Joel 1
1This is the word of Yahweh that came to Joel son of Pethuel. 1
2Hear this, you elders, 1 and listen, all you inhabitants of the land. 1 Has anything like this happened in your days 1 or in the days of your ancestors? 1
3Tell your children about it, 1 and let your children tell their children, 1 and their children the next generation. 1
4What the swarming locust has left the great locust has eaten; 1 what the great locust has left the grasshopper has eaten; 1 and what the grasshopper has left the caterpillar has eaten. 1
5Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! 1 Wail, all you drinkers of wine, 1 because the sweet wine has been cut off from you. 1
6For a nation has come up upon my land, 1 strong and without number. 1 His teeth are the teeth of a lion, 1 and he has the teeth of a lioness. 1
7He has made my vineyard into a desolate place 1 and has stripped my fig tree bare. 1 He has stripped its bark and thrown it away; 1 the branches are bare white. 1
8Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the death of her young husband. 1
9The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from Yahweh's house. 1 The priests, Yahweh's servants, mourn. 1
10The fields are ruined, 1 the ground is mourning because the grain has been destroyed. 1 The new wine has dried up, 1 the oil fails. 1
11Be ashamed, you farmers, 1 and wail, you vine growers, 1 for the wheat and the barley. 1 For the harvest of the fields has perished. 1
12The vines have withered and the fig trees have dried up, 1 the pomegranate trees, also the palm trees, and the apple trees— 1 all the trees of the field have withered. 1 For joy has withered away from the descendants of mankind. 1
13Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! 1 Wail, you servants of the altar. 1 Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you servants of my God. 1 For the grain offering and the drink offering have been withheld from the house of your God. 1
14Call for a holy fast, 1 and call a holy assembly. 1 Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land 1 to the house of Yahweh your God, 1 and cry to Yahweh. 1
15Alas for the day! 1 For the day of Yahweh is almost here. 1 With it will come destruction from the Almighty. 1
16Has not food been cut off from before our eyes, 1 and joy and gladness from the house of our God? 1
17The seeds rot under their clods, 1 the granaries are desolate, 1 and the barns have been broken down, 1 for the grain has withered. 1
18How the animals groan! 1 The herds of cattle are suffering 1 because they have no pasture. 1 Also, the flocks of sheep suffer. 1
19Yahweh, I cry to you. 1 For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, 1 and flames have burned all the trees of the fields. 1
20Even the animals of the fields pant for you, 1 for the water brooks have dried up, 1 and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.