3:1And the Lord said to me, Give your love again to a woman who has a lover and is false to her husband, even as the Lord has love for the children of Israel, though they are turned to other gods and are lovers of grape-cakes. 3:2So I got her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley; 3:3And I said to her, You are to be mine for a long space of time; you are not to be false to me, and no other man is to have you for his wife; and so will I be to you. 3:4For the children of Israel will for a long time be without king and without ruler, without offerings and without pillars, and without ephod or images. 3:5And after that, the children of Israel will come back and go in search of the Lord their God and David their king; and they will come in fear to the Lord and to his mercies in the days to come.
4:1Give ear to the word of the Lord, O children of Israel; for the Lord has a cause against the people of this land, because there is no good faith in it, and no mercy and no knowledge of God in the land. 4:2There is cursing and broken faith, violent death and attacks on property, men are untrue in married life, houses are broken into, and there is blood touching blood. 4:3Because of this the land will be dry, and everyone living in it will be wasted away, with the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven; even the fishes of the sea will be taken away. 4:4Let no man go to law or make protests, for your people are like those who go to law with a priest. 4:5You will not be able to keep on your feet by day, and by night the prophet will be falling down with you, and I will give your mother to destruction. 4:6Destruction has overtaken my people because they have no knowledge; because you have given up knowledge, I will give you up, so that you will be no priest to me, because you have not kept in mind the law of your God, I will not keep your children in my memory. 4:7Even while they were increasing in number they were sinning against me; I will let their glory be changed into shame. 4:8The sin of my people is like food to them; and their desire is for their wrongdoing. 4:9And the priest will be like the people; I will give them punishment for their evil ways, and the reward of their acts. 4:10They will have food, but they will not be full; they will be false to me, but they will not be increased, because they no longer give thought to the Lord. 4:11Loose ways and new wine take away wisdom. 4:12My people get knowledge from their tree, and their rod gives them news; for a false spirit is the cause of their wandering, and they have been false to their God. 4:13They make offerings on the tops of mountains, burning perfumes in high places, under trees of every sort, because their shade is good: and so your daughters are given up to loose ways and your brides are false to their husbands. 4:14I will not give punishment to your daughters or your brides for their evil behaviour; for they make themselves separate with loose women, and make offerings with those who are used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods: the people who have no wisdom will be sent away. 4:15Do not you, O Israel, come into error; do not you, O Judah, come to Gilgal, or go up to Beth-aven, or take an oath, By the living Lord. 4:16For Israel is uncontrolled, like a cow which may not be controlled; now will the Lord give them food like a lamb in a wide place. 4:17Ephraim is joined to false gods; let him be. 4:18Their drink has become bitter; they are completely false; her rulers take pleasure in shame. 4:19They are folded in the skirts of the wind; they will be shamed because of their offerings.
5:1Give ear to this, O priests; give attention, O Israel, and you, family of the king; for you are to be judged; you have been a deceit at Mizpah and a net stretched out on Tabor. 5:2They have gone deep in the evil ways of Shittim, but I am the judge of all. 5:3I have knowledge of Ephraim, and Israel is not secret from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have been false to me, Israel has become unclean. 5:4Their works will not let them come back to their God, for a false spirit is in them and they have no knowledge of the Lord. 5:5And the pride of Israel gives an answer to his face; and Ephraim will have a fall through his sins, and the fall of Judah will be the same as theirs. 5:6They will go, with their flocks and their herds, in search of the Lord, but they will not see him; he has taken himself out of their view. 5:7They have been false to the Lord; they have given birth to strange children; now the new moon will make them waste with their fields. 5:8Let the horn be sounded in Gibeah and in Ramah; give a loud cry in Beth-aven, They are after you, O Benjamin. 5:9Ephraim will become a waste in the day of punishment; I have given knowledge among the tribes of Israel of what is certain. 5:10The rulers of Judah are like those who take away a landmark; I will let loose my wrath on them like flowing water. 5:11Ephraim is troubled; he is crushed by his judges, because he took pleasure in walking after deceit. 5:12And so to Ephraim I am like a wasting insect, and a destruction to the children of Judah. 5:13When Ephraim saw his disease and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to the great king; but he is not able to make you well or give you help for your wound. 5:14For I will be to Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the children of Judah; I, even I, will give him wounds and go away; I will take him away, and there will be no helper. 5:15I will go back to my place till they are made waste; in their trouble they will go after me early and will make search for me.
