Joel 2, Revelation 11, Ecclesiastes 10

2^aBlow a trumpet in Zion,And make a loud shout on My holy mountain!Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,For the ^bday of Yahweh is coming;Surely it is near,²A day of ^adarkness and thick darkness,A day of clouds and dense gloom.As the dawn is spread over the mountains,So there is a ^bnumerous and mighty people;There has ^cnever been anything like it,Nor will there be again after itFor the years from generation to generation.³A ^afire consumes before them,And behind them a flame burns.The land is ^blike the garden of Eden before themBut a ^cdesolate wilderness behind them,And nothing at all escapes them.⁴Their ^aappearance is like the appearance of horses;And like war horses, so they run.⁵¹With a ^anoise as of chariotsThey leap on the tops of the mountains,Like the ²crackling of a ^bflame of fire consumes the stubble,Like a mighty people arranged for battle.⁶Before them the peoples are ^awrithing;All ^bfaces ¹turn pale.⁷They run like mighty men;They climb up the wall like men of war;And they each ^amarch ¹in line,And they do not deviate from their paths.⁸They do not crowd each other;They march everyone in his path;When they fall against the defending weapons,They do not break ranks.⁹They rush on the city;They run on the wall;They climb up into the ^ahouses;They ^benter through the windows like a thief.¹⁰Before them the earth ^atrembles;The heavens quake;The ^bsun and the moon grow dark,And the stars ¹lose their brightness.¹¹But Yahweh ^agives forth His voice before ^bHis military force;Surely His camp is very numerous,For ^cmighty is he who does His word.The ^dday of Yahweh is indeed great and very awesome,And ^ewho can endure it?

Return to Yahweh

¹²“Yet even now,” declares Yahweh,“^aReturn to Me with all your heartAnd with ^bfasting, weeping, and ¹wailing;¹³And ^atear your heart and not ^byour garments.”Now return to Yahweh your God,For He is ^cgracious and compassionate,Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness,And ^drelenting concerning evil.¹⁴Who knows ^awhether He will not turn and relentAnd leave a ^bblessing behind Him,Even ^ca grain offering and a drink offeringFor Yahweh your God?¹⁵^aBlow a trumpet in Zion,^bSet apart a fast as holy, call for a solemn assembly,¹⁶Gather the people, ^aset apart the congregation as holy,Assemble the elders,Gather the infants and the nursing babies.Let the ^bbridegroom come out of his roomAnd the bride out of her bridal chamber.¹⁷Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh,Weep ^abetween the porch and the altar,And let them say, “^bPity Your people, O Yahweh,And do not make Your inheritance a ^creproach,A byword among the nations.Why should they among the peoples say,‘^dWhere is their God?’”

Yahweh Will Spare His People

¹⁸Then Yahweh ¹will be ^azealous for His landAnd ²will ^bspare His people.¹⁹Then Yahweh ¹will answer and say to His people,“Behold, I am going to ^asend you grain, new wine, and oil,And you will be satisfied in full with ²them;And I will ^bnever again make you a reproach among the nations.²⁰“But I will remove the ^anorthern military force far from you,And I will drive it into a parched and desolate land,And its vanguard into the ^beastern sea,And its rear guard into the ^cwestern sea.And its ^dstench will rise up, and its foul smell will rise up,For it has done great things.”²¹^aDo not fear, O land, rejoice and be glad,For Yahweh has done ^bgreat things.²²Do not fear, beasts of the field,For the ^apastures of the wilderness have turned green,For the tree has borne its fruit;The fig tree and the vine have yielded ¹their full force.²³So rejoice, O ^asons of Zion,And ^bbe glad in Yahweh your God,For He has ^cgiven you ¹the early rain in righteousness.And He has poured down for you the rain,The ²early and ³^,^dlate rains ⁴as before.²⁴The threshing floors will be full of grain,And the vats will ^aoverflow with the new wine and oil.²⁵“Then I will pay back to you in full for the yearsThat the swarming ^alocust has consumed,The creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust,My great military force which I sent among you.²⁶“And you will have plenty to ^aconsume and be satisfiedAnd ^bpraise the name of Yahweh your God,Who has ^cdealt wondrously with you;Then My people will ^dnever be put to shame.²⁷“Thus you will ^aknow that I am in the midst of Israel,And that I am Yahweh your God,And there is ^bno other;And My people will never be ^cput to shame.

Yahweh Will Pour Out His Spirit

²⁸“¹^,^aAnd it will be afterwardsThat I will ^bpour out My Spirit on all ²^,^cmankind;And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy;Your old men will dream dreams;Your young men will see visions.²⁹“Even on the ^amale slaves and female slavesI will in those days pour out My Spirit.

Deliverance in the Day of Yahweh

³⁰“And I will ^aput wonders in the sky and on the earth,Blood, fire, and columns of smoke.³¹“The ^asun will be turned into darknessAnd the moon into bloodBefore the ^bgreat and awesome day of Yahweh comes.³²“And it will be that ^aeveryone who calls on the name of YahwehWill ¹be delivered;For ^bon Mount Zion and in JerusalemThere will be those who ^cescape,As Yahweh has said,Even among the ^dsurvivors whom Yahweh calls.

