1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel. |
2 Hear this, you elders;
listen, all who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
or in the days of your forefathers? |
3 Tell it to your children,
and let your children tell it to their children,
and their children to the next generation. |
4 What the locust 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
other locusts1 1:4 The precise meaning of the four Hebrew words used here for locusts is uncertain. have eaten. |
5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
Wail, all you drinkers of wine;
wail because of the new wine,
for it has been snatched from your lips. |
6 A nation has invaded my land,
powerful and without number;
it has the teeth of a lion,
the fangs of a lioness. |
7 It has laid waste my vines
and ruined my fig trees.
It has stripped off their bark
and thrown it away,
leaving their branches white. |
8 Mourn like a virgin2 1:8 Or young woman in sackcloth
grieving for the husband3 1:8 Or betrothed of her youth. |
9 Grain offerings and drink offerings
are cut off from the house of the LORD .
The priests are in mourning,
those who minister before the LORD . |
10 The fields are ruined,
the ground is dried up4 1:10 Or ground mourns ;
the grain is destroyed,
the new wine is dried up,
the oil fails. |
11 Despair, you farmers,
wail, you vine growers;
grieve for the wheat and the barley,
because the harvest of the field is destroyed. |
12 The vine is dried up
and the fig tree is withered;
the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree-
all the trees of the field-are dried up.
Surely the joy of mankind
is withered away. |
13 Put on sackcloth, O priests, and mourn;
wail, you who minister before the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
you who minister before my God;
for the grain offerings and drink offerings
are withheld from the house of your God. |
14 Declare a holy fast;
call a sacred assembly.
Summon the elders
and all who live in the land
to the house of the LORD your God,
and cry out to the LORD . |
15 Alas for that day!
For the day of the LORD is near;
it will come like destruction from the Almighty.5 1:15 Hebrew Shaddai |
16 Has not the food been cut off
before our very eyes-
joy and gladness
from the house of our God? |
17 The seeds are shriveled
beneath the clods.6 1:17 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
The storehouses are in ruins,
the granaries have been broken down,
for the grain has dried up. |
18 How the cattle moan!
The herds mill about
because they have no pasture;
even the flocks of sheep are suffering. |
19 To you, O LORD , I call,
for fire has devoured the open pastures
and flames have burned up all the trees of the field. |
20 Even the wild animals pant for you;
the streams of water have dried up
and fire has devoured the open pastures. |
