Joel 1:1–20

¹ This is the word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel: ² Hear this, O elders; and give ear, all who dwell in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your fathers? ³ Tell it to your children; let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. ⁴ What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten. ⁵ Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth. ⁶ For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness. ⁷ It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away; the branches have turned white. ⁸ Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth. ⁹ Grain and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD. ¹⁰ The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails. ¹¹ Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. ¹² The grapevine is dried up, and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, palm, and apple— all the trees of the orchard—are withered. Surely the joy of mankind has dried up. ¹³ Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. ¹⁴ Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. ¹⁵ Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty. ¹⁶ Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes— joy and gladness from the house of our God? ¹⁷ The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away. ¹⁸ How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering. ¹⁹ To You, O LORD, I call, for fire has consumed the open pastures and flames have scorched all the trees of the field. ²⁰ Even the beasts of the field pant for You, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has consumed the open pastu…