1 The word of the Lord that came to aJoel the son of Pethuel.

The Land Laid Waste

2 Hear this, you elders,

And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land!

bHas anything like this happened in your days,

Or even in the days of your fathers?

3 cTell your children about it,

Let your children tell their children,

And their children another generation.

4 dWhat the chewing 1locust left, the eswarming locust has eaten;

What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten;

And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.

5 Awake, you fdrunkards, and weep;

And wail, all you drinkers of wine,

Because of the new wine,

gFor it has been cut off from your mouth.

6 For ha nation has come up against My land,

Strong, and without number;

iHis teeth are the teeth of a lion,

And he has the fangs of a 2fierce lion.

7 He has jlaid waste My vine,

And 3ruined My fig tree;

He has stripped it bare and thrown it away;

Its branches are made white.

8 kLament like a virgin girded with sackcloth

For lthe husband of her youth.

9 mThe grain offering and the drink offering

Have been cut off from the house of the Lord;

The priests nmourn, who minister to the Lord.

10 The field is wasted,

oThe land mourns;

For the grain is ruined,

pThe new wine is dried up,

The oil fails.

11 qBe ashamed, you farmers,

Wail, you vinedressers,

For the wheat and the barley;

Because the harvest of the field has perished.

12 rThe vine has dried up,

And the fig tree has withered;

The pomegranate tree,

The palm tree also,

And the apple tree—

All the trees of the field are withered;

Surely sjoy has withered away from the sons of men.