Chapter 1
1 The LORD ’s ", usually pronounced Yahweh). word that came to Joel , the son of Pethuel .
2 Hear this , you elders , and listen , all you inhabitants of the land! Has this ever happened in your days , or in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell your children about it , and have your children tell their children , and their children , another generation .
4 What the swarming locust has left , the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left , the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left , the caterpillar has eaten.
5 Wake up , you drunkards , and weep ! Wail , all you drinkers of wine , because of the sweet wine , for it is cut off from your mouth .
6 For a nation has come up on my land, strong , and without number . His teeth are the teeth of a lion , and he has the fangs of a lioness .
7 He has laid my vine waste , and stripped my fig tree . He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away . Its branches are made white .
8 Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth !
9 The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the LORD ’s house . The priests , the LORD ’s ministers , mourn.
10 The field is laid waste . The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed , The new wine has dried up , and the oil languishes.
11 Be confounded, you farmers! Wail , you vineyard keepers, for the wheat and for the barley ; for the harvest of the field has perished.
12 The vine has dried up , and the fig tree withered — the pomegranate tree , the palm tree also , and the apple tree , even all of the trees of the field are withered ; for joy has withered away from the sons of men .
13 Put on sackcloth and mourn , you priests ! Wail , you ministers of the altar . Come , lie all night in sackcloth , you ministers of my God, " (Elohim). for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house .
14 Sanctify a fast . Call a solemn assembly . Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD , your God , and cry to the LORD .
15 Alas for the day ! For the day of the LORD is at hand , and it will come as destruction from the Almighty .
16 Isn’t the food cut off before our eyes , joy and gladness from the house of our God ?
17 The seeds rot under their clods . The granaries are laid desolate . The barns are broken down , for the grain has withered .
18 How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture . Yes , the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
19 LORD , I cry to you , for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness , and the flame has burnt all the trees of the field .
20 Yes , the animals of the field pant to you , for the water brooks have dried up , and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness .