Joel Cross References - MSB

¹ This is the word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel: ² Hear this, O elders; and give ear, all who dwell in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your fathers? ³ Tell it to your children; let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. ⁴ What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten. ⁵ Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth. ⁶ For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness. ⁷ It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away; the branches have turned white. ⁸ Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth. ⁹ Grain and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD. ¹⁰ The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails. ¹¹ Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. ¹² The grapevine is dried up, and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, palm, and apple—all the trees of the orchard—are withered. Surely the joy of mankind has dried up. ¹³ Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. ¹⁴ Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. ¹⁵ Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty. ¹⁶ Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes—joy and gladness from the house of our God? ¹⁷ The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away. ¹⁸ How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering. ¹⁹ To You, O LORD, I call, for fire has consumed the open pastures and flames have scorched all the trees of the field. ²⁰ Even the beasts of the field pant for You, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has consumed the open pastures.

² The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah, ³ the word of the LORD came directly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the River Kebar. And there the LORD’s hand was upon him.

¹ This is the word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel.

¹⁶ No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

²¹ For no such prophecy was ever brought forth by the will of man, but holy men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

³² Indeed, ask now from one end of the heavens to the other about the days that long preceded you, from the day that God created man on earth: Has anything as great as this ever happened or been reported? ³³ Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire, as you have, and lived? ³⁴ Or has any god tried to take as his own a nation out of another nation—by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors—as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, before your eyes? ³⁵ You were shown these things so that you would know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides Him.

⁸ Please inquire of past generations and consider the discoveries of their fathers.

¹² Wisdom is found with the elderly, and understanding comes with long life.

¹⁰ Both the gray-haired and the aged are on our side—men much older than your father.

⁷ Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?

¹ For the choirmaster. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all inhabitants of the world,

¹⁷ The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since the day Ephraim separated from Judah—He will bring the king of Assyria.”

¹ Come near, O nations, to listen; pay attention, O peoples. Let the earth hear, and all that fills it, the world and all that springs from it.

²¹ “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.

⁷ How awful that day will be! None will be like it! It is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved out of it.

¹ “At that time Michael, the great prince who stands watch over your people, will rise up. There will be a time of distress, the likes of which will not have occurred from the beginning of nations until that time. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered.

¹ Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a case against the people of the land: “There is no truth, no loving devotion, and no knowledge of God in the land!

¹ “Hear this, O priests! Take heed, O house of Israel! Give ear, O royal house! For this judgment is against you because you have been a snare at Mizpah, a net spread out on Tabor.

¹⁴ Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.

² a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come.

¹ Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:

¹ Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, who say to your husbands, “Bring us more to drink.”

¹ Hear this word, O house of Israel, this lamentation I take up against you:

² Hear, O peoples, all of you; listen, O earth, and everyone in it! May the Lord GOD bear witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple.

¹ Then I said: “Hear now, O leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice?

⁹ Now hear this, O leaders of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and pervert all that is right,

⁹ He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

²¹ For at that time there will be great tribulation, unmatched from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again.

⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God.

¹ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials, that I may perform these miraculous signs of Mine among them, ² and that you may tell your children and grandchildren how severely I dealt with the Egyptians when I performed miraculous signs among them, so that all of you may know that I am the LORD.”

¹⁴ In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

⁷ And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

⁶ to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ ⁷ you are to tell them, ‘The waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters were cut off.’ Therefore these stones will be a memorial to the Israelites forever.”

²¹ Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What is the meaning of these stones?’ ²² you are to tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’

¹ For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us the work You did in their days, in the days of old.

¹⁸ Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.

³ that we have heard and known and our fathers have relayed to us. ⁴ We will not hide them from their children, but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might, and the wonders He has performed. ⁵ For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children, ⁶ that the coming generation would know them—even children yet to be born—to arise and tell their own children ⁷ that they should put their confidence in God, not forgetting His works, but keeping His commandments. ⁸ Then they will not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose heart was not loyal, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁴ One generation will commend Your works to the next, and will proclaim Your mighty acts—

¹⁹ The living, only the living, can thank You, as I do today; fathers will tell their children about Your faithfulness.

⁴ But if you refuse to let My people go, I will bring locusts into your territory tomorrow.

