Spiritual Meaning of JOEL      Other translations  -   Chap 1  -  Joel  -  BM Home  -  Full Page

TRANSLATION.

A FORE-NOTE.

Some explanations are necessary in connection with the following translation and exposition of Joel's prophecy. The translation is not intended to supersede that in general use, nor is it made for ordinary devotional reading, but rather, by giving the literal form of the original, to give a better basis to the exposition. It has been made as uniform as possible. Each term in the Hebrew is rendered, as nearly as can be, by its closest English representative, and is so represented throughout. The English equivalent of each term has been appointed by comparison with every instance of its use in the Old Testament. Special care has been taken to give the causative forms of verbs their full force. It should be stated also, that in the Translation words required by the grammar, but not used in the original, are printed in italics, those required by the sense are enclosed in brackets. By means of the Index of words, nouns may be traced to the verbs whence they are derived, and the relations, natural and spiritual, of these and other terms compared.

chapter I.

  1. The Word of JEHOVAH which was to Joel the son of Pethuel.

  2. Hear this, you elders, and cause all the inhabitants of the earth to listen. Was [ever] this in your days, or even

  3. in the days of your fathers? Tell it over to your sons, and your sons to their sons, and their sons to another

  4. generation. The remainder from the gnawing-locust the abundant-locust ate, and the remainder from the abundant-locust the licking-locust ate; and the remainder from the

  5. licking-locust the consuming-locust ate! Cause drunken ones to awake, and weep you: and cause all the drinkers of wine to howl—over new wine: because it was cut off

  6. from your mouth. For a nation ascended over my earth, mighty and without number—his teeth are the teeth of a lion; and they are the jaw-teeth of a bold lion for him.

  7. He has put my vine to desolation, and my fig-tree to dissolution. [By] uncovering, he uncovered it, and he caused [it] to be cast down: they caused its tendrils to

  8. whiten. Adjure you, [O daughter of Zion], as a virgin girded with sackcloth, over the owner of her childhood.

  9. He caused oblation and libation to be cut off from the House of JEHOVAH: the priests, the ministers of Jehovah,

  10. mourned. A field was utterly devastated, ground mourned, because grain was utterly devastated. He caused must

  11. to be dried up, new oil to waste away. Cause husbandmen to be put to shame: cause vinedressers to howl, over wheat and over barley: because the harvest of a field

  12. perished. It caused the vine to be dried up, and the fig-tree to waste away: pomegranate, palm-tree also, and apricot-tree—all the trees of the field—were dried up, because he caused joy to be dried up from the sons of man.

  13. Gird you and lament, you priests: cause the ministers of an altar to howl: come in, lodge [for the night] in the sacks, you ministers of my god : because oblation and libation was withheld from the House of your god.

  14.  Sanctify a fast, call a restraint: gather in elders, [even] all the inhabitants of the earth into the House of JEHOVAH your GOD: and call out to JEHOVAH—

  15. Alas for the day! For the Day of JEHOVAH is near, and

  16. as a devastation from Shaddai it will come in. Was not food cut off in front of our two eyes—gladness and

  17. exultation from the House of our GOD? Sown seeds vanished under their ravagings, stores were desolated, granaries were broken through: because he caused grain

  18. to be dried up. How a beast sighed! The droves of [the] herd were entangled: for there was nothing of pasture for them—the droves of the flock also became

  19. guilty. Unto You, O jehovah, will I call: for fire ate the pasture-grounds of a desert, and flame ignited all the

  20. trees of the field. The beasts of a field also, [the flame] shall incline to You: because the channels of waters were dried up, and fire ate the pasture grounds of the desert.

chapter II.

  1. Pitch you a curved horn in Zion, and cause joyous shouting in the mountain of My holiness; all the inhabitants of the earth will be agitated: because the Day of

  2. JEHOVAH comes in: for it is near. The day of obscurity and dense darkness, the day of cloud and dense cloudiness, as dawn spread out over the mountains. An abundant and mighty people—there has not been such [a people] from the age, and after him, He will not cause any continuance of him, even to the years of a genera-

  3. tion and generation. Fire ate before him, and after him flame will ignite. The earth was as the garden of Eden before him, and after him a desert of desolation; and

  4. there was also no escape from him. As the appearance of horses is his appearance; and as horsemen so [certainly]

  5. will they run! As the voice of war-chariots, over the heads of the mountains will they leap! As the voice of a blaze of fire eating stubble—as a mighty people arranged

  6. for battle. From before him, they caused peoples to

  7. travail: they caused all faces to gather pallor. As heroes will they run; as men of battle they will ascend a rampart: and a man in his ways will they go, and they will not

  8. change their paths! Nor will they drive back a man his brother; they will go, each individual, in his highway! And should they fall by the missile, will they not gain?

  9. In the City they will seek eagerly; in the rampart will they run: in the houses they will ascend; by the windows

  10. they will come in, as the thief. Before him, earth was agitated, heavens quaked; sun and moon were black,

  11. and stars gathered in their shining. And jehovah caused His voice to be received before His force: for His camp is exceedingly abundant; because it is mighty doing His word: for the Day of JEHOVAH is great and

  12. exceedingly feared, and who shall survive it? And now also, is the declaration of JEHOVAH, return you even to Me, in all your heart, and in a fast, and in weeping, and

  13. in lamentation; and rend your heart, and not at all your garments; and return to JEHOVAH your god : for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in

  14. loving-kindness, and He repents over the evil. Who knows? He may return and comfort, and cause a blessing to be left after him, oblation and libation, for jehovah your god.

