Joel 1

The Devastation by Locusts

1 The ^aword of the Lord that came to ^bJoel, the son of Pethuel:

2 ^cHear this, you ^delders,
And listen, all inhabitants of the land.
^eHas anything like this happened in your days,
Or in your fathers’ days?
3 ^fTell your sons about it,
And have your sons tell their sons,
And their sons the next generation.

4 What the ^ggnawing locust has left, the ▼

▼Or migratory

swarming locust has eaten;
And what the ⁱswarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten;
And what the creeping locust has left, the ^jstripping locust has eaten.
5 Awake, ^kyou heavy drinkers, and weep;
And wail, all you wine drinkers,
Because of the sweet wine,
For it has been ^leliminated from your mouth.
6 For a ^mnation has ▼

▼Lit gone up against

invaded my land,
Mighty and without number;
^oIts teeth are the teeth of a lion,
And it has the jaws of a lioness.
7 It has ^pmade my vine a waste
And my fig tree a stump.
It has stripped them bare and hurled them away;
Their branches have become white.

8 ^qWail like a virgin ^rclothed with sackcloth
For the groom of her youth.
9 The ^sgrain offering and the drink offering have been cut off
From the house of the Lord.
The ^tpriests mourn,
The ministers of the Lord.
10 The field is ^uruined,
^vThe land mourns;
For the grain is ruined,
The new wine has dried up,
Fresh oil has ▼

▼Lit dried out

failed.
11 ^xBe ashamed, you farm workers,
Wail, you vinedressers,
For the wheat and the barley;
Because the ^yharvest of the field is destroyed.
12 The ^zvine has dried up
And the fig tree has withered;
The ^aapomegranate, the ^abpalm also, and the ^acapple tree,
All the trees of the field have dried up.
Indeed, ^adjoy has dried up
From the sons of mankind.

13 ^aePut on sackcloth
And mourn, you priests;
^afWail, you ministers of the altar!
Come, ^agspend the night in sackcloth,
You ministers of my God,
For the grain offering and the drink offering
Have been withheld from the house of your God.

Starvation and Drought

14 ^ahConsecrate a fast,
Proclaim a ^aisolemn assembly;
Gather the elders
And all the inhabitants of the land
To the house of the Lord your God,
And ^ajcry out to the Lord.
15 ^akWoe for the day!
For the ^alday of the Lord is near,
And it will come as ^amdestruction from the ▼

▼Heb Shaddai

Almighty.
16 Has ^aofood not been cut off before our eyes, and
Joy and ^aprejoicing from the house of our God?
17 The ▼

▼Or dried figs

, ^arseeds have dried up under their shovels;
The storehouses have become desolate,
The grain silos are ruined,
Because the grain has dried up.
18 How ^asthe animals have groaned!
The herds of cattle have wandered aimlessly
Because there is no pasture for them;
Even the flocks of sheep have ▼

▼Lit suffered punishment

suffered.
19 ^auTo You, Lord, I cry out;
For ^avfire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness,
And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.
20 Even the animals of the field ▼

▼Or long for

, ^axpant for You;
For the ^aystream beds of water are dried up,
And fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.