¹² Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt, so that the locusts may swarm over it and devour every plant in the land—everything that the hail has left behind.” ¹³ So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and throughout that day and night the LORD sent an east wind across the land. By morning the east wind had brought the locusts. ¹⁴ The locusts swarmed across the land and settled over the entire territory of Egypt. Never before had there been so many locusts, and never again will there be. ¹⁵ They covered the face of all the land until it was black, and they consumed all the plants on the ground and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left behind. Nothing green was left on any tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.

³⁸ You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it.

⁴² Swarms of locusts will consume all your trees and the produce of your land.

³⁷ When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemy besieges them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,

²⁸ When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemies besiege them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,

¹³ If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people,

⁴⁶ He gave their crops to the grasshopper, the fruit of their labor to the locust.

³⁴ He spoke, and the locusts came—young locusts without number.

⁴ Your spoil, O nations, is gathered as by locusts; like a swarm of locusts men sweep over it.

¹⁴ The LORD of Hosts has sworn by Himself: “Surely I will fill you up with men as with locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you.”

²⁷ “Raise a banner in the land! Blow the ram’s horn among the nations! Prepare the nations against her. Summon the kingdoms against her—Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a captain against her; bring up horses like swarming locusts.

²⁵ I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts—the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust—My great army that I sent against you.

⁹ “I struck you with blight and mildew in your growing gardens and vineyards; the locust devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.

¹ This is what the Lord GOD showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts just after the king’s harvest, as the late spring crop was coming up.

¹⁵ There the fire will devour you; the sword will cut you down and consume you like a young locust. Make yourself many like the young locust; make yourself many like the swarming locust! ¹⁶ You have multiplied your merchants more than the stars of the sky. The young locust strips the land and flies away. ¹⁷ Your guards are like the swarming locust, and your scribes like clouds of locusts that settle on the walls on a cold day. When the sun rises, they fly away, and no one knows where.

³ And out of the smoke, locusts descended on the earth, and they were given power like that of the scorpions of the earth. ⁴ They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. ⁵ The locusts were not given power to kill them, but only to torment them for five months, and their torment was like the stinging of a scorpion. ⁶ In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will escape them. ⁷ And the locusts looked like horses prepared for battle, with something like crowns of gold on their heads, and faces like the faces of men.

⁷ The new wine dries up, the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan. ⁸ The joyful tambourines have ceased; the noise of revelers has stopped; the joyful harp is silent. ⁹ They no longer sing and drink wine; strong drink is bitter to those who consume it. ¹⁰ The city of chaos is shattered; every house is closed to entry. ¹¹ In the streets they cry out for wine. All joy turns to gloom; rejoicing is exiled from the land.

¹⁰ In a little more than a year you will tremble, O secure ones. For the grape harvest will fail and the fruit harvest will not arrive. ¹¹ Shudder, you ladies of leisure; tremble, you daughters of complacency. Strip yourselves bare and put sackcloth around your waists. ¹² Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines,

⁸ So put on sackcloth, mourn and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us.”

² “Son of man, prophesy and declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: Wail, ‘Alas for that day!’

¹¹ Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.

¹³ Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.

³ They cast lots for My people; they bartered a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine to drink.

³ You dismiss the day of calamity and bring near a reign of violence. ⁴ You lie on beds inlaid with ivory, and lounge upon your couches. You dine on lambs from the flock and calves from the stall. ⁵ You improvise songs on the harp like David and invent your own musical instruments. ⁶ You drink wine by the bowlful and anoint yourselves with the finest oils, but you fail to grieve over the ruin of Joseph. ⁷ Therefore, you will now go into exile as the first of the captives, and your feasting and lounging will come to an end.

¹⁹ Now there was a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, who lived each day in joyous splendor.

²³ In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham from afar, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ So he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. For I am in agony in this fire.’ ²⁵ But Abraham answered, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.

³⁴ But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare. ³⁵ For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of all the earth. ³⁶ So keep watch at all times, and pray that you may be deemed worthy to escape all that is about to happen and to stand before the Son of Man.”

¹¹ And do this, understanding the occasion. The hour has come for us to wake up from our slumber, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. ¹² The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near. So let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. ¹³ Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. ¹⁴ Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

¹ Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.

³⁴ and fruitful land into fields of salt, because of the wickedness of its dwellers.

¹⁴ there is a generation whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are knives, devouring the oppressed from the earth and the needy from among men.

²⁵ The ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer; ²⁶ the rock badgers are creatures of little power, yet they make their homes in the rocks; ²⁷ the locusts have no king, yet they all advance in formation;

⁸ It will pour into Judah, swirling and sweeping over it, reaching up to the neck; its spreading streams will cover your entire land, O Immanuel!

¹³ and for the land of my people, overgrown with thorns and briers—even for every house of merriment in this city of revelry.

³ They will not remain in the land of the LORD; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.

² a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come. ³ Before them a fire devours, and behind them a flame scorches. The land before them is like the Garden of Eden, but behind them, it is like a desert wasteland—surely nothing will escape them. ⁴ Their appearance is like that of horses, and they gallop like swift steeds. ⁵ With a sound like that of chariots they bound over the mountaintops, like the crackling of fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army deployed for battle. ⁶ Nations writhe in horror before them; every face turns pale. ⁷ They charge like mighty men; they scale the walls like men of war. Each one marches in formation, not swerving from the course. ⁸ They do not jostle one another; each proceeds in his path. They burst through the defenses, never breaking ranks. ⁹ They storm the city; they run along the wall; they climb into houses, entering through windows like thieves. ¹⁰ Before them the earth quakes; the heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness. ¹¹ The LORD raises His voice in the presence of His army. Indeed, His camp is very large, for mighty are those who obey His command. For the Day of the LORD is great and very dreadful. Who can endure it?

⁷ And the locusts looked like horses prepared for battle, with something like crowns of gold on their heads, and faces like the faces of men. ⁸ They had hair like that of women, and teeth like those of lions. ⁹ They also had thoraxes like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the roar of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. ¹⁰ They had tails with stingers like scorpions, which had the power to injure people for five months.

¹⁵ They covered the face of all the land until it was black, and they consumed all the plants on the ground and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left behind. Nothing green was left on any tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.

³³ He struck their vines and fig trees and shattered the trees of their country.

⁶ I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up. I will command the clouds that rain shall not fall on it.”

⁷ The new wine dries up, the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan.

¹³ I will take away their harvest, declares the LORD. There will be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the tree, and even the leaf will wither. Whatever I have given them will be lost to them.”

¹² I will destroy her vines and fig trees, which she thinks are the wages paid by her lovers. So I will make them into a thicket, and the beasts of the field will devour them.

¹² The grapevine is dried up, and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, palm, and apple—all the trees of the orchard—are withered. Surely the joy of mankind has dried up.

¹⁷ Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls,

¹⁷ who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

¹² On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.

⁷ The new wine dries up, the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan. ⁸ The joyful tambourines have ceased; the noise of revelers has stopped; the joyful harp is silent. ⁹ They no longer sing and drink wine; strong drink is bitter to those who consume it. ¹⁰ The city of chaos is shattered; every house is closed to entry. ¹¹ In the streets they cry out for wine. All joy turns to gloom; rejoicing is exiled from the land. ¹² The city is left in ruins; its gate is reduced to rubble.

¹¹ Shudder, you ladies of leisure; tremble, you daughters of complacency. Strip yourselves bare and put sackcloth around your waists.

⁴ Have you not just called to Me, ‘My Father, You are my friend from youth.

¹⁷ This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Take note, and summon the wailing women; send for the most skillful among them. ¹⁸ Let them come quickly and take up a lament over us, that our eyes may overflow with tears, and our eyelids may gush with water. ¹⁹ For the sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How devastated we are! How great is our shame! For we have abandoned the land because our dwellings have been torn down.’”

¹³ Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. ¹⁴ Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. ¹⁵ Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

¹² “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.” ¹³ So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster. ¹⁴ Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him—grain and drink offerings for the LORD your God.

¹⁰ I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.

¹⁵ Has not the LORD made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because He seeks godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.

⁸ Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.

¹ “Next, have your brother Aaron brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, to serve Me as priests.

¹⁰ But as for us, the LORD is our God. We have not forsaken Him; the priests who minister to the LORD are sons of Aaron, and the Levites attend to their duties.