6:1Come, let us go back to the Lord; for he has given us wounds and he will make us well; he has given blows and he will give help. 6:2After two days he will give us life, and on the third day he will make us get up, and we will be living before him. 6:3And let us have knowledge, let us go after the knowledge of the Lord; his going out is certain as the dawn, his decisions go out like the light; he will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth. 6:4O Ephraim, what am I to do to you? O Judah, what am I to do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew which goes early away. 6:5So I have had it cut in stones; I gave them teaching by the words of my mouth; 6:6Because my desire is for mercy and not offerings; for the knowledge of God more than for burned offerings. 6:7But like a man, they have gone against the agreement; there they were false to me. 6:8Gilead is a town of evil-doers, marked with blood. 6:9And like a band of thieves waiting for a man, so are the priests watching secretly the way of those going quickly to Shechem, for they are working with an evil design. 6:10In Israel I have seen a very evil thing; there false ways are seen in Ephraim, Israel is unclean; 6:11And Judah has put up disgusting images for himself.
7:1When my desire was for the fate of my people to be changed and to make Israel well, then the sin of Ephraim was made clear, and the evil-doing of Samaria; for their ways are false, and the thief comes into the house, while the band of outlaws takes property by force in the streets. 7:2And they do not say to themselves that I keep in mind all their sin; now their evil acts come round them on every side; they are before my face. 7:3In their sin they make a king for themselves, and rulers in their deceit. 7:4They are all untrue; they are like a burning oven; the bread-maker does not make up the fire from the time when the paste is mixed till it is leavened. 7:5On the day of our king, the rulers made him ill with the heat of wine; his hand was stretched out with the men of pride. 7:6For they have made their hearts ready like an oven, while they are waiting secretly; their wrath is sleeping all night; in the morning it is burning like a flaming fire. 7:7They are all heated like an oven, and they put an end to their judges; all their kings have been made low; not one among them makes prayer to me. 7:8Ephraim is mixed with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned. 7:9Men from other lands have made waste his strength, and he is not conscious of it; grey hairs have come on him here and there, and he has no knowledge of it. 7:10And the pride of Israel gives an answer to his face; but for all this, they have not gone back to the Lord their God, or made search for him. 7:11And Ephraim is like a foolish dove, without wisdom; they send out their cry to Egypt, they go to Assyria. 7:12When they go, my net will be stretched out over them; I will take them like the birds of heaven, I will give them punishment, I will take them away in the net for their sin. 7:13May trouble be theirs! for they have gone far away from me; and destruction, for they have been sinning against me; I was ready to be their saviour, but they said false words against me. 7:14And they have not made prayer to me in their hearts, but they make loud cries on their beds; they are cutting themselves for food and wine, they are turned against me. 7:15Though I have given training and strength to their arms, they have evil designs against me. 7:16They have gone to what is of no value; they are like a false bow; their captains will come to destruction by the sword, and their ruler by my wrath; for this, the land of Egypt will make sport of them.
8:1Put the horn to your mouth. He comes like an eagle against the house of the Lord; because they have gone against my agreement, they have not kept my law. 8:2They will send up to me a cry for help: We, Israel, have knowledge of you, O God of Israel. 8:3Israel has given up what is good; his haters will go after him. 8:4They have put up kings, but not by me; they have made princes, but I had no knowledge of it; they have made images of silver and gold, so that they may be cut off. 8:5I will have nothing to do with your young ox, O Samaria; my wrath is burning against them; how long will it be before the children of Israel make themselves clean? 8:6The workman made it, it is no god; the ox of Samaria will be broken into bits. 8:7For they have been planting the wind, and their fruit will be the storm; his grain has no stem, it will give no meal, and if it does, a strange nation will take it. 8:8Israel has come to destruction; now they are among the nations like a cup in which there is no pleasure. 8:9For they have gone up to Assyria like an ass going by himself; Ephraim has given money to get lovers. 8:10But though they give money to the nations for help, still I will send them in all directions; and in a short time they will be without a king and rulers. 8:11Because Ephraim has been increasing altars for sin, altars have become a cause of sin to him. 8:12Though I put my law in writing for him in ten thousand rules, they are to him as a strange thing. 8:13He gives the offerings of his lovers, and takes the flesh for food; but the Lord has no pleasure in them; now he will keep in mind their evil-doing and give them the punishment of their sins; they will go back to Egypt. 8:14For Israel has no memory of his Maker, and has put up the houses of kings; and Judah has made great the number of his walled towns. But I will send a fire on his towns and put an end to his great houses.
