Joel 1:6–14

6 For 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.

7 It 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.

8 aWail like a virgin bgirded with sackcloth

For the bridegroom of her youth.

9 The agrain offering and the drink offering are cut off

From the house of the Lord.

The bpriests mourn,

The ministers of the Lord.

10 The field is aruined,

bThe land mourns;

For the grain is ruined,

The new wine dries up,

Fresh oil 1fails.

11 1aBe ashamed, O farmers,

Wail, O vinedressers,

For the wheat and the barley;

Because the bharvest of the field is destroyed.

12 The 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.

13 aGird 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

14 aConsecrate 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.