⁶ But you will be called the priests of the LORD; they will speak of you as ministers of our God; you will feed on the wealth of nations, and you will boast in their riches.

⁴ The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to her appointed feasts. All her gates are deserted; her priests groan, her maidens grieve, and she herself is bitter with anguish.

¹⁶ For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears. For there is no one nearby to comfort me, no one to revive my soul. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.

⁴ They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, and their sacrifices will not please Him, but will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat will be defiled. For their bread will be for themselves; it will not enter the house of the LORD.

¹⁶ Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes—joy and gladness from the house of our God?

¹⁴ Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him—grain and drink offerings for the LORD your God.

¹⁷ Let the priests who minister before the LORD weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

²⁰ and your strength will be spent in vain. For your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit.

³ The earth will be utterly laid waste and thoroughly plundered. For the LORD has spoken this word. ⁴ The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away.

¹¹ In the streets they cry out for wine. All joy turns to gloom; rejoicing is exiled from the land.

⁴ How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field be withered? Because of the evil of its residents, the animals and birds have been swept away, for the people have said, “He cannot see what our end will be.”

¹¹ They have made it a desolation; desolate before Me, it mourns. All the land is laid waste, but no man takes it to heart.

² “Judah mourns and her gates languish. Her people wail for the land, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem. ³ The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns, but find no water; their jars return empty. They are ashamed and humiliated; they cover their heads. ⁴ The ground is cracked because no rain has fallen on the land. The farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads. ⁵ Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass. ⁶ Wild donkeys stand on barren heights; they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail for lack of pasture.”

³³ Joy and gladness are removed from the orchard and from the fields of Moab. I have stopped the flow of wine from the presses; no one treads them with shouts of joy; their shouts are not for joy.

³ Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea disappear.

² The threshing floor and winepress will not feed them, and the new wine will fail them.

⁵ Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth.

¹⁷ The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away. ¹⁸ How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering. ¹⁹ To You, O LORD, I call, for fire has consumed the open pastures and flames have scorched all the trees of the field. ²⁰ Even the beasts of the field pant for You, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has consumed the open pastures.

¹¹ I have summoned a drought on the fields and on the mountains, on the grain, new wine, and oil, and on whatever the ground yields, on man and beast, and on all the labor of your hands.”

¹¹ though on the day you plant you make them grow, and on that morning you help your seed sprout—yet the harvest will vanish on the day of disease and incurable pain.

¹² Who is the man wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a desert, so no one can pass through it?

³ The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns, but find no water; their jars return empty. They are ashamed and humiliated; they cover their heads. ⁴ The ground is cracked because no rain has fallen on the land. The farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads.

¹⁶ Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: “There will be wailing in all the public squares and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets. The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail.

⁵ And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

²³ When they came to the Valley of Eshcol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes, which they carried on a pole between two men. They also took some pomegranates and figs.

⁷ You have filled my heart with more joy than when grain and new wine abound.

¹² The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

³ Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

¹³ Your branches are an orchard of pomegranates with the choicest of fruits, with henna and nard,

⁷ Your stature is like a palm tree; your breasts are clusters of fruit. ⁸ I said, “I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit.” May your breasts be like clusters of the vine, the fragrance of your breath like apples, ⁹ and your mouth like the finest wine. May it flow smoothly to my beloved, gliding gently over lips and teeth.

³ You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people rejoice before You as they rejoice at harvest time, as men rejoice in dividing the plunder.

¹⁰ Joy and gladness are removed from the orchard; no one sings or shouts in the vineyards. No one tramples the grapes in the winepresses; I have put an end to the cheering.

³ A voice cries out from Horonaim: ‘Devastation and great destruction!’

¹ Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations, for you have played the harlot against your God; you have made love for hire on every threshing floor. ² The threshing floor and winepress will not feed them, and the new wine will fail them.

¹⁰ The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails.

¹⁷ Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls, ¹⁸ yet I will exult in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!

¹⁹ Is there still seed in the barn? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet yielded fruit. But from this day on, I will bless you.”

⁸ When you bring to the LORD the grain offering made in any of these ways, it is to be presented to the priest, and he shall take it to the altar. ⁹ The priest is to remove the memorial portion from the grain offering and burn it on the altar as an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. ¹⁰ But the remainder of the grain offering shall belong to Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the offerings made by fire to the LORD.

