Joel 2:17

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

Let the priests, those who serve the LORD, weep from the vestibule all the way back to the altar. Let them say,“Have pity, O LORD, on your people; please do not turn over your inheritance to be mocked, to become a proverb among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples,“Where is their God?”

Additional Resources

Referenced Verses

  • Ezek 8:16 : 16 Then he brought me to the inner court of the LORD’s house. Right there at the entrance to the LORD’s temple, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the LORD’s temple, facing east– they were worshiping the sun toward the east!
  • Ps 79:10 : 10 Why should the nations say,“Where is their God?” Before our very eyes may the shed blood of your servants be avenged among the nations!
  • Ps 115:2 : 2 Why should the nations say,“Where is their God?”
  • Isa 37:20 : 20 Now, O LORD our God, rescue us from his power, so all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the LORD.”
  • Ps 42:10 : 10 My enemies’ taunts cut into me to the bone, as they say to me all day long,“Where is your God?”
  • Ps 74:10 : 10 How long, O God, will the adversary hurl insults? Will the enemy blaspheme your name forever?
  • 1 Kgs 6:3 : 3 The porch in front of the main hall of the temple was 30 feet long, corresponding to the width of the temple. It was 15 feet wide, extending out from the front of the temple.
  • 2 Chr 8:12 : 12 Then Solomon offered burnt sacrifices to the LORD on the altar of the LORD which he had built in front of the temple’s porch.
  • Joel 1:9 : 9 No one brings grain offerings or drink offerings to the temple of the LORD anymore. So the priests, those who serve the LORD, are in mourning.
  • Amos 7:2 : 2 When they had completely consumed the earth’s vegetation, I said,“Sovereign LORD, forgive Israel! How can Jacob survive? He is too weak!”
  • Amos 7:5 : 5 I said,“Sovereign LORD, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is too weak!”
  • Mic 7:10 : 10 When my enemies see this, they will be covered with shame. They say to me,“Where is the LORD your God?” I will gloat over them. Then they will be trampled down like mud in the streets.
  • Matt 23:35 : 35 so that on you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
  • Matt 27:43 : 43 He trusts in God– let God, if he wants to, deliver him now because he said,‘I am God’s Son’!”
  • Mal 1:9 : 9 But now plead for God’s favor that he might be gracious to us.“With this kind of offering in your hands, how can he be pleased with you?” asks the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.
  • Joel 1:13 : 13 Get dressed and lament, you priests! Wail, you who minister at the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God, because no one brings grain offerings or drink offerings to the temple of your God anymore.
  • Ps 89:41 : 41 All who pass by have robbed him; he has become an object of disdain to his neighbors.
  • Ps 89:51 : 51 Your enemies, O LORD, hurl insults; they insult your chosen king as they dog his footsteps.
  • Ezek 20:9 : 9 I acted for the sake of my reputation, so that I would not be profaned before the nations among whom they lived, before whom I revealed myself by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.
  • Ezek 36:4-7 : 4 therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign LORD: This is what the Sovereign LORD says to the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys, and to the desolate ruins and the abandoned cities that have become prey and an object of derision to the rest of the nations round about– 5 therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Surely I have spoken in the fire of my zeal against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who with great joy and utter contempt have made my land their property and prey, because of its pasture.’ 6 “Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys,‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Look, I have spoken in my zeal and in my anger, because you have endured the insults of the nations. 7 So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I vow that the nations around you will endure insults as well.
  • Dan 9:18-19 : 18 Listen attentively, my God, and hear! Open your eyes and look on our desolated ruins and the city called by your name. For it is not because of our own righteous deeds that we are praying to you, but because your compassion is abundant. 19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, pay attention, and act! Don’t delay, for your own sake, O my God! For your city and your people are called by your name.”
  • Hos 14:2 : 2 Return to the LORD and repent! Say to him:“Completely forgive our iniquity; accept our penitential prayer, that we may offer the praise of our lips as sacrificial bulls.
  • Neh 9:36 : 36 “So today we are slaves! In the very land you gave to our ancestors to eat its fruit and to enjoy its good things– we are slaves!
  • Ps 42:3 : 3 I cannot eat, I weep day and night; all day long they say to me,“Where is your God?”
  • 1 Kgs 9:7 : 7 then I will remove Israel from the land I have given them, I will abandon this temple I have consecrated with my presence, and Israel will be mocked and ridiculed among all the nations.
  • 2 Chr 7:20 : 20 then I will remove you from my land I have given you, I will abandon this temple I have consecrated with my presence, and I will make you an object of mockery and ridicule among all the nations.
