YHWH’s Army of Locusts

Joel 2 Y’all blow the ram’s horn in Zion, and y’all sound an alarm in my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of YHWH comes, for it is close at hand: A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn spreading on the mountains, a great and strong people; there has never been the like, neither will there be any more after them, even to the years of many generations. A fire devours before them, and behind them, a flame burns. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them, a desolate wilderness. Yes, and no one has escaped them. Their appearance is as the appearance of horses, and they run as horsemen. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains, they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, like a strong people set in battle array. At their presence the peoples are in anguish. All faces have grown pale. They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like warriors. They each march in his line, and they don’t swerve off course. One doesn’t jostle another. They each march in their own path. They burst through the defenses and don’t break ranks. They rush on the city. They run on the wall. They climb up into the houses. They enter in at the windows like thieves. The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. YHWH thunders ʜɪꜱ voice before ʜɪꜱ army, for ʜɪꜱ forces are very great; for ʜᴇ is strong who obeys ʜɪꜱ command; for the day of YHWH is great and very awesome, and who can endure it?

Call to Repentance

“Yet even now,” says YHWH, “y’all must turn to me with y’all’s whole heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” Y’all must tear your* heart and not your* garments. Y’all must turn to YHWH, your God; for ʜᴇ is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity. Who knows? Hᴇ may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to YHWH, y’all’s God. Y’all blow the trumpet in Zion! Y’all sanctify a fast. Y’all call a solemn assembly. Y’all gather the people. Y’all sanctify the assembly. Y’all assemble the elders. Y’all gather the children, and those who nurse from breasts. Let the bridegroom go out of his room, and the bride out of her chamber. Let the priests, the ministers of YHWH, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, “Spare your people, YHWH, and don’t give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

YHWH’s Response

Then YHWH was jealous for ʜɪꜱ land, and had pity on ʜɪꜱ people. YHWH answered ʜɪꜱ people, “Look, I will send y’all grain, new wine, and oil, and y’all will be satisfied with them; and I will no more make y’all a reproach among the nations. But I will remove the northern army far away from y’all, and will drive it into a barren and desolate land, its front into the eastern sea, and its back into the western sea; and its stench will come up, and its bad smell will rise.”

 

Surely ʜᴇ has done great things. Land, don’t be afraid. Be glad and rejoice, for YHWH has done great things. Y’all must not be afraid, animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.

 

“Y’all be glad then, children of Zion, and y’all rejoice in YHWH, your* God; for ʜᴇ gives you the early rain in just measure, and ʜᴇ causes the rain to come down for y’all, the early rain and the latter rain, as before. The threshing floors will be full of wheat, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. I will restore to y’all the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust, my great army, which I sent among y’all. Y’all will have plenty to eat and be satisfied, and y’all will praise the name of YHWH, y’all’s God, who has dealt wondrously with y’all; and my people will never again be disappointed. Y’all will know that I am among Israel, and that I am YHWH, y’all’s God, and there is no one else; and my people will never again be disappointed.

 

The Promise of God’s Spirit

“It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and y’all’s sons and daughters will prophesy. Y’all’s old men will dream dreams. Y’all’s young men will see visions. And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days, I will pour out my Spirit. I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of YHWH comes. Then everyone who calls on the name of YHWH will be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as YHWH has said, and among the remnant, those whom YHWH calls.