⁶ These are in addition to the monthly and daily burnt offerings with their prescribed grain offerings and drink offerings. They are a pleasing aroma, an offering made by fire to the LORD.

¹⁶ David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted and went into his house and spent the night lying in sackcloth on the ground.

²⁷ When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted. He lay down in sackcloth and walked around meekly.

¹⁰ I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness pasture, for they have been scorched so no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they have gone away.

¹⁸ They will put on sackcloth, and terror will overwhelm them. Shame will cover all their faces, and all their heads will be shaved.

⁸ Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth. ⁹ Grain and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD.

⁵ And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. ⁶ When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. ⁷ Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let no man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink. ⁸ Furthermore, let both man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and have everyone call out earnestly to God. Let each one turn from his evil ways and from the violence in his hands.

¹ So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

¹³ Do you not know that those who work in the temple eat of its food, and those who serve at the altar partake of its offerings?

⁶ And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

⁴ Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships, and calamities;

²³ Are they servants of Christ? I am speaking like I am out of my mind, but I am so much more: in harder labor, in worse beatings, in more imprisonments, in frequent danger of death.

¹³ He of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. ¹⁴ For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, a tribe as to which Moses said nothing about priesthood.

³⁶ For seven days you are to present an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you are to hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made by fire to the LORD. It is a solemn assembly; you must not do any regular work.

¹⁰ All of you are standing today before the LORD your God—you leaders of tribes, elders, officials, and all the men of Israel, ¹¹ your children and wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your wood and draw your water—

³ Jehoshaphat was alarmed and set his face to seek the LORD. And he proclaimed a fast throughout Judah. ⁴ So the people of Judah gathered to seek the LORD, and indeed, they came from all the cities of Judah to seek Him.

¹³ Meanwhile all the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, were standing before the LORD.

¹⁸ Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. The Israelites kept the feast for seven days, and on the eighth day they held an assembly, according to the ordinance.

² Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all the foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. ³ While they stood in their places, they read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and they spent another quarter of the day in confession and worship of the LORD their God.

¹⁵ Blow the ram’s horn in Zion, consecrate a fast, proclaim a sacred assembly. ¹⁶ Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the aged, gather the children, even those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.

⁸ Furthermore, let both man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and have everyone call out earnestly to God. Let each one turn from his evil ways and from the violence in his hands.

¹³ but the Lord laughs, seeing that their day is coming.

⁶ Wail, for the Day of the LORD is near; it will come as destruction from the Almighty. ⁷ Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt. ⁸ Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear. ⁹ Behold, the Day of the LORD is coming—cruel, with fury and burning anger—to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners within it.

² “O son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says to the land of Israel: ‘The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. ³ The end is now upon you, and I will unleash My anger against you. I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations. ⁴ I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ ⁵ This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Disaster! An unprecedented disaster—behold, it is coming! ⁶ The end has come! The end has come! It has roused itself against you. Behold, it has come! ⁷ Doom has come to you, O inhabitants of the land. The time has come; the day is near; there is panic on the mountains instead of shouts of joy. ⁸ Very soon I will pour out My wrath upon you and vent My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations. ⁹ I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that it is I, the LORD, who strikes the blow. ¹⁰ Behold, the day is here! It has come! Doom has gone out, the rod has budded, arrogance has bloomed. ¹¹ Their violence has grown into a rod to punish their wickedness. None of them will remain: none of their multitude, none of their wealth, and nothing of value. ¹² The time has come; the day has arrived. Let the buyer not rejoice and the seller not mourn, for wrath is upon the whole multitude.

²² “Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel: ‘The days go by, and every vision fails’? ²³ Therefore tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will put an end to this proverb, and in Israel they will no longer recite it.’ But say to them: ‘The days are at hand when every vision will be fulfilled. ²⁴ For there will be no more false visions or flattering divinations within the house of Israel, ²⁵ because I, the LORD, will speak whatever word I speak, and it will be fulfilled without delay. For in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak a message and bring it to pass, declares the Lord GOD.’” ²⁶ Furthermore, the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ²⁷ “Son of man, take note that the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that he sees is for many years from now; he prophesies about the distant future.’ ²⁸ Therefore tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘None of My words will be delayed any longer. The message I speak will be fulfilled, declares the Lord GOD.’”

