Joel 1
Holman Christian Standard Bible
1 The word of the Lord that came(A) to Joel son of Pethuel:
A Plague of Locusts
2 Hear this,(B) you elders;
listen, all you inhabitants of the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days(C)
or in the days of your ancestors?
3 Tell your children about it,(D)
and let your children tell their children,
and their children the next generation.
4 What the devouring locust(E) has left,
the swarming locust has eaten;
what the swarming locust has left,
the young locust(F) has eaten;
and what the young locust has left,
the destroying locust(G) has eaten.
5 Wake up, you drunkards,(H) and weep;
wail, all you wine drinkers,
because of the sweet wine,
for it has been taken from your mouth.
6 For a nation has invaded My land,(I)
powerful and without number;
its teeth are the teeth of a lion,
and it has the fangs of a lioness.(J)
7 It has devastated My grapevine
and splintered My fig tree.
It has stripped off its bark and thrown it away;
its branches have turned white.
8 Grieve like a young woman dressed in sackcloth,(K)
mourning for the husband of her youth.
9 Grain and drink offerings have been cut off(L)
from the house of the Lord;
the priests, who are ministers of the Lord, mourn.(M)
10 The fields are destroyed;(N)
the land grieves;
indeed, the grain is destroyed;
the new wine is dried up;(O)
and the olive oil fails.(P)
11 Be ashamed, you farmers,(Q)
wail, you vinedressers,[a]
over the wheat and the barley,
because the harvest of the field has perished.(R)
12 The grapevine is dried up,(S)
and the fig tree is withered;
the pomegranate,(T) the date palm,(U) and the apple(V)—
all the trees of the orchard—have withered.
Indeed, human joy has dried up.(W)
13 Dress in sackcloth and lament,(X) you priests;(Y)
wail,(Z) you ministers of the altar.
Come and spend the night in sackcloth,(AA)
you ministers of my God,
because grain and drink offerings
are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Announce a sacred fast;(AB)
proclaim an assembly!
Gather the elders(AC)
and all the residents of the land
at the house of the Lord your God,(AD)
and cry out to the Lord.(AE)
The Day of the Lord
15 Woe because of that day!(AF)
For the Day of the Lord is near
and will come as devastation from the Almighty.(AG)
16 Hasn’t the food been cut off
before our eyes,(AH)
joy and gladness(AI)
from the house of our God?
17 The seeds lie shriveled in their casings.[b](AJ)
The storehouses are in ruin,
and the granaries are broken down,
because the grain has withered away.
18 How the animals groan!(AK)
The herds of cattle wander in confusion
since they have no pasture.
Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment.
19 I call to You, Lord,(AL)
for fire has consumed
the pastures of the wilderness,(AM)
and flames have devoured
all the trees of the countryside.
20 Even the wild animals cry out to[c] You,(AN)
for the river beds are dried up,(AO)
and fire has consumed
the pastures of the wilderness.
Joel 1
International Standard Version
The Coming Invasion
1 This message from the Lord came to Pethuel’s son Joel.[a]
2 “Hear this, you elders!
Listen, all of you residents of the land!
Has there ever been anything like this during your lifetime,[b]
or even when your ancestors were alive?[c]
3 Pass it on to your children,
and from[d] your children to their children,
and from[e] their children to the following generation.
4 Whatever the devouring locust left behind
the locust swarm has consumed!
Whatever the locust swarm has left behind,
the young locust[f] has consumed!
Whatever the young locust[g] has left behind,
the ravaging locust has consumed!”
A Call to Mourning
5 “Wake up, you drunkards!
Cry aloud and howl, you wine drinkers,
because your supply of new wine has been snatched from you.[h]
6 Indeed, a nation has invaded my land—
it is strong and its population is too large to count[i]—
with teeth like a lion
and fangs[j] like a lioness.
7 That nation[k] laid waste my vines,
and stripped bare my fig tree,
discarding it.
It stripped off[l] its bark.
8 “Grieve like a virgin,
who, dressed in her mourner’s clothes,[m]
cries out in memory[n] of the man she was going to marry.[o]
9 Both grain offering and wine offering have been removed from the Lord’s Temple;[p]
the priests and ministering servants of the Lord are mourning.”
The Coming Famine
10 “The fields lie in ruins
and the ground is dried up.[q]
Indeed, the grain is ruined,
the new wine has evaporated,
and the olive oil has run out.
11 Be dismayed, you farmers!
Cry aloud, you vintners,
for the wheat and barley,
because the harvest in your fields has been lost.
12 The grapevine is shriveled
and the fig tree is withered,
along with the pomegranate tree, the palm tree, the apple tree
and all of the cultivated trees.[r]
Truly, joy has evaporated from Adam’s children.”[s]
A Call to Mourn and Repent
13 “Put on your mourning clothes, you priests;
and cry aloud, you ministering servants at the altar!
Come! Stay the night in mourner’s clothes,[t] you ministers of my God,
because the grain offering and the wine offering is held back from the Temple of your God.
14 Set apart time for a fast!
Call a solemn assembly!
Gather the elders and everyone living in the land to the Temple of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord!”
A Lament about the Day of the Lord
15 Oh, no! For the Day of the Lord approaches,
and like destruction from the Almighty, it will come!
16 Isn’t our food supply cut off right in front of us,[u]
along with joy and gladness from the Temple of our God?
17 Seeds shrivel within their furrows,
the storehouses lie empty,
and granaries stand in ruins
because the grain has withered.
18 Oh, how the livestock groan!
The herds of cattle[v] wander about
because they have no pasture.
Even flocks of sheep suffer!
19 To you, Lord, I cry out,
because fire has devoured the open pastures,
and has set all the cultivated trees[w] ablaze.
20 The livestock also cries out to you,
because their water sources have evaporated
and because fire has consumed the open pastures.
Footnotes
- Joel 1:1 The Heb. name Joel means The Lord is God
- Joel 1:2 Lit. this in your days
- Joel 1:2 Lit. even in the days of your ancestors
- Joel 1:3 The Heb. lacks from
- Joel 1:3 The Heb. lacks from
- Joel 1:4 Or caterpillar
- Joel 1:4 Or caterpillar
- Joel 1:5 Lit. from your lips
- Joel 1:6 Lit. and innumerable
- Joel 1:6 Or jaws
- Joel 1:7 Lit. It
- Joel 1:7 Lit. made white
- Joel 1:8 Or in sackcloth
- Joel 1:8 The Heb. lacks in memory
- Joel 1:8 Lit. the husband of her youth
- Joel 1:9 Or house; and so throughout the book
- Joel 1:10 Or ground mourns
- Joel 1:12 Lit. the trees of the field
- Joel 1:12 Lit. from sons of mankind
- Joel 1:13 Or in sackcloth
- Joel 1:16 Lit. cut off before our eyes
- Joel 1:18 Or oxen
- Joel 1:19 Lit. the trees of the field
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