- 1
- The word of the LORD that came
to Joel son of Pethuel.
- 2
- Hear this, you elders; listen,
all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days
or in the days of your forefathers?
- 3
- Tell it to your children, and
let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next
generation.
- 4
- What the locust swarm has left
the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young
locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have
eaten.
- 5
- Wake up, you drunkards, and
weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it
has been snatched from your lips.
- 6
- A nation has invaded my land,
powerful and without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a
lioness.
- 7
- It has laid waste my vines and
ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away,
leaving their branches white.
- 8
- Mourn like a virgin in
sackcloth grieving for the husband of her youth.
- 9
- Grain offerings and drink
offerings are cut off from the house of the LORD. The priests are in
mourning, those who minister before the LORD.
- 10
- The fields are ruined, the
ground is dried up ; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the
oil fails.
- 11
- Despair, you farmers, wail,
you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest
of the field is destroyed.
- 12
- The vine is dried up and the
fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree-- all the
trees of the field--are dried up. Surely the joy of mankind is withered
away.
- 13
- Put on sackcloth, O priests,
and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in
sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink
offerings are withheld from the house of your God.
- 14
- Declare a holy fast; call a
sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house
of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
- 15
- Alas for that day! For the day
of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.
- 16
- Has not the food been cut off
before our very eyes-- joy and gladness from the house of our God?
- 17
- The seeds are shrivelled
beneath the clods. The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been
broken down, for the grain has dried up.
- 18
- How the cattle moan! The herds
mill about because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep are
suffering.
- 19
- To you, O LORD, I call, for
fire has devoured the open pastures and flames have burned up all the trees
of the field.
- 20
- Even the wild animals pant for
you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the open
pastures.
1
2
3