Joel 1, Revelation 9 - 10, Ecclesiastes 9

The Locusts Bring Desolation

1The ^aword of ¹Yahweh that came to ^bJoel, the son of Pethuel:

²^aHear this, O ^belders,And give ear, all inhabitants of the land.^cHas anything like this happened in your daysOr in your fathers’ days?³^aRecount about it to your sons,And let your sons recount about it to their sons,And their sons to the next generation.⁴What the ^agnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has consumed;And what the ^bswarming locust has left, the creeping locust has consumed;And what the creeping locust has left, the ^cstripping locust has consumed.⁵Awake, ^adrunkards, and weep;And wail, all you wine drinkers,On account of the sweet wineThat is ^bcut off from your mouth.⁶For a ^anation has come up against my land,Mighty and without number;^bIts teeth are the teeth of a lion,And it has the fangs of a lioness.⁷It has ^amade my vine a desolationAnd my fig tree ¹splinters.It has stripped them bare and cast them away;Their branches have become white.⁸^aWail like a virgin ^bgirded with sackclothFor the bridegroom of her youth.⁹The ^agrain offering and the drink offering are cut offFrom the house of Yahweh.The ^bpriests mourn,The ministers of Yahweh.¹⁰The field is ^adestroyed;^bThe land mourns,For the grain is destroyed,The new wine dries up,Fresh oil ¹fails.¹¹¹^,^aBe ashamed, O farmers,Wail, O vinedressers,For the wheat and the barley,Because the ^bharvest of the field perishes.¹²The ^avine dries up,And the fig tree ¹fails;The ^bpomegranate, the ^cpalm also, and the ²^,^dapple tree,All the trees of the field dry up.Indeed, ^erejoicing dries upFrom the sons of men.

The Day of Yahweh Is Near

¹³^aGird yourselves with sackclothAnd lament, O priests;^bWail, O ministers of the altar!Come, ^cspend the night in sackcloth,O ministers of my God;For the grain offering and the drink offeringAre withheld from the house of your God.¹⁴^aSet apart a fast as holy,Call for a ^bsolemn assembly;Gather the eldersAnd all the inhabitants of the landTo the house of Yahweh your God,And ^ccry out to Yahweh.¹⁵^aAlas for the day!For the ^bday of Yahweh is near,And it will come as ^cdestruction from the ¹Almighty.¹⁶Has not ^afood been cut off before our eyes,Gladness and ^bjoy from the house of our God?¹⁷The ¹^,^aseeds shrivel under their ²clods;The storehouses are desolate;The barns are pulled down,For the grain is dried up.¹⁸How ^athe beasts groan!The herds of cattle wander aimlesslyBecause there is no pasture for them;Even the flocks of sheep ¹suffer.¹⁹^aTo You, O Yahweh, I cry;For ^bfire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness,And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.²⁰Even the beasts of the field ¹^,^apant for You;For the ^bwater brooks are dried up,And fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness.

9Then the ^afifth angel sounded. Then I saw a ^bstar from heaven which had fallen to the earth, and the ^ckey of the ^dpit of the abyss was given to him. ²And he opened the pit of the abyss and ^asmoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace, and ^bthe sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. ³Then out of the smoke came ^alocusts ¹upon the earth, and power was given them, as the ^bscorpions of the earth have power. ⁴And they were told not to ^ahurt the ^bgrass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the ^cseal of God on their foreheads. ⁵And ¹they were not permitted to kill ²anyone, but to torment for ^afive months, and their torment was like the torment of a ^bscorpion when it ³stings a man. ⁶And in those days ^amen will seek death and will never find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them.

⁷And the ¹^,^aappearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. And on their heads appeared to be crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. ⁸And they had hair like the hair of women, and their ^ateeth were like the teeth of lions. ⁹And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the ^asound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses running to battle. ¹⁰And they have tails like ^ascorpions, and stings; and in their ^btails is their power to hurt men for ^cfive months. ¹¹They have as king over them, the angel of the ^aabyss. His name in ^bHebrew is ¹^,^cAbaddon, and in the Greek he has the name ²Apollyon.

¹²^aOne woe is past; behold, two woes are still coming after these things.

