This eBook was produced by David Widger
from etext #1581 prepared by Dennis McCarthy, Atlanta, Georgia
and Tad Book, student, Pontifical North American College, Rome.





THE HOLY BIBLE




Translated from the Latin Vulgate


Diligently Compared with the Hebrew, Greek,
and Other Editions in Divers Languages


THE OLD TESTAMENT
First Published by the English College at Douay
A.D. 1609 & 1610

and

THE NEW TESTAMENT
First Published by the English College at Rheims
A.D. 1582


With Annotations


The Whole Revised and Diligently Compared with
the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner
A.D. 1749-1752





***THE PROPHECY OF JOEL

JOEL, whose name, according to ST. JEROME, signifies THE LORD GOD: or,
as others say, THE COMING DOWN OF GOD: prophesied about the same time in
the kingdom of Judea, as OSEE did in the kingdom of Israel. He foretells
under figure the great evils that were coming upon the people for their
sins: earnestly exhorts them to repentance: and comforts them with the
promise of a TEACHER OF JUSTICE, viz., CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD, and of the
coming down of his holy SPIRIT.


Joel Chapter 1

The prophet describes the judgments that shall fall upon the people, and
invites them to fasting and prayer.

1:1. The word of the Lord, that came to Joel, the son of Phatuel.

1:2. Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the
land: did this ever happen in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

1:3. Tell ye of this to your children, and let your children tell their
children, and their children to another generation.

1:4. That which the palmerworm hath left, the locust hath eaten: and
that which the locust hath left, the bruchus hath eaten: and that which
the bruchus hath left, the mildew hath destroyed.

That which the palmerworm hath left, etc... Some understand this
literally of the desolation of the land by these insects: others
understand it of the different invasions of the Chaldeans, or other
enemies.

1:5. Awake, ye that are drunk, and weep, and mourn all ye that take
delight; in drinking sweet wine: for it is cut off from your mouth.

1:6. For a nation come up upon my land, strong, and without number: his
teeth are like the teeth of a lion: and his cheek teeth as of a lion's
whelp.

1:7. He hath laid my vineyard waste, and hath pilled off the bark of my
fig tree: he hath stripped it bare, and cast it away; the branches
thereof are made white.

1:8. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her
youth.

1:9. Sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of the Lord: the
priests, the Lord's ministers, have mourned:

1:10. The country is destroyed, the ground hath mourned: for the corn is
wasted, the wine is confounded, the oil hath languished.

1:11. The husbandmen are ashamed, the vinedressers have howled for the
wheat, and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished.

1:12. The vineyard is confounded, and the fig tree hath languished: the
pomegranate tree, and the palm tree, and the apple tree, and all the
trees of the field are withered: because joy is withdrawn from the
children of men.

1:13. Gird yourselves, and lament, O ye priests, howl, ye ministers of
the altars: go in, lie in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: because
sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of your God.

1:14. Sanctify ye a fast, call an assembly, gather together the
ancients, all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God:
and cry ye to the Lord:

1:15. Ah, ah, ah, for the day: because the day of the Lord is at hand,
and it shall come like destruction from the mighty.

1:16 Is not your food cut off before your eyes, joy and gladness from
the house of our God?

1:17. The beasts have rotted in their dung, the barns are destroyed, the
storehouses are broken down: because the corn is confounded.

1:18. Why did the beasts groan, why did the herds of cattle low?
because there is no pasture for them: yea, and the flocks of sheep are
perished.

1:19. To thee, O Lord, will I cry: because fire hath devoured the
beautiful places of the wilderness: and the flame hath burnt all the
trees of the country.

1:20. Yea, and the beasts of the field have looked up to thee, as a
garden bed that thirsteth after rain, for the springs of waters are
dried up, and fire hath devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness.

Joel Chapter 2

2:1. Blow ye the trumpet in Sion, sound an alarm in my holy mountain,
let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: because the day of the Lord
cometh, because it is nigh at hand.

The day of the Lord... That is, the time when he will execute justice
upon sinners.

2:2. A day of darkness, and of gloominess, a day of clouds and
whirlwinds: a numerous and strong people as the morning spread upon the
mountains: the like to it hath not been from the beginning, nor shall be
after it, even to the years of generation and generation.

A numerous and strong people... The Assyrians, or Chaldeans. Others
understand all this of an army of locusts laying waste the land.

2:3. Before the face thereof a devouring fire, and behind it a burning
flame: the land is like a garden of pleasure before it, and behind it a
desolate wilderness, neither is there any one that can escape it.

2:4. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and they
shall run like horsemen.

2:5. They shall leap like the noise of chariots upon the tops of
mountains, like the noise of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, as a
strong people prepared to battle.

2:6. At their presence the people shall be in grievous pains: all faces
shall be made like a kettle.

2:7. They shall run like valiant men: like men of war they shall scale
the wall: the men shall march every one on his way, and they shall not
turn aside from their ranks.

2:8. No one shall press upon his brother: they shall walk every one in
his path: yea, and they shall fall through the windows, and shall take
no harm.

2:9. They shall enter into the city: they shall run upon the wall, they
shall climb up the houses, they shall come in at the windows, as a
thief.

2:10. At their presence the earth hath trembled, the heavens are moved:
the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their
shining.

2:11. And the Lord hath uttered his voice before the face of his army:
for his armies are exceedingly great, for they are strong, and execute
his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible: and who
can stand it?

2:12. Now, therefore, saith the Lord. Be converted to me with all your
heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and mourning.

