Joel 1:1–2:27

The Lord gave this message to Joel son of Pethuel.

Mourning over the Locust Plague

²Hear this, you leaders of the people.

Listen, all who live in the land.

In all your history,

has anything like this happened before?

³Tell your children about it in the years to come,

and let your children tell their children.

Pass the story down from generation to generation.

⁴After the cutting locusts finished eating the crops,

the swarming locusts took what was left!

After them came the hopping locusts,

and then the stripping locusts, too!

⁵Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!

Wail, all you wine-drinkers!

All the grapes are ruined,

and all your sweet wine is gone.

⁶A vast army of locusts has invaded my land,

a terrible army too numerous to count.

Its teeth are like lions’ teeth,

its fangs like those of a lioness.

⁷It has destroyed my grapevines

and ruined my fig trees,

stripping their bark and destroying it,

leaving the branches white and bare.

⁸Weep like a bride dressed in black,

mourning the death of her husband.

⁹For there is no grain or wine

to offer at the Temple of the Lord.

So the priests are in mourning.

The ministers of the Lord are weeping.

¹⁰The fields are ruined,

the land is stripped bare.

The grain is destroyed,

the grapes have shriveled,

and the olive oil is gone.

¹¹Despair, all you farmers!

Wail, all you vine growers!

Weep, because the wheat and barley—

all the crops of the field—are ruined.

¹²The grapevines have dried up,

and the fig trees have withered.

The pomegranate trees, palm trees, and apple trees—

all the fruit trees—have dried up.

And the people’s joy has dried up with them.

¹³Dress yourselves in burlap and weep, you priests!

Wail, you who serve before the altar!

Come, spend the night in burlap,

you ministers of my God.

For there is no grain or wine

to offer at the Temple of your God.

¹⁴Announce a time of fasting;

call the people together for a solemn meeting.

Bring the leaders

and all the people of the land

into the Temple of the Lord your God,

and cry out to him there.

¹⁵The day of the Lord is near,

the day when destruction comes from the Almighty.

How terrible that day will be!

¹⁶Our food disappears before our very eyes.

No joyful celebrations are held in the house of our God.

¹⁷The seeds die in the parched ground,

and the grain crops fail.

The barns stand empty,

and granaries are abandoned.

¹⁸How the animals moan with hunger!

The herds of cattle wander about confused,

because they have no pasture.

The flocks of sheep and goats bleat in misery.

¹⁹Lord, help us!

The fire has consumed the wilderness pastures,

and flames have burned up all the trees.

²⁰Even the wild animals cry out to you

because the streams have dried up,

and fire has consumed the wilderness pastures.

Chapter 2

Locusts Invade like an Army

¹Sound the trumpet in Jerusalem!

Raise the alarm on my holy mountain!

Let everyone tremble in fear

because the day of the Lord is upon us.

²It is a day of darkness and gloom,

a day of thick clouds and deep blackness.

Suddenly, like dawn spreading across the mountains,

a great and mighty army appears.

Nothing like it has been seen before

or will ever be seen again.

³Fire burns in front of them,

and flames follow after them.

Ahead of them the land lies

as beautiful as the Garden of Eden.

Behind them is nothing but desolation;

not one thing escapes.

⁴They look like horses;

they charge forward like warhorses.

⁵Look at them as they leap along the mountaintops.

Listen to the noise they make—like the rumbling of chariots,

like the roar of fire sweeping across a field of stubble,

or like a mighty army moving into battle.

⁶Fear grips all the people;

every face grows pale with terror.

⁷The attackers march like warriors

and scale city walls like soldiers.

Straight forward they march,

never breaking rank.

⁸They never jostle each other;

each moves in exactly the right position.

They break through defenses

without missing a step.

⁹They swarm over the city

and run along its walls.

They enter all the houses,

climbing like thieves through the windows.

¹⁰The earth quakes as they advance,

and the heavens tremble.

The sun and moon grow dark,

and the stars no longer shine.

¹¹The Lord is at the head of the column.

He leads them with a shout.

This is his mighty army,

and they follow his orders.

The day of the Lord is an awesome, terrible thing.

Who can possibly survive?

A Call to Repentance

¹²That is why the Lord says,

“Turn to me now, while there is time.

Give me your hearts.

Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

¹³Don’t tear your clothing in your grief,

but tear your hearts instead.”

Return to the Lord your God,

for he is merciful and compassionate,

slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.

He is eager to relent and not punish.

¹⁴Who knows? Perhaps he will give you a reprieve,

sending you a blessing instead of this curse.

Perhaps you will be able to offer grain and wine

to the Lord your God as before.

¹⁵Blow the ram’s horn in Jerusalem!

Announce a time of fasting;

call the people together

for a solemn meeting.

¹⁶Gather all the people—

the elders, the children, and even the babies.

Call the bridegroom from his quarters

and the bride from her private room.

¹⁷Let the priests, who minister in the Lord’s presence,

stand and weep between the entry room to the Temple and the altar.

Let them pray, “Spare your people, Lord!

Don’t let your special possession become an object of mockery.

Don’t let them become a joke for unbelieving foreigners who say,

‘Has the God of Israel left them?’ ”

The Lord’s Promise of Restoration

¹⁸Then the Lord will pity his people

and jealously guard the honor of his land.

¹⁹The Lord will reply,

“Look! I am sending you grain and new wine and olive oil,

enough to satisfy your needs.

You will no longer be an object of mockery

among the surrounding nations.

²⁰I will drive away these armies from the north.

I will send them into the parched wastelands.

Those in the front will be driven into the Dead Sea,

and those at the rear into the Mediterranean.

The stench of their rotting bodies will rise over the land.”

Surely the Lord has done great things!

²¹Don’t be afraid, O land.

Be glad now and rejoice,

for the Lord has done great things.

²²Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field,

for the wilderness pastures will soon be green.

The trees will again be filled with fruit;

fig trees and grapevines will be loaded down once more.

²³Rejoice, you people of Jerusalem!

Rejoice in the Lord your God!

For the rain he sends demonstrates his faithfulness.

Once more the autumn rains will come,

as well as the rains of spring.

²⁴The threshing floors will again be piled high with grain,

and the presses will overflow with new wine and olive oil.

²⁵The Lord says, “I will give you back what you lost

to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts,

the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts.

It was I who sent this great destroying army against you.

²⁶Once again you will have all the food you want,

and you will praise the Lord your God,

who does these miracles for you.

Never again will my people be disgraced.

²⁷Then you will know that I am among my people Israel,

that I am the Lord your God, and there is no other.

Never again will my people be disgraced.