9:1Have no joy, O Israel, and do not be glad like the nations; for you have been untrue to your God; your desire has been for the loose woman's reward on every grain-floor. 9:2The grain-floor and the place where the grapes are crushed will not give them food; there will be no new wine for them. 9:3They will have no resting-place in the Lord's land, but Ephraim will go back to Egypt, and they will take unclean food in Assyria. 9:4They will give no wine offering to the Lord, they will not make offerings ready for him; their bread will be like the bread of those in sorrow; all who take it will be unclean, because their bread will be only for their desire, it will not come into the house of the Lord. 9:5What will you do on the day of worship, and on the day of the feast of the Lord? 9:6For see, they are going away into Assyria; Egypt will get them together, Memphis will be their last resting-place; their fair silver vessels will be covered over with field plants, and thorns will come up in their tents. 9:7The days of punishment, the days of reward are come; Israel will be put to shame; the prophet is foolish, the man who has the spirit is off his head, because of your great sin. 9:8There is great hate against the watchman of Ephraim, the people of my God; as for the prophet, there is a net in all his ways, and hate in the house of his God. 9:9They have gone deep in evil as in the days of Gibeah; he will keep in mind their wrongdoing, he will give them punishment for their sins. 9:10I made discovery of Israel as of grapes in the waste land; I saw your fathers as the first-fruits of the fig-tree in her early fruit time; but they came to Baal-peor, and made themselves holy to the thing of shame, and became disgusting like that to which they gave their love. 9:11As for Ephraim, their glory will go in flight like a bird: there will be no birth and no one with child and no giving of life. 9:12Even though their children have come to growth I will take them away, so that not a man will be there; for their evil-doing will be complete and they will be put to shame because of it. 9:13As I have seen a beast whose young have been taken from her, so Ephraim will give birth to children only for them to be put to death. 9:14O Lord, what will you give them? Give them bodies which may not give birth and breasts without milk. 9:15All their evil-doing is in Gilgal; there I had hate for them; because of their evil-doing I will send them out of my house; they will no longer be dear to me; all their rulers are uncontrolled. 9:16The rod has come on Ephraim, their root is dry, let them have no fruit; even though they give birth, I will put to death the dearest fruit of their bodies. 9:17My God will give them up because they did not give ear to him; they will be wandering among the nations.
10:1Israel is a branching vine, full of fruit; as his fruit is increased, so the number of his altars is increased; as the land is fair, so they have made fair pillars. 10:2Their mind is taken away; now they will be made waste: he will have their altars broken down, he will give their pillars to destruction. 10:3Now, truly, they will say, We have no king, we have no fear of the Lord; and the king, what is he able to do for us? 10:4Their words are foolish; they make agreements with false oaths, so punishment will come up like a poison-plant in a ploughed field. 10:5The people of Samaria will be full of fear because of the ox of Beth-aven; its people will have sorrow for it, and its priests will give cries of grief for its glory, for the glory has gone in flight. 10:6And they will take it to Assyria and give it to the great king; shame will come on Ephraim, and Israel will be shamed because of its image. 10:7As for Samaria, her king is cut off, like mist on the water. 10:8And the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will come to destruction; thorns and waste plants will come up on their altars; they will say to the mountains, Be a cover over us; and to the hills, Come down on us. 10:9O Israel, you have done evil from the days of Gibeah; there they took up their position, so that the fighting against the children of evil might not overtake them in Gibeah. 10:10I will come and give them punishment; and the peoples will come together against them when I give them the reward of their two sins. 10:11And Ephraim is a trained cow, taking pleasure in crushing the grain; but I have put a yoke on her fair neck; I will put a horseman on the back of Ephraim; Judah will be working the plough, Jacob will be turning up the earth. 10:12Put in the seed of righteousness, get in your grain in mercy, let your unploughed earth be turned up: for it is time to make search for the Lord, till he comes and sends righteousness on you like rain. 10:13You have been ploughing sin, you have got in a store of evil, the fruit of deceit has been your food: for you put faith in your way, in the number of your men of war. 10:14So a great outcry will go up from among your people, and all your strong places will be broken, as Beth-arbel was broken by Shalman in the day of war, as the mother was broken on the rocks with her children. 10:15So will Beth-el do to you because of your evil-doing; at dawn will the king of Israel be cut off completely.
