Joel, 1

¹ The word of Jehovah that came to Joel^*1 the son of Pe·thuʹel:

² “Hear this, you elders, And pay attention, all you inhabitants of the land.^*1 Has anything like this happened in your days Or in the days of your forefathers?

³ Tell about it to your sons, And let your sons tell about it to their sons, And their sons to the next generation.

⁴ What was left by the devouring locust, the swarming locust has eaten; And what was left by the swarming locust, the unwinged locust has eaten; And what the unwinged locust has left, the voracious locust has eaten.

⁵ Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you wine drinkers, Because the sweet wine has been taken from your mouths.

⁶ For a nation has come up into my land, mighty and without number. Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its jaws are those of a lion.

⁷ It has devastated my vine and turned my fig tree into a stump, Stripping them completely bare and tossing them aside, Leaving their twigs white.

⁸ Wail as a virgin^*1 wearing sackcloth does For the bridegroom^*2 of her youth.

⁹ Grain offering and drink offering have ceased from the house of Jehovah; The priests, the ministers of Jehovah, are in mourning.

¹⁰ The field has been devastated, the ground mourns; For the grain has been devastated, the new wine has dried up, the oil has failed.

¹¹ Farmers are dismayed, vinedressers wail, Because of the wheat and the barley; For the harvest of the field has perished.

¹² The vine has dried up, The fig tree has withered. The pomegranate, the palm, and the apple, All the trees of the field have dried up; For joy has turned to shame among the people.

¹³ Put on sackcloth^*1 and mourn,^*2 you priests; Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come in and spend the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God; For grain offering and drink offering have been withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁴ Proclaim^*1 a fast; call for a solemn assembly. Gather the elders together, with all the inhabitants of the land, To the house of Jehovah your God, and cry to Jehovah for help.

¹⁵ Woe because of the day! For the day of Jehovah is near, And it will come like a destruction from the Almighty!

¹⁶ Has not food been taken from before our very eyes, And rejoicing and joy from the house of our God?

¹⁷ The seeds^*1 have shriveled under their shovels. Storehouses are desolate. Granaries have been torn down, for the grain has dried up.

¹⁸ Even the livestock groan! The herds of cattle wander in confusion, for they have no pasture! And the flocks of sheep bear the punishment.

¹⁹ To you, O Jehovah, I will call; For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, And a flame has consumed all the trees of the field.

²⁰ Even the wild beasts long for you, Because the streams of water have dried up And fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.”