Joel 1
1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Phatuel.
The Lord sent a message through Joel, son of Pethuel.
2 Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye 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 Tell ye of this to your children, and let your children tell 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 That which the palmerworm hath left, the locust hath eaten: and that which the locust hath left, the bruchus hath eaten: and that which the bruchus hath left, the mildew hath destroyed.
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 Awake, ye that are drunk, and weep, and mourn all ye that take delight in drinking sweet wine: for it is 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 is come up upon my land, strong and without number: his teeth are like the teeth of a lion: and his cheek teeth as of a lion’s whelp.
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 hath laid my vineyard waste, and hath pilled off the bark of my fig tree: he hath stripped it bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof 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 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
Mourn like a bride dressed in sackcloth, mourning the death of her husband-to-be.
9 Sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of the Lord: the priests, the Lord’s ministers, have mourned:
Grain and wine offerings have stopped in the Temple. The priests who minister before the Lord are in mourning.
10 The country is destroyed, the ground hath mourned: for the corn is wasted, the wine is confounded, the oil hath languished.
The fields are devastated, the earth mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine dries up, the olive oil fails.
11 The husbandmen are ashamed, the vinedressers have howled for the wheat, and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is 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 confounded, and the fig tree hath languished: the pomegranate tree, and the palm tree, and the apple tree, and all the trees of the field are withered: because joy is withdrawn from the children 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 Gird yourselves, and lament, O ye priests, howl, ye ministers of the altars: go in, lie in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: because sacrifice and libation is cut off 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 ye a fast, call an assembly; gather together the ancients, all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God: and cry ye 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, for the day: because the day of the Lord is at hand, and it shall come like destruction from the mighty.
What a terrible day! For the day of the Lord is near, it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
16 Is not your food cut off 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 beasts have rotted in their dung, the barns are destroyed, the storehouses are broken down: because the corn is confounded.
Seeds planted in the ground shrivel up; the storehouses are empty, the barns are torn down because the grain has dried up.
18 Why did the beast groan, why did the herds of cattle low? because there is no pasture for them: yea, and the flocks of sheep are perished.
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 thee, O Lord, will I cry: because fire hath devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness, and the flame hath burnt all the trees of the country.
To you, Lord, I cry out! For fire has destroyed the pastures in the wilderness; flames have burned up all the orchards.
20 Yea and the beasts of the field have looked up to thee, as a garden bed that thirsteth after rain, for the springs of waters are dried up, and fire hath devoured the beautiful places 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.