11:1When Israel was a child he was dear to me; and I took my son out of Egypt. 11:2When I sent for them, then they went away from me; they made offerings to the Baals, burning perfumes to images. 11:3But I was guiding Ephraim's footsteps; I took them up in my arms, but they were not conscious that I was ready to make them well. 11:4I made them come after me with the cords of a man, with the bands of love; I was to them as one who took the yoke from off their mouths, putting meat before them. 11:5He will go back to the land of Egypt and the Assyrian will be his king, because they would not come back to me. 11:6And the sword will go through his towns, wasting his children and causing destruction because of their evil designs. 11:7My people are given up to sinning against me; though their voice goes up on high, no one will be lifting them up. 11:8How may I give you up, O Ephraim? how may I be your saviour, O Israel? how may I make you like Admah? how may I do to you as I did to Zeboim? My heart is turned in me, it is soft with pity. 11:9I will not put into effect the heat of my wrath; I will not again send destruction on Ephraim; for I am God and not man, the Holy One among you; I will not put an end to you. 11:10They will go after the Lord; his cry will be like that of a lion; his cry will be loud, and the children will come from the west, shaking with fear; 11:11Shaking with fear like a bird, they will come out of Egypt, like a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will give them rest in their houses, says the Lord. 11:12The deceit of Ephraim and the false words of Israel are about me on every side. ...
12:1Ephraim's food is the wind, and he goes after the east wind: deceit and destruction are increasing day by day; they make an agreement with Assyria, and take oil into Egypt. 12:2The Lord has a cause against Judah, and will give punishment to Jacob for his ways; he will give him the reward of his acts. 12:3In the body of his mother he took his brother by the foot, and in his strength he was fighting with God; 12:4He had a fight with the angel and overcame him; he made request for grace to him with weeping; he came face to face with him in Beth-el and there his words came to him; 12:5Even the Lord, the God of armies; the Lord is his name. 12:6So then, come back to your God; keep mercy and right, and be waiting at all times on your God. 12:7As for Canaan, the scales of deceit are in his hands; he takes pleasure in twisted ways. 12:8And Ephraim said, Now I have got wealth and much property; in all my works no sin may be seen in me. 12:9But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; I will give you tents for your living-places again as in the days of the holy meeting. 12:10My word came to the ears of the prophets and I gave them visions in great number, and by the mouths of the prophets I made use of comparisons. 12:11In Gilead there is evil. They are quite without value; in Gilgal they make offerings of oxen; truly their altars are like masses of stones in the hollows of a ploughed field. 12:12And Jacob went in flight into the field of Aram, and Israel became a servant for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep. 12:13And by a prophet the Lord made Israel come up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was kept safe. 12:14I have been bitterly moved to wrath by Ephraim; so that his blood will be on him, and the Lord will make his shame come back on him.
