Joel 1:7-20 ▼

7 It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away; the branches have turned white.

8 Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth.

9 Grain and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD.

10 The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails.

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

12 The grapevine is dried up, and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, palm, and apple—all the trees of the orchard—are withered. Surely the joy of mankind has dried up.

13 Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.

14 Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.

15 Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

16 Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes—joy and gladness from the house of our God?

17 The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away.

18 How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

19 To You, O LORD, I call, for fire has consumed the open pastures and flames have scorched all 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 consumed the open pastures.