Everyone who calls

The word of Yahweh that came to Joel son of Pethuel.

Hear this, you elders;
listen, all who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
or in the days of your forefathers?
Tell it to your children,
and let your children tell it to their children,
and their children to the next generation.

What the locust swarm has left
the great locusts have eaten;
what the great locusts have left
the young locusts have eaten;
what the young locusts have left
other locusts have eaten.

Declare a holy fast;
call a sacred assembly.
Summon the elders
and all who live in the land
to the house of Yahweh your God,
and cry out to Yahweh.

Alas for that day!
For the day of Yahweh is near;
it will come like destruction from the Almighty.

Has not the food been cut off
before our very eyes—
joy and gladness
from the house of our God?

"Even now," declares Yahweh,
"return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning."

Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to Yahweh your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.

Who knows? He may turn and have pity
and leave behind a blessing—
grain offerings and drink offerings
for Yahweh your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion,
declare a holy fast,
call a sacred assembly.

Yahweh will reply to them:
"I am sending you grain, new wine and oil,
enough to satisfy you fully;
never again will I make you
an object of scorn to the nations.

"And afterward,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

And everyone who calls
on the name of Yahweh will be saved;
for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
there will be deliverance,
as Yahweh has said,
among the survivors
whom Yahweh calls.

Multitudes, multitudes
in the valley of decision!
For the day of Yahweh is near
in the valley of decision.

Judah will be inhabited forever
and Jerusalem through all generations.


Joel 1:1-4, 14-16; 2:12-15, 19, 28, 29; 3:14, 20



[Yahweh, I am blessed to rend my heart and call on your name and be saved.]