  • Exod 32:11-13 : 11 But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God and said,“O LORD, why does your anger burn against your people, whom you have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say,‘For evil he led them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger, and relent of this evil against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them,‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about I will give to your descendants, and they will inherit it forever.’”
  • Exod 34:9 : 9 and said,“If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord go among us, for we are a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
  • Num 14:14-16 : 14 then they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, LORD, are among this people, that you, LORD, are seen face to face, that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them by day in a pillar of cloud and in a pillar of fire by night. 15 If you kill this entire people at once, then the nations that have heard of your fame will say, 16 ‘Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to them, he killed them in the wilderness.’
  • Deut 9:16-29 : 16 When I looked, you had indeed sinned against the LORD your God and had cast for yourselves a metal calf; you had quickly turned aside from the way he had commanded you! 17 I grabbed the two tablets, threw them down, and shattered them before your very eyes. 18 Then I again fell down before the LORD for forty days and nights; I ate and drank nothing because of all the sin you had committed, doing such evil before the LORD as to enrage him. 19 For I was terrified at the LORD’s intense anger that threatened to destroy you. But he listened to me this time as well. 20 The LORD was also angry enough at Aaron to kill him, but at that time I prayed for him too. 21 As for your sinful thing that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down, ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain. 22 Moreover, you continued to provoke the LORD at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-Hattaavah. 23 And when he sent you from Kadesh-Barnea and told you,“Go up and possess the land I have given you,” you rebelled against the LORD your God and would neither believe nor obey him. 24 You have been rebelling against him from the very first day I knew you! 25 Moses’ Plea on Behalf of God’s Reputation I lay flat on the ground before the LORD for forty days and nights, for he had said he would destroy you. 26 I prayed to him: O, Sovereign LORD, do not destroy your people, your valued property that you have powerfully redeemed, whom you brought out of Egypt by your strength. 27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; ignore the stubbornness, wickedness, and sin of these people. 28 Otherwise the people of the land from which you brought us will say,“The LORD was unable to bring them to the land he promised them, and because of his hatred for them he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.” 29 They are your people, your valued property, whom you brought out with great strength and power.
  • Deut 28:37 : 37 You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the LORD will drive you.
  • Deut 32:27 : 27 But I fear the reaction of their enemies, for their adversaries would misunderstand and say,“Our power is great, and the LORD has not done all this!”’
  • Ps 74:18-23 : 18 Remember how the enemy hurls insults, O LORD, and how a foolish nation blasphemes your name! 19 Do not hand the life of your dove over to a wild animal! Do not continue to disregard the lives of your oppressed people! 20 Remember your covenant promises, for the dark regions of the earth are full of places where violence rules. 21 Do not let the afflicted be turned back in shame! Let the oppressed and poor praise your name! 22 Rise up, O God! Defend your honor! Remember how fools insult you all day long! 23 Do not disregard what your enemies say, or the unceasing shouts of those who defy you.
  • Ps 79:4 : 4 We have become an object of disdain to our neighbors; those who live on our borders taunt and insult us.
  • Ps 44:10-14 : 10 You made us retreat from the enemy. Those who hate us take whatever they want from us. 11 You handed us over like sheep to be eaten; you scattered us among the nations. 12 You sold your people for a pittance; you did not ask a high price for them. 13 You made us an object of disdain to our neighbors; those who live on our borders taunt and insult us. 14 You made us an object of ridicule among the nations; foreigners treat us with contempt.
  • Isa 63:17-19 : 17 Why, LORD, do you make us stray from your ways, and make our minds stubborn so that we do not obey you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your inheritance! 18 For a short time your special nation possessed a land, but then our adversaries knocked down your holy sanctuary. 19 We existed from ancient times, but you did not rule over them; they were not your subjects.
  • Isa 64:9-9 : 9 LORD, do not be too angry! Do not hold our sins against us continually! Take a good look at your people, at all of us! 10 Your chosen cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem, a desolate ruin. 11 Our holy temple, our pride and joy, the place where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire; all our prized possessions have been destroyed. 12 In light of all this, how can you still hold back, LORD? How can you be silent and continue to humiliate us?

Similar Verses (AI)

These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.

  • Joel 2:18
    79%

    18The LORD’s Response Then the LORD became zealous for his land; he had compassion on his people.

  • Joel 1:13-14
    2 verses
    78%

    13Get dressed and lament, you priests! Wail, you who minister at the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God, because no one brings grain offerings or drink offerings to the temple of your God anymore.

