55. 27. A nation is come up upon my land and hath laid waste my vine (Joel 1:6-7.)

(Alas for the day! for the day of Jehovah is at hand, as vastation from the thunderer shall it come. The storehouses are devastated, the garners are destroyed, even the flocks of sheep are made desolate, the fire hath devoured the habitations of the wilderness (Joel 1:15-20).)

Before Him the earth was moved, the heavens trembled, the sun and moon were blackened, and the stars withdrew their shining. Jehovah uttered His voice before His army, for the day of Jehovah is great and very terrible; who shall abide it? (Joel 2:10-11.)

Afterwards the great and terrible day is treated of (Joel 2:1-11). The coming of Jehovah and then the New Church, is treated of (12-27) and it is said that it shall come to pass afterwards, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh so that your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, etc. (2:28), and it is said, the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come. But it shall come to pass that everyone who shall call upon the name of Jehovah shall be delivered, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be escape (2:31-32).

Heaps, heaps in the valley of decision, for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon were blackened and the stars withdrew their shining. Jehovah shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem so that the heavens and the earth shall shake, but Jehovah will be the refuge of His people; then will Jerusalem be holiness. It shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop down must, and the hills shall flow with milk. Judah shall dwell forever and Jerusalem to the generation of generations (Joel 3:14-20).

The Bible refers to the Lord in many different ways seemingly interchangeably. Understood in the internal sense, though, there are important differences. To some degree, the meanings all start with "Jehovah," which is the Lord's actual name. It represents the perfect, eternal, infinite love which is the Lord's actual essence. As such it also represents the good will that flows from the Lord to us and His desire for us to be good. "God," meanwhile, represents the wisdom of the Lord and the true knowledge and understanding He offers to us. The term "the Lord" is very close in meaning to "Jehovah," and in many cases is interchangeable (indeed, translators have a tendency to go back and forth). When the two are used together, though, "the Lord" refers to the power of the Lord's goodness, the force it brings, whereas "Jehovah" represents the goodness itself. In the New Testament, the name "Jehovah" is never used; the term "the Lord" replaces it completely. There are two reasons for that. First, the Jews of the day considered the name "Jehovah" too holy to speak or write. Second, they would not have been able to grasp the idea that the Lord -- who was among them in human form at the time -- was in fact Jehovah Himself. This does ultimately lead to a difference in the two terms by the end of the Bible. Thought of as "Jehovah," the Lord is the ultimate human form and has the potential for assuming a physical human body; thought of as "the Lord" He actually has that human body, rendered divine by the events of his physical life.