Joel 1

1 Yahweh’s word that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.

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

2 Hear this, you elders, and listen, all you inhabitants of the land! Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

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 Tell your children about it, and have your children tell their children, and their children, another generation.

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

4 What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar 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 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it 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, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs 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 He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.

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

8 Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!

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

9 The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh’s house. The priests, Yahweh’s ministers, mourn.

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

10 The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes.

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

11 Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers, for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished.

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 has dried up, and the fig tree withered— the 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 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 mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house.

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. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of Yahweh, your God, and cry to Yahweh.

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! For the day of Yahweh is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

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

16 Isn’t the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness 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 seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has 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 animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

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 Yahweh, I cry to you, for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned 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 Yes, the animals of the field pant to you, for the water brooks have dried up, and the 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.