Joel 1

1 The word of the Lord which came to Joel the son of Bathuel.

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

2 Hear these [words], you elders, and listen all you that inhabit the land. Have such things happen in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

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?

3 Tell your children concerning them, and [let] your children [tell] their children, and their children another generation.

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

4 The leavings of the caterpillar has the locust eaten, and the leavings of the locust has the palmerworm eaten, and the leavings of the palmerworm has the cankerworm eaten.

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.

5 Awake, you drunkards, from your wine, and weep: mourn, all you that drink wine to drunkenness: for joy and gladness and removed are from your mouth.

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

6 For a strong and innumerable nation is come up against my land, their teeth are lion's teeth, and their back teeth those of a [lion's] whelp.

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.

7 He has ruined my vine, and utterly broken my fig-trees: he has utterly searched [my vine], and cast it down; he has peeled its branches.

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

8 Lament to me more than a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

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

9 The meat-offering and drink-offering are removed from the house of the Lord: mourn, you priests that serve at the altar of the Lord.

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.

10 For the plains languish: let the land mourn, for the corn languishes; the wine is dried up, the oil becomes scarce;

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

11 the husbandmen are consumed: mourn your property on account of the wheat and barley; for the harvest has perished from off the field.

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

12 The vine is dried up, and the fig-trees are become few; the pomegranate, and palm tree, and apple, and all trees of the field are dried up: for the sons of men have have abolished joy.

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.

13 Gird yourselves [with sackcloth], and lament, you priests: mourn, you that serve at the altar: go in, sleep in sackcloths, you that minister to God: for the meat-offering and drink-offering are withheld from the house of your God.

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.

14 Sanctify a fast, proclaim a [solemn] service, gather the elders [and] all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God, and cry earnestly to the Lord,

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:

15 Alas, Alas, Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is near, and it will come as trouble upon trouble.

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

16 [Your] meat has been destroyed before your eyes, joy and gladness from out of the house of your God.

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

17 The heifers have started at their mangers, the treasures are abolished, the wine presses are broken down; for the corn is withered.

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

18 What shall we store up for ourselves? the herds of cattle have mourned, because they had no pasture; and the flocks of sheep have been utterly destroyed.

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

19 To you, O Lord, will I cry: for fire has devoured the fair places of the wilderness, and a flame has burnt up all the trees of the field.

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.

20 And the cattle of the field have looked up to you: for the fountains of waters have been dried up, and fire has devoured the fair places of the wilderness.

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.