Joel 1

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

An Invasion of Locusts

2 ^aHear this, ^byou elders;
give ear, ^call inhabitants of the land!
^dHas such a thing happened in your days,
or in the days of your fathers?
3 ^eTell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation.
4 What ^fthe cutting locust left,
^gthe swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
^hthe hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
ⁱthe destroying locust has eaten.
5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
and ^jwail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of ^kthe sweet wine,
for it is cut off from your mouth.
6For ^la nation has come up against my land,
^mpowerful and beyond number;
ⁿits teeth are lions’ teeth,
and it has the fangs of a lioness.
7It has laid waste my vine
and splintered my ^ofig tree;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
their branches are made white.
8 Lament like a virgin ▼

▼Or young woman

^qwearing sackcloth
for the bridegroom of her youth.
9 ^rThe grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
from the house of the Lord.
^sThe priests mourn,
^tthe ministers of the Lord.
10The fields are destroyed,
^uthe ground mourns,
because ^vthe grain is destroyed,
^wthe wine dries up,
the oil languishes.
11 ^xBe ashamed, ▼

▼The Hebrew words for  dry up and  be ashamed in verses 10–12, 17 sound alike

O tillers of the soil;
wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley,
^zbecause the harvest of the field has perished.
12The vine dries up;
^aathe fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
all the trees of the field are dried up,
and ^abgladness dries up
from the children of man.

A Call to Repentance

13 ^acPut on sackcloth and lament, ^adO priests;
^aewail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, ^afpass the night in sackcloth,
^agO ministers of my God!
^ahBecause grain offering and drink offering
are withheld from the house of your God.
14 ^aiConsecrate a fast;
^ajcall a solemn assembly.
Gather ^akthe elders
and ^alall the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.
15 Alas for the day!
^amFor the day of the Lord is near,
and as destruction from the Almighty ▼

▼ Destruction sounds like the Hebrew for  Almighty

it comes.
16Is not the food cut off
before our eyes,
^aojoy and gladness
from the house of our God?
17 ^apThe seed shrivels under the clods; ▼

▼The meaning of the Hebrew line is uncertain

the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
because ^arthe grain has dried up.
18How ^asthe beasts groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
even the flocks of sheep suffer. ▼

▼Or are made desolate

19 To you, ^auO Lord, I call.
^avFor fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness,
^awand flame has burned
all the trees of the field.
20Even the beasts of the field ^axpant for you
because the water brooks are dried up,
^ayand fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness.

Joel 2:1-17

The Day of the Lord

1 ^azBlow a trumpet in ^baZion;
sound an alarm on ^bbmy holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for ^bcthe day of the Lord is coming; it is near,
2 ^bda day of darkness and gloom,
^bea day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
^bfa great and powerful people;
^bgtheir like has never been before,
nor will be again after them
through the years of all generations.
3 ^bhFire devours before them,
and behind them a flame burns.
The land is like ^bithe garden of Eden before them,
but ^bjbehind them a desolate wilderness,
and nothing escapes them.
4 ^bkTheir appearance is like the appearance of horses,
and like war horses they run.
5 ^blAs with the rumbling of chariots,
they leap on the tops of the mountains,
like the crackling of ^bma flame of fire
devouring the stubble,
^bnlike a powerful army
drawn up for battle.
6 Before them peoples are in anguish;
^boall faces grow pale.
7Like warriors they charge;
like soldiers they scale the wall.
They march each on his way;
they do not swerve from their paths.
8They do not jostle one another;
^bpeach marches in his path;
they burst through the weapons
and are not halted.
9 ^bqThey leap upon the city,
they run upon the walls,
^brthey climb up into the houses,
^bsthey enter through the windows ^btlike a thief.
10 ^buThe earth quakes before them;
the heavens tremble.
^bvThe sun and the moon are darkened,
and the stars withdraw their shining.
11 ^bwThe Lord utters his voice
before ^bxhis army,
for his camp is exceedingly great;
^byhe who executes his word is powerful.
^bzFor the day of the Lord is ^cagreat and very awesome;
^cbwho can endure it?

Return to the Lord

12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
^cc“return to me with all your heart,
^cdwith fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13and ^cerend your hearts and not ^cfyour garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
^cgfor he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
^chand he relents over disaster.
14 ^ciWho knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and ^cjleave a blessing behind him,
^cka grain offering and a drink offering
for the Lord your God?
15 ^clBlow the trumpet in Zion;
^cmconsecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
16gather the people.
^cnConsecrate the congregation;
assemble the elders;
^cogather the children,
even nursing infants.
^cpLet the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her chamber.
17 ^cqBetween the ^crvestibule and the ^csaltar
^ctlet the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep
and say, “Spare your people, O Lord,
and make not your heritage a reproach,
a byword among the nations. ▼

▼Or  reproach, that the nations should rule over them

^cvWhy should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”