1   The word of our Lord, that was made to Ioel the sonne of Phatuel.

2   Heare this ye ancients, and harken with your eares al ye inhabitants of the land: if this hath bene done in your dayes, or in the dayes of your fathers?

3   Vpon this ^note tel you to your children, and your children to their children, and their childred to an other generation.

4   09Q0318The residue of the eruke hath the locust eaten, & the residue of the locust hath the bruke eaten, and the residue of the bruke hath the blast eaten.

5   Awake you that be drunke, and weepe, and howle al ye, that drinke wine in sweetnes: because it is perished from your mouth.

6   For a nation is ascended vpon my land, strong & innumerable: his teeth as the teeth of a lion: and his cheekteeth as of a lions whelpe.

7   He hath layd my vineyard into a desert, and hath pilled of the barke of my figtree: stripping he hath spoiled it, and cast it forth: the boughes therof are made white.

8   Mourne as a virgin girded with sackcloth vpon the husband of her youth.

9    ^noteSacrifice and libation is perished out of the house of our Lord: the priests our Lords ministers mourned.

10   The region is destroyed, the ground hath mourned: because

the wheate is wasted, the wine is confounded, the oyle hath languished.

11   The husbandmen are confounded, the dressers of vines haue howled vpon the wheate, and the barley, because the haruest of the filde is perished.

12   The vineyard is confounded, and the figtree hath languished: the pomegranet, & the palmetree, and the appletree, and al the trees of the filde are withered: because ioy is confounded from the children of men.

13   Gird yourselues, and mourne ye priests, howle ye ministers of the altar: goe in, lie in sacke clothe ye ministers of my God: because sacrifice & libation is perished out of the house of your God.

14    ^noteSanctifie ye a fast, cal an assemblie, gather together the ancients, al the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God: and crie ye to our Lord:

15   A a a, for the day: because the day of our Lord is at hand, and as destruction from the mightie it shal come.

16   Why, are not the victuals perished before your eyes, ioy and exultation out of the house of our God?

17   The beastes are rotted in their dung, the barnes are destroyed, the storehouses are dissipated: because the wheate is confounded.

18   Why groned the beast, why lowed the flockes of the heard? because there is no pasture for them: yea and the flockes of the cattel are perished.

19   To thee ô Lord wil I crie: because fire hath eaten the beautiful thinges of the desert, and the flame hath burnt al the trees of the region.

20   Yea and the beastes of the filde, as a garden bed thirsting for a shower, haue looked vp to thee, because the fountaines of waters are dried vp, & fire hath deuoured the beautiful thinges of the desert. ^{note note}

Chap. II. ^note The Chaldees wil assault & afflict the Iewes with great violence. 12. After humble repentance in captiuitie, 18. Gods benignitie wil comforte them. 23. with abundance of spiritual grace by Christ: 28. sending also the Holie Ghost. 30. And terrible signes before the day of Iudgement.

1   Sovnd ye ^note with the trumpet in Sion, howle in my holie mount, let al the inhabitants of the land be trubled: Because ^note the day of our Lord cometh,

2   because the day of darkenes, and of mist is neere, the day of clowde, and whirlewind: as the morning spred vpon the montaines much people & strong: the like to it hath not bene from the beginning, and after it shal not be euen vnto the yeares of generation & generation.

3   Before the face therof a deuouring fyre, and after it a burning flame: the land before it as it were a garden of pleasure, and after it the wildernes of a desert, neither is there that can escape it.

4   As the appearance of horses, their appearancè. & as horsemen so shal they runne.

5   As the sound of chariots vpon the toppes of mountaines shal they leape, as the sound of a flame of fire deuouring stubble, as a strong people prepared to battel.

6   At his presence the people shal be vexed: al visages shal be made like a potte.

7   They shal runne as valients: as men of warre they shal scale the wal: the men shal march in their wayes, & shal not decline from their pathes.

8   None shal presse his brother; they shal walke euerie one in his owne pathe: yea & through the windowes they shal fal, & shal ^note not demolish.

9   They shal enter the city: they shal runne on the wal, they shal climbe the houses, by the windowes they shal enter as a theefe.

10   At his presence the earth hath trembled, the heauens are moued: the sunne and moone are darkened, and the starres haue withdrawne their shining.

11   And our Lord hath geuen his voice before the face of his host: because his campes are exceding manie, because strong & doing his word: for great is the day of our Lord, & terrible excedingly: and who shal susteyne it?

12   Now therfore sayth our Lord: ^note Conuert to me in al your

hart, ^note in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning.

13   And rent your hartes, and not your garments, and turne to the Lord your God: because he is benigne and merciful, patient and of much mercie, & readie to be gracious vpon the malice.

14   Who knoweth if he wil conuert, and forgeue, and leaue after him benediction, sacrifice and libament to the Lord your God?

15   Sound ye with the trumpet in Sion, sanctifie a fast, cal an assemblie,

16   gather together the people, sanctifie the Church, assemble the ancients, gather together the litle ones, and them that sucke the breastes: let the bridegrome goe forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her bride chamber.

17   Betwen the porch and the altar the priests our Lords ministers shal weepe, and shal say: Spare ô Lord, spare thy people: and geue not thine inheritance into reproch, that the nations haue dominion ouer them. Why say they in the peoples: Where is their God?