13:1When the words of my law came from Ephraim, he was lifted up in Israel; but when he did evil through the Baal, death overtook him. 13:2And now their sins are increased; they have made themselves a metal image, false gods from their silver, after their designs, all of them the work of the metal-workers; they say of them, Let them give offerings, let men give kisses to the oxen. 13:3So they will be like the morning cloud, like the dew which goes early away, like the dust of the grain which the wind is driving out of the crushing-floor, like smoke going up from the fireplace. 13:4But I am the Lord your God, from the land of Egypt; you have knowledge of no other God and there is no saviour but me. 13:5I had knowledge of you in the waste land where no water was. 13:6When I gave them food they were full, and their hearts were full of pride, and they did not keep me in mind. 13:7So I will be like a lion to them; as a cruel beast I will keep watch by the road; 13:8I will come face to face with them like a bear whose young ones have been taken from her, and their inmost hearts will be broken; there the dogs will make a meal of them; they will be wounded by the beasts of the field. 13:9I have sent destruction on you, O Israel; who will be your helper? 13:10Where is your king, that he may be your saviour? and all your rulers, that they may take up your cause? of whom you said, Give me a king and rulers. 13:11I have given you a king, because I was angry, and have taken him away in my wrath. 13:12The wrongdoing of Ephraim is shut up; his sin is put away in secret. 13:13The pains of a woman in childbirth will come on him: he is an unwise son, for at this time it is not right for him to keep his place when children come to birth. 13:14I will give the price to make them free from the power of the underworld, I will be their saviour from death: O death! where are your pains? O underworld! where is your destruction? my eyes will have no pity. 13:15Though he gives fruit among his brothers, an east wind will come, the wind of the Lord coming up from the waste land, and his spring will become dry, his fountain will be without water: it will make waste the store of all the vessels of his desire. 13:16Samaria will be made waste, for she has gone against her God: they will be cut down by the sword, their little children will be broken on the rocks, their women who are with child will be cut open.
14:1O Israel, come back to the Lord your God; for your evil-doing has been the cause of your fall. 14:2Take with you words, and come back to the Lord; say to him, Let there be forgiveness for all wrongdoing, so that we may take what is good, and give in payment the fruit of our lips. 14:3Assyria will not be our salvation; we will not go on horses; we will not again say to the work of our hands, You are our gods; for in you there is mercy for the child who has no father. 14:4I will put right their errors; freely will my love be given to them, for my wrath is turned away from him. 14:5I will be as the dew to Israel; he will put out flowers like a lily, and send out his roots like Lebanon. 14:6His branches will be stretched out, he will be beautiful as the olive-tree and sweet-smelling as Lebanon. 14:7They will come back and have rest in his shade; their life will be made new like the grain, and they will put out flowers like the vine; his name will be like the wine of Lebanon. 14:8As for Ephraim, what has he to do with false gods any longer? I have given an answer and I will keep watch over him; I am like a branching fir-tree, from me comes your fruit. 14:9He who is wise will see these things; he who has good sense will have knowledge of them. For the ways of the Lord are straight, and the upright will go in them, but sinners will be falling in them.
Joel
1:1The word of the Lord which came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. 1:2Give ear to this, you old men, and take note, you people of the land. Has this ever been in your days, or in the days of your fathers? 1:3Give the story of it to your children, and let them give it to their children, and their children to another generation. 1:4What the worm did not make a meal of, has been taken by the locust; and what the locust did not take, has been food for the plant-worm; and what the plant-worm did not take, has been food for the field-fly. 1:5Come out of your sleep, you who are overcome with wine, and give yourselves to weeping; give cries of sorrow, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it has been cut off from your mouths. 1:6For a nation has come up over my land, strong and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the back teeth of a great lion. 1:7By him my vine is made waste and my fig-tree broken: he has taken all its fruit and sent it down to the earth; its branches are made white. 1:8Make sounds of grief like a virgin dressed in haircloth for the husband of her early years. 1:9The meal offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord's servants, are sorrowing. 1:10The fields are wasted, the land has become dry; for the grain is wasted, the new wine is kept back, the oil is poor. 1:11The farmers are shamed, the workers in the vine-gardens give cries of grief, for the wheat and the barley; for the produce of the fields has come to destruction. 1:12The vine has become dry and the fig-tree is feeble; the pomegranate and the palm-tree and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field, are dry: because joy has gone from the sons of men. 1:13Put haircloth round you and give yourselves to sorrow, you priests; give cries of grief, you servants of the altar: come in, and, clothed in haircloth, let the night go past, you servants of my God: for the meal offering and the drink offering have been kept back from the house of your God. 1:14Let a time be fixed for going without food, have a holy meeting, let the old men, even all the people of the land, come together to the house of the Lord your God, crying out to the Lord. 1:15Sorrow for the day! for the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Ruler of all it will come. 1:16Is not food cut off before our eyes? joy and delight from the house of our God? 1:17The grains have become small and dry under the spade; the store-houses are made waste, the grain-stores are broken down; for the grain is dry and dead. 1:18What sounds of pain come from the beasts! the herds of cattle are at a loss because there is no grass for them; even the flocks of sheep are no longer to be seen. 1:19O Lord, my cry goes up to you: for fire has put an end to the grass-lands of the waste, and all the trees of the field are burned with its flame. 1:20The beasts of the field are turning to you with desire: for the water-streams are dry and fire has put an end to the grass-lands of the waste.
