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Psalm 65

1  Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion; ♦︎
   to you that answer prayer shall vows be paid.
2  To you shall all flesh come to confess their sins; ♦︎
   when our misdeeds prevail against us,
      you will purge them away.
3  Happy are they whom you choose
      and draw to your courts to dwell there. ♦︎
   We shall be satisfied with the blessings of your house,
      even of your holy temple.
4  With wonders you will answer us in your righteousness,
      O God of our salvation, ♦︎
   O hope of all the ends of the earth
      and of the farthest seas.
5  In your strength you set fast the mountains ♦︎
   and are girded about with might.
6  You still the raging of the seas, ♦︎
   the roaring of their waves
      and the clamour of the peoples.
7  Those who dwell at the ends of the earth
      tremble at your marvels; ♦︎
   the gates of the morning and evening sing your praise.
8  You visit the earth and water it; ♦︎
   you make it very plenteous.
9  The river of God is full of water; ♦︎
   you prepare grain for your people,
      for so you provide for the earth.
10  You drench the furrows and smooth out the ridges; ♦︎
   you soften the ground with showers and bless its increase.
11  You crown the year with your goodness, ♦︎
   and your paths overflow with plenty.
12  May the pastures of the wilderness flow with goodness ♦︎
   and the hills be girded with joy.
13  May the meadows be clothed with flocks of sheep ♦︎
   and the valleys stand so thick with corn
      that they shall laugh and sing.

Joel

1The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel:

Lament over the Ruin of the Country

² Hear this, O elders,
   give ear, all inhabitants of the land!
Has such a thing happened in your days,
   or in the days of your ancestors?
³ Tell your children of it,
   and let your children tell their children,
   and their children another generation.

⁴ What the cutting locust left,
   the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
   the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
   the destroying locust has eaten.

⁵ Wake up, you drunkards, and weep;
   and wail, all you wine-drinkers,
over the sweet wine,
   for it is cut off from your mouth.
⁶ For a nation has invaded my land,
   powerful and innumerable;
its teeth are lions’ teeth,
   and it has the fangs of a lioness.
⁷ It has laid waste my vines,
   and splintered my fig trees;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
   their branches have turned white.

⁸ Lament like a virgin dressed in sackcloth
   for the husband of her youth.
⁹ The grain-offering and the drink-offering are cut off
   from the house of the Lord.
The priests mourn,
   the ministers of the Lord.
¹⁰ The fields are devastated,
   the ground mourns;
for the grain is destroyed,
   the wine dries up,
   the oil fails.

¹¹ Be dismayed, you farmers,
   wail, you vine-dressers,
over the wheat and the barley;
   for the crops of the field are ruined.
¹² The vine withers,
   the fig tree droops.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple—
   all the trees of the field are dried up;
surely, joy withers away
   among the people.

A Call to Repentance and Prayer

¹³ Put on sackcloth and lament, you priests;
   wail, you ministers of the altar.
Come, pass the night in sackcloth,
   you ministers of my God!
Grain-offering and drink-offering
   are withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁴ Sanctify 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 out to the Lord.

¹⁵ Alas for the day!
For the day of the Lord is near,
   and as destruction from the Almighty^* it comes.
¹⁶ Is not the food cut off
   before our eyes,
joy and gladness
   from the house of our God?

¹⁷ The seed shrivels under the clods,^*
   the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are ruined
   because the grain has failed.
¹⁸ How the animals groan!
   The herds of cattle wander about
because there is no pasture for them;
   even the flocks of sheep are dazed.^*

¹⁹ To you, O Lord, I cry.
For fire has devoured
   the pastures of the wilderness,
and flames have burned
   all the trees of the field.
²⁰ Even the wild animals cry to you
   because the watercourses are dried up,
and fire has devoured
   the pastures of the wilderness.

Godlessness in the Last Days

3You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. ²For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, ⁴treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them! ⁶For among them are those who make their way into households and captivate silly women, overwhelmed by their sins and swayed by all kinds of desires, ⁷who are always being instructed and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth. ⁸As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these people, of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith, also oppose the truth. ⁹But they will not make much progress, because, as in the case of those two men,^* their folly will become plain to everyone.