Joel 1

1 The Lord sent a message through Joel, son of Pethuel.

A word of YHWH that has been 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 aged ones, And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land, Has this been in your days? Or 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.

Concerning it talk to your sons, And your sons to their sons, And their sons to 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.

What is left of the palmer-worm, the locust has eaten, And what is left of the locust, The cankerworm has eaten, And what is left of the cankerworm, 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!

Awake, you drunkards, and weep, And howl all drinking wine, because of the juice, For it has been 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 has come up on My land, Strong, and there is no number, Its teeth [are] the teeth of a lion, And it has the jaw-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.

It has made My vine become a desolation, And My fig tree become a splinter, It has made it thoroughly bare, and has cast down, Its branches have been made white.

8 Mourn like a bride dressed in sackcloth, mourning the death of her husband-to-be.

Wail, as a virgin girds 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.

Present and drink-offering have been cut off from the house of YHWH, The priests have mourned, servants of YHWH.

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 spoiled, The ground has mourned, For the grain is spoiled, New wine has been dried up, oil languishes.

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, Howl, vinedressers, for wheat and for barley, For the harvest of the field 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 vine has been dried up, And the fig tree languishes, Pomegranate, also palm, and apple-tree, All trees of the field have withered, For joy has been dried up from the sons 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, and lament, you priests, Howl, you servants of the altar, Come in, lodge in sackcloth, servants of my God, For present and 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.

Sanctify a fast, proclaim a restraint, Gather [the] elderly [and] all those inhabiting the land, [Into the] house of your God YHWH,

15 What a terrible day! For the day of the Lord is near, it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

And cry to YHWH, “Aah! For the day! For [the] Day of YHWH [is] near, And it comes as 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.

Is food not cut off before our eyes? Joy and rejoicing 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.

Scattered things have rotted under their clods, Storehouses have been desolated, Granaries 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 livestock have sighed! Perplexed have been droves of oxen, For there is no pasture for them, Also droves of sheep have been desolated.

19 To you, Lord, I cry out! For fire has destroyed the pastures in the wilderness; flames have burned up all the orchards.

To You, O YHWH, I call, For fire has consumed lovely places of a wilderness, And a flame has set on fire all 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.

Also the livestock of the field long for You, For dried up have been streams of water, And fire has consumed lovely places of a wilderness!”