Joel 1

1Yahweh’s * word that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. 2And listen, all you inhabitants of the land. or in the days of your fathers? Hear this, you elders, Has this ever happened in your days, 3and have your children tell their children, and their children, another generation. Tell your children about it, 4What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten. What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. 5Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! 6His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness. For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. 7and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white. He has laid my vine waste, 8Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth! 9The priests, Yahweh’s ministers, mourn. The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh’s house. 10The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes. The field is laid waste. 11Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished. Be confounded, you farmers! 12the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men. The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; 13Wail, you ministers of the altar. for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house. Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! * 14Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Yahweh, your God, and cry to Yahweh. Sanctify a fast. 15For the day of Yahweh is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty. Alas for the day! 16joy and gladness from the house of our God? Isn’t the food cut off before our eyes; 17The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered. The seeds rot under their clods. 18The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. How the animals groan! 19For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field. Yahweh, I cry to you, 20for the water brooks have dried up, And the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness. Yes, the animals of the field pant to you,