Joel 1

The Devastation of Locusts

1The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

2Hear this, O elders,

And listen, all inhabitants of the land.

Has anything like this happened in your days

Or in your fathers' days?

3Tell your sons about it,

And let your sons tell their sons,

And their sons the next generation.

4What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten;

And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten;

And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten.

5Awake, drunkards, and weep;

And wail, all you wine drinkers,

On account of the sweet wine

That is cut off from your mouth.

6For a nation has invaded my land,

Mighty and without number;

Its teeth are the teeth of a lion,

And it has the fangs of a lioness.

7It has made my vine a waste

And my fig tree splinters.

It has stripped them bare and cast them away;

Their branches have become white.

8Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth

For the bridegroom of her youth.

9The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off

From the house of the Lord.

The priests mourn,

The ministers of the Lord.

10The field is ruined,

The land mourns;

For the grain is ruined,

The new wine dries up,

Fresh oil fails.

11Be ashamed, O farmers,

Wail, O vinedressers,

For the wheat and the barley;

Because the harvest of the field is destroyed.

12The vine dries up

And the fig tree fails;

The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree,

All the trees of the field dry up.

Indeed, rejoicing dries up

From the sons of men.

13Gird yourselves with sackcloth

And lament, O priests;

Wail, O ministers of the altar!

Come, spend 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

14Consecrate a fast,

Proclaim a solemn assembly;

Gather the elders

And all the inhabitants of the land

To the house of the Lord your God,

And cry out to the Lord.

15Alas for the day!

For the day of the Lord is near,

And it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

16Has not food been cut off before our eyes,

Gladness and joy from the house of our God?

17The seeds shrivel under their clods;

The storehouses are desolate,

The barns are torn down,

For the grain is dried up.

18How the beasts groan!

The herds of cattle wander aimlessly

Because there is no pasture for them;

Even the flocks of sheep suffer.

19To You, O Lord, I cry;

For fire 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 pant for You;

For the water brooks are dried up

And fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.