The word of the Lord that camea to Joel son of Pethuel:

A PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS

2 Hear this,b you elders;

listen, all you inhabitants of the land.

Has anything like this ever happened in your daysc

or in the days of your ancestors?

3 Tell your children about it,d

and let your children tell their children,

and their children the next generation.

4 What the devouring locuste has left,

the swarming locust has eaten;

what the swarming locust has left,

the young locustf has eaten;

and what the young locust has left,

the destroying locustg has eaten.

5 Wake up, you drunkards,h and weep;

wail, all you wine drinkers,

because of the sweet wine,

for it has been taken from your mouth.

6 For a nation has invaded my land,i

powerful and without number;

its teeth are the teeth of a lion,

and it has the fangs of a lioness.j

7 It has devastated my grapevine

and splintered my fig tree.

It has stripped off its bark and thrown it away;

its branches have turned white.

8 Grieve like a young woman dressed in sackcloth,k

mourning for the husband of her youth.

9 Grain and drink offerings have been cut offl

from the house of the Lord;

the priests, who are ministers of the Lord, mourn.m

10 The fields are destroyed;n

the land grieves;

indeed, the grain is destroyed;

the new wine is dried up;o

and the fresh oil fails.p

11 Be ashamed, you farmers,q

wail, you vinedressers,A

over the wheat and the barley,

because the harvest of the field has perished.r

12 The grapevine is dried up,s

and the fig tree is withered;

the pomegranate,t the date palm,u and the applev—

all the trees of the orchard—have withered.

Indeed, human joy has dried up.w