Joel 1:1-13 ▼

1 The word of the Lord which came to Joel the son of Bathuel.

2 Hear these words , ye elders, and hearken all ye that inhabit the land. Have such things happen in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

3 Tell your children concerning them, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

4 The leavings of the caterpillar has the locust eaten, and the leavings of the locust has the palmerworm eaten, and the leavings of the palmerworm has the cankerworm eaten.

5 Awake, ye drunkards, from your wine, and weep: mourn, all ye that drink wine to drunkenness: for joy and gladness and removed are from your mouth.

6 For a strong and innumerable nation is come up against my land, their teeth are lion's teeth, and their back teeth those of a lion's whelp.

7 He has ruined my vine, and utterly broken my fig-trees: he has utterly searched my vine , and cast it down; he has peeled its branches.

8 Lament to me more than a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

9 The meat-offering and drink-offering are removed from the house of the Lord: mourn, ye priests that serve at the altar of the Lord.

10 For the plains languish: let the land mourn, for the corn languishes; the wine is dried up, the oil becomes scarce;

11 the husbandmen are consumed: mourn your property on account of the wheat and barley; for the harvest has perished from off the field.

12 The vine is dried up, and the fig-trees are become few; the pomegranate, and palm-tree, and apple, and all trees of the field are dried up: for the sons of men have have abolished joy.

13 Gird yourselves with sackcloth , and lament, ye priests: mourn, ye that serve at the altar: go in, sleep in sackcloths, ye that minister to God: for the meat-offering and drink-offering are withheld from the house of your God.