The Daily Audio Bible
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1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel.
Warnings and Descriptions of the Locust Plague
2 Hear this, you elders.
Listen, all of you who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
or in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell it to your children,
and let your children tell it to their children,
and their children to the next generation.
4 What the grasshoppers have left, the swarming locusts have eaten.
What the swarming locusts have left, the young locusts have eaten.
What the young locusts have left, the mature locusts have eaten.[a]
5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
Wail,[b] all you wine drinkers,
because of the sweet wine[c] that has been snatched from your mouth.
6 A nation has come up into my land, powerful and without number.
It has teeth like a lion and fangs like a lioness.
7 It has devastated my vines and shredded my fig trees.
It has completely stripped off their bark and thrown it aside,
so that their branches are bare and white.
8 Grieve like a virgin dressed in sackcloth,
who grieves for the husband[d] of her youth.
9 Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off from the house of the Lord.
The priests are in mourning,
those who minister in the presence of the Lord.
10 The fields are devastated. The soil mourns.
The grain is devastated.
The new wine has run dry. The olive oil runs out.
11 Hang your heads, you farmers.
Wail, you vine growers, for the wheat and for the barley,
because the grain harvest has died in the field.
12 The vine has dried up, and the fig tree has withered.
The pomegranate, the date palm, and the apple tree—
all the trees in the countryside have dried up,
and joy has dried up for all the people.
13 Put on sackcloth, you priests, and lament.
Wail, you who minister in front of the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
you who minister before my God,
because the grain offerings and drink offerings
are being held back from the house of your God.
14 Set aside a day of fasting. Call a solemn convocation.
Summon the elders and everyone who lives in the land
to come to the house of the Lord your God.
Cry out to the Lord!
Announcement of the Day of the Lord
15 How terrible that day will be!
Yes, the Day of the Lord is near.
It will come like destruction from the Almighty.[e]
16 Hasn’t the food been cut off right before our eyes?
Happiness and celebration are cut off from the house of our God.
17 The planted seed is dried up under the clods of earth.[f]
The storehouses are in ruins.
The granaries have been broken down, because the grain has dried up.
18 Listen to how the cattle bellow!
The herds of cattle are milling around in confusion, because they have no pasture.
Even the flocks of sheep are suffering punishment.
Closing Prayer
19 To you, O Lord, I call,
because fire has consumed the grazing lands in the wilderness,[g]
and flames have burned up all the trees in the countryside.
20 Even the animals in the countryside pant for you.
The streams of water have dried up,
and fire has consumed the grazing lands in the wilderness.
Announce the Day of the Lord
2 Blow the ram’s horn in Zion.
Sound the alarm on my holy mountain.
Let all who live in the land tremble with fear,
for the Day of the Lord is coming.
It is close at hand—
2 a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and frightening darkness.
Description of the Locust Army
Like dawn[h] spreading across the mountains,
a large and mighty people is coming.
There has been nothing like it from ancient times,
nor will there ever be again for generations to come.
3 In front of them, fire devours.
Behind them, a flame blazes.
In front of them, the land is like the Garden of Eden.
Behind them, it is a desolate wilderness.
There is no escaping them.
4 They look like horses.
They charge like cavalry.
5 With a noise like chariots
they bounce over the mountaintops,
like a crackling fire consuming stubble,
like a powerful army lined up for battle.
6 At the sight of them, peoples are in anguish.
Every face becomes flushed.[i]
7 They charge like strong warriors.
They climb over walls like soldiers.
They all march in formation.
They do not turn aside from their path.
8 They do not collide with each other.
Each marches straight ahead in his position.
They pierce through defenses without hesitating.[j]
9 They rush into the city.
They run along the city wall.
They climb into the houses.
Like thieves they enter through the windows.
10 In front of them the earth quakes.
The sky shudders.
The sun and moon become dark,
and the stars stop shining.
Announce the Day of the Lord
11 The Lord shouts at the head of his army.
His forces are very numerous,
and those who obey his command are powerful.
The Day of the Lord is great. It is terrifying.
Who can endure it?
Call to Repentance and Closing Prayer
12 Even now, declares the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and grief.
13 Tear your heart and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in mercy,
and he relents from sending disaster.
14 Who knows?
He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing—
grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.
15 Blow the ram’s horn in Zion.
Set aside a day for fasting.
Call a solemn convocation.
16 Gather the people.
Consecrate the assembly.
Bring together the elders.
Gather the children, even those nursing at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her chamber.
17 Let the priests, who minister before the Lord,
weep between the temple porch and the altar.
Let them say:
Have compassion on your people, O Lord.
Do not subject the inheritance you have given us to the scorn of the nations.
Do not make us notorious among the nations as an object of ridicule.[k]
Why should they say among the peoples,
“Where is their God?”
A Dialogue Between the Lord and the Prophet
The Lord’s Promises
18 The Lord is zealous for his land,
and he will take pity on his people.
19 The Lord will respond to them:
I am sending you grain, new wine, and fresh oil,
enough to satisfy you fully.
Never again will I subject you to scorn among the nations.
20 I will drive the northern invaders far from you,
pushing them into a parched and desolate land.
Their vanguard will be driven into the eastern sea[l]
and their rearguard into the western sea.[m]
Then their stench will go up. Their foul smell will go up.
The Prophet’s Response
Yes, the Lord[n] has done great things.
21 Do not be afraid, O earth.
Celebrate and be glad.
Yes, the Lord has done great things.
22 Do not be afraid, you animals out in the field,
because the grazing lands are becoming green.
The trees are bearing their fruit.
The fig tree and the vine yield their riches.
