Joe 1 | LSB | STEP | The word of Yahweh that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

Joel 1

The Locusts Bring Desolation

1 The word of ^{▼▼The personal covenant name of God, a form of I AM WHO I AM, cf. Ex 3:14-15}Yahweh that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

2 Hear this, O elders,
And give ear, all inhabitants of the land.
Has anything like this happened in your days
Or in your fathers’ days?
3 Recount about it to your sons,
And let your sons recount about it to their sons,
And their sons to the next generation.
4 What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has consumed;
And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has consumed;
And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has consumed.
5 Awake, drunkards, and weep;
And wail, all you wine drinkers,
On account of the sweet wine
That is cut off from your mouth.
6 For a nation has come up against my land,
Mighty and without number;
Its teeth are the teeth of a lion,
And it has the fangs of a lioness.
7 It has made my vine a desolation
And my fig tree ^{▼▼Or a stump}splinters.
It has stripped them bare and cast them away;
Their branches have become white.
8 Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth
For the bridegroom of her youth.
9 The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
From the house of Yahweh.
The priests mourn,
The ministers of Yahweh.
10 The field is destroyed;
The land mourns,
For the grain is destroyed,
The new wine dries up,
Fresh oil ^{▼▼Lit wastes away}fails.
11 ^{▼▼ Or The farmers are ashamed, The vinedressers wail}Be ashamed, O farmers,
Wail, O vinedressers,
For the wheat and the barley,
Because the harvest of the field perishes.
12 The vine dries up,
And the fig tree ^{▼▼Lit wastes away}fails;
The pomegranate, the palm also, and the ^{▼▼Or apricot}apple tree,
All the trees of the field dry up.
Indeed, rejoicing dries up
From the sons of men.

The Day of Yahweh Is Near

13 Gird 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.
14 Set apart a fast as holy,
Call for a solemn assembly;
Gather the elders
And all the inhabitants of the land
To the house of Yahweh your God,
And cry out to Yahweh.
15 Alas for the day!
For the day of Yahweh is near,
And it will come as destruction from the ^{▼▼Heb Shaddai}Almighty.
16 Has not food been cut off before our eyes,
Gladness and joy from the house of our God?
17 The ^{▼▼Or dried figs}seeds shrivel under their ^{▼▼Or shovels}clods;
The storehouses are desolate;
The barns are pulled down,
For the grain is dried up.
18 How the beasts groan!
The herds of cattle wander aimlessly
Because there is no pasture for them;
Even the flocks of sheep ^{▼▼Lit bear punishment}suffer.
19 To You, O Yahweh, I cry;
For fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness,
And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.
20 Even the beasts of the field ^{▼▼Lit long for}pant for You;
For the water brooks are dried up,
And fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness.