Joel 2:17
Good News Translation
The priests, serving the LORD between the altar and the entrance of the Temple, must weep and pray: "Have pity on your people, LORD. Do not let other nations despise us and mock us by saying, 'Where is your God?'"

New Revised Standard Version
Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep. Let them say, “Spare your people, O LORD, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

Contemporary English Version
Tell my servants, the priests, to cry inside the temple and to offer this prayer near the altar: "Save your people, LORD God! Don't let foreign nations make jokes about us. Don't let them laugh and ask, 'Where is your God?'"

New American Bible
Between the porch and the altar let the priests weep, let the ministers of the LORD weep and say: “Spare your people, LORD! do not let your heritage become a disgrace, a byword among the nations! Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ”

Douay-Rheims Bible
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 inheritance to reproach, that the heathens should rule over them. Why should they say among the nations: Where is their God?

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

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 inheritance to reproach, that the heathens should rule over them. Why should they say among the nations: Where is their God?

the priests.

Joel 1:9,13 Sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of the Lord: the priests, the Lord's ministers, have mourned: . . .

between.

1 Kings 6:3 And there was a porch before the temple, of twenty cubits in length, according to the measure of the breadth of the temple: and it was ten cubits in breadth, before the face of the temple.

2 Chronicles 8:12 Then Solomon offered holocausts to the Lord upon the altar of the Lord which he had built before the porch,

Ezekiel 8:16 And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord: and behold at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men having their backs towards the temple of the Lord, in their faces to the east: and they adored towards the rising of the sun.

Matthew 23:35 That upon you may come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar.

and let.

Hosea 14:2 Take with you words, and return to the Lord, and say to him: Take away all iniquity, and receive the good: and we will render the calves of our lips.

Spare.

Exodus 32:11-13 But Moses besought the Lord his God, saying: Why, O Lord, is thy indignation enkindled against thy people, whom thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, with great power, and with a mighty hand? . . .

Exodus 34:9 Said: If I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, I beseech thee that thou wilt go with us, (for it is a stiffnecked people) and take away our iniquities and sin, and possess us.

Deuteronomy 9:16-29 And saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God, and had made to yourselves a molten calf, and had quickly forsaken his way, which he had shewn you: . . .

Isaiah 37:20 And now, O Lord our God, save us out of his hand: and let all the kingdoms of the earth know, that thou only art the Lord.

Isaiah 64:9-12 Be not very angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity: behold, see we are all thy people. . . .

Daniel 9:18,19 Incline, O my God, thy ear, and hear: open thy eyes, and see our desolation, and the city upon which thy name is called: for it is not for our justifications that we present our prayers before thy face, but for the multitude of thy tender mercies. . . .

Amos 7:2,5 These things the Lord God shewed to me: and behold the locust was formed in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter rain, and lo, it was the latter rain after the king's mowing. . . .

Malachi 1:9 And now beseech ye the face of God, that he may have mercy on you, (for by your hand hath this been done,) if by any means he will receive your faces, saith the Lord of hosts.

and give.

Psalm 44:10-14 But now thou hast cast us off, and put us to shame: and thou , O God, wilt not go out with our armies. . . .

Psalm 74:10,18-23 How long, O God, shall the enemy reproach: is the adversary to provoke thy name for ever? . . .

Psalm 79:4 We are become a reproach to our neighbours: a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.

Psalm 89:41,51 All that pass by the way have robbed him: he is become a reproach to his neighbours. . . .

Ezekiel 36:4-7 Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God: Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the brooks, and to the valleys, and to desolate places, and ruinous walls, and to the cities that are forsaken, that are spoiled, and derided by the rest of the nations round about. . . .

that.

Nehemiah 9:36 Behold we ourselves this day are bondmen: and the land, which thou gavest our fathers, to eat the bread thereof, and the good things thereof, and we ourselves are servants in it.

Isaiah 63:17-19 Why hast thou made us to err, O Lord, from thy ways: why hast thou hardened our heart, that we should not fear thee? return for the sake of thy servants, the tribes of thy inheritance. . . .

rule over them.

Deuteronomy 28:37 And thou shalt be lost, as a proverb and a byword to all people, among whom the Lord shall bring thee in.

