²⁰ And when neither sun nor stars were visible for many days and no small tempest kept raging about us, all hope of our being saved was finally abandoned.

²¹ Then as they had eaten nothing for a long time, Paul came forward into their midst and said, Men, you should have listened to me, and should not have put to sea from Crete and brought on this disaster and harm and misery and loss.

²² But [even] now I beg you to be in good spirits and take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you but only of the ship.

²³ For this [very] night there stood by my side an angel of the God to Whom I belong and Whom I serve and worship,

²⁴ And he said, Do not be frightened, Paul! It is necessary for you to stand before Caesar; and behold, God has given you all those who are sailing with you.

²⁵ So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith (complete confidence) in God that it will be exactly as it was told me;

²⁶ But we shall have to be stranded on some island.

²⁷ The fourteenth night had come and we were drifting and being driven about in the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors began to suspect that they were drawing near to some land.

²⁸ So they took soundings and found twenty fathoms, and a little farther on they sounded again and found fifteen fathoms.

²⁹ Then fearing that we might fall off [our course] onto rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and kept wishing for daybreak to come.

³⁰ And as the sailors were trying to escape [secretly] from the ship and were lowering the small boat into the sea, pretending that they were going to lay out anchors from the bow,

³¹ Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, Unless these men remain in the ship, you cannot be saved.

³² Then the soldiers cut away the ropes that held the small boat, and let it fall and drift away.

³³ While they waited until it should become day, Paul entreated them all to take some food, saying, This is the fourteenth day that you have been continually in suspense and on the alert without food, having eaten nothing.

³⁴ So I urge (warn, exhort, encourage, advise) you to take some food [for your safety]—it will give you strength; for not a hair is to perish from the head of any one of you.

³⁵ Having said these words, he took bread and, giving thanks to God before them all, he broke it and began to eat.

³⁶ Then they all became more cheerful and were encouraged and took food themselves.

³⁷ All told there were 276 souls of us in the ship.

³⁸ And after they had eaten sufficiently, [they proceeded] to lighten the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.

³⁹ Now when it was day [and they saw the land], they did not recognize it, but they noticed a bay with a beach on which they [taking counsel] purposed to run the ship ashore if they possibly could.

⁴⁰ So they cut the cables and severed the anchors and left them in the sea; at the same time unlashing the ropes that held the rudders and hoisting the foresail to the wind, they headed for the beach.

⁴¹ But striking a crosscurrent (a place open to two seas) they ran the ship aground. The prow stuck fast and remained immovable, and the stern began to break up under the violent force of the waves.

⁴² It was the counsel of the soldiers to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim to land and escape;

⁴³ But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, prevented their carrying out their purpose. He commanded those who could swim to throw themselves overboard first and make for the shore,

⁴⁴ And the rest on heavy boards or pieces of the vessel. And so it was that all escaped safely to land.

1 The word of the Lord that came to ^[a]Joel the son of Pethuel.

² Hear this, you aged men, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing as this occurred in your days or even in the days of your fathers?

³ Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

⁴ What the crawling locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; and what the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten; and what the hopping locust left, the stripping locust has eaten.

⁵ Awake, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the [fresh] sweet juice [of the grape], for it is cut off and removed from your mouth.

⁶ For a [heathen and hostile] nation [of locusts, illustrative of a human foe] has invaded My land, mighty and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the jaw teeth of a lioness.^(A)

⁷ It has laid waste My vine [symbol of God’s people] and barked and broken My fig tree; it has made them completely bare and thrown them down; their branches are made white.^(B)

⁸ Lament like a virgin [bride] girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth [who has died].

⁹ The meal or cereal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn.

¹⁰ The field is laid waste, the ground mourns; for the grain is destroyed, the new juice [of the grape] is dried up, the oil fails.

¹¹ Be ashamed, O you tillers of the soil; wail, O you vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.

¹² The vine is dried up and the fig tree fails; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple or quince tree, even all the trees of the field are withered, so that joy has withered and fled away from the sons of men.

¹³ Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my [Joel’s] God, for the cereal or meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁴ Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land in the house of the Lord, your God, and cry to the Lord [in penitent pleadings].

¹⁵ Alas for the day! For the day of [the judgment of] the Lord is at hand, and as a destructive tempest from the Almighty will it come.^(C)

¹⁶ Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

¹⁷ The seed [grain] rots and shrivels under the clods, the garners are desolate and empty, the barns are in ruins because the grain has failed.

¹⁸ How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed and huddle together because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment (are forsaken and made wretched).

¹⁹ O Lord, to You will I cry, for the fire has devoured the pastures and folds of the plain and the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the field.

²⁰ Even the wild beasts of the field pant and cry to You, for the water brooks are dried up and fire has consumed the pastures and folds of the wilderness and the plain.

1 The word of the Lord that came to ^[a]Joel the son of Pethuel.

² Hear this, you aged men, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing as this occurred in your days or even in the days of your fathers?

³ Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

⁴ What the crawling locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; and what the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten; and what the hopping locust left, the stripping locust has eaten.

⁵ Awake, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the [fresh] sweet juice [of the grape], for it is cut off and removed from your mouth.

⁶ For a [heathen and hostile] nation [of locusts, illustrative of a human foe] has invaded My land, mighty and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the jaw teeth of a lioness.^(A)

⁷ It has laid waste My vine [symbol of God’s people] and barked and broken My fig tree; it has made them completely bare and thrown them down; their branches are made white.^(B)

⁸ Lament like a virgin [bride] girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth [who has died].

⁹ The meal or cereal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn.

¹⁰ The field is laid waste, the ground mourns; for the grain is destroyed, the new juice [of the grape] is dried up, the oil fails.

¹¹ Be ashamed, O you tillers of the soil; wail, O you vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.

¹² The vine is dried up and the fig tree fails; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple or quince tree, even all the trees of the field are withered, so that joy has withered and fled away from the sons of men.

¹³ Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my [Joel’s] God, for the cereal or meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁴ Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land in the house of the Lord, your God, and cry to the Lord [in penitent pleadings].

¹⁵ Alas for the day! For the day of [the judgment of] the Lord is at hand, and as a destructive tempest from the Almighty will it come.^(C)

¹⁶ Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

¹⁷ The seed [grain] rots and shrivels under the clods, the garners are desolate and empty, the barns are in ruins because the grain has failed.

¹⁸ How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed and huddle together because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment (are forsaken and made wretched).

¹⁹ O Lord, to You will I cry, for the fire has devoured the pastures and folds of the plain and the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the field.

²⁰ Even the wild beasts of the field pant and cry to You, for the water brooks are dried up and fire has consumed the pastures and folds of the wilderness and the plain.