    14Announce a holy fast; proclaim a sacred assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the temple of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.

  • Lam 2:20
    77%

    20ר(Resh)Jerusalem Speaks: Look, O LORD! Consider! Whom have you ever afflicted like this? Should women eat their offspring, their healthy infants? Should priest and prophet be killed in the Lord’s sanctuary?

  • Lam 2:6-7
    2 verses
    76%

    6ו(Vav) He destroyed his temple as if it were a vineyard; he destroyed his appointed meeting place. The LORD has made those in Zion forget both the festivals and the Sabbaths. In his fierce anger he has spurned both king and priest.

    7ז(Zayin) The Lord rejected his altar and abhorred his temple. He handed over to the enemy her palace walls; the enemy shouted in the LORD’s temple as if it were a feast day.

  • Ps 115:2
    76%

    2Why should the nations say,“Where is their God?”

  • Jer 9:18
    75%

    18I said,“Indeed, let them come quickly and sing a song of mourning for us. Let them wail loudly until tears stream from our own eyes and our eyelids overflow with water.

  • Mal 2:13
    75%

    13You also do this: You cover the altar of the LORD with tears as you weep and groan, because he no longer pays any attention to the offering nor accepts it favorably from you.

  • Lam 4:16
    75%

    16פ(Pe) The LORD himself has scattered them; he no longer watches over them. They did not honor the priests; they did not show favor to the elders.

  • Ps 79:10
    74%

    10Why should the nations say,“Where is their God?” Before our very eyes may the shed blood of your servants be avenged among the nations!

  • Jer 3:21
    74%

    21“A noise is heard on the hilltops. It is the sound of the people of Israel crying and pleading to their gods. Indeed they have followed sinful ways; they have forgotten to be true to the LORD their God.

  • Jer 14:17
    74%

    17Lament over Present Destruction and Threat of More to Come“Tell these people this, Jeremiah:‘My eyes overflow with tears day and night without ceasing. For my people, my dear children, have suffered a crushing blow. They have suffered a serious wound.

  • Jer 13:17
    74%

    17But if you will not pay attention to this warning, I will weep alone because of your arrogant pride. I will weep bitterly, and my eyes will overflow with tears because you, the LORD’s flock, will be carried into exile.”

  • Joel 1:9
    74%

    9No one brings grain offerings or drink offerings to the temple of the LORD anymore. So the priests, those who serve the LORD, are in mourning.

  • Jer 2:8
    74%

    8Your priests did not ask,‘Where is the LORD?’ Those responsible for teaching my law did not really know me. Your rulers rebelled against me. Your prophets prophesied in the name of the god Baal. They all worshiped idols that could not help them.

  • Jer 4:8-9
    2 verses
    74%

    8So put on sackcloth! Mourn and wail, saying,‘The fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us!’”

    9“When this happens,” says the LORD,“the king and his officials will lose their courage. The priests will be struck with horror, and the prophets will be speechless in astonishment.”

  • Jer 2:11-12
    2 verses
    73%

    11Has a nation ever changed its gods(even though they are not really gods at all)? But my people have exchanged me, their glorious God, for a god that cannot help them at all!

    12Be amazed at this, O heavens! Be shocked and utterly dumbfounded,” says the LORD.

  • Jer 8:19
    73%

    19I hear my dear people crying out throughout the length and breadth of the land. They are crying,‘Is the LORD no longer in Zion? Is her divine King no longer there?’” The LORD answers,“Why then do they provoke me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?”

  • Neh 9:32
    73%

    32“So now, our God– the great, powerful, and awesome God, who keeps covenant fidelity– do not regard as inconsequential all the hardship that has befallen us– our kings, our leaders, our priests, our prophets, our ancestors, and all your people– from the days of the kings of Assyria until this very day!

  • Lam 2:18
    73%

    18צ(Tsade) Cry out from your heart to the Lord, O wall of Daughter Zion! Make your tears flow like a river all day and all night long! Do not rest; do not let your tears stop!

  • Ps 80:4
    73%

    4O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies! How long will you remain angry at your people while they pray to you?

  • Isa 64:11-12
    2 verses
    73%

    11Our holy temple, our pride and joy, the place where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire; all our prized possessions have been destroyed.

    12In light of all this, how can you still hold back, LORD? How can you be silent and continue to humiliate us?

