1 The word of theLordthat came toJoel the son of Pethuel.
The Land Laid Waste
2 Hear this, you elders,
And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land!
# Hasanythinglikethis happened in your days,
Or even in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell your children about it,
Letyour childrentelltheir children,
And their children another generation.
4 What the chewing locust left, theswarming locust has eaten;
What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten;
And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.
5 Awake, youdrunkards, and weep;
And wail, all you drinkers of wine,
Because of the new wine,
# For it has been cut off from your mouth.
6 Fora nation has come up against My land,
Strong, and without number;
# His teetharethe teeth of a lion,
And he has the fangs of a fierce lion.
7 He haslaid waste My vine,
And ruined My fig tree;
He has stripped it bare and thrownitaway;
Its branches are made white.
8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth
# Forthe husband of her youth.
9 The grain offering and the drink offering
Have been cut off from the house of theLord;
# The priestsmourn, who minister to theLord.
10 The field is wasted,
# The land mourns;
For the grain is ruined,
# The new wine is dried up,
The oil fails.
11 Be ashamed, you farmers,
Wail, you vinedressers,
For the wheat and the barley;
Because the harvest of the field has perished.
12 The vine has dried up,
And the fig tree has withered;
The pomegranate tree,
The palm tree also,
And the apple tree—
All the trees of the field are withered;
# Surelyjoy has withered away from the sons of men.
Mourning for the Land
13 Gird yourselves and lament, you priests;
Wail, you who minister before the altar;
Come, lie all night in sackcloth,
You who minister to my God;
For the grain offering and the drink offering
Are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Consecrate a fast,
# Calla sacred assembly;
Gather the elders
# Andall the inhabitants of the land
Intothe house of theLordyour God,
And cry out to theLord.
15 Alas for the day!
# Forthe day of theLordisat hand;
It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
16 Is not the foodcut off before our eyes,
# Joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 The seed shrivels under the clods,
Storehouses are in shambles;
Barns are broken down,
For the grain has withered.
18 Howthe animals groan!
The herds of cattle are restless,
Because they have no pasture;
Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment.
19 OLord,to You I cry out;
# Forfire has devoured the open pastures,
And a flame has burned all the trees of the field.
20 The beasts of the field alsocry out to You,
# Forthe water brooks are dried up,
And fire has devoured the open pastures.