¹³Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard ¹a voice from the ²four ^ahorns of the ^bgolden altar which is before God, ¹⁴one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the ^afour angels who have been bound at the ^bgreat river Euphrates.” ¹⁵And the four angels were ^areleased, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, so that they would kill a ^bthird of ¹mankind. ¹⁶And the number of the armies of the horsemen was ^atwo hundred million; ^bI heard the number of them. ¹⁷And ¹this is how I saw ^ain the vision the horses and those who sit on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of ²^,^bbrimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and ^cout of their mouths come fire and smoke and ³^,^dbrimstone. ¹⁸A ^athird of ¹mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the ^bfire and the smoke and the ²brimstone which came out of their mouths. ¹⁹For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads, and with them they do harm.

²⁰And the rest of ¹mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, ^adid not repent of ^bthe works of their hands, so as not to ^cworship demons, and ^dthe idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. ²¹And they ^adid not repent of their murders nor of their ^bsorceries nor of their ^csexual immorality nor of their thefts.

The Angel and the Little Scroll

10Then I saw another ^astrong angel ^bcoming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud, and the ^crainbow was upon his head, and ^dhis face was like the sun, and his ^efeet like pillars of fire; ²and he had in his hand a ^alittle scroll which was open. He placed ^bhis right foot on the sea and his left on the earth, ³and he cried out with a loud voice, ^aas when a lion roars. And when he had cried out, the ^bseven peals of thunder ¹uttered their voices. ⁴And when the seven peals of thunder had spoken, ^aI was about to write; and I ^bheard a voice from heaven saying, “^cSeal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them.” ⁵Then the angel, whom I saw standing on the sea and on the earth, ^alifted up his right hand to heaven, ⁶^aand swore by ^bHim who lives forever and ever, ^cwho created heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it, that ^dthere will be delay no longer, ⁷but in the days of the voice of the ^aseventh angel, when he is about to sound, then ^bthe mystery of God is finished, as He proclaimed good news to His slaves, the prophets.

⁸Then ^athe voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, and saying, “Go, take ^bthe scroll which is open in the hand of the angel who ^cstands on the sea and on the earth.” ⁹So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little scroll. And he *said to me, “^aTake it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” ¹⁰And I took the little scroll out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. ¹¹And ^athey *said to me, “You must ^bprophesy again about ^cmany peoples and nations and tongues and ^dkings.”

Mankind Is in the Hand of God

9For I have given all this to my heart and explain ¹it that righteous men, wise men, and their service are ^ain the hand of God. ^bMan does not know whether it will be ^clove or hatred; anything may be before him.

²^aIt is the same for all. There is ^bone fate for the righteous and for the wicked; for the good, for the clean and for the unclean; for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice. As the good man is, so is the sinner; as the swearer is, so is the one who ¹is afraid to swear. ³This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is ^aone fate for all. Furthermore, ^bthe hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and ^cmadness is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead. ⁴For whoever is joined with all the living, there is confidence; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion. ⁵For the living know they will die; but the dead ^ado not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for the ^bmemory of them is forgotten. ⁶Indeed their love, their hate, and their zeal have already perished, and they will never again have a ^aportion in all that is done under the sun.

⁷Go then, ^aeat your bread in gladness and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works. ⁸Let your ^aclothes be white all the time, and let not ^boil be lacking on your head. ⁹See life with the woman whom you love all the days of your ^avain life, which He has given to you under the sun—all the days of your ^bvanity; for this is your ^cportion in life and in your labor in which you have labored under the sun.

Whatever Your Hand Finds to Do

¹⁰Whatever your hand finds to do, ^ado it with all your might; for there is no ^bworking or explaining or knowledge or wisdom in ^cSheol where you are going.

¹¹I again saw under the sun that the ^arace is not to the swift and the ^bbattle is not to the mighty, and neither is bread to the wise nor ^criches to the discerning nor favor to men who know; for time and ^dmisfortune overtake them all. ¹²Moreover, man does not ^aknow his time: like fish seized in an evil net and ^bbirds seized in a trap, so the sons of men are ^censnared at an evil time when it ^dsuddenly falls on them.

¹³Also this I came to see as wisdom under the sun, and ¹it was great to me. ¹⁴There ^awas a small city with few men in it, and a great king came to it, surrounded it, and built large siegeworks against it. ¹⁵But there was found in it a ^apoor wise man, and he provided a way of escape for the city ^bby his wisdom. Yet ^cno one remembered that poor man. ¹⁶So I said, “^aWisdom is better than strength.” But the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heard. ¹⁷The ^awords of the wise heard in restfulness are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. ¹⁸^aWisdom is better than weapons of war, but ^bone sinner destroys much good.