Joel 1
1 The word of the Lord came to Joel the son of Pethuel.†
Invasion of the Locusts and the Caterpillars
2 Hear this, you elders, and give ear, all of you inhabiting the land. Have such things happened in your days or in the days of your fathers?†
3 Tell your children about this, and your children to their children, and their children to the next generation.
4 What the caterpillars have left is eaten by the grasshopper, and what the grasshoppers have left is eaten by the locust, and what the locusts have left is infected with red blight.†
5 Get sober, you who are drunk from your wine, and weep, mourn all you who drink wine, for joy and gladness are removed from your mouth.†
6 For a nation strong and numberless came up against My land. His teeth are the teeth of a lion and his molars those of a young lion.†
7 He laid waste My vine and splintered My fig tree. He diligently searched out and uprooted My vine, peeling off its outer bark.
8 Mourn before Me more than a virgin bride clothed with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.†
9 The meat-offering and the drink-offering are removed from the house of the Lord. Mourn, you priests, you who serve at the altar,†
10 for the fields languish and the land mourns; for the grain withers, the wine is dried up, and the olive oil is scarce.
11 The farmers are exhausted. Mourn for the sake of your fields of wheat and barley, for the harvest from the field has been lost.†
12 The vine is shriveled up, and the fig trees are scarce in number. The pomegranate and the palm tree, the apple tree and all the trees of the field are withered, for they put to shame the delight of the sons of men.†
13 Gird yourself with sackcloth and wail, you priests. Mourn, you who serve at the altar. Go in, sleep in sackcloth, you who minister unto God, for the grain-offering and drink-offering are withheld from the house of your God.†
14 Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather all the elders and all the people of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry out fervently to the Lord.†
15 Alas! Alas! Alas! For the day of the Lord draws near, and it will come as misery upon misery.†
16 The food is completely destroyed before your eyes; joy and gladness are removed from the house of your God.
17 The heifers are restless in their stalls, and the storehouses are emptied. The winepresses are broken down; the grain is withered.
18 What will we store up for ourselves? The herds of cattle groaned because there was no pasture, and the flocks of sheep are no more.
19 O Lord, I will cry out to You, for fire has devoured the pleasant places of the wilderness, and a flame burned all the trees of the field.†
20 And the cattle of the field also look up to You, because the brooks are dried up and fire has devoured the pleasant places of the wilderness.†
Joel 2
The Day of the Lord
1 Sound the trumpet in Zion; make a proclamation in My holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land be confounded, for the day of the Lord is near,†
2 a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of cloud and of dense fog. About daybreak a people both strong and great in number will be spread upon the mountains, the likes of whom have never been nor will come after them, not even for many generations.
3 Before them is a consuming fire and behind them a flame set ablaze. Before them the land is as a paradise of splendor, but behind them a desolate plain; no one will be able to escape them.
4 Their outward appearance is as the appearance of horses, and thus as horsemen they will pursue.†
5 They shall bound upon the tops of the mountains as the sound of chariots, as the sound of a flame of fire devouring straw, as a great number of mighty men setting themselves in battle array.
6 Before them the people will be crushed; every face shall be as the blackness of a cauldron.
7 As warriors they shall march quickly, and they will climb the walls like men of war. Everyone shall march in formation; they will never break their ranks.
8 They will not separate from their comrades and will march weighed down with their arms. And though they fall by their arrows, even so they will not be stopped.
9 They will seize the city and run on the wall. They will climb into the houses and enter the windows as do thieves.
10 Before their presence the land will be confounded, and the sky will be shaken. The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will hold back their brightness.
11 And because the day of the Lord is great and exceedingly glorious, the Lord shall utter His voice before the face of His army, for His army is numberless, and the works of His words are mighty. Who shall resist?
12 Now says the Lord your God, “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting and wailing and with mourning;†
13 rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and compassionate. He is longsuffering and plenteous in mercy and repents of evils.
14 Who knows if He will return and change His mind—if He will leave a blessing behind Him, even an offering and drink-offering to the Lord our God?”
15 Sound the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly;
16 gather the people, sanctify the congregation, call out the elders, and gather the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom go out from his bedchamber and the bride out of her bridal chamber.
17 Between the porch and the altar, the priests of the altar, ministering to the Lord, will each be weeping and will say, “O Lord, spare Your people; do not give Your inheritance to reproach, that the Gentiles should rule over them, lest they should say among the Gentiles, ‘Where is their God?’ ”†
God’s Blessing upon His People
18 But the Lord was zealous for His land and spared His people. †
19 And the Lord answered His people and said, “Behold, I send you wheat, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with them. I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations,
20 and I will drive the army from the north away from you, and I shall force him into a dry land. I will drown his face in the eastern sea and his back in the western sea; its stench and foul smell will rise up, because he has done powerful works.Ӡ
21 O land, be of good courage; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things.†
22 Take courage, you beasts of the field, for the plains of the wilderness have budded, and the trees bear their fruit. And again the vine and the fig tree yield their full potency.†
23 And you children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God, for He gives food that is right for you, and He will shower you as before with the early and the late rain.
24 The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the presses of wine and olive oil will overflow. †
25 “And I will restore to you the years the grasshopper and the locust have eaten, and for the blight, and the caterpillar, even for My great army, which I sent against you.
26 You will eat abundantly and be satisfied and will praise the name of the Lord your God for what He has so wondrously done unto you. And My people will not be put to shame forever.
27 Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel; that I am the Lord your God, and there is no other but Me. And at no time will My people be put to shame forever.
Psalms 51
1 For the End; concerning understanding; by David; †
2 When Doeg the Edomite came and reported to Saul and said, “David went to the house of Abimelech.”
3 Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man, And in lawlessness all the day long?
4 Your tongue devises wrongdoing; You work deceit like a sharpened razor.
5 You love evil rather than good, Wickedness rather than speaking righteousness.
6 You love all the words of destruction; You love a deceitful tongue.
7 Therefore, God shall destroy you completely; He shall pluck you up and remove you from your dwelling, And uproot you from the land of the living. (Pause)
8 The righteous also shall see and fear, And shall laugh at him, saying,
9 “Behold, this man did not make God his helper, But hoped in the abundance of his riches; And he was made powerful in his vanity.”
10 But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God; I hope in God’s mercy Forever and unto ages of ages.
11 I will give thanks to You forever for what You did, And I will wait on Your name; For it is good in the sight of Your holy ones.
Proverbs of Solomon 11
The Fruits of Righteousness
1 Deceitful scales are an abomination before the Lord, But a righteous weight is acceptable to Him.
2 Wherever arrogance enters, there also is dishonor, But the mouth of the humble meditates on wisdom.†
3 When a righteous man dies, he leaves regret, But the destruction of the ungodly is immediate and brings joy.
4 Righteousness cuts straight and blameless paths, But ungodliness embraces wrongdoing.†
5 The righteousness of upright men delivers them, But lawless men are taken to their destruction.
1 Corinthians 10
A Bad Example: Israel’s Apostasy
1 Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea,†
2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,†
3 all ate the same spiritual food,
4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
5 But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.†
6 Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.†
7 And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”
8 Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell;
9 nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents;
10 nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.