Joel 1
1 The Lord sent a message through Joel, son of Pethuel.
The word of Jehovah that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
2 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?
Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell your children about it, and have your children tell it to their children, and their children tell the next generation.
Tell your children of it, and [let] your children [tell] their children, and their children another generation:
4 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.
that which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.
5 Wake up, you drunks, and weep! Howl you wine-drinkers, because the new wine has been suddenly taken away from your mouth!
Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine: for it is cut off from your mouth.
6 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.
For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number: his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a lioness.
7 It has ruined my grapevines and destroyed my fig trees, stripping them completely and reducing them to stumps, white and bare.
He hath made my vine a desolation, and barked my fig-tree; he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away: its branches are made white.
8 Mourn like a bride dressed in sackcloth, mourning the death of her husband-to-be.
Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
9 Grain and wine offerings have stopped in the Temple. The priests who minister before the Lord are in mourning.
The oblation and the drink-offering are cut off from the house of Jehovah; the priests, Jehovah's ministers, mourn.
10 The fields are devastated, the earth mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine dries up, the olive oil fails.
The field is laid waste, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
11 Be ashamed, farmers, and wail in sorrow, keepers of vineyards, over the wheat and the barley, for the crops from the fields are ruined.
Be ashamed, ye husbandmen; howl, ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley: because the harvest of the field hath perished.
12 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.
The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth; the pomegranate-tree, the palm also and the apple-tree; all the trees of the field are withered, yea, joy is withered away from the children of men.
13 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.
Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests; howl, ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the oblation and the drink-offering are withholden from the house of your God.
14 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.
Hallow a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, gather the elders, [and] all the inhabitants of the land to the house of Jehovah your God, and cry unto Jehovah.
15 What a terrible day! For the day of the Lord is near, it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
Alas for the day! for the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
16 Haven't we seen our food taken away from us, right before our eyes? There is no joy and happiness in God's Temple.
Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 Seeds planted in the ground shrivel up; the storehouses are empty, the barns are torn down because the grain has dried up.
The seeds are rotten under their clods, the granaries are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
18 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.
How do the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are bewildered, for they have no pasture; the flocks of sheep also are in suffering.
19 To you, Lord, I cry out! For fire has destroyed the pastures in the wilderness; flames have burned up all the orchards.
To thee, Jehovah, do I cry; for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned up all the trees of the field.
20 Even the wild animals long for you because the streams have dried up, and fire has destroyed the pastures in the wilderness.
The beasts of the field also cry unto thee; for the water-courses are dried, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
