Joel 1 (New International Version)

Joel 1

 ¹ The word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel.

An Invasion of Locusts

 ² Hear this, you elders;
       listen, all who live in the land.
       Has anything like this ever happened in your days
       or in the days of your forefathers?

 ³ Tell it to your children,
       and let your children tell it to their children,
       and their children to the next generation.

 ⁴ What the locust swarm has left
       the great locusts have eaten;
       what the great locusts have left
       the young locusts have eaten;
       what the young locusts have left
       other locusts ^[a] have eaten.

 ⁵ Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
       Wail, all you drinkers of wine;
       wail because of the new wine,
       for it has been snatched from your lips.

 ⁶ A nation has invaded my land,
       powerful and without number;
       it has the teeth of a lion,
       the fangs of a lioness.

 ⁷ It has laid waste my vines
       and ruined my fig trees.
       It has stripped off their bark
       and thrown it away,
       leaving their branches white.

 ⁸ Mourn like a virgin ^[b] in sackcloth
       grieving for the husband ^[c] of her youth.

 ⁹ Grain offerings and drink offerings
       are cut off from the house of the LORD.
       The priests are in mourning,
       those who minister before the LORD.

 ¹⁰ The fields are ruined,
       the ground is dried up ^[d] ;
       the grain is destroyed,
       the new wine is dried up,
       the oil fails.

 ¹¹ Despair, you farmers,
       wail, you vine growers;
       grieve for the wheat and the barley,
       because the harvest of the field is destroyed.

 ¹² The vine is dried up
       and the fig tree is withered;
       the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree—
       all the trees of the field—are dried up.
       Surely the joy of mankind
       is withered away.

A Call to Repentance

 ¹³ Put on sackcloth, O priests, and mourn;
       wail, you who minister before the altar.
       Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
       you who minister before my God;
       for the grain offerings and drink offerings
       are withheld from the house of your God.

 ¹⁴ Declare a holy fast;
       call a sacred assembly.
       Summon the elders
       and all who live in the land
       to the house of the LORD your God,
       and cry out to the LORD.

 ¹⁵ Alas for that day!
       For the day of the LORD is near;
       it will come like destruction from the Almighty. ^[e]

 ¹⁶ Has not the food been cut off
       before our very eyes—
       joy and gladness
       from the house of our God?

 ¹⁷ The seeds are shriveled
       beneath the clods. ^[f]
       The storehouses are in ruins,
       the granaries have been broken down,
       for the grain has dried up.

 ¹⁸ How the cattle moan!
       The herds mill about
       because they have no pasture;
       even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

 ¹⁹ To you, O LORD, I call,
       for fire has devoured the open pastures
       and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.

 ²⁰ Even the wild animals pant for you;
       the streams of water have dried up
       and fire has devoured the open pastures.