1 Kings 9:7 I will take away Israel from the face of the land which I have given them; and the temple which I have sanctified to my name, I will cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb, and a byword among all people.

2 Chronicles 7:20 I will pluck you up by the root out of my land which I have given you: and this house which I have sanctified to my name, I will cast away from before my face, and will make it a byword, and an example among all nations.

Psalm 44:14 Thou hast made us a reproach to our neighbours, a scoff and derision to them that are round about us.

wherefore.

Numbers 14:14-16 And the inhabitants of this land, (who have heard that thou, O Lord, art among this people, and art seen face to face, and thy cloud protecteth them, and thou goest before them in a pillar of a cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night,) . . .

Deuteronomy 32:27 But for the wrath of the enemies I have deferred it: lest perhaps their enemies might be proud, and should say: Our mighty hand, and not the Lord, hath done all these things.

Psalm 42:10 Whilst my bones are broken, my enemies who trouble me have reproached me; Whilst they say to me day by day: Where is thy God?

Psalm 79:10 Lest they should say among the Gentiles: Where is their God? And let him be made known among the nations before our eyes, By the revenging the blood of thy servants, which hath been shed:

Psalm 115:2 For thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake: lest the Gentiles should say: Where is their God?

Ezekiel 20:9 But I did otherwise for my name's sake, that it might not be violated before the nations, in the midst of whom they were, and among whom I made myself known to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

Micah 7:10 And my enemy shall behold, and she shall be covered with shame, who saith to me: Where is the Lord thy God? my eyes shall look down upon her: now shall she be trodden under foot as the mire of the streets.

Matthew 27:43 He trusted in God: let him now deliver him if he will have him. For he said: I am the Son of God.

Context
Return with All Your Heart
16Gather 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. 17Between 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 inheritance to reproach, that the heathens should rule over them. Why should they say among the nations: Where is their God?
Cross References
Exodus 32:11
But Moses besought the Lord his God, saying: Why, O Lord, is thy indignation enkindled against thy people, whom thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, with great power, and with a mighty hand?

Exodus 32:12
Let not the Egyptians say, I beseech thee: He craftily brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains, and destroy them from the earth: let thy anger cease, and be appeased upon the wickedness of thy people.

Numbers 25:6
And behold one of the children of Israel went in before his brethren to a harlot of Madian, in the sight of Moses and of all the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle.

2 Chronicles 8:12
Then Solomon offered holocausts to the Lord upon the altar of the Lord which he had built before the porch,

Psalm 42:3
My tears have been my bread day and night, whilst it is said to me daily: Where is thy God?

Psalm 42:10
Whilst my bones are broken, my enemies who trouble me have reproached me; Whilst they say to me day by day: Where is thy God?

Psalm 44:13
Thou hast sold thy people for no price: and there was no reckoning in the exchange of them.

Psalm 74:10
How long, O God, shall the enemy reproach: is the adversary to provoke thy name for ever?

Psalm 79:10
Lest they should say among the Gentiles: Where is their God? And let him be made known among the nations before our eyes, By the revenging the blood of thy servants, which hath been shed:

Psalm 115:2
For thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake: lest the Gentiles should say: Where is their God?

Isaiah 22:12
And the Lord, the God of hosts, in that day shall call to weeping, and to mourning, to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:

Isaiah 37:20
And now, O Lord our God, save us out of his hand: and let all the kingdoms of the earth know, that thou only art the Lord.

Ezekiel 8:16
And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord: and behold at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men having their backs towards the temple of the Lord, in their faces to the east: and they adored towards the rising of the sun.

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

Amos 7:2
These things the Lord God shewed to me: and behold the locust was formed in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter rain, and lo, it was the latter rain after the king's mowing.

Amos 7:5
These things the Lord God shewed to me: and behold the Lord called for judgment unto fire, and it devoured the great deep, and ate up a part at the same time.

Micah 7:10
And my enemy shall behold, and she shall be covered with shame, who saith to me: Where is the Lord thy God? my eyes shall look down upon her: now shall she be trodden under foot as the mire of the streets.

Joel 2:16
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