The Book of Joel

Blow the shofar in Zion: sound the alarm in the holy Land.  Let all the inhabitants of the Land tremble, for the Day of the Lord is coming. A Day of darkness and dense cloud is at hand.

The Day of the Lord is near, it’s coming is already known to those with eyes to see. It will be a mighty destruction instigated by the Almighty1. Great will be that Day and who will be able to endure it?

But now the Lord says: If you turn back to Me wholeheartedly with fasting, repentance and mourning for your sins, it may be I will relent and leave a blessing behind, enough for My people to make a grain or drink offering.  Spare Your people, Lord4, do not expose us to shame. Why should we cry: “Where is our God?”

When that time comes, I the Lord will bring the nations to judgement2 for their crimes against My people, now scattered around the world.  What are you, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine?  Are you thinking to redress a supposed wrong done to you?  If you try force, I will quickly make your evil intentions recoil upon your own heads3You have already taken treasure from the Land and fought against My people, now dispersed among the nations.  But I shall rouse them to leave from wherever they are now and bring them back to all of the holy Land5.  They will take over your possessions and live in the regenerated Land in peace and prosperity.

The Lord roars: a mighty shout from His dwelling place6 and the heavens and the earth shudder.  A huge mass appears like the dawn coming over the mountains7, such as has never been seen before and will never be again.  As it strikes, fire burns everything. As it passes, flames consume all the trees and pastures.  There is no escape8 and no defence as it leaps over the mountaintops, advancing into the cities, bursting over walls, smashing through windows and leaving just a devastated waste behind.  Everybody writhes in anguish and their faces turn white with fear.  The whole Land is ruined, burnt and desolate9, the streams are dry and all the trees and crops are lost.

Just before the Day comes, the sun will be darkened and the moon will burn blood red10.  Then everyone who calls upon the one true God11 will be saved and in Jerusalem there will be survivors12, those whom the Lord has set apart.

I shall remove the Northern peril far from you and destroy them in the wastelands13, the smell of their rotting bodies will rise up from the desert.

After all that must happen, the Lord will pour out His spirit upon all mankind14 and people will see visions and dream great things.

Reference: The Bible Book of the Prophet Joel. REB, CJB, NIV, KJV. Abridged and rearranged chronologically.

Scripture references:

1/ The Day of the Lord: Deut. 7:10, Isaiah 6:11-12, Ezekiel 30:1-5, Jer. 46:10, Rev. 6:12-17

2/ Judgement of the nations: Psalm 2:8-9, Ezekiel 7:7, Zeph. 3:8, Hab. 3:12

3/ Recoil upon their heads: Psalm 7:12-16, Psalm 83:16, Obadiah 1:15

4/ The Lord’s people: Isaiah 40:26-31, Isaiah 56:3, Psalm 68:20-21

5/ The Second Exodus: Isaiah 11:11-12, Amos 9:13-15, Ezekiel 39:25-29, Jeremiah 31:27-28

6/ A great noise will be heard around the world: Isaiah 30:30, Jeremiah 25:30-31, Isaiah 29:6

7/ A Coronal Mass Ejection sunstrike, that will ‘appear like the dawn’: That is: as the earth   rotates to face the sun.  Deut. 32:22, Isaiah 30:26, Malachi 4:1, 2 Peter 3:10

8/ No escape for anyone in the holy Land, the rest of the world will be severely affected, but most will survive: Isaiah 2:9, Psalm 37:20, Amos 9:1-4, Zephaniah 1:39/ The holy Land, desolated: Isaiah 13:9, Isaiah 24:1-6, Jeremiah 7:20, Ezekiel 30:1-5

10/The sun is obscured by the approaching CME and the moon will burn when the superheated mass hits it. Acts 2:19-20

11/ We must call to the Lord for our protection and salvation: Isaiah 12:4, Zephaniah 3:9, Psalm 6:8-10

12/ There will be a few Jewish survivors in Jerusalem: Isaiah 31:5, Isaiah 6:13

13/ The destruction of the Gog/Magog armies, a few years later: Ezekiel 38 & 39

14/ In the Millennium, to come after all this: Isaiah 33:17-24, Psalms 47:1-9, Micah 4:1-4, Revelation 20:4-6