Joel 1:1-12 ▼

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

2 Hear this, O elders, And give ear, all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days Or in your fathers’ days?

3 Recount about it to your sons, And let your sons recount about it to their sons, And their sons to the next generation.

4 What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has consumed; And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has consumed; And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has consumed.

5 Awake, drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you wine drinkers, On account of the sweet wine That is cut off from your mouth.

6 For a nation has come up against my land, Mighty and without number; Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, And it has the fangs of a lioness.

7 It has made my vine a desolation And my fig tree splinters. It has stripped them bare and cast them away; Their branches have become white.

8 Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth For the bridegroom of her youth.

9 The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off From the house of Yahweh. The priests mourn, The ministers of Yahweh.

10 The field is destroyed; The land mourns, For the grain is destroyed, The new wine dries up, Fresh oil fails.

11 Be ashamed, O farmers, Wail, O vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley, Because the harvest of the field perishes.

12 The vine dries up, And the fig tree fails; The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree, All the trees of the field dry up. Indeed, rejoicing dries up From the sons of men.