| Good News Translation (GNT) |
New International Version (NIV) |
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1 This is the Lord's message to Joel son of Pethuel.
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1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel.
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2 Pay attention, you older people; everyone in Judah, listen. Has anything like this ever happened in your time or the time of your ancestors?
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2 Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your forefathers?
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3 Tell your children about it; they will tell their children, who in turn will tell the next generation.
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3 Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.
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4 Swarm after swarm of locusts settled on the crops; what one swarm left, the next swarm devoured.
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4 What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten.
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5 Wake up and weep, you drunkards; cry, you wine-drinkers; the grapes for making new wine have been destroyed.
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5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips.
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6 An army of locusts has attacked our land; they are powerful and too many to count; their teeth are as sharp as those of a lion.
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6 A nation has invaded my land, powerful and without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness.
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7 They have destroyed our grapevines and chewed up our fig trees. They have stripped off the bark, till the branches are white.
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7 It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white.
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8 Cry, you people, like a young woman who mourns the death of the man she was going to marry.
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8 Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth grieving for the husband of her youth.
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9 There is no grain or wine to offer in the Temple; the priests mourn because they have no offerings for the Lord.
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9 Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off from the house of the LORD. The priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD.
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10 The fields are bare; the ground mourns because the grain is destroyed, the grapes are dried up, and the olive trees are withered.
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10 The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails.
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11 Grieve, you farmers; cry, you that take care of the vineyards, because the wheat, the barley, yes all the crops are destroyed.
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11 Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
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12 The grapevines and fig trees have withered; all the fruit trees have wilted and died. The joy of the people is gone.
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12 The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree-- all the trees of the field--are dried up. Surely the joy of mankind is withered away.
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13 Put on sackcloth and weep, you priests who serve at the altar! Go into the Temple and mourn all night! There is no grain or wine to offer your God.
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13 Put on sackcloth, O priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.
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14 Give orders for a fast; call an assembly! Gather the leaders and all the people of Judah into the Temple of the Lord your God and cry out to him!
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14 Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
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15 The day of the Lord is near, the day when the Almighty brings destruction. What terror that day will bring!
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15 Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.
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16 We look on helpless as our crops are destroyed. There is no joy in the Temple of our God.
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16 Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes-- joy and gladness from the house of our God?
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17 The seeds die in the dry earth. There is no grain to be stored, and so the empty granaries are in ruins.
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17 The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods. The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up.
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18 The cattle are bellowing in distress because there is no pasture for them; the flocks of sheep also suffer.
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18 How the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
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19 I cry out to you, Lord, because the pastures and trees are dried up, as though a fire had burned them.
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19 To you, O LORD, I call, for fire has devoured the open pastures and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.
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20 Even the wild animals cry out to you because the streams have become dry.
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20 Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the open pastures.
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| Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission. (The Good News Translation - The Holy Bible Online) |
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. (New International Version Bible Online) |
