Joel 1

1 The Lord’s message that came to Joel, son of Pethuel.

The Lord sent a message through Joel, son of Pethuel.

2 Hear this, elders, pay attention, all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days, or in the days of your ancestors?

Listen to this, elders; pay attention, everyone who lives in the land. Has anything ever happened like this before in your experience, or that of your forefathers?

3 Recount it to your children; let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the generation that follows.

Tell your children about it, and have your children tell it to their children, and their children tell the next generation.

4 That which the cutting locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten, that which the swarming locust has left, the hopping locust has eaten, and that which the hopping locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.

What the cutting locusts left, the swarming locusts have eaten; what the swarming locusts left, the hopping locusts have eaten; what the hopping locusts left, the destroying locusts have eaten.

5 Awake, drunkards, and weep, and wail, all drinkers of wine; the new wine is cut off from your mouth.

Wake up, you drunks, and weep! Howl you wine-drinkers, because the new wine has been suddenly taken away from your mouth!

6 For a nation has come up on my land, powerful, and numberless; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its jaw-teeth are like those of a lioness.

A nation has invaded my land: powerful and too many to count. Their teeth are like lion's teeth, their fangs like those of a lioness.

7 It has laid waste my vines, and barked my fig tree; it has peeled and cast it away, bleached are the branches.

It has ruined my grapevines and destroyed my fig trees, stripping them completely and reducing them to stumps, white and bare.

8 Wail as a bride, clad in sack-cloth, for the husband of her youth.

Mourn like a bride dressed in sackcloth, mourning the death of her husband-to-be.

9 Cut off are the cereal and drink-offerings from the house of the Lord; in mourning are the priests, who minister at the Lord’s altar.

Grain and wine offerings have stopped in the Temple. The priests who minister before the Lord are in mourning.

10 The fields are blasted, the land is in mourning, for ruined is the corn, the new wine fails and the oil is dried up.

The fields are devastated, the earth mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine dries up, the olive oil fails.

11 Be dismayed, farmers; wail, vine-dressers. For the wheat and the barley; for the harvest is lost from the fields.

Be ashamed, farmers, and wail in sorrow, keepers of vineyards, over the wheat and the barley, for the crops from the fields are ruined.

12 The vine fails to bear fruit, and the fig tree is drooping; the pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up. The people’s joy withers.

The vines are shriveled, the fig trees are withered; the pomegranate, the palm, and the apricot trees—all the fruit trees have dried up, and at the same time the people's happiness has also dried up.

13 Put on sackcloth, and beat your breasts, priests; wail, ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sack-cloth, ministers of God; for cereal-offering and drink-offering are cut off from the house of your God.

Dress in sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; weep, you who minister before the altar! Go and spend the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the grain and wine offerings have stopped in the Temple.

14 Sanctify a fast, summon an assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, cry to the Lord:

Proclaim a fast; call a sacred assembly. Have the elders and all people of the land gather in the Temple, and cry out to your God, to the Lord.

15 Alas for the day! Near at hand is the day of the Lord, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

What a terrible day! For the day of the Lord is near, it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

16 Is not food cut off from before us, gladness and joy from the house of our God?

Haven't we seen our food taken away from us, right before our eyes? There is no joy and happiness in God's Temple.

17 The grains shrivel under their hoes, the storehouses are desolate, the barns broken down, for the corn is withered.

Seeds planted in the ground shrivel up; the storehouses are empty, the barns are torn down because the grain has dried up.

18 How the herds of cattle bellow in distress, for they have no pasture! The flocks of sheep are forlorn.

The farm animals moan with hunger. The herds of cattle wander everywhere because they can't find grass to eat; the flocks of sheep are suffering.

19 To you, the Lord, I cry. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has scorched all the trees of the field.

To you, Lord, I cry out! For fire has destroyed the pastures in the wilderness; flames have burned up all the orchards.

20 The wild animals also look up to you longingly, for the water-courses are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Even the wild animals long for you because the streams have dried up, and fire has destroyed the pastures in the wilderness.