hat everyone may be cut off
from the mount of Esau by slaughter. For the violence done to thy
brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for
ever. In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that
strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his
gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.
But look not thou on the day of thy brother in the day of his
disaster, and rejoice not over the children of Judah in the day of
their destruction; neither speak proudly in the day of distress. Enter
not into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, look
not thou on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither lay
ye hands on their substance in the day of their calamity. And stand
thou not in the mountain passes, to cut off those of his that escape;
and deliver not up those of his that remain in the day of distress.
For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations: as thou hast
done, it shall be done unto thee; thy dealing shall return upon thine
own head. But in mount Zion there shall be those that escape, and it
shall be holy; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a
flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall burn among
them, and devour them, and there shall not be any remaining to the
house of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it.

{374}

JOEL

(At some time, we are not told just when, a terrible plague of locusts
came upon the land. A prophet, whose name was Joel, took this occasion
to tell the people of their sins, and of the judgments which God would
bring upon them.)

I

THE PROPHET LAMENTS FOR HIS LAND

Hear this, ye old men,
And give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.
Hath this been in your days,
Or in the days of your fathers?
Tell ye your children of it,
And let your children tell their children,
And their children another generation.
That which the palmerworm hath left
Hath the cankerworm eaten;
And that which the cankerworm hath left
Hath the caterpillar eaten.

Be ashamed, O ye husbandmen,
Howl, O ye vinedressers,
For the wheat, and for the barley;
For the harvest of the field is perished.
The vine is withered, {375}
And the fig tree languisheth;
The pomegranate tree,
The palm tree also, and the apple tree,
Even all the trees of the field