1:1 | The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. |
1:2 | Hear this, you elders, And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has [anything like] this happened in your days, Or even in the days of your fathers? |
1:3 | Tell your children about it, [Let] your children [tell] their children, And their children another generation. |
1:4 | What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten. |
1:5 | Awake, you drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you drinkers of wine, Because of the new wine, For it has been cut off from your mouth. |
1:6 | For a nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number; His teeth [are] the teeth of a lion, And he has the fangs of a fierce lion. |
1:7 | He has laid waste My vine, And ruined My fig tree; He has stripped it bare and thrown [it] away; Its branches are made white. |
1:8 | Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth For the husband of her youth. |
1:9 | The grain offering and the drink offering Have been cut off from the house of the LORD; The priests mourn, who minister to the LORD. |
1:10 | The field is wasted, The land mourns; For the grain is ruined, The new wine is dried up, The oil fails. |
1:11 | Be ashamed, you farmers, Wail, you vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the harvest of the field has perished. |
1:12 | The vine has dried up, And the fig tree has withered; The pomegranate tree, The palm tree also, And the apple treeAll the trees of the field are withered; Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men. |
1:13 | Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; Wail, you who minister before the altar; Come, lie all night in sackcloth, You who minister to my God; For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God. |
1:14 | Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders [And] all the inhabitants of the land [Into] the house of the LORD your God, And cry out to the LORD. |
1:15 | Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD [is] at hand; It shall come as destruction from the Almighty. |
1:16 | Is not the food cut off before our eyes, Joy and gladness from the house of our God? |
1:17 | The seed shrivels under the clods, Storehouses are in shambles; Barns are broken down, For the grain has withered. |
1:18 | How the animals groan! The herds of cattle are restless, Because they have no pasture; Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment. |
1:19 | O LORD, to You I cry out; For fire has devoured the open pastures, And a flame has burned all the trees of the field. |
1:20 | The beasts of the field also cry out to You, For the water brooks are dried up, And fire has devoured the open pastures. |