Joel 1

The word of God that was to Joel, the son of Pethuel. 2 Hear this, you elders, and listen, all of the dwellers of the land! Has this been in your days or in the days of your fathers? 3 Recount about it to your sons, and your sons to their sons, and their sons to the generation after. \* 4 The residue of the cutting locust, the swarming locust has eaten, and the residue of the swarming locust, the hopping locust has eaten, and the residue of the hopping locust, the destroying locust has eaten. \* 5 Wake up, drunkards, and weep! And wail, all of the drinkers of wine, upon the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth. 6 For a nation has come up against my land, strong and without number. Its teeth {are} the teeth of a lion, and the fangs of a lioness {are} to it. 7 It has made my vine into a waste and my fig tree into splinters. Stripping, it has stripped it and thrown {it} away; its branches have become white. \* 8 Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth. 9 The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of God. The priests mourn, the servants of God. 10 The field has been destroyed; the ground mourns, for the grain has been destroyed; the new wine dries up, the oil is made weak. \* 11 Feel shame, farmers; wail, vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley, for the harvest of the field has perished. 12 The vine has dried up and the fig tree has been made weak. The pomegranate tree, also the palm tree and the apple tree, all of the trees of the field have dried up. So joy has dried up from the sons of man. \* 13 Dress and lament, you priests! Wail, you servants of the altar. Come, lodge in sackcloth, servants of my God, for the grain offering and the drink offering have been withheld from the house of your God. 14 Consecrate a fast, call an assembly. Gather the elders {and} all of the dwellers of the land {to} the house of God your God, and cry out to God. \* 15 Alas for the day! For the day of God {is} near, and as destruction from Shaddai it will come. 16 Has not food been cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? 17 The seeds shrivel under their clods. The storehouses are desolate, the granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up. \* 18 How the beast groans! The herds of cattle are perplexed, for no pasture {is} to them. Also the flocks of sheep are punished. 19 To you, God, I cry, for fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all of the trees of the field. 20 Even the beasts of the field pant for you, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness. \*