2:13. And rend your hearts, and not your garments and turn to the Lord
your God: for he is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy,
and ready to repent of the evil.

2:14. Who knoweth but he will return, and forgive, and leave a blessing
behind him, sacrifice and libation to the Lord your God?

2:15. Blow the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly,

2:16. Gather together the people, sanctify the church, assemble the
ancients, gather together the little ones, and them that suck at the
breasts: let the bridegroom go forth from his bed, and the bride out of
her bridal chamber.

2:17. Between the porch and the altar the priests, the Lord's ministers,
shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, spare thy people: and give not
thy inheritane to reproach, that the heathens should rule over them. Why
should they say among the nations: Where is their God?

2:18. The Lord hath been zealons for his land, and hath spared his
people.

2:19 And the Lord answered, and said to his people: Behold I will send
you corn, and wine, and oil, and you shall be filled with them: and I
will no more make you a reproach among the nations.

2:20. And I will remove far off from you the northern enemy: and I will
drive him into a land unpassable, and desert, with his face towards the
east sea, and his hinder part towards the utmost sea: and his stench
shall ascend, and his rottenness shall go up, because he hath done
proudly.

The northern enemy... Some understand this of Holofernes and his army:
others, of the locusts.

2:21. Fear not, O land, be glad, and rejoice: for the Lord hath done
great things.

2:22. Fear not, ye beasts of the fields: for the beautiful places of the
wilderness are sprung, for the tree hath brought forth its fruit, the
fig tree, and the vine have yielded their strength.

2:23. And you, O children of Sion, rejoice, and be joyful in the Lord
your God: because he hath given you a teacher of justice, and he will
make the early and the latter rain to come down to you as in the
beginning.

2:24. And the floors shall be filled with wheat, and the presses shall
overfiow with wine, and oil.

2:25. And I will restore to you the years which the locust, and the
bruchus, and the mildew, and the palmerworm hath eaten; my great host
which I sent upon you.

2:26. And you shall eat in plenty, and shall be filled and you shall
praise the name of the Lord your God; who hath done wonders with you,
and my people shall not be confounded for ever.

2:27. And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: and I am the
Lord yonr God, and there is none besides: and my people shall not be
confounded forever.

2:28. And it shall come to pass after this, that I will pour out my
spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy:
your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.

2:29. Moreover, upon my servants and handmaids in those days I will pour
forth my spirit.

2:30. And I will shew wonders in heaven; and in earth, blood, and fire,
and vapour of smoke.

2:31. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood:
before the great and dreadful day of the Lord doth come.

2:32. And it shall come to pass, that every one that shall call upon the
name of the Lord, shall be saved: for in Mount Sion, and in Jerusalem
shall be salvation, as the Lord hath said, and in the residue whom the
Lord shall call.

Joel Chapter 3

3:1. For behold in those days, and in that time when I shall bring back
the captivity of Juda, and Jerusalem:

3:2. I will gather together all nations and will bring them down into
the valley of Josaphat: and I will plead with them there for my people,
and for my inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the
nations, and have parted my land.

3:3. And they have cast lots upon my people: and the boy they have put
in the stews, and the girl they have sold for wine, that they might
drink.

3:4. But what have you to do with me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and all the
coast of the Philistines? will you revenge yourselves on me? and if you
revenge yourselves on me, I will very soon return you a recompense upon
your own head.

3:5. For you have taken away my silver, and my gold: and my desirable,
and most beantiful things you have carried into your temples.

3:6. And the children of Juda, and the children of Jerusalem, you have
sold to the children of the Greeks, that you might remove them far off
from their own country.

3:7. Behold, I will raise them up out of the place wherein you have sold
them: and I will return your recompense upon your own heads.

3:8. And I will sell yonr sons, and your daughters, by the hands of the
children of Juda, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far
off, for the Lord hath spoken it.

3:9. Proclaim ye this among the nations: Prepare war, raise up the
strong: let them come, let all the men of war come up.

3:10. Cut your ploughshares into swords, and your spades into spears.
Let the weak say: I am strong.

3:11. Break forth, and come, all ye nations from round about, and gather
yourselves together: there will the Lord cause all thy strong ones to
fall down.

3:12. Let them arise, and let the nations come up into the valley of
Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all nations round about.

3:13. Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe: come and go down,
for the press is full, the fats run over: for their wickedness is
multiplied.

3:14. Nations, nations in the valley of destruction: for the day of the
Lord is near in the valley of destruction.

3:15. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn
their shining.

3:16. And the Lord shall roar out of Sion, and utter his voice from
Jerusalem: and the heavens and the earth shall be moved, and the Lord
shall be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of
Israel.

3:17. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Sion,
my holy monntain: and Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall pass
through it no more.

3:18. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall
drop down sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk: and waters
shall flow through all the rivers of Juda: and a fountain shall come
forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns.

A fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, etc... Viz., the
fountain of grace in the church militant, and of glory in the church
triumphant: which shall water the torrent or valley of thorns, that is,
the souls that before, like barren ground brought forth nothing but
thorns; or that were afflicted with the thorns of crosses and
tribulations.

3:19. Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom a wilderness destroyed:
because they have done unjustly against the children of Juda, and have
shed innocent blood in their land.

3:20. And Judea shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem to generation
and generation.

Judea--and Jerusalem... That is, the spiritual Jerusalem, viz., the
church of Christ.

3:21. And I will cleanse their blood, which I had not cleansed: and the
Lord will dwell in Sion.