  • Jer 2:31
    73%

    31You people of this generation, listen to the LORD’s message.“Have I been like a wilderness to you, Israel? Have I been like a dark and dangerous land to you? Why then do you say,‘We are free to wander. We will not come to you any more?’

  • 2 Chr 13:9
    73%

    9But you banished the LORD’s priests, Aaron’s descendants, and the Levites, and appointed your own priests just as the surrounding nations do! Anyone who comes to consecrate himself with a young bull or seven rams becomes a priest of these fake gods!

  • Mic 2:4
    73%

    4In that day people will sing this taunt song to you– they will mock you with this lament:‘We are completely destroyed; they sell off the property of my people. How they remove it from me! They assign our fields to the conqueror.’

  • Deut 32:37
    73%

    37He will say,“Where are their gods, the rock in whom they sought security,

  • Dan 9:16
    73%

    16O Lord, according to all your justice, please turn your raging anger away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. For due to our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people are mocked by all our neighbors.

  • Lam 1:10
    73%

    10י(Yod) An enemy grabbed all her valuables. Indeed she watched in horror as Gentiles invaded her holy temple– those whom you had commanded:“They must not enter your assembly place.”

  • Jer 16:10
    73%

    10The Lord Promises Exile(But Also Restoration)“When you tell these people about all this, they will undoubtedly ask you,‘Why has the LORD threatened us with such great disaster? What wrong have we done? What sin have we done to offend the LORD our God?’

  • Joel 2:12
    72%

    12An Appeal for Repentance“Yet even now,” the LORD says,“return to me with all your heart– with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

  • Lam 2:1-2
    2 verses
    72%

    1א(Alef)The Prophet Speaks: Alas! The Lord has covered Daughter Zion with his anger. He has thrown down the splendor of Israel from heaven to earth; he did not protect his temple when he displayed his anger.

    2ב(Bet) The Lord destroyed mercilessly all the homes of Jacob’s descendants. In his anger he tore down the fortified cities of Daughter Judah. He knocked to the ground and humiliated the kingdom and its rulers.

  • Mal 2:17
    72%

    17Resistance to the Lord through Self-deceit You have wearied the LORD with your words. But you say,“How have we wearied him?” Because you say,“Everyone who does evil is good in the LORD’s opinion, and he delights in them,” or“Where is the God of justice?”

  • Lam 1:18
    72%

    18צ(Tsade)Jerusalem Speaks: The LORD is right to judge me! Yes, I rebelled against his commands. Please listen, all you nations, and look at my suffering! My young women and men have gone into exile.

  • Ps 79:1
    72%

    1A psalm of Asaph. O God, foreigners have invaded your chosen land; they have polluted your holy temple and turned Jerusalem into a heap of ruins.

  • Mic 2:9
    72%

    9You wrongly evict widows among my people from their cherished homes. You defraud their children of their prized inheritance.

  • 2 Chr 29:8
    72%

    8The LORD was angry at Judah and Jerusalem and made them an appalling object of horror at which people hiss out their scorn, as you can see with your own eyes.

  • Isa 5:25
    72%

    25So the LORD is furious with his people; he lifts his hand and strikes them. The mountains shake, and corpses lie like manure in the middle of the streets. Despite all this, his anger does not subside, and his hand is ready to strike again.

  • Isa 1:10
    72%

    10Listen to the LORD’s message, you leaders of Sodom! Pay attention to our God’s rebuke, people of Gomorrah!

  • Jer 51:51
    72%

    51‘We are ashamed because we have been insulted. Our faces show our disgrace. For foreigners have invaded the holy rooms in the LORD’s temple.’

  • Jer 12:11
    72%

    11They will lay it waste. It will lie parched and empty before me. The whole land will be laid waste. But no one living in it will pay any heed.

  • Mic 3:11
    72%

    11Her leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, her priests proclaim rulings for profit, and her prophets read omens for pay. Yet they claim to trust the LORD and say,“The LORD is among us. Disaster will not overtake us!”

  • Hos 4:4
    72%

    4The Lord’s Dispute against the Sinful Priesthood Do not let anyone accuse or contend against anyone else: for my case is against you priests!

  • Amos 2:7
    72%

    7They trample on the dirt-covered heads of the poor; they push the destitute away. A man and his father go to the same girl; in this way they show disrespect for my moral purity.

  • Zeph 2:1
    72%

    1The Prophet Warns the People Bunch yourselves together like straw, you undesirable nation,

  • Zech 7:3
    72%

    3by asking both the priests of the temple of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies and the prophets,“Should we weep in the fifth month, fasting as we have done over the years?”