Joel 1

1The word of the Lord that came^a to Joel^b son of Pethuel.

An Invasion of Locusts

²Hear 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

³Tell it to your children,^g

and let your children tell it to their children,

and their children to the next generation.^h

⁴What 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 left^j

other locusts^a have eaten.^k

⁵Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!

Wail, all you drinkers of wine;^l

wail because of the new wine,

for it has been snatched^m from your lips.

⁶A nation has invaded my land,

a mighty army without number;ⁿ

it has the teeth^o of a lion,

the fangs of a lioness.

⁷It has laid waste^p my vines

and ruined my fig trees.^q

It has stripped off their bark

and thrown it away,

leaving their branches white.

⁸Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth^r

grieving for the betrothed of her youth.

⁹Grain offerings and drink offerings^s

are cut off from the house of the Lord.

The priests are in mourning,^t

those who minister before the Lord.

¹⁰The fields are ruined,

the ground is dried up;^u

the grain is destroyed,

the new wine^v is dried up,

the olive oil fails.^w

¹¹Despair, you farmers,^x

wail, you vine growers;

grieve for the wheat and the barley,^y

because the harvest of the field is destroyed.^z

¹²The vine is dried up

and the fig tree is withered;^a

the pomegranate,^b the palm and the apple^b tree—

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

Surely the people’s joy

is withered away.

A Call to Lamentation

¹³Put on sackcloth,^d you priests, and mourn;

wail, you who minister^e before the altar.

Come, spend the night in sackcloth,

you who minister before my God;

for the grain offerings and drink offerings^f

are withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁴Declare a holy fast;^g

call a sacred assembly.

Summon the elders

and all who live in the land^h

to the house of the Lord your God,

and cry outⁱ to the Lord.^j

¹⁵Alas for that^k day!

For the day of the Lord^l is near;

it will come like destruction from the Almighty.^cm

¹⁶Has not the food been cut offⁿ

before our very eyes—

joy and gladness^o

from the house of our God?^p

¹⁷The seeds are shriveled

beneath the clods.^dq

The storehouses are in ruins,

the granaries have been broken down,

for the grain has dried up.

¹⁸How the cattle moan!

The herds mill about

because they have no pasture;^r

even the flocks of sheep are suffering.^s

¹⁹To you, Lord, I call,^t

for fire^u has devoured the pastures^v in the wilderness

and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.

²⁰Even the wild animals pant for you;^w

the streams of water have dried up^x

and fire has devoured the pastures^y in the wilderness.