2:1Let the horn be sounded in Zion, and a war-cry in my holy mountain; let all the people of the land be troubled: for the day of the Lord is coming; 2:2For a day of dark and deep shade is near, a day of cloud and black night: like a black cloud a great and strong people is covering the mountains; there has never been any like them and will not be after them again, from generation to generation. 2:3Before them fire sends destruction, and after them flame is burning: the land is like the garden of Eden before them, and after them an unpeopled waste; truly, nothing has been kept safe from them. 2:4Their form is like the form of horses, and they are running like war-horses. 2:5Like the sound of war-carriages they go jumping on the tops of the mountains; like the noise of a flame of fire burning up the grain-stems, like a strong people lined up for the fight. 2:6At their coming the people are bent with pain: all faces become red together. 2:7They are running like strong men, they go over the wall like men of war; every man goes straight on his way, their lines are not broken. 2:8No one is pushing against another; everyone goes straight on his way: bursting through the sword points, their order is not broken. 2:9They make a rush on the town, running on the wall; they go up into the houses and in through the windows like a thief. 2:10The earth is troubled before them and the heavens are shaking: the sun and the moon have become dark, and the stars keep back their shining: 2:11And the Lord is thundering before his forces; for very great is his army; for he is strong who gives effect to his word: for the day of the Lord is great and greatly to be feared, and who has strength against it? 2:12But even now, says the Lord, come back to me with all your heart, keeping from food, with weeping and with sorrow: 2:13Let your hearts be broken, and not your clothing, and come back to the Lord your God: for he is full of grace and pity, slow to be angry and great in mercy, ready to be turned from his purpose of punishment. 2:14May it not be that he will again let his purpose be changed and let a blessing come after him, even a meal offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? 2:15Let a horn be sounded in Zion, let a time be fixed for going without food, have a holy meeting: 2:16Get the people together, make the mass of the people holy, send for the old men, get together the children and babies at the breast: let the newly married man come out of his room and the bride from her tent. 2:17Let the priests, the servants of the Lord, be weeping between the covered way and the altar, and let them say, Have mercy on your people, O Lord, do not give up your heritage to shame, so that the nations become their rulers: why let them say among the peoples, Where is their God? 2:18Then the Lord had a care for the honour of his land and had pity on his people. 2:19And the Lord made answer and said to his people, See, I will send you grain and wine and oil in full measure: and I will no longer let you be shamed among the nations: 2:20I will send the one from the north far away from you, driving him into a dry and waste land, with his front to the sea of the east and his back to the sea of the west, and the smell of him will go up, even his evil smell will go up. 2:21Have no fear, O land; be glad with great joy; for the Lord has done great things. 2:22Have no fear, you beasts of the field, for the grass-lands of the waste are becoming green, for the trees are producing fruit, the fig-tree and the vine give out their strength. 2:23Be glad, then, you children of Zion, and have joy in the Lord your God: for he gives you food in full measure, making the rain come down for you, the early and the late rain as at the first. 2:24And the floors will be full of grain, and the crushing-places overflowing with wine and oil. 2:25I will give back to you the years which were food for the locust, the plant-worm, the field-fly, and the worm, my great army which I sent among you. 2:26You will have food in full measure, and give praise to the name of the Lord your God, who has done wonders for you: 2:27And you will be certain that I am in Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and there is no other: and my people will never be shamed. 2:28And after that, it will come about, says the Lord, that I will send my spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will be prophets, your old men will have dreams, your young men will see visions: 2:29And on the servants and the servant-girls in those days I will send my spirit. 2:30And I will let wonders be seen in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. 2:31The sun will be made dark and the moon turned to blood, before the great day of the Lord comes, a day to be feared. 2:32And it will be that whoever makes his prayer to the name of the Lord will be kept safe: for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem some will be kept safe, as the Lord has said, and will be among the small band marked out by the Lord.
