Joel 1

Chapter 1

The Devastation of Locusts

¹The ^aword of the Lord that came to ^bJoel, the son of Pethuel:

^2aHear this, O ^belders,

And listen, all inhabitants of the land.

^cHas anything like this happened in your days

Or in your fathers’ days?

^3aTell your sons about it,

And let your sons tell their sons,

And their sons the next generation.

⁴What the ^agnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten;

And what the ^bswarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten;

And what the creeping locust has left, the ^cstripping locust has eaten.

⁵Awake, ^adrunkards, and weep;

And wail, all you wine drinkers,

On account of the sweet wine

That is ^bcut off from your mouth.

⁶For a ^anation has ¹invaded my land,

Mighty and without number;

^bIts teeth are the teeth of a lion,

And it has the fangs of a lioness.

⁷It has ^amade my vine a waste

And my fig tree ¹splinters.

It has stripped them bare and cast them away;

Their branches have become white.

^8aWail like a virgin ^bgirded with sackcloth

For the bridegroom of her youth.

⁹The ^agrain offering and the drink offering are cut off

From the house of the Lord.

The ^bpriests mourn,

The ministers of the Lord.

¹⁰The field is ^aruined,

^bThe land mourns;

For the grain is ruined,

The new wine dries up,

Fresh oil ¹fails.

^111aBe ashamed, O farmers,

Wail, O vinedressers,

For the wheat and the barley;

Because the ^bharvest of the field is destroyed.

¹²The ^avine dries up

And the fig tree ¹fails;

The ^bpomegranate, the ^cpalm also, and the ^2dapple tree,

All the trees of the field dry up.

Indeed, ^erejoicing dries up

From the sons of men.

^13aGird yourselves with sackcloth

And lament, O priests;

^bWail, O ministers of the altar!

Come, ^cspend the night in sackcloth

O ministers of my God,

For the grain offering and the drink offering

Are withheld from the house of your God.

Starvation and Drought

^14aConsecrate a fast,

Proclaim a ^bsolemn assembly;

Gather the elders

And all the inhabitants of the land

To the house of the Lord your God,

And ^ccry out to the Lord.

^15aAlas for the day!

For the ^bday of the Lord is near,

And it will come as ^cdestruction from the ¹Almighty.

¹⁶Has not ^afood been cut off before our eyes,

Gladness and ^bjoy from the house of our God?

¹⁷The ^1aseeds shrivel under their ²clods;

The storehouses are desolate,

The barns are torn down,

For the grain is dried up.

¹⁸How ^athe beasts groan!

The herds of cattle wander aimlessly

Because there is no pasture for them;

Even the flocks of sheep ¹suffer.

^19aTo You, O Lord, I cry;

For ^bfire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness

And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.

²⁰Even the beasts of the field ^1apant for You;

For the ^bwater brooks are dried up

And fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.