Joel 1 - Legacy Standard Bible

Joel 1

The Locusts Bring Desolation

The word of Yahweh that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel: 2

Hear this, O elders,

And give ear, all inhabitants of the land.

Has anything like this happened in your days

Or in your fathers’ days?

Recount about it to your sons,

And let your sons recount about it to their sons,

And their sons to the next generation.

What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has consumed;

And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has consumed;

And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has consumed.

Awake, drunkards, and weep;

And wail, all you wine drinkers,

On account of the sweet wine

That is cut off from your mouth.

For a nation has come up against my land,

Mighty and without number;

Its teeth are the teeth of a lion,

And it has the fangs of a lioness.

It has made my vine a desolation

And my fig tree splinters.

It has stripped them bare and cast them away;

Their branches have become white.

Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth

For the bridegroom of her youth.

The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off

From the house of Yahweh.

The priests mourn,

The ministers of Yahweh.

The field is destroyed;

The land mourns,

For the grain is destroyed,

The new wine dries up,

Fresh oil fails.

Be ashamed, O farmers,

Wail, O vinedressers,

For the wheat and the barley,

Because the harvest of the field perishes.

The vine dries up,

And the fig tree fails;

The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree,

All the trees of the field dry up.

Indeed, rejoicing dries up

From the sons of men.

The Day of Yahweh Is Near

Gird yourselves with sackcloth

And lament, O priests;

Wail, O ministers of the altar!

Come, spend the night in sackcloth,

O ministers of my God;

For the grain offering and the drink offering

Are withheld from the house of your God.

Set apart a fast as holy,

Call for a solemn assembly;

Gather the elders

And all the inhabitants of the land

To the house of Yahweh your God,

And cry out to Yahweh.

Alas for the day!

For the day of Yahweh is near,

And it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

Has not food been cut off before our eyes,

Gladness and joy from the house of our God?

The seeds shrivel under their clods;

The storehouses are desolate;

The barns are pulled down,

For the grain is dried up.

How the beasts groan!

The herds of cattle wander aimlessly

Because there is no pasture for them;

Even the flocks of sheep suffer.

To You, O Yahweh, I cry;

For fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness,

And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.

Even the beasts of the field pant for You;

For the water brooks are dried up,

And fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness.

Revelation 9 - 10

Then the fifth angel sounded. Then I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth, and the key of the pit of the abyss was given to him. 2 And he opened the pit of the abyss and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. 3 Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 And they were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. 6 And in those days men will seek death and will never find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them. 7 And the appearance 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. 8 And they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. 9 And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses running to battle. 10 And they have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months. 11 They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon. 12 One woe is past; behold, two woes are still coming after these things. 13 Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14 one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who have been bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 And the four angels were released, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, so that they would kill a third of mankind. 16 And the number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. 17 And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sit on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths come fire and smoke and brimstone. 18 A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. 19 For 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. 20 And the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their sexual immorality nor of their thefts.

The Angel and the Little Scroll

Then I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud, and the rainbow was upon his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire; 2 and he had in his hand a little scroll which was open. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left on the earth, 3 and he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. And when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices. 4 And when the seven peals of thunder had spoken, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them.” 5 Then the angel, whom I saw standing on the sea and on the earth, lifted up his right hand to heaven, 6 and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it, that there will be delay no longer, 7 but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He proclaimed good news to His slaves, the prophets. 8 Then the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, and saying, “Go, take the scroll which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.” 9 So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little scroll. And he *said to me, “Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” 10 And 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. 11 And they *said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”

Ecclesiastes 9

Mankind Is in the Hand of God

For I have given all this to my heart and explain it that righteous men, wise men, and their service are in the hand of God. Man does not know whether it will be love or hatred; anything may be before him. 2 It is the same for all. There is one 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 is afraid to swear. 3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead. 4 For whoever is joined with all the living, there is confidence; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Indeed their love, their hate, and their zeal have already perished, and they will never again have a portion in all that is done under the sun. 7 Go then, eat your bread in gladness and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works. 8 Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head. 9 See life with the woman whom you love all the days of your vain life, which He has given to you under the sun—all the days of your vanity; for this is your portion in life and in your labor in which you have labored under the sun.

Whatever Your Hand Finds to Do

10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no working or explaining or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going. 11 I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the mighty, and neither is bread to the wise nor riches to the discerning nor favor to men who know; for time and misfortune overtake them all. 12 Moreover, man does not know his time: like fish seized in an evil net and birds seized in a trap, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them. 13 Also this I came to see as wisdom under the sun, and it was great to me. 14 There was a small city with few men in it, and a great king came to it, surrounded it, and built large siegeworks against it. 15 But there was found in it a poor wise man, and he provided a way of escape for the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man. 16 So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heard. 17 The words of the wise heard in restfulness are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. 18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.