¹ Blow the ram’s horn in Zion; sound the alarm on My holy mountain! Let all who dwell in the land tremble, for the Day of the LORD is coming; indeed, it is near— ² a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come.

¹¹ The LORD raises His voice in the presence of His army. Indeed, His camp is very large, for mighty are those who obey His command. For the Day of the LORD is great and very dreadful. Who can endure it?

³¹ The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.

¹⁶ Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: “There will be wailing in all the public squares and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets. The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail. ¹⁷ There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst,” says the LORD. ¹⁸ Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD! What will the Day of the LORD be for you? It will be darkness and not light.

¹⁴ The great Day of the LORD is near—near and coming quickly. Listen, the Day of the LORD! Then the cry of the mighty will be bitter. ¹⁵ That day will be a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, ¹⁶ a day of horn blast and battle cry against the fortified cities, and against the high corner towers. ¹⁷ I will bring such distress on mankind that they will walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the LORD. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung. ¹⁸ Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the Day of the LORD’s wrath. The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of His jealousy.” For indeed, He will make a sudden end of all who dwell on the earth.

⁴¹ As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it ⁴² and said, “If only you had known, even you, at least on this day what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ For the days will come upon you when your enemies will barricade you and surround you and hem you in on every side. ⁴⁴ They will level you to the ground—you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”

⁹ Do not complain about one another, brothers, so that you will not be judged. Look, the Judge is standing at the door!

¹⁷ For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”

⁶ To that place you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and heave offerings, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, as well as the firstborn of your herds and flocks. ⁷ There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your households shall eat and rejoice in all you do, because the LORD your God has blessed you.

¹¹ then the LORD your God will choose a dwelling for His Name. And there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice offerings you vow to the LORD. ¹² And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you.

¹⁰ And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with a freewill offering that you give in proportion to how the LORD your God has blessed you, ¹¹ and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you. ¹² Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and carefully follow these statutes. ¹³ You are to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. ¹⁴ And you shall rejoice in your feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you. ¹⁵ For seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the LORD your God in the place He will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that your joy will be complete.

⁴ Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my greatest joy. I will praise You with the harp, O God, my God.

³ Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.

⁷ On that day he will cry aloud: “I am not a healer. I have no food or clothing in my house. Do not make me leader of the people!”

⁸ The LORD has sworn by His right hand and by His mighty arm: “Never again will I give your grain to your enemies for food, nor will foreigners drink the new wine for which you have toiled. ⁹ For those who harvest grain will eat it and praise the LORD, and those who gather grapes will drink the wine in My holy courts.”

⁵ Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth. ⁶ For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness. ⁷ It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away; the branches have turned white.

⁶ “I beset all your cities with cleanness of teeth and all your towns with lack of bread, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD. ⁷ “I also withheld the rain from you when the harvest was three months away. I sent rain on one city but withheld it from another. One field received rain; another without rain withered.

¹⁶ Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the standard of the merchants.

¹⁰ For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and failed to remember the Rock of your refuge. Therefore, though you cultivate delightful plots and set out cuttings from exotic vines— ¹¹ though on the day you plant you make them grow, and on that morning you help your seed sprout—yet the harvest will vanish on the day of disease and incurable pain.

⁵ Then Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go throughout the land to every spring and every valley. Perhaps we will find grass to keep the horses and mules alive so that we will not have to destroy any livestock.”

²⁰ Even the beasts of the field pant for You, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has consumed the open pastures.

²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time.

¹⁵ Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

¹⁵ When he calls out to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.

³ Before them a fire devours, and behind them a flame scorches. The land before them is like the Garden of Eden, but behind them, it is like a desert wasteland—surely nothing will escape them.

⁴ This is what the Lord GOD showed me: The Lord GOD was calling for judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land.

⁷ But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.

¹ Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray at all times and not lose heart:

⁷ Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He continue to defer their help?

⁶ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁷ Some time later, however, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.

⁴¹ Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God as they wander about for lack of food?

²¹ The young lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God.

¹⁵ The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in season.

⁹ He provides food for the animals, and for the young ravens when they call.