Joel 1

I am Joel son of Pethuel. This is a message that God gave to me. 2 You leaders {of Israel}, and everyone else who lives in this country, listen {to this message}! Nothing like this has ever happened during the time that we have lived or during the time when our ancestors lived. 3 Tell your children about it, and tell your children to tell it to their children, and tell your grandchildren to tell it to their children. \* 4 Tell them this: The first swarm of locusts came and cut many of the leaves of the crops; then another swarm came and ate the rest of the leaves, then hopping locusts came and ate what they had left, and finally, another swarm came and they destroyed everything else. \* 5 You people who are drunk, wake up and cry! Cry loudly, all of you who drink wine, because all the grapes are ruined, and so there will be no new wine! 6 Huge swarms of locusts have entered our country. They are like a powerful army that has very many soldiers; no one can count them. The locusts have teeth that are as sharp as the teeth of lions! 7 They have destroyed our grapevines and our fig trees by stripping off and eating all the bark, with the result that the branches are white and bare. \* 8 Cry and wail as a young woman does when the young man to whom she was engaged has died. 9 There is no more flour or wine for us to offer as sacrifices at God’s temple, so the priests who serve God are mourning. 10 The locusts have ruined the {crops in the} fields. It is as though the ground itself is mourning because the grain is gone; there will be no {grapes to make} wine, and there is no more {olive} oil. \* 11 You farmers, despair! You who take care of grapevines, cry loudly, because the crops in the field are gone; there is no wheat or barley growing any more. 12 The grapevines and the fig trees have withered, and the pomegranate trees, palm trees, and apricot trees have also dried up. The people are no longer joyful. \* 13 You priests, put on {rough sack} clothes and wail. You who serve my God {by offering sacrifices} on the altar, wear those sack clothes all night {to show that you are mourning}, because there is no flour or wine to be offered at the temple of your God. 14 Set apart a day for when the people should go without food. Tell the leaders and the other people to gather at the temple and to cry out to God {there}. \* 15 It will soon be the time when God, {who is} the Almighty God, will punish us, when he will cause us to experience more disasters. That will be a terrible time! 16 Our crops are already gone, and no {one is} rejoicing at all at the temple of our God. 17 When we plant seeds, {they do not grow;} they dry up in the ground, so there are no crops to harvest. Our barns are empty; there is no grain {to store in them}. \* 18 Our cattle groan, searching for a pasture with some grass to eat but not finding any. The sheep also {bleat because they} are suffering. 19 God, I cry out to you, because {it is as though} a fire has completely burned our pastures and our forests. 20 The wild animals also are desperate for you to help them, because all the streams have dried up. The dryness is like a fire burning up the wilderness pastures. \*