18   Our Lord hath bene ^note zelous to his land, and hath spared his people.

19   And our Lord answered, and sayd to his people: Behold ^note I wil send you corne, and wine, and oyle, and you shal be replenished with them: and I wil geue you no more to be a reproch in the Gentils.

20   And him that is from the North, I wil make far from you: and I wil expel him into a land vnpassable, & desert, his face against the east sea, and his extreme part to the last sea: & his stinke shal ascend, & his rotennes shal ascend, because he hath done proudly.

21   Feare not ô land, reioyce & be glad: because our Lord hath magnified to doe.

22   Feare not ye beastes of the region: because the beautiful thinges of the desert are sprung, because the tree hath brought his fruite, the figtree, and the vine haue geuen their vigour.

23   And ye children of Sion reioyce, and be ioyful in the Lord your God: because he hath geuen you a doctor of iustice, and he wil make the early and the late showre to descend to you as in the beginning.

24   And the floores shal be filled with wheate, and the presses shal ouerflow with wine, and oyle.

25   And I wil render you the yeares, which the locust, the bruke, and the blast, and the eruke hath eaten: my great strength, which I haue sent vpon you.

26   And you shal eate eating, and shal be filled: and you shal praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath done meruels with you, and my people shal not be confounded for euer.

27   And you shal know that I am in the middes of Israel: & I the Lord your God, and there is none besides: and my people shal not be confounded for euer.

28   And it shal be after this: ^note I wil powre out my spirit vpon al flesh: and your sonnes, & your daughters shal prophecie: your ancients shal dreame dreames, and your yong men shal see visions.

29   Yea and vpon my seruants, and handmayds in those dayes I wil powre out my spirit.

30   And I wil geue wonders in heauen, and in earth, bloud, and fire, and vapour of smoke.

31   The sunne shal be turned into darkenes, and the moone into bloud: before the great and horrible day of the Lord doth come.

32   And it shal be, euerie one that shal inuocate the name of the Lord, shal be saued: because in mount Sion, and in Ierusalem shal be saluation, as our Lord hath sayd, and in the residew whom our Lord shal cal. Chap. III. ^note After the conuersion of the Iewes to Christ, 2. shortly foloweth the general Iudgement. 3. where euerie one according to their desertes, shal receiue (expressed here in parabolical speach) 7. & 19. the wicked euerlasting paine: 18. & 20. and the blessed eternal ioy.

1   Becavse loe ^note in those dayes, and in that time when I shal conuert the captiuitie of Iuda, and Ierusalem.

2   I wil gather together al Nations, & wil lead them into the valley of ^note Iosaphat: and I wil plead with them there vpon my people, and myne inheritance Israel, whom they haue dispersed in the nations, and haue diuided my land.

3   And vpon my people they haue cast lot: and boy they haue geuen to be a strumpet, and wench they haue sould for wine that they might drinke.

4   But what is to me and to you ô Tyre, and Sidon, and al the border of the Palesthines? what, wil you render me reuenge? and if you doe reuenge against me, I wil soone render you quickly recompence vpon your head.

5   For my siluer, and my gold you haue taken: and my desiderable thinges, and most beautiful you haue caried into your temples.

6   And the children of Ierusalem you haue sold to the children of the Greekes that you might make them far of from their coasts.

7   Behold I wil rayse them vp out of the place, wherin you haue sold them: and I wil turne your retribution vpon your owne head.

8   And I wil sel your sonnes, & your daughters into the handes of the children of Iuda, and they shal sel them to the Sabæans, a nation far of, because our Lord hath spoken.

9   Proclaime ye

this in the Gentils: sanctifie battel, rayse vp the strong: let them come, let al the men of warre come vp.

10   Cut your ploughes into swordes, and your spades into speares. Let the weake say: That I am strong.

11   Breake out, and come al ye nations from round about, and be gathered together: there wil our Lord make al thy strong ones to be slaine.

12   Let them arise, and let the Gentils ascend into the valley of Iosaphat: because there I wil sit, to iudge al nations round about.

13   Put in the sithes, because the haruest is ripe: come, and descend, because the presse is ful, the presses runne ouer: because their malice is multiplied.

14    ^notePeoples peoples in the valley of concision, because the day of our Lord is nigh in the valley of concision.

15   The sunne and the moone are darkened, and the starres haue withdrawen their shining.

16   And our Lord wil roare out of Sion, and out of Ierusalem he wil geue his voice: and the heauens, & the earth shal be moued, and our Lord the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

17   And you shal know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Sion my holy mount: and Ierusalem shal be holie, & strangers shal passe through it no more.

18   And it shal be in that day: the mountaines shal distil sweetnes, and the hilles shal flow with milke: and through al the riuers of Iuda shal runne waters: & a fountaine shal issue out of the house of the Lord, and shal water the torrent of thornes.

19   Ægypt shal be into desolation, & Idumea into a desert of perdition, for that they haue done vniustly against the children of Iuda, and haue shed innocent bloud in their land.

20   And Iewrie shal be inhabited for euer, and Ierusalem vnto generation and generation.

21   And I wil clense their bloud, which I had not clensed: and the Lord wil dwel in Sion.

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