The Two Witnesses

11Then a ¹^,^ameasuring rod like a staff was given to me, ^bsaying, “Get up and measure the sanctuary of God and the altar, and those who worship in it. ²“And ¹leave out the ^acourt which is outside the sanctuary and do not measure it, for ^bit has been given to the Gentiles, and they will ^ctrample ^dthe holy city under foot for ^eforty-two months. ³“And I will give authority to my two ^awitnesses, and they will prophesy for ^b1,260 days, clothed in ^csackcloth.” ⁴These are the ^atwo olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. ⁵And if anyone wishes to harm them, ^afire comes out of their mouth and devours their enemies; so if anyone wishes to harm them, ^bhe must be killed in this way. ⁶These have the authority to ^ashut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during ^bthe days of their prophesying; they also have authority over the waters to ^cturn them into blood, and ^dto strike the earth with every plague, as often as they wish.

⁷And when they have finished their witness, ^athe beast that comes up out of the ^babyss will ^cmake war with them and overcome them and kill them. ⁸And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the ^agreat city which spiritually is called ^bSodom and ^cEgypt, where also their Lord was crucified. ⁹And those from ^athe peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead ¹bodies for three and a half days, and ²^,^bwill not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. ¹⁰And ^athose who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate and ^bsend gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented ^cthose who dwell on the earth.

¹¹But after the three and a half days, ^athe breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who were watching them. ¹²And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “^aCome up here.” Then they ^bwent up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them. ¹³And in that hour there was a great ^aearthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; ¹seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and ^bgave glory to the ^cGod of heaven.

¹⁴The second ^awoe is past; behold, the third woe is coming quickly.

The Seventh Trumpet

¹⁵Then the ^aseventh angel sounded, and there were ^bloud voices in heaven, saying, “^cThe kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of ^dHis ¹Christ, and ^eHe will reign forever and ever.” ¹⁶And the twenty-four elders, who ^asit on their thrones before God, ^bfell on their faces and worshiped God, ¹⁷saying, “We give You thanks, ^aO Lord God, the Almighty, who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to ^breign. ¹⁸“And ^athe nations were enraged, and ^bYour rage came, and ^cthe time came for the dead to be judged, and to give reward to Your ^dslaves—the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, ^ethe small and the great—and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”

¹⁹And ^athe sanctuary of God which is in heaven was opened, and ^bthe ark of His covenant appeared in His sanctuary, and there were flashes of ^clightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a ^dgreat ¹hailstorm.

The Folly of a Simpleminded Fool

10Dead flies make a ^aperfumer’s oil stink, so a little simpleminded folly is weightier than wisdom and honor. ²A wise man’s heart directs him toward the right, but the foolish ^aman’s heart directs him toward the left. ³Even when the simpleminded fool walks along the road, his heart lacks wisdom, and he ^asays to all that he is a simpleminded fool. ⁴If the ruler’s ¹temper rises against you, ^ado not abandon your position, because ^bcalmness causes great offenses to be abandoned.

⁵There is an evil I have seen under the sun, like a mistake which goes forth from the one in power— ⁶¹^,^afolly is set in many exalted places while rich men sit in humble places. ⁷I have seen ^aslaves riding ^bon horses and princes walking like slaves on the land.

⁸^aHe who digs a pit may fall into it, and a ^bserpent may bite him who breaks through a wall. ⁹He who quarries stones may be hurt by them, and he who splits logs may be endangered by them. ¹⁰If the ¹axe is dull and he does not sharpen its edge, then he must ²exert more strength. Wisdom has the advantage of giving success. ¹¹If the serpent bites ¹^,^abefore being charmed, there is no advantage for the charmer. ¹²^aWords from the mouth of a wise man are gracious, but the lips of a ^bfool swallow him up; ¹³the beginning of the words of his mouth is simpleminded folly, and the end of what comes from his mouth is evil ^amadness. ¹⁴Yet the ^asimpleminded fool multiplies words. No man knows what will happen, and who can tell him ^bwhat will come after him? ¹⁵The labor of ¹a fool so wearies him that he does not even know how to go to a city. ¹⁶Woe to you, O land, whose ^aking is a young man and whose princes ¹eat in the morning. ¹⁷Blessed are you, O land, whose king is of nobility and whose princes eat at the appropriate time—for might and not for ^adrinking. ¹⁸Through ^aindolence the beams sag, and through slack hands the house leaks. ¹⁹Men prepare bread for laughter, and ^awine makes life glad, and ^bmoney ¹is the answer to everything. ²⁰Furthermore, ^ain your bedchamber do not ^bcurse a king, and in your sleeping rooms do not curse a rich man, for a bird of the sky will bring the sound and the winged creature will tell the matter.