1 The word of Adonai that came to Joel the son of Pethuel:
Mourn the Land’s Destruction
2 Hear this, elders!
Give ear, all inhabitants of the land.
Has this ever happened in your days,
or even in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell your children about it—
your children to their children,
their children to another generation.
4 What the locust left,
the swarming locust has eaten,
and what the swarming locust left,
the canker-worm has eaten,
and what the canker-worm left,
the caterpillar has eaten.
5 Awake, drunkards, and weep!
Wail, all you drinkers of wine—
on account of sweet wine,
for it is denied to your mouth!
6 For a nation has invaded my land.
Vast—yes, without number!
Its teeth are lion’s teeth,
with jaw-teeth of a lioness.[a]
7 He has turned my vine to waste
and my fig tree to splinters.
He has stripped off all the bark
and flung it down—
its branches are left white.
8 Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth
for the husband of her youth!
9 Grain offering and drink offering
are cut off from the House of Adonai.
Kohanim—ministers of Adonai—mourn.
10 The field is ruined, the land grieves,
for the grain has been devastated,
new wine is dried up, oil languishes.
11 Be ashamed, O ploughmen;
wail, O vinedressers,
over wheat and over barley,
for the harvest of the field is lost.
12 The vine withered, the fig tree wilted.
Pomegranate, palm and apple tree
—all trees of the field—are withered,
for joy has withered away
from the children of men.
13 Gird yourselves and weep, kohanim!
Howl, ministers of the altar!
Come, lie in sackcloth all night,
ministers of my God.
For grain and drink offering are withheld
from the House of your God.
The Day is Near!
14 Consecrate a fast.
Proclaim a solemn assembly.
Gather elders and all living in the land
to the House of Adonai your God,
and cry to Adonai.
15 Ah, the day!
The day of Adonai is near!
As havoc from Shaddai it will come.
16 Is food not cut off before our eyes—
joy and gladness from God’s House?
17 Seed has shriveled under the dirt clod.
Storehouses are desolate,
granaries are torn down,
for the grain has withered.
18 How the animals groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed,
because they have no pasture.
The flocks of sheep also suffer.
19 To You, Adonai, I cry!
For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness,
and flame has set ablaze all the trees of the field.
20 Also beasts of the field pant toward You.
For the water of wadis are dried up,
and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
Footnotes
- Joel 1:6 cf. Rev. 9:7-8.