Joel 1
1 The Lord sent a message through Joel, son of Pethuel.
This is the word of Yahweh that came to Joel 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, you elders, and listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors?
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 about it, and let your children tell their children, and their children the next 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.
What the swarming locust has left the great locust has eaten; what the great locust has left the grasshopper has eaten; and what the grasshopper has left the caterpillar has eaten.
5 Wake up, you drunks, and weep! Howl you wine-drinkers, because the new wine has been suddenly taken away from your mouth!
Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because the sweet wine has been cut off from you.
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 has come up upon my land, strong and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the 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 has made my vineyard into a desolate place and has stripped my fig tree bare. He has stripped its bark and thrown it away; the branches are bare white.
8 Mourn like a bride dressed in sackcloth, mourning the death of her husband-to-be.
Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the death of her young husband.
9 Grain and wine offerings have stopped in the Temple. The priests who minister before the Lord are in mourning.
The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from Yahweh's house. The priests, Yahweh's servants, mourn.
10 The fields are devastated, the earth mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine dries up, the olive oil fails.
The fields are ruined, the ground is mourning because the grain has been destroyed. The new wine has dried up, the oil fails.
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, you farmers, and wail, you vine growers, for the wheat and the barley. For the harvest of the fields has 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 vines have withered and the fig trees have dried up, the pomegranate trees, also the palm trees, and the apple trees— all the trees of the field have withered. For joy has withered away from the descendants of mankind.
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.
Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you servants of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you servants of my God. For the grain offering and the drink offering have been withheld 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.
Call for a holy fast, and call a holy assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of Yahweh your God, and cry to Yahweh.
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 Yahweh is almost here. With it will come destruction from the Almighty.
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.
Has not food been cut off from before our eyes, and 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 rot under their clods, the granaries are desolate, and the barns have been broken down, for the grain has 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 the animals groan! The herds of cattle are suffering because they have no pasture. Also, the flocks of sheep suffer.
19 To you, Lord, I cry out! For fire has destroyed the pastures in the wilderness; flames have burned up all the orchards.
Yahweh, I cry to you. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flames have burned all the trees of the fields.
20 Even the wild animals long for you because the streams have dried up, and fire has destroyed the pastures in the wilderness.
Even the animals of the fields pant for you, for the water brooks have dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
