Day 348 of 730

¹Israel, return to the Lord your God; for you have fallen because of your sin.

²Take words with you, and return to the Lord. Tell him, "Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good: so we offer our lips like bulls.

³Assyria can't save us. We won't ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, 'Our gods!' for in you the fatherless finds mercy."

⁴"I will heal their waywardness. I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from him.

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily, and send down his roots like Lebanon.

⁶His branches will spread, and his beauty will be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon.

⁷Men will dwell in his shade. They will revive like the grain, and blossom like the vine. Their fragrance will be like the wine of Lebanon.

⁸Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols? I answer, and will take care of him. I am like a green fir tree; from me your fruit is found."

⁹Who is wise, that he may understand these things? Who is prudent, that he may know them? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous walk in them; But the rebellious stumble in them.

¹The Word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.

²Hear this, you elders, And listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

³Tell your children about it, and have your children tell their children, and their children, another generation.

⁴What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten.

⁵Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

⁶For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.

⁷He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.

⁸Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!

⁹The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the Lord's house. The priests, the Lord's ministers, mourn.

¹⁰The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes.

¹¹Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished.

¹²The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men.

¹³Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God's house.

¹⁴Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of the Lord, your God, and cry to the Lord.

¹⁵Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

¹⁶Isn't the food cut off before our eyes; joy and gladness from the house of our God?

¹⁷The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.

¹⁸How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

¹⁹The Lord, I cry to you, For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.

²⁰Yes, the animals of the field pant to you, for the water brooks have dried up, And the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

¹Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy mountain.

²Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the north sides, the city of the great King.

³God has shown himself in her citadels as a refuge.

⁴For, behold, the kings assembled themselves, they passed by together.

⁵They saw it, then they were amazed. They were dismayed. They hurried away.

⁶Trembling took hold of them there, pain, as of a woman in travail.

⁷With the east wind, you break the ships of Tarshish.

⁸As we have heard, so we have seen, in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God. God will establish it forever. Selah.

⁹We have thought about your loving kindness, God, in the midst of your temple.

¹⁰As is your name, God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of righteousness.

¹¹Let Mount Zion be glad! Let the daughters of Judah rejoice, Because of your judgments.

¹²Walk about Zion, and go around her. Number its towers.

¹³Consider her defenses. Consider her palaces, that you may tell it to the next generation.

¹⁴For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even to death.

¹My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.

²Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.

³Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Tell wisdom, "You are my sister." Call understanding your relative,

⁵that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.

⁶For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice.

⁷I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,

⁸passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house,

⁹in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness.

¹⁰Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent.

¹¹She is loud and defiant. Her feet do not stay in her house.

¹²Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner.

¹³So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him:

¹⁴"Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. This day I have paid my vows.

¹⁵Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you.

¹⁶I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let's take our fill of loving until the morning. Let's solace ourselves with loving.

¹⁹For my husband isn't at home. He has gone on a long journey.

²⁰He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon."

²¹With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.

²²He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose.

²³Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn't know that it will cost his life.

²⁴Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Do not let your heart turn to her ways. Do not go astray in her paths,

²⁶for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.