3:1For in those days and in that time, when I let the fate of Judah and Jerusalem be changed, 3:2I will get together all the nations, and make them come down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and there I will take up with them the cause of my people and of my heritage Israel, whom they have sent wandering among the nations, and of my land which has been parted by them. 3:3And they have put the fate of my people to the decision of chance: giving a boy for the price of a loose woman and a girl for a drink of wine. 3:4And further, what are you to me, O Tyre and Zidon and all the circle of Philistia? will you give me back any payment? and if you do, quickly and suddenly I will send it back on your head, 3:5For you have taken my silver and my gold, putting in the houses of your gods my beautiful and pleasing things. 3:6And the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem you have given for a price to the sons of the Greeks, to send them far away from their land: 3:7See, I will have them moved from the place where you have sent them, and will let what you have done come back on your head; 3:8I will give your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah for a price, and they will give them for a price to the men of Sheba, a nation far off: for the Lord has said it. 3:9Give this out among the nations; make ready for war: get the strong men awake; let all the men of war come near, let them come up. 3:10Get your plough-blades hammered into swords, and your vine-knives into spears: let the feeble say, I am strong. 3:11Come quickly, all you nations round about, and get yourselves together there: make your strong ones come down, O Lord. 3:12Let the nations be awake, and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there I will be seated as judge of all the nations round about. 3:13Put in the blade, for the grain is ready: come, get you down, for the wine-crusher is full, the vessels are overflowing; for great is their evil-doing. 3:14Masses on masses in the valley of decision! for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. 3:15The sun and the moon have become dark, and the stars keep back their shining. 3:16And the Lord will be thundering from Zion, and his voice will be sounding from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will be shaking: but the Lord will be a breastplate for his people and a strong place for the children of Israel. 3:17And you will be certain that I am the Lord your God, living in Zion, my holy mountain: and Jerusalem will be holy, and no strange person will ever again go through her. 3:18And it will come about in that day that the mountains will be dropping sweet wine, and the hills will be flowing with milk, and all the streams of Judah will be flowing with water; and a fountain will come out from the house of the Lord, watering the valley of acacia-trees. 3:19Egypt will be a waste and Edom a land of destruction, because of the evil done to the children of Judah, because they have let blood be drained out in their land without cause. 3:20But Judah will be peopled for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. 3:21And I will send punishment for their blood, for which punishment has not been sent, for the Lord is living in Zion.
Amos
1:1The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa; what he saw about Israel in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earth-shock. 1:2And he said, The Lord will give a lion's cry from Zion, his voice will be sounding from Jerusalem; and the fields of the keepers of sheep will become dry, and the top of Carmel will be wasted away. 1:3These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Damascus, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they have been crushing Gilead with iron grain-crushing instruments. 1:4And I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, burning up the great houses of Ben-hadad. 1:5And I will have the locks of the door of Damascus broken, and him who is seated in power cut off from the valley of Aven, and him in whose hand is the rod from the house of Eden; and the people of Aram will go away as prisoners into Kir, says the Lord. 1:6These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Gaza, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they took all the people away prisoners, to give them up to Edom. 1:7And I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, burning up its great houses: 1:8Him who is seated in power I will have cut off from Ashdod, and him in whose hand is the rod from Ashkelon; and my hand will be turned against Ekron, and the rest of the Philistines will come to destruction, says the Lord God. 1:9These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Tyre, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they gave up all the people prisoners to Edom, without giving a thought to the brothers' agreement between them. 1:10And I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, burning up its great houses. 1:11These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Edom, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because his sword was turned against his brother, without pity, and his wrath was burning at all times, and he was angry for ever. 1:12And I will send a fire on Teman, burning up the great houses of Bozrah. 1:13These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because in Gilead they had women with child cut open, so that they might make wider the limits of their land. 1:14And I will make a fire in the wall of Rabbah, burning up its great houses, with loud cries in the days of war, with a storm in the day of the great wind: 1:15And their king will be made prisoner, he and his captains together, says the Lord.
