The word of the Lord that camea to Joelb son of Pethuel.

An Invasion of Locusts

2 Hear this,c you elders;d

listen, all who live in the land.e

Has anything like this ever happened in your days

or in the days of your ancestors?f

3 Tell it to your children,g

and let your children tell it to their children,

and their children to the next generation.h

4 What the locusti swarm has left

the great locusts have eaten;

what the great locusts have left

the young locusts have eaten;

what the young locusts have leftj

other locustsa have eaten.k

5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!

Wail, all you drinkers of wine;l

wail because of the new wine,

for it has been snatchedm from your lips.

6 A nation has invaded my land,

a mighty army without number;n

it has the teetho of a lion,

the fangs of a lioness.

7 It has laid wastep my vines

and ruined my fig trees.q

It has stripped off their bark

and thrown it away,

leaving their branches white.

8 Mourn like a virgin in sackclothr

grieving for the betrothed of her youth.

9 Grain offerings and drink offeringss

are cut off from the house of the Lord.

The priests are in mourning,t

those who minister before the Lord.

10 The fields are ruined,

the ground is dried up;u

the grain is destroyed,

the new winev is dried up,

the olive oil fails.w

11 Despair, you farmers,x

wail, you vine growers;

grieve for the wheat and the barley,y

because the harvest of the field is destroyed.z

12 The vine is dried up

and the fig tree is withered;a

the pomegranate,b the palm and the appleb tree—

all the trees of the field—are dried up.c

Surely the people’s joy

is withered away.