Joel 1
1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
The Lord sent a message through Joel, son of Pethuel.
2 Listen to this, elders, and pay close attention, all inhabitants of the land. Did this ever happen 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 Talk this over with your sons, and your sons with their sons, and their sons with another generation.
Tell your children about it, and have your children tell it to their children, and their children tell the next generation.
4 The locust has eaten what the caterpillar has left, and the beetle has eaten what the locust has left, and the mildew has eaten what the beetle has left.
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 Rouse yourselves, you drunkards, and weep and wail, all you who delight in drinking wine; for it has been cut off from your mouth.
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 ascended over my land: strong and without number. His teeth are like the teeth of a lion, and his molars are like that of a lion’s young.
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 He has put my vineyard into desolation, and he has pulled off the bark of my fig tree. He has stripped it bare and cast it away; its branches have become white.
It has ruined my grapevines and destroyed my fig trees, stripping them completely and reducing them to stumps, white and bare.
8 Lament like a betrothed virgin, wrapped in sackcloth at the loss of the husband of her youth.
Mourn like a bride dressed in sackcloth, mourning the death of her husband-to-be.
9 Sacrifice and libation have perished from the house of the Lord; the priests who are ministers of the Lord have mourned.
Grain and wine offerings have stopped in the Temple. The priests who minister before the Lord are in mourning.
10 The region has been depopulated, the soil has mourned. For the wheat has been devastated, the wine has been disfigured, the oil has languished.
The fields are devastated, the earth mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine dries up, the olive oil fails.
11 The farmers have been confounded, the vineyard workers have wailed over the crop and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.
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 vineyard is in ruin, and the fig tree has languished. The pomegranate tree, and the palm tree, and the fruit tree, and all the trees of the field have withered. For joy has been thrown into disorder before 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 Priests, gird yourselves and lament. Ministers of the altars, wail. Enter, ministers of my God, lie in sackcloth. For sacrifice and libation have passed away 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 Sanctify a fast, call an assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God. And cry 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 “Ah, ah, ah, the day!” For the day of the Lord is near, and it will arrive, like a devastation, before the powerful.
What a terrible day! For the day of the Lord is near, it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
16 Has not your nourishment perished from before your eyes, joy and gladness 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 mules have rotted in their own manure, the barns have been demolished, the wine cellars have been destroyed, because the grain has been ruined.
Seeds planted in the ground shrivel up; the storehouses are empty, the barns are torn down because the grain has dried up.
18 Why have the animals groaned, the herds of cattle bellowed? because there is no pasture for them. Yes, and even the flocks of sheep have been lost.
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 To you, O Lord, I will cry out, because fire has devoured the beauty of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the countryside.
To you, Lord, I cry out! For fire has destroyed the pastures in the wilderness; flames have burned up all the orchards.
20 Yes, and even the beasts of the field have gazed up at you, like the dry ground thirsting for rain, because the fountains of waters have dried up, and fire has devoured the beauty of the wilderness.
Even the wild animals long for you because the streams have dried up, and fire has destroyed the pastures in the wilderness.
