Joel 1:1-11 ▼

1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel:

2 Hear this, you elders; listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors?

3 Tell your children about it, and let your children tell their children, and their children the next generation.

4 What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.

5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you wine drinkers, because of the sweet wine, for it has been taken from your mouth.

6 For a nation has invaded my land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of a lioness.

7 It has devastated my grapevine and splintered my fig tree. It has stripped off its bark and thrown it away; its branches have turned white.

8 Grieve like a young woman dressed in sackcloth, mourning for the husband of her youth.

9 Grain and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, who are ministers of the LORD, mourn.

10 The fields are destroyed; the land grieves; indeed, the grain is destroyed; the new wine is dried up; and the fresh oil fails.

11 Be ashamed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.