23 Celebrate, you people of Zion!
Rejoice in the Lord your God,
because he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness.[o]
He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains,[p] as he did in the beginning.
24 The threshing floors will be filled with grain.
The vats will overflow with new wine and olive oil.
The Lord’s Promise
25 I will repay you for the years eaten by the swarming locusts,
by the young locusts, the mature locusts, and the grasshoppers,[q]
my great army that I sent among you.
26 You will have plenty to eat.
You will eat until you are full,
and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
who has worked wonders for you.
Never again will my people be put to shame!
27 Then you will know that I am in the midst of Israel,
that I am the Lord your God,
and that there is no other.
Never again will my people be put to shame!
28 After this, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.[r]
Your sons and your daughters will prophesy.
Your old men will dream dreams.
Your young men will see visions.
29 Even on the servants, both male and female,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
30 I will show warning signs in the heavens and on the earth:
blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the great and terrifying day of the Lord.
32 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.[s]
So on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance,
as the Lord has promised, among the survivors whom the Lord calls.
The Promise of Judgment Against the Nations
2 I will gather all nations
and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.[v]
There I will enter into judgment against them
for the sake of my possession, my people Israel,
whom they scattered among the nations.
The nations also divided up my land.
3 They cast lots for my people
and traded boys to pay prostitutes.
They sold girls for wine so that they could drink.
4 Tell me, what do you have against me,
Tyre and Sidon, and all you regions of Philistia?
Are you repaying me for something I have done?
If you are paying me back,
I will swiftly and speedily repay onto your own heads what you have done,
5 because you took my silver and my gold,
and you carried off my best treasures to your temples.
6 You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks,
in order to send them far from their own borders.
7 See, I am going to rouse them out of the places to which you sold them,
and I will make what you have done return on your own heads.
8 I will sell your sons and daughters into the hands of the people of Judah,
and they will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away.[w]
Yes, the Lord has spoken.
The Prophet’s Response
9 Proclaim this among the nations:
Consecrate yourselves for war!
Rouse the strong warriors!
Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords,
and your pruning knives into spears.
Let the weakling say, “I am a strong warrior!”
11 Come quickly to help, all you nations from every side,
and assemble there.
Bring down your strong warriors, O Lord!
The Lord’s Promise
12 Let the nations be roused.
Let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat,
for there I will be seated to judge all the nations.
13 Swing the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe.
Come, trample the grapes,
for the winepress is full and the vats overflow,
because the nations’ wickedness is so great!
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Decision!
For the Day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision.
15 The sun and moon will be darkened,
and the stars will stop shining.
16 The Lord will roar from Zion
and shout from Jerusalem.
The sky and the earth will tremble.
But the Lord will be a refuge for his people,
a stronghold for the people of Israel.
17 Then you will know that I, the Lord your God, dwell in Zion, my holy mountain.
Jerusalem will be holy.
Foreigners will not pass through her again.
18 In that day the mountains will drip sweet wine,
and the hills will flow with milk.
All the stream beds of Judah will run with water.
A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house.
It will water the Valley of Acacias.
19 Egypt will be desolate.
Edom will be a desolate wilderness,
because of violence they committed against the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood.
20 Judah will be inhabited forever,
and Jerusalem through all generations.
21 I will pardon their bloodguilt, which I have not pardoned.[x]
The Prophet’s Final Praise
The Lord dwells in Zion!
Introduction
1 The revelation from Jesus Christ that God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place. Christ expressed this revelation by means of symbols sent[a] through his angel to his servant John. 2 John spoke as a witness to the word of God and to the testimony about[b] Jesus Christ, that is, to everything he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and hold on to the things written in it, because the time is near.
Greeting
4 John,
To the seven churches in the province of Asia:[c]
Grace to you and peace from him who is, who was, and who is coming, and from the seven spirits that are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed[d] us from our sins by his own blood 6 and made us a kingdom and priests to God his Father—to him be the glory and the power forever. Amen.
7 Look, he is coming with clouds,
and every eye will see him,
including those who pierced him.
And all the nations of the earth will mourn because of him.
Yes. Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,”[e] says the Lord God, the one who is, and who was, and who is coming, the Almighty.
God Tells John to Write Down What He Sees
9 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingship and patient endurance in Jesus,[f] was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony about Jesus.[g]
10 I was in spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard a loud voice behind me, like a trumpet, 11 saying, “Write what you see on a scroll and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
Jesus Appears
12 I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. When I turned, I saw seven gold lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was one like a son of man. He was clothed with a robe that reached to his feet, and around his chest he wore a gold sash. 14 His head and his hair were white, like white wool or like snow. His eyes were like blazing flames. 15 His feet were like polished bronze being refined in a furnace. His voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 He held seven stars in his right hand. A sharp two-edged sword was coming out of his mouth. His face was shining as the sun shines in all its brightness.
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He placed his right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last— 18 the Living One. I was dead and, see, I am alive forever and ever! I also hold the keys of death and hell.[h]
19 “So write what you have seen, both those things that are and those that will take place after this.
20 “The mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand, and the seven gold lampstands is this: The seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”
Psalm 128
A Blessed Family
Heading
A song of the ascents.
Promise
1 How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
everyone who is walking in his ways.
2 Yes, you will eat the food you worked for.
How blessed you are! It will go well for you!
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine in the inner rooms of your house.
Your children will be like olive shoots around your table.
4 Look! This is how blessed the man is who fears the Lord!
Prayer
5 May the Lord bless you from Zion,
so that you see the prosperity of Jerusalem,
all the days of your life,
6 and you see your children’s children.
Peace be on Israel.
18 Without prophetic vision, a people is unrestrained,
but a people which follows the law is blessed.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.