Joel 1
1 The word of the Lord which came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
The Lord sent a message through Joel, son of Pethuel.
2 Give ear to this, you old men, and take note, you people of the land. Has this ever been in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
Listen to this, elders; pay attention, everyone who lives in the land. Has anything ever happened like this before in your experience, or that of your forefathers?
3 Give the story of it to your children, and let them give it to their children, and their children to another generation.
Tell your children about it, and have your children tell it to their children, and their children tell the next generation.
4 What the worm did not make a meal of, has been taken by the locust; and what the locust did not take, has been food for the plant-worm; and what the plant-worm did not take, has been food for the field-fly.
What the cutting locusts left, the swarming locusts have eaten; what the swarming locusts left, the hopping locusts have eaten; what the hopping locusts left, the destroying locusts have eaten.
5 Come out of your sleep, you who are overcome with wine, and give yourselves to weeping; give cries of sorrow, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it has been cut off from your mouths.
Wake up, you drunks, and weep! Howl you wine-drinkers, because the new wine has been suddenly taken away from your mouth!
6 For a nation has come up over my land, strong and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the back teeth of a great lion.
A nation has invaded my land: powerful and too many to count. Their teeth are like lion's teeth, their fangs like those of a lioness.
7 By him my vine is made waste and my fig-tree broken: he has taken all its fruit and sent it down to the earth; its branches are made white.
It has ruined my grapevines and destroyed my fig trees, stripping them completely and reducing them to stumps, white and bare.
8 Make sounds of grief like a virgin dressed in haircloth for the husband of her early years.
Mourn like a bride dressed in sackcloth, mourning the death of her husband-to-be.
9 The meal offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord's servants, are sorrowing.
Grain and wine offerings have stopped in the Temple. The priests who minister before the Lord are in mourning.
10 The fields are wasted, the land has become dry; for the grain is wasted, the new wine is kept back, the oil is poor.
The fields are devastated, the earth mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine dries up, the olive oil fails.
11 The farmers are shamed, the workers in the vine-gardens give cries of grief, for the wheat and the barley; for the produce of the fields has come to destruction.
Be ashamed, farmers, and wail in sorrow, keepers of vineyards, over the wheat and the barley, for the crops from the fields are ruined.
12 The vine has become dry and the fig-tree is feeble; the pomegranate and the palm-tree and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field, are dry: because joy has gone from the sons of men.
The vines are shriveled, the fig trees are withered; the pomegranate, the palm, and the apricot trees—all the fruit trees have dried up, and at the same time the people's happiness has also dried up.
13 Put haircloth round you and give yourselves to sorrow, you priests; give cries of grief, you servants of the altar: come in, and, clothed in haircloth, let the night go past, you servants of my God: for the meal offering and the drink offering have been kept back from the house of your God.
Dress in sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; weep, you who minister before the altar! Go and spend the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the grain and wine offerings have stopped in the Temple.
14 Let a time be fixed for going without food, have a holy meeting, let the old men, even all the people of the land, come together to the house of the Lord your God, crying out to the Lord.
Proclaim a fast; call a sacred assembly. Have the elders and all people of the land gather in the Temple, and cry out to your God, to the Lord.
15 Sorrow for the day! for the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Ruler of all it will come.
What a terrible day! For the day of the Lord is near, it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
16 Is not food cut off before our eyes? joy and delight from the house of our God?
Haven't we seen our food taken away from us, right before our eyes? There is no joy and happiness in God's Temple.
17 The grains have become small and dry under the spade; the store-houses are made waste, the grain-stores are broken down; for the grain is dry and dead.
Seeds planted in the ground shrivel up; the storehouses are empty, the barns are torn down because the grain has dried up.
18 What sounds of pain come from the beasts! the herds of cattle are at a loss because there is no grass for them; even the flocks of sheep are no longer to be seen.
The farm animals moan with hunger. The herds of cattle wander everywhere because they can't find grass to eat; the flocks of sheep are suffering.
19 O Lord, my cry goes up to you: for fire has put an end to the grass-lands of the waste, and all the trees of the field are burned with its flame.
To you, Lord, I cry out! For fire has destroyed the pastures in the wilderness; flames have burned up all the orchards.
20 The beasts of the field are turning to you with desire: for the water-streams are dry and fire has put an end to the grass-lands of the waste.
Even the wild animals long for you because the streams have dried up, and fire has destroyed the pastures in the wilderness.
