Joel 1
1 [I am] Joel, the son of Pethuel. [This is] a message that Yahweh gave to me.
The Lord sent a message through Joel, son of Pethuel.
2 You leaders [of Israel], and everyone else who lives in this country, listen [to this message]! Nothing [RHQ] like this has ever happened during the time that we have lived or the time when our ancestors lived.
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 tell your children to tell it to their children, and tell your grandchildren to tell it to their children.
Tell your children about it, and have your children tell it to their children, and their children tell the next generation.
4 [I am talking about] the locusts that have eaten our crops. The first swarm of locusts came and cut [many of the leaves of the crops]; then another swarm came and ate [the rest of the leaves], then another swarm came hopping along, and finally another swarm came and they destroyed [everything else].
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 You people who are drunk, wake up! Wake up and wail loudly, because all the grapes are ruined, and so there will be no new wine [MTY]!
Wake up, you drunks, and weep! Howl you wine-drinkers, because the new wine has been suddenly taken away from your mouth!
6 [Huge swarms of] locusts have entered our country. [They are like] [MET] a powerful army [that has very many soldiers], [with the result that] no one can count them. The locusts have teeth that are [as sharp as] the teeth of lions [DOU]!
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 They have destroyed our grapevines and our fig trees [by] stripping off [and eating all] the bark, with the result that the branches are white [and (bare/have no leaves on them)].
It has ruined my grapevines and destroyed my fig trees, stripping them completely and reducing them to stumps, white and bare.
8 Cry like [SIM] a young woman cries when the young man to whom she was (engaged/promised to marry) has died.
Mourn like a bride dressed in sackcloth, mourning the death of her husband-to-be.
9 There is no grain or wine for us to offer [as sacrifices] at the temple, [so] the priests who serve Yahweh are mourning/weeping.
Grain and wine offerings have stopped in the Temple. The priests who minister before the Lord are in mourning.
10 [The crops in] the fields have been ruined; [it is as though] [PRS] the ground is mourning. The grain has been destroyed, there are no [grapes to make] wine, and there is no [more olive] oil.
The fields are devastated, the earth mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine dries up, the olive oil fails.
11 You farmers, grieve! You who take care of grapevines, wail, because the grain has been destroyed; there is no wheat or barley growing.
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 grapevines and the fig trees have withered, and the pomegranate [trees] and palm [trees] and apricot [trees] have also dried up. The people are no longer joyful.
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 You priests, put on [rough] sack clothes and wail. You who serve God [by offering sacrifices] on the altar, wear those rough sack clothes all night [to show that you are mourning], because there is no grain or wine to be offered at the temple 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 Tell the people that they should (fast/abstain from eating food). Tell the leaders and the other people to gather at the temple and to cry [out] to Yahweh [there].
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 Terrible things are happening to us! It will soon be the time when Yahweh, [who is] the Almighty God, [will really punish us], [when he] will cause us to experience more disasters.
What a terrible day! For the day of the Lord is near, it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
16 Our crops are already gone, and no [one is] rejoicing at all [DOU] at the temple 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 [When we plant] seeds, [they do not grow]; they dry up in the ground, so there are no crops to harvest. Our barns/storehouses are empty; there is no grain [to store in them].
Seeds planted in the ground shrivel up; the storehouses are empty, the barns are torn down because the grain has dried up.
18 Our cattle groan, searching for a pasture with some grass to eat, and the sheep bleat because they are suffering.
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 [out] to you, because our pastures and our forests have dried up in the hot sunshine [MET].
To you, Lord, I cry out! For fire has destroyed the pastures in the wilderness; flames have burned up all the orchards.
20 [It is as though] even the wild animals cry [out] to you because all the streams have dried up. The rivers and streams are all dry, and the grass in the pastures is all parched.
Even the wild animals long for you because the streams have dried up, and fire has destroyed the pastures in the wilderness.
