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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,[a] 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,[b]
    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[c] 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[d] ablaze.
20 The livestock also cries out to you,
    because their water sources have evaporated
        and because fire has consumed the open pastures.

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Footnotes

  1. Joel 1:13 Or in sackcloth
  2. Joel 1:16 Lit. cut off before our eyes
  3. Joel 1:18 Or oxen
  4. Joel 1:19 Lit. the trees of the field

13 Gird yourselves and lament, O priests!
    Wail, O ministers of the altar!
Come spend the night in sackcloth,
    O ministers of my God,
because offering and libation
    are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Solemnize a fast!
    Call an assembly!
Gather the elders,
    all of the inhabitants of the land
in the house of Yahweh your God,
    and cry out to Yahweh.
15 Ah! For the day!
For the day of Yahweh is near.
    It will come like destruction from Shaddai.[a]
16 Is not food cut off
    before our eyes,
from the house of our God,
    joy and gladness?
17 The seeds shrivel under their clods;
    the storehouses are desolate.
The grain storage places are destroyed
    because grain has dried out.
18 How the beasts[b] groan;
    the herds of cattle wander around
because there is no pasture for them;
    the flocks of sheep are in distress.
19 To you, O Yahweh, I cry out,
because fire has devoured
    the pastures of the desert,
and flames[c] burned
    all the trees of the field.
20 Also, the beasts of the field
    long for you,
because the courses of water
    are dried up,
and fire has devoured
    the pastures of the desert.

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Footnotes

  1. Joel 1:15 Often translated “the Almighty”
  2. Joel 1:18 Hebrew “beast”
  3. Joel 1:19 Hebrew “flame”