up, so that no one passes through; Men can’t hear the voice of the livestock. Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled. They are gone.

Who is wise enough to understand this? Who is he to whom the mouth of Yahweh has spoken, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?

They have made it a desolation. It mourns to me, being desolate. The whole land is made desolate, because no one cares.

A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the wailing of the leader of the flock, for Yahweh destroys their pasture.

“Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste! Cry, you daughters of Rabbah! Clothe yourself in sackcloth. Lament, and run back and forth among the fences; for Malcam will go into captivity, his priests and his princes together.

Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him who handles the sickle in the time of harvest. For fear of the oppressing sword, they will each return to their own people, and they will each flee to their own land.

Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed! Wail for her! Take balm for her pain. Perhaps she may be healed.

Those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets. Those who were brought up in purple embrace dunghills.

They will also clothe themselves with sackcloth, and horror will cover them. Shame will be on all faces, and baldness on all their heads.

You have not gone up into the gaps or built up the wall for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in Yahweh’s day.

“ ‘ “Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters. She also didn’t strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

Cry and wail, son of man; for it is on my people. It is on all the princes of Israel. They are delivered over to the sword with my people. Therefore beat your thigh.

“ ‘ “Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your traders. They traded the persons of men and vessels of bronze for your merchandise.

The threshing floor and the wine press won’t feed them, and the new wine will fail her.

What will you do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of Yahweh?

The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes.

The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men.

Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, “Spare your people, Yahweh, and don’t give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ”

The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.

and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, that you may remove them far from their border.

I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day.

The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near, and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of Yahweh. The mighty man cries there bitterly.

Through all that time, when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty, there were only twenty.

Behold, a day of Yahweh comes, when your plunder will be divided within you.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.

They clothed him with purple, and weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on him.

Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living.

Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;

Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you.

standing far away for the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For your judgment has come in one hour.’

saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, she who was dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls!

for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor; and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the middle of the sea, or as he who lies on top of the rigging:

Wail, for Yahweh’s day is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

For this, clothe yourself with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Yahweh hasn’t turned back from us.

Gladness and joy is taken away from the fruitful field and from the land of Moab. I have caused wine to cease from the wine presses. No one will tread with shouting. The shouting will be no shouting.

“Son of man, prophesy, and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Wail, ‘Alas for the day!’

Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished.

Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house.

and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a prostitute, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.

The songs of the temple will be wailing in that day,” says the Lord Yahweh. “The dead bodies will be many. In every place they will throw them out with silence.

Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the people of Canaan are undone! All those who were loaded with silver are cut off.

“Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day.

Wake up righteously, and don’t sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.