Joel 1–2:16
1:1The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
2Hear this, you elders;give ear, all inhabitants of the land!Has such a thing happened in your days,or in the days of your fathers?3Tell your children of it,and let your children tell their children,and their children to another generation. 4What 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. 5Awake, you drunkards, and weep,and 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 against my land,powerful and beyond number;its teeth are lions’ teeth,and it has the fangs of a lioness.7It has laid waste my vineand splintered my fig tree;it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;their branches are made white. 8Lament like a virgin wearing sackclothfor the bridegroom of her youth.9The grain offering and the drink offering are cut offfrom the house of the LORD.The priests mourn,the ministers of the LORD.10The fields are destroyed,the ground mourns,because the grain is destroyed,the wine dries up,the oil languishes. 11Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil;wail, O vinedressers,for the wheat and the barley,because the harvest of the field has perished.12The vine dries up;the fig tree languishes.Pomegranate, palm, and apple,all the trees of the field are dried up,and gladness dries upfrom the children of man.
13Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;wail, O ministers of the altar.Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,O ministers of my God!Because grain offering and drink offeringare withheld from the house of your God. 14Consecrate a fast;call a solemn assembly.Gather the eldersand all the inhabitants of the landto the house of the LORD your God,and cry out to the LORD. 15Alas for the day!For the day of the LORD is near,and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.16Is not the food cut offbefore our eyes,joy and gladnessfrom the house of our God? 17The seed shrivels under the clods;the storehouses are desolate;the granaries are torn downbecause the grain has dried up.18How the beasts groan!The herds of cattle are perplexedbecause there is no pasture for them;even the flocks of sheep suffer. 19To you, O LORD, I call.For fire has devouredthe pastures of the wilderness,and flame has burnedall the trees of the field.20Even the beasts of the field pant for youbecause the water brooks are dried up,and fire has devouredthe pastures of the wilderness.
2:1Blow a trumpet in Zion;sound an alarm on my holy mountain!Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near,2a day of darkness and gloom,a day of clouds and thick darkness!Like blackness there is spread upon the mountainsa great and powerful people;their like has never been before,nor will be again after themthrough the years of all generations. 3Fire devours before them,and behind them a flame burns.The land is like the garden of Eden before them,but behind them a desolate wilderness,and nothing escapes them. 4Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,and like war horses they run.5As with the rumbling of chariots,they leap on the tops of the mountains,like the crackling of a flame of firedevouring the stubble,like a powerful armydrawn up for battle. 6Before them peoples are in anguish;all faces grow pale.7Like warriors they charge;like soldiers they scale the wall.They march each on his way;they do not swerve from their paths.8They do not jostle one another;each marches in his path;they burst through the weaponsand are not halted.9They leap upon the city,they run upon the walls,they climb up into the houses,they enter through the windows like a thief. 10The earth quakes before them;the heavens tremble.The sun and the moon are darkened,and the stars withdraw their shining.11The LORD utters his voicebefore his army,for his camp is exceedingly great;he who executes his word is powerful.For the day of the LORD is great and very awesome;who can endure it?
12“Yet even now,” declares the LORD,“return to me with all your heart,with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;13and rend your hearts and not your garments.”Return to the LORD your God,for he is gracious and merciful,slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;and he relents over disaster.14Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,and leave a blessing behind him,a grain offering and a drink offeringfor the LORD your God? 15Blow the trumpet in Zion;consecrate a fast;call a solemn assembly;16gather the people.Consecrate the congregation;assemble the elders;gather the children,even nursing infants.Let the bridegroom leave his room,and the bride her chamber.
Matthew 7:15–29
15“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
24“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
28And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
Psalm 79
A Psalm of Asaph.
79:1O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;they have defiled your holy temple;they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.2They have given the bodies of your servantsto the birds of the heavens for food,the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.3They have poured out their blood like waterall around Jerusalem,and there was no one to bury them.4We have become a taunt to our neighbors,mocked and derided by those around us. 5How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever?Will your jealousy burn like fire?6Pour out your anger on the nationsthat do not know you,and on the kingdomsthat do not call upon your name!7For they have devoured Jacoband laid waste his habitation. 8Do not remember against us our former iniquities;let your compassion come speedily to meet us,for we are brought very low.9Help us, O God of our salvation,for the glory of your name;deliver us, and atone for our sins,for your name’s sake!10Why should the nations say,“Where is their God?”Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servantsbe known among the nations before our eyes! 11Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die!12Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighborsthe taunts with which they have taunted you, O Lord!13But we your people, the sheep of your pasture,will give thanks to you forever;from generation to generation we will recount your praise.
Proverbs 15:18–21
18A hot-tempered man stirs up strife,but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.19The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns,but the path of the upright is a level highway.20A wise son makes a glad father,but a foolish man despises his mother.21Folly is a joy to him who lacks sense,but a man of understanding walks straight ahead.