2:1These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Moab, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because he had the bones of the king of Edom burned to dust. 2:2And I will send a fire on Moab, burning up the great houses of Kerioth: and death will come on Moab with noise and outcries and the sound of the horn: 2:3And I will have the judge cut off from among them, and all their captains I will put to death with him, says the Lord. 2:4These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Judah, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they have given up the law of the Lord, and have not kept his rules; and their false ways, in which their fathers went, have made them go out of the right way. 2:5And I will send a fire on Judah, burning up the great houses of Jerusalem. 2:6These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they have given the upright man for silver, and the poor for the price of two shoes; 2:7Crushing the head of the poor, and turning the steps of the gentle out of the way: and a man and his father go in to the same young woman, putting shame on my holy name: 2:8By every altar they are stretched on clothing taken from those who are in their debt, drinking in the house of their god the wine of those who have made payment for wrongdoing. 2:9Though I sent destruction on the Amorite before them, who was tall as the cedar and strong as the oak-tree, cutting off his fruit from on high and his roots from under the earth. 2:10And I took you up out of the land of Egypt, guiding you for forty years in the waste land, so that you might take for your heritage the land of the Amorite. 2:11And some of your sons I made prophets, and some of your young men I made separate for myself. Is it not even so, O children of Israel? says the Lord. 2:12But to those who were separate you gave wine for drink; and to the prophets you said, Be prophets no longer. 2:13See, I am crushing you down, as one is crushed under a cart full of grain. 2:14And flight will be impossible for the quick-footed, and the force of the strong will become feeble, and the man of war will not get away safely: 2:15And the bowman will not keep his place; he who is quick-footed will not get away safely: and the horseman will not keep his life. 2:16And he who is without fear among the fighting men will go in flight without his clothing in that day, says the Lord.
3:1Give ear to this word which the Lord has said against you, O children of Israel, against all the family which I took up out of the land of Egypt, saying, 3:2You only of all the families of the earth have I taken care of: for this reason I will send punishment on you for all your sins. 3:3Is it possible for two to go walking together, if not by agreement? 3:4Will a lion give his loud cry in the woodland when no food is there? will the voice of the young lion be sounding from his hole if he has taken nothing? 3:5Is it possible for a bird to be taken in a net on the earth where no net has been put for him? will the net come up from the earth if it has taken nothing at all? 3:6If the horn is sounded in the town will the people not be full of fear? will evil come on a town if the Lord has not done it? 3:7Certainly the Lord will do nothing without making clear his secret to his servants, the prophets. 3:8The cry of the lion is sounding; who will not have fear? The Lord God has said the word; is it possible for the prophet to keep quiet? 3:9Give out the news in the great houses of Assyria and in the land of Egypt, and say, Come together on the mountains of Samaria, and see what great outcries are there, and what cruel acts are done in it. 3:10For they have no knowledge of how to do what is right, says the Lord, who are storing up violent acts and destruction in their great houses. 3:11For this reason, says the Lord, an attacker will come, shutting in the land on every side; and your strength will come down and your great houses will be made waste. 3:12These are the words of the Lord: As the keeper of sheep takes out of the mouth of the lion two legs or part of an ear; so will the children of Israel be made safe, who are resting in Samaria on seats of honour or on the silk cushions of a bed. 3:13Give ear now, and give witness against the family of Jacob, says the Lord God, the God of armies; 3:14For in the day when I give Israel punishment for his sins, I will send punishment on the altars of Beth-el, and the horns of the altar will be cut off and come down to the earth. 3:15And I will send destruction on the winter house with the summer house; the ivory houses will be falling down and the great houses will come to an end, says the Lord.