  15. Pitch you a curved-horn in Zion: sanctify a fast, call a

  16. restraint. Gather people in, sanctify a congregation, gather elders: gather in babes and the sucklings of breasts. A bridegroom will go forth from his chamber,

  17. and a bride from her canopy. Between the porch and to the altar, the priests—the ministers of JEHOVAH— shall weep! and they shall say, Spare You, O JEHOVAH, over Your people, and You will not at all cause Your inheritance to be received for disgrace—for nations to rule in them: wherefore should they say in the peoples,

  18. Where is their GOD? And JEHOVAH will be jealous for

  19. His earth—and will pity over His people. And JEHOVAH will answer and say to His people, Lo, I send forth to you the grain, and the must and the new oil, and you shall be satisfied therewith: and I will not at all cause you to be received any more [as] a disgrace in the nations.

  20. And I will cause the northern one to be far off from over you, and I will cause him to be driven to the earth of dryness and desolation—with his faces to the eastern sea, and his end to the hinder sea: and his stench shall ascend, and his foulness will ascend: because he

  21. caused [his] work to increase. You shall not at all fear, O ground: exult you and rejoice: for JEHOVAH shall

  22. cause [His] work to increase. You shall not at all fear, O beasts of My field; because the pasture-grounds of a desert have sprouted forth: because a tree has sustained its fruit—a fig-tree and vine caused their force to be

  23. received. Exult then, you sons of Zion, and rejoice in JEHOVAH your GOD: for He has caused the early rain to be received for you to righteousness: and He will cause to descend for you shower, early rain and latter

  24. rain [as] in the first. And they shall fill the threshing-floors [with] cleaned-corn; and they shall cause the

  25. wine-vats to distend [with] must and new oil. And I will repay to you the years which the abundant-locust ate, the licking-locust, and the consuming-locust and the gnawing-locust—My great force which I put forth in you.

  26. And eating you shall eat and be satisfied, and praise the Name of JEHOVAH your god, Who has done with you [so as] to cause wonder : and My people—they shall not

  27. be ashamed for an age. And you shall know, for I am in the midst of Israel: and I am JEHOVAH your god, and there is none else: and My people—they shall not be ashamed for an age.

  28. And so it shall be afterwards, [that] I will shed My Spirit over all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy: your elders, they shall dream dreams!

  29. your youths shall see visions: and over the servants also, and over the maid-servants—in those days—will I shed

  30. My Spirit. And I will cause portents to be received, in the heavens and in the earth—blood and the fire, and

  31. the columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to obscurity, and the moon to blood—before the great and

  32. feared Day of JEHOVAH shall come in. And it shall be, [that] every one who shall call on the Name of JEHOVAH shall be delivered: for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be an escape, as that which JEHOVAH has said, and in the remnants which JEHOVAH calls.

chapter III.

 

1.      FOR, behold, in those days, and in that time—[in] which I will turn back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem—

2.      I will also cause all the nations to gather: and I will cause them to descend to the valley of Jehoshaphat: and will reason with them there, over My people and My inheritance Israel, whom they caused to disperse in

3.      the nations, and divided My earth—and to My people they cast a lot: and caused the boy to be received as a harlot, and sold the girl for the wine, that they might

4.      drink. Yea, and what are you to Me, O Tyre and Zidon —and all the boundaries of Philistia? Are you repaying over Me the retribution? And certainly if you are recompensing over Me, O swift one, quickly I will cause

5.      your retribution to return upon your head. That which is My silver and My gold you took: and you caused My

6.      good desirable things to come in for your temples: the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem, also, you sold to the sons of the Ionians: to the intent that you might

7.      cause them to be far off from over their border. Lo! I am causing them to arouse from the place, whither you sold them: and I will cause your retribution to return

8.      upon your head. And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they shall sell them to [the] Shebeans—to a nation afar off: for JEHOVAH has spoken.

9.      Call you this in the nations; sanctify battle: cause the heroes to arouse; they will come near—they will cause

10. all the men of the battle to ascend. Batter your coulters into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the

11. weak one say, I am a hero. Hasten together and come in, all you nations, and gather yourselves from around. Thither cause You, O jehovah, Your heroes to come

12. down. Let the nations be aroused and ascend—to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I abide to judge

13. all the nations from around. Send forth a sickle: for harvest is ripened: come in, descend: because a winepress is filled—they caused the wine-vats to distend: for

14. their evil is abundant. Multitudes, multitudes are in the valley of the decision: for the Day of JEHOVAH is near

15. —[it is] in the valley of the decision. Sun and moon

16. were black; and stars gathered in their shining; but JEHOVAH will roar from Zion, and cause His voice to be received from Jerusalem; and heavens and the earth shall quake: but JEHOVAH shall be a refuge for His

17. people, and a strength for the sons of Israel. So shall you know that I, JEHOVAH your god, am dwelling in Zion, the mountain of My Holiness—and Jerusalem shall be holiness, and no aliens shall pass through in her any more.

18. And it shall be in that Day, [that] the mountains shall drop new wine, and the hills shall [let] go milk: and all the channels of Judah shall [let] go waters: and a Fountain shall go forth from the House of JEHOVAH, and cause the brook of the Acacias to give drink.

19. Egypt, you shall be for desolation; and Edom, you shall be for the desert of desolation: from the violence of the sons of Judah—whose innocent blood they shed

20. in their earth. But Judah shall abide for an age: and

21. Jerusalem, for a generation and generation. So will I cause their blood to be acquitted [that] I have not [yet] caused to be acquitted.
Furthermore, JEHOVAH dwells in Zion.

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