Yoel
Introduction
In this book, we have the prophecy that the Ruach Hakodesh will be poured out in the last days and even the most humble people will be empowered thereby to witness. When 120 Messianic Spirit-filled Jewish people began to preach the Besuras HaGeulah for the first time, they knew that something of this very prophecy had come to pass (See Ac 2).
1
1 The Devar Hashem that came to Yoel Ben Petuel:
2 Hear this, ye zekenim,
and give ear, all ye yoshvei ha'aretz (inhabitants of the land).
Hath anything like this been in your days,
or even in the days of your avot (fathers)?
3 Tell ye your banim (children) of it,
and let your banim tell their banim,
and their banim to the next generation.
4 That which the locust swarm hath left
hath the arbeh (great locust) eaten;
and that which the arbeh hath left
hath the crawling locust eaten;
and that which the crawling locust hath left
hath the other locust eaten.
5 Awake, ye shikkorim (drunkards), and weep;
and wail, all ye drinkers of yayin,
because of the new wine, for it is cut off
from your mouth.
6 For a Goy is come up upon my land,
strong, and without number,
whose teeth are the teeth of an aryeh (lion),
and he hath the fangs of a lioness.
7 He hath laid my gefen (vine) waste,
and barked my teenah (fig tree);
he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away;
the branches thereof are made white.
8 Lament like a betulah girded with sackcloth
for the ba'al (husband) of her youth.
9 The minchah and the nesekh is cut off
from the Beis Hashem;
the kohanim, the mesharetim (ministers)
of Hashem, mourn.
10 The sadeh (field) is wasted,
the adamah (land) mourneth;
for the grain is wasted;
the new wine is dried up,
the oil languisheth.
11 Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen;*
wail, O ye vinedressers,
for the wheat and for the barley;
because the katzir (harvest) of the sadeh is perished.
12 The gefen is dried up,
and the teenah languisheth;
the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree,
even all the trees of the sadeh, are withered;
because sasson (joy) is withered away from the bnei Adam.
13 Gird yourselves, and lament, ye kohanim;
howl, ye mesharetim of the Mizbe'ach;
come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye mesharetim of my G-d;
for the minchah and the nesekh
is withheld from the Beis of your G-d.†
14 Sanctify ye a tzom (fast), call an atzarah (solemn assembly),
gather the zekenim and all the yoshvei ha'aretz
into the Beis Hashem Eloheichem,
and cry unto Hashem.
15 Alas for the day! For the Yom Hashem‡ is karov (near, at hand),
and like destruction from Shaddai shall it come.
16 Is not the okhel (food)
cut off before our eyes,
yea, simchah (joy) and gladness from the Beis Eloheinu?§
17 The seed is rotten under their clods,
the otzarot (storehouses) are laid desolate,
the barns are broken down;
for the grain is withered.
18 How do the beasts groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed,
because they have no pasture;
yea, the edrei hatzon (flocks of sheep) are made desolate.
19 To Thee, Hashem, will I cry;
for the eish hath devoured
the pastures of the midbar,
and the flame hath burned
all the trees of the field.
20 The beasts of the field cry also unto Thee;
for the rivers of mayim (water) are dried up,
and the eish hath devoured the pastures of the midbar.
* 1:11 i.e., farmers † 1:13 i.e., the Beis Hamikdash ‡ 1:15 See Isa 13:9-13; Am 5:18-20; 8:9-14; Zeph 1:14-18 on the coming Day of the L-rd when Hashem intervenes to execute mishpat and righteousness § 1:16 the Beis Hamikdash