1 The word of the Lordthat came toJoel, the son of Pethuel.
The Devastation of Locusts
2 Hear this, O elders,
Listen closely, all inhabitants of the land!
Hassuch a thing asthis occurred in your days,
Or even in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell your children about it,
And let your children tell their children,
And their children the next generation.
4 What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten;
And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten;
And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten [in judgment of Judah].
5 Awake [from your intoxication], you drunkards, and weep;
Wail, all you drinkers of wine,
Because of the [fresh] sweet wine
That is cut off from your mouth.
6 For a [pagan and hostile] nation has invaded My land [like locusts],
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 (My people) a wasteandobject of horror,
And splinteredandbroken My fig tree.
It has stripped them completely bare and thrown them away;
Their branches have become white.
8 Wail like a virgin [bride] clothed withsackcloth
For the bridegroom of her youth [who has died].
9 The [daily] grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
From the house of the Lord;
The priests mourn
Who minister to the Lord.
10 The field is ruined,
The ground mourns;
For the grain is ruined,
The new wine is dried up,
The fresh oil fails.
11 Be ashamed, O farmers;
Wail, O vinedressers,
For the wheat and for the barley,
Because the harvest of the field has perished.
12 The vine dries up
And the fig tree fails;
The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree,
All the trees of the field dry up,
Indeed, joy dries upandwithdraws
From the sons of men.
13 Clothe yourselveswith sackcloth
And lament (cry out in grief), O priests;
Wail, O ministers of the altar!
Come, spend the night in sackcloth [and pray without ceasing],
O ministers of my God,
For the grain offering and the drink offering
Are withheld from the house of your God.
Starvation and Drought
14 Consecrate a fast,
Proclaim a solemn assembly,
Gather the elders
And all the inhabitants of the land
To the house of the Lordyour God,
And cry out to the Lord[in penitent pleadings].
15 Alas for the day!
For the [judgment] day of the Lordis at hand,
And it will come [upon the nation] as a destruction from theAlmighty.
16 Has not the food been cut off before our eyes,
Joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 The seeds [of grain] shrivel under the clods,
The storehouses are desolateandempty,
The barns are in ruins
Because the grain is dried up.
18 How the animals groan!
The herds of cattle are bewilderedandwander aimlessly
Because they have no pasture;
Even the flocks of sheep suffer.
19 O Lord, I cry out to You,
For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness,
And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.
20 Even the wild animals pant [in longing] for You;